Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
My personal take on downgrade compensation, which unfortunately is not shared by regulatory agencies, is that a downgrade should always cost the offending airline MORE than the fare difference. My reasoning is that if I had wanted coach, for instance thinking about domestic USA flights for my example, instead of FC at the prevailing prices, I would have picked coach and already pocketed the difference in fare.
I agree for paid F tickets. Especially if the fare difference is not calculated with the cheapest available fare at the time of purchase (does anyone do that? Do they even have the data?)
In this case, though, the OP didn't buy F, they bought coach and were upgraded.