Good evening,

You are (perfectly) right for downgrading on departure legs from Europe (as CEE 261 / 2004 applies to all carriers for outbound flights from Europe).

The official CEE 261 /2004 rule states :

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conte...4R0261&from=FR

For my own case it was not ruled by CEE 261 / 2004 as downgrading was on return legs.

To know the actual difference of ticket prices (case of this thread and other ones) the best is to use EXPERTFLYER to check the fares (they are without taxes and airport charges and can be used at 100 % for calculation). Fares can be displayed in $, €, £ or any currency used (country where the ticket was bought).

On the screenshot of EXPERTFLYER website that I uploaded (see above in the thread) for example, it appears that at date of booking for a journey at mentioned dates (CDG > DXB > CMB > DXB > CDG) the FLEX fares were : FIRST (AEEESFR1) : 3 673 € and BUSINESS (IEEESFR1) : 1 710 €. Difference is 1 963 €. But difference between FIRST FLEX of 3 673 € and BUSINESS FLEX PLUS (JERZFFR1) of 2 760 € is only of 913 €. In several affairs (downgrading from FIRST to BUSINESS) Emirates tried to pretend that the difference to be taken in account (whole return journey) should be (as in this example) of 913 € and not of 1 963 € ! This is shocking of course (mix of fares FLEX and FLEX PLUS).

This was the way Emirates wanted to refund me (for the actual case and dates of my trip in 2015). The FIRST FLEX was 3 740 € and BUSINESS FLEX was 1 740 €. Difference was 2 000 €. As I was downgraded on 2 legs on 4 (return ones) I asked a refund of 1 000 € (50 % * 2 000 €). But Emirates Emirates wanted to use the FLEX PLUS fare in BUSINESS (it was of 2 740 €) and pretended that the difference due was (3 740 € - 2 740 €) = 1 000 € and for 50 % of legs = 500 € (only) ....

The French court (2016 December 16) rejected the Emirates " point of view " and sentenced Emirates to make the full refund I asked (1 000 €). I explained and detailed everything I could in the Blog I made (see above in this thread).

So to check Emirates refund proposal it is necessary to have the actual prices of the involved trip in the same fares (FLEX, FLEX PLUS) and for this a tool as EXPERTFLYER is very useful for the passenger (there are other tools of course which are similar on the web).

Greetings from France.