economyplusfan

I was boarding a 10 hr TATL overnight LH flight yesterday when the GA announced that they were looking for two Business class passengers to voluntarily downgrade to PE for $800 compensation each. As far as I could tell there were no takers. When I bought my PE ticket r/t Business class was pricing about $4k more expensive than PE.

MSPeconomist

If they do an involuntary downgrade, EC261 rules would apply and compensation would probably be 75% of the fare the passengers had paid for that segment. That's likely to be a lot more than $800, so I'm not surprised that no one wanted to take the offer, although some people might take even small amounts of money if an employer paid for the ticket and they're able to pocket the cash.

fanb

Does anyone has an experience how the compensation is calculated for downgrade of an I (award) ticket from C to E/Y ?

NYC1

That's a disgraceful offer.

Concerto

I've seen it happen at Washington IAD. They needed one passenger to downgrade to economy (before they had PE) and the offer was USD1,000. I was already in economy so couldn't use it.

stevendorechester

I don't why in these situations they can't also offer to rebook passengers on other airlines that have business available instead of offering cash. A couple of years ago my KLM flight was overbooked in business and got rebooked on DL without any fuss. How complicated can it be for LH to do that?

MSPeconomist

There are reports that it's 75% of the miles in that direction. IIRC fees aren't in the 75% for tickets paid with money so they wouldn't be included in the "fare" for tickets paid with miles either.

MSPeconomist

It shouldn't be a problem for flights that are operated by a JV partner, which is the case for DL and KLM/AF.

Grog

Of course, LH can. But they would prefer to have a customer basically steal from their employer by allowing LH to overcharge said employer.

That's Lufthansa's definition of "customer loyalty to LH": a customer willing to unethically take from their employer in order to enrich LH, while accepting a kickback from LH. And I welcome anyone to try to dispute this.

Flying Lawyer

No, it is free market.

Flying Lawyer

Unethically is the employee, not the airline. Trying to get volunteers for a cheaper price before forciimg people to become volunteers for a higher price is nothing but playing according the rules of the free market.

WorldLux

There may be other origins/destinations that price out cheaper. I've been on 1,600$ C fare on XXX-FRA-YYY while the FRA-YYY was sold for 4,000$.

I disagree. Depending on what you paid for your C ticket, 800$ can be substantial enough to accept the downgrade to Y+. Take the 900$ fares ex DUB from last year, the 1,300$ fares ex BRU earlier this/last month, etc. If your directional fare is below 1,100$, it's actually a better deal than being forced to downgrade having to make due with 75% of the fare.

htb

My colleague was booked in Premium Economy in "G" class from MUC to HND (Tokyo). The flight was overbooked and no seat was assigned even though he had a confirmed booking.

LH was looking for volunteers to downgrade to Economy for 400€. His fare on that segment must have been in the range of 1700€.

We don't know if there were any takers or whether weather made some passengers miss their connection in MUC. In any case in the end he flew to HND in PE.

HTB.

Grog

I'm not surprised at the response. Every day there are people who justify their livelihood made on the backs of criminal and/or unethical behavior. LH and others, through their booking class and upgrade voucher system, actively encourage unethical behavior by creating a framework specifically built around it.

It's similar with website maintainers whose sites contain drug sales, illegal porn of the worst kinds, and theft rings, who turn a blind eye all the way up until the point that authorities force them to combat it or shut them down.

The USA's N.R.A., with its heavy-handed lobbying is as pure and innocent as a newborn baby, just as are the personal weapons manufacturers. But we're venturing into OMNIland now.

Again, I'm not surprised a lawyer (or an economist, or LH as an entity) would call it "free market".

CappuccinoAddict

Would the 800 USD not be in addition to a refund of the fare difference?