Originally Posted by
iwpingmu
they were downgraded from Business to coach before check in at JFK, the boarding pass is F ( NYC->SFO) and Coach K (SFO->PVG)
As crappy as this situation is, if they knew before check in at JFK (and certainly once they checked in at JFK) then they/you are probably out of luck. The best opportunity for a potential reroute/reaccomodation would have been with the UA agents at JFK. At the very least, they could have asked to be downgraded on the JFK-SFO segment and then requested a partial mileage refund.
Others may have a better answer, but this seems like the likely scenario.