I hope FT'er can help me out on an unusual situation here.

I booked a flight from ICN-DOH-LHR vv. on the 18 JUL, both sectors in Business Class (I-class).

Due to personal circumstances, I had to change my flights to 24 JUL. I did this online and there was a flight combination which saw me booked into First for the DOH-LHR sector - this sector was booked into A class. ICN-DOH sector remained in Business Class (but was booked into D-class). I paid extra for the change.

Fast forward 24 hours, I realised that I can in fact travel slightly earlier so made another change to my reservation to 20 JUL - this time over the phone with London (and paid another fee).

I reconfirmed with the agent whether the booking would remain in the same booking classes (i.e. D & A) - the agent said yes.

I then received email stating that both sectors are now booked into D. Confused by the downgrade (and checked that A is still available on EF), the QR London reservation team is now saying that A class is full and claims that I agreed to be downgraded.

Not happy with this, I called the London reservation team again and queried the downgrade. I was told that this matter would have to be referred to Doha. I called the Doha reservation team who informed me that I would need to speak to the online booking team.

They (having assured me that my query was being handled by a team in Warsaw!) then informed me that I would need to speak to London.

I explained my situation and was assured that it was indeed London who I needed to speak to as they had made the most recent change.

I've just come off the phone from London, who tell me that its Doha. And the cycle continues.....

I've been given various reasons from "some flights don't have business class so we book pax into F instead" to "when business class is full, we proactively book passengers into F". Now, I frequently travel on other OW carriers and have never encountered any airline would book a passenger into F simply because J-class is full (unless of course one pays for the privilege). The fact that I have PAID for an upgrade to First just doesn't seem to register with any of their agents! I have never encountered anything quite like this before!

QR is refusing to rebook my DOH-LHR sector into F citing that my ticket is not a F-ticket and refusing to recognise that I have paid A-class for the DOH-LHR sector. I've been given the run around by different departments in QR so advice from fellow FT'er would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

Chilledflyer