An elderly couple were downgraded and forced to sit apart on a recent Qantas flight to Singapore, as their daughter claims the airline “made up a story”.
Maree Sinclair, a Melbourne travel agent, spoke to 3AW last week, describing how her parents were forced to sit apart on a Saturday flight on their way to celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday.
She said that, despite the couple having checked in on Friday night and having pre-allocated seats in business class, they were told on Saturday morning at the check-in counter that “the flight is oversold, or made up some sort of story”.
“They made up a story saying that if everyone turns up, one of them will have to be flying in premium economy,” she told 3AW’s Tom Elliot.
Her 78-year-old father apparently responded, pointing out that they’d bought 14 tickets – two business class and 12 economy – for the trip months ago.
Sinclair claimed her parents were then lied to twice by the airline.
“The first lie was there’s no premium economy on the flight on Saturday, so therefore if they were being bumped it was to economy, not premium,” she said.
“The second lie is it’s actually not system generated, it’s actual airport staff that decide,” she added, explaining how her parents were told there was a computer generated system “that chooses by status who gets bumped”.
“I think they just thought ‘You know what, this will be an elderly couple, they’re not going to cause any dramas afterwards, and, you know, hit the media or put our name out there’,” Sinclair said.
However, news.com.au understands that the couple were initially set to fly on a Boeing 787 to Singapore for their trip.
But when the Boeing 787 became unavailable the flight was changed to an A330, which have less business class seats and no premium economy seats.
A Qantas spokesperson has since given their assurance in a statement that the couple will both be seated together in business class for their returning flight.
“We appreciate this was a negative experience and have tried to contact the customer to apologise and explain why it was necessary to change their seats for this flight. We will ensure that the customers are seated together in Business for their return flight home,” the statement read.
Sinclair did not respond to request for comment at the time of publication.
The couple’s daughter told 3AW that when her father was bumped into economy, he had a spare seat next to him and wasn’t allowed to go and talk to his wife.
He had managed to get the Saints game up on his laptop during the flight and wanted to let his wife know.
“He wanted to go up and tell her ‘I’ve got it on my computer’ and she could sit next to him because there was a spare seat, and they wouldn’t even allow him to do that,” Sinclair said.
Now, Sinclair’s father has received 75 per cent of the airfare back as well as a $100 Qantas voucher, which Sinclair said likely won’t be used.
“They’re looking at going overseas next year to Europe and there’s no way they’re going to try doing business class with them because what if that happens on their big trip to Europe?”
The incident comes after the shock early retirement of Qantas’s CEO, Alan Joyce, last week.
He was set to retire in November, but has since handed the role over to Vanessa Hudson two months earlier than planned.
“In the last few weeks, the focus on Qantas and events of the past make it clear to me that the company needs to move ahead with its renewal as a priority,” Mr Joyce said.
“The best thing I can do under these circumstances is to bring forward my retirement and hand over to Vanessa and the new management team now, knowing they will do an excellent job.
“There is a lot I am proud of over my 22 years at Qantas, including the past 15 years as CEO. There have been many ups and downs, and there is clearly much work still to be done, especially to make sure we always deliver for our customers. But I leave knowing that the company is fundamentally strong and has a bright future.”