For those that are interested this was the final response to my downgrade claim.

We are Emirates we will do what we want...

Our Ref No: DXB.......

Dear Mr M3red

Thank you for your email messages of 29 October and 04 November.

I am sorry to learn that you are disappointed with my response. By explaining and clarifying our position we do not wish for you to have negative feelings about the service provided by Emirates.

As outlined in my previous correspondence, in line with our operating policy, booking references with aircraft configuration changes/schedule changes due to operational reasons are automatically placed on a message queue to be actioned by our Contact Centre staff on priority basis. As this is a queue system, our staff do contact passengers to advise them of the schedule changes. I understand that you identified the change of class in your booking prior to our staff contacting you.

A report from our Global Contact Center team indicates that you wished to travel only on 20 October. Regrettably, our staff were unable to obtain an interline booking with Bangkok Airways, as there was no one-way fare provided by them.

Please allow me to also clarify that our booking module has different subordinate booking classes. To explain fully, a First class fare will have different sub-classes and the fare is calculated depending on the availability at the time of booking. Therefore, on 13 October, when you contacted our Global Contact Center, our staff advised you that the subordinate First Class fare that you were booked under was unavailable from Bangkok. However, a higher subordinate First class fare was available where a difference of fare would apply. However, you preferred to travel in Business class on flight EK379 as you were concerned about transferring your baggage on Emirates.

With regard to your wife's booking, her ticket was issued on 03 August 2015 in First Class on flight EK378 and Business Class on flight EK379. Your ticket was issued 14 August in First Class on both flights EK378 and EK379. May I explain that our airfares are determined by commercial and operational policies and our fares are finalised by our Online Pricing team. The fare construction may vary, depending on the fare basis, point of ticket issuance, season, passenger load factors, route structure, etc. Therefore, in line with our procedures, I can confirm that the refund amount of AED 300 has been correctly calculated in this instance.

If you were advised of a difference in fare of AED 1500 to upgrade online, this would have been applicable for that day only. In the event you paid AED 1500 to avail of the upgrade, a refund of AED 1500 would have applied if you were downgraded to Business Class.

We have demonstrated empathy by offering you and your wife 25,000 Skywards miles, for the events described. Whilst I understand your disappointment, may I take this opportunity to inform you that we do not offer Skywards miles as a matter of course.

I hope that we can now draw this matter to a close, and look forward to welcoming you and your wife onboard our flights when you next travel Emirates.

Yours sincerely,

Customer Affairs