Originally Posted by
Wozza2404
There's an argument for deducting the cost of the WTP Avios cost from the amount claimed but personally given that both my wife and I would suffer physical pain from being upright for that amount of time, I wouldn't do so.
Where EU261 applies, I don't think there is any such argument. If the EU261 position is that as a result of a downgrade, you are entitled to 75% of the fare, then the question is one of calculating the value of the fare and applying the compensatory percentage. Note that the regulation is not framed to refund the difference in fare cost between cabins, as your argument would have it. On that basis in an extreme case an airline might argue that the cost of a last minute ticket in a lower cabin was more than the fare paid and therefore no compensation were due.
In my view, (I am not a legal expert), it is best to apply the provisions of the regulations to the facts of the case and once it is demonstrated that they apply, determine cost of fare and compensation due. If you are happy that that is the price BA would sell that number of avios to you, then so be it. However, for many claims the quantum of avios will be more than BA would allow to be purchased (implying that BA view the sale of avios to be at a discount to their intrinsic value). That being so, I personally think a valuation closer to that intrinsic value is more appropriare, with the cash cost of the equivalent base fare being an obvious method of valuation.