MSPeconomist

NO I'm trying to explain to the OP that he/she is not entitled to get anything for the "value" of that lost vacation day. If it were possible, every minute of leisure for me is priceless, so I would go after the airline for the biggest number I can name. NOT!

CDKing

Thats correct. Not sure what non-refundable expenses there were so it would be hard to tell if its worth the time or not.

NoLaGent

To be clear, I used multi-quote to encapsulate the entire conversation regarding suing vs. expenses, my comments were at the former poster quoted, not the latter, i.e. you.

I'm still confused about the downgrade compensation component and have no idea how that works on AS, I'm only intimately familiar w/UAs policy.

MSPeconomist

My personal take on downgrade compensation, which unfortunately is not shared by regulatory agencies, is that a downgrade should always cost the offending airline MORE than the fare difference. My reasoning is that if I had wanted coach, for instance thinking about domestic USA flights for my example, instead of FC at the prevailing prices, I would have picked coach and already pocketed the difference in fare. Since I didn't pick coach at the cheap fare, I clearly (assuming that I didn't just toss a coin or do something equivalent to decide) preferred FC at the more expensive fare. So if I'm downgraded and given the fare difference as a refund, I'm still worse off because my worse alternative was forced on me. Revealed preference! [To simplify this argument, I assume no indifference.]

MSPeconomist

No airline is going to compensate me when I say that because I arrived late and it was the airline's fault, I missed a gigazillion deal that I really wanted because it would instantly make me a gigazillionaire.

NoLaGent

Agreed. On UA, it's the following, but I still have no idea if AS has a published policy:

1-1000 miles $200
1001-2000 miles $250
2001-3000 miles $500
3001-4000 miles $750 (was $1000)
4000-5000 miles $1000
5001+ miles $1,500

PLUS a refund of the miles/money/instrument used for upgrading, or if revenue, the fare difference between the fare paid and the lowest published fare available on the date of purchase.

MSPeconomist

So UA is giving a customer service gesture for pain and suffering that's based on distance. That seems pretty fair, although we could argue about whether it's reign to lump all flights under a thousand miles together for this purpose as we'll as the jump at 5000 miles followed by a flat schedule above 5000miles

NoLaGent

We could argue, but I don't think we are. What is AS doing in these cases? Do we know? As someone who's starting to fly them more, I'd actually like to know.

Sure, these cases aren't terribly common (thank your preferred diety), but I've experienced them several times in many years of flying.

MSPeconomist

It drives me crazy when an airline says that they'll just refund the fare difference (even assuming that it's calculated fairly) for a downgrade and think this is just fine.

missydarlin

I'm confused as to how this conversation morphed from "lost day of vacation" to "downgrade compensation"?

NoLaGent

He ended up w/$200 total in customer goodwill for the 1st part of his problem, but nothing for being downgraded is how it reads.

Is this the norm for downgrades on AS?

missydarlin

The OP was offered a gesture of goodwill and seems to be satisfied with the offer. Who said it was only for the first part of the problem?

maxp0wers

It was a first class upgrade, not a bought fc ticket, so while frustrating to have one ticket downgraded at the gate...not the end of the world.

I still feel that i was being reasonable and AS was fair in the resolution. I tried to make my original question as objective as possible to take out any arguments for general damages.

The story could be a little worse though: when we got the hotel voucher we went into the city for a bit to hang out ( no, i did not ask ask AS to cover any additional costs ). We returned to the AS selected hotel ( Doubletree ) at about 8pm to find that while AS gave us a voucher, they never confirmed a room for us. Another mistake on their end.

Fortunately, i am a diamond member at Hilton so they were very accommodating, and gave us a room before the situation was even sorted out. A couple hours later, i got an email saying that things were resolved with AS. Doubletree also gave us a couple drink coupons and free diamond breakfast even though there's no benefits on an airline voucher rate.

But I learned something new: the hotel voucher is worthless without a confirmed reservation from the airline. The room rate was $135, and we almost got stuck paying for the hotel voucher. It was really Doubletree that saved the night here.

Given all this, i think i was rather reasonable in accepting AS' 2 $100 flight vouchers for what occurred. It's resolved and both sides are happy with the agreement.

NoLaGent

I've been repeatedly asking if there's a policy in place for downgrade compensation, but either no one knows or is unwilling to answer.

I can only take my 30 years of experience on UA in regards to this topic, as I'm a new flyer to AS. It should be noted that on UA, if you're upgraded via CPU and then downgraded for whatever reason, you are still eligible for their published compensation. There's a long thread about this in the UA forum.

acarney

Honestly to me that seems about right! Putting a value on a missed vacation day is hard, but hopefully $200 would cover the out of pocket cost for the hotel that night or at least make up a good portion of whatever was pre-paid on that day. Sorry your trip had a lot of bumps, but at least you guys have a little free travel to use up sometime!