Originally Posted by
subject2load
Therein lies the issue of course - ie the lack of clarity, and the fact that carriers will - not surprisingly - follow the pro-rata line until established legal precedent forces their hand.
If I could be confident that the "fare paid" principle would definitely apply .....and I were faced with the choice of either F travel throughout from, say, UK to Asia/Australasia OR a drop to J for the short initial sector only, in return for a 75% refund of the total cash paid ......hmm ........think I know which I'd choose
Indeed - carriers claim it's more reasonable to do it on a per sector basis, because of scenarios like the one above you mentioned, but the counter-argument is that the regulation is meant to be a penalty on the carrier to discourage aircraft substitutions and downgrades and so hefty costs should be applied.
Hopefully someone with deep pockets comes along and takes it to the ECJ!