Originally Posted by
747-444
...OK let's say I am bumped down, instead of any financial compensation am I entitled to flight coupons say as a free return ticket etc, or is that what they tend to give and is it generally in the same class?
Oh my apologies for not adding, I am flying JNB-LHR on BA in J.
The compensation is whatever you negotiate. Most of the time cash is offered for "normal" downgrades (not OWE fare). More rare is a free ticket or upgrade on another flight, but it is possible. The fly in the ointment is that the OWE contract terms, unlike most other tickets, specifies that if you fly a lower class no compensation is due. So it isn't the same as other tickets. By law BA is not required to pay you a penny, even if you get downgraded to Y and not just to W; in practice they won't do that, unless you get on their bad side. 99%+ of flights fly in the class booked on OWE tickets, and for most routes upgrades are more common than downgrades. A few routes are different due to high demand for F and J; and you have the privilege to be flying one of them, without status on BA to protect you.