CX899 May 6, J Customers asked to downgrade because of bugs in crew rest area
My colleague just arrived off CX899, EWR-HKG. He had done instant upgrade at check-in, PEY->J. After 15 minutes in the lounge he was paged and supervisor apologized and informed him they were moving him back down to PEY. He tells me then they made an announcement asking for 4 additional J passengers to voluntarily downgrade. Reason given what that there were bugs in the crew rest area and they needed the J seats for crew rest.
2 passengers volunteered off the bat. Then a waiting game started as they asked for 2 additional passengers and warned that the flight would be canceled if they couldn't get the volunteers. 2 more stepped up and the plane ended up leaving about an hour late from EWR.
My colleague was seated next to one of the volunteers and was told they were offered upgrade vouchers and $3000 for compensation. Perhaps the holdouts negotiated for more. The downgraded pax also received J class meal service in PEY. My colleague didn't get anything except for 15 mins of happiness thinking his instant upgrade worked. Then brought back to reality.
Seriously, bugs in the crew area?
Last edited by synthkeys; May 6, 2018 at 11:26 pm
Reason: Updated to reflect change in compensation