Yeah, but downgrades of the long-haul segments were quite rare even with the 5 x 777HD in the fleet (and the 787s). Its the domestic segments that were/are the problem.

If AC would just acknowledge that domestic J = Premium Economy, then a lot of the problems would be solved. After all, the physical product is very similar. And the service could be made quite similar as well. Market Int'l J as a completely separate product. After all, revenue J barely even sells anything on domestic segments (without heavy discounting), so there's no real loss to AC if they were to market the current domestic J cabin as "PY". I've suggested many times that AC could even go so far back to the 2x3 configuration for the front cabin on the domestic 320 fleet and provide a truly equivalent experience across most of the existing mainline fleet. (although a 2x3 is less compelling with the new 737s and the reduced width of the cabin, unfortunately!)

However, if someone is downgraded from PY to Y, even on a domestic segment, well, that's a giant problem which will probably permanently alienate that customer. The standard of service, if PY is to return on domestic segments, should be an upgrade to a higher class of service if PY isn't available on account of aircraft swap.