I was downgraded a few months ago on a SFO-SEA flight and was confused about the priority of downgrading passengers.
FWIW, I was on the last leg of BA F award ticket booked in March 2010.
I am a MVP gold and I started my journey 17 hours earlier in Zurich.
I was offered board room access as compensation for my downgrade. I am already a member, so that seemed sort of lame.
I would love to know AS' priority for selecting passengers for downgrading. I was originally in seat 1C, not 4C, so my physical seat still existed.
I have not taken this up with customer care, but I may just to see if I can get an explanation for what happened.