Summary
- A passenger was downgraded to economy on a Sydney to Honolulu flight resulting from seat fault. Rehman recorded the experience on TikTok.
- Qantas staff was apologetic and offered an empty row in economy because the only alternative. The passenger left with a smile and enjoyed one glass of champagne.
- Reactions on social media praised the passenger for handling the situation well. He was offered a $500 travel voucher and enjoyed business class on the return trip.
A passenger recently traveling from Sydney to Honolulu unexpectedly got downgraded to economy only minutes after arriving onboard after the crew noted an issue together with his assigned seat. While it wasn’t ideal, the passenger took it in his stride and went to economy without making a scene.
Jameel Rehman, a sales executive from Melbourne, Victoria, had been given two free return business class seats as a piece bonus and decided to take the flight together with his mother to the center of the Pacific, Hawaii.
Photo: KITTIKUN YOKSAP | Shutterstock
A fault in your seat
Having just donned his complimentary Qantas business class pajamas, Jameel shared on his TikTok that two engineers indicated that there was a fault in his seat and that, resulting from the business class being sold out completely, the one other option for him to stay on the flight could be to be demoted to economy class. Not less than he got to maintain his QF PJs.
Jameel recorded the experience and even left with a smile after having fun with only one glass of champagne. Qantas staff appeared to have been apologetic in regards to the situation and was offered an empty row of the economy near the back of the aircraft.
Reactions to the passenger’s social media posts have praised him for taking it well and called him a ‘class act lad.’ Jameel was offered a $500 travel voucher and a downgrade refund for the inconvenience, and further posts show that Jameel could enjoy business class on the return trip with much less drama.
Qantas advised that the fault was found during pre-flight checks and was fixed immediately on arrival in Hawaii, before the return service. In an announcement to Easy Flying, Qantas shared,
“We all know this is able to have been disappointing for Mr Rehman and we’ve got apologised for the disruption caused to his journey. Safety is all the time our predominant priority and unfortunately, a minor technical issue meant that this seat needed to be kept vacant. Two days after the flight, Mr Rehman was given a downgrade refund together with a $500 travel voucher.”
The carrier also reiterated that the technical issue was identified, stating that ‘keeping the interiors of our aircraft as much as scratch and ensuring every thing is working for our customers is a key focus for our engineering team. We’ve recently began a maintenance blitz on our cabin interiors which has seen a 20% decrease in faults over the past few months. We’re also recruiting more engineers to support this vital work.’