Recently I was on an LGA-ORD UX flight in F when I witnessed someone get downgraded. I've never seen it happen in person and am curious about how it works / how common it is.
After everyone boarded, the gate agent came to a passenger in in 2A and said there was a mistake and his seat belongs to someone else. He told the agent he was upgraded two days ago. The passenger was very calm and grabbed his things to move back to the first row in economy. Another passenger in F said, "Make sure they give you downgrade compensation--they owe it to you." The gate agent asked him for his address and came back with some sort of voucher about 8 minutes later. I thought is was weird the GA just picked him and didn't ask for volunteers.
- Is it normal to receive compensation after being downgraded from a complimentary upgrade?
- How frequently does this happen on domestic flights?
- How much do you think he was compensated?
- What experiences have others had with downgrade compensation after 3/3?