Originally Posted by
Gig103
My friend's wife was flying home from the east coast and her Sunday flight was cancelled. She was rebooked on a Saturday flight (losing a day which she accepted) but they put her in coach without offering to wait for an F cabin or checking AA, their oneworld partner. She had to argue to waive the checked baggage fees, which they did, but after the flight they offered her $160 compensation for the downgrade. I don't know exactly what she paid for her ticket but I'm sure the Y to F difference was more than that.
Does she have any recourse for additional compensation, more in line with the fare difference or anything, now that she flew?
There are too many unknowns and assumptions. If we knew the route, fare class, fare code and original date of purchase, historical fares will help determine a differential. While it is easy to look up the historical data, what we don't know was what fare buckets were available when the ticket was purchased. Only higher economy fares might have been available when the F ticket was purchased. AS would have that data. Furthermore, each fare bucket can have multiple fares depending on advance purchase requirements.
Did the friends wife ask AS how they arrived at the $160 figure? It may actually be the fare difference.
On many AS routes, F fares are y-up fares. The underlying fare class is an economy fare bucket that books into the F cabin, usually as an I fare & dual inventory is required. Dual inventory means that there must be an I fare available in First to go along with an available economy fare class in the y-up bucket.
This is why you will sometimes see eligible economy fares for immediate upgrade to F (space available) price higher than just purchasing F. The underlying economy y-up bucket is lower than the eligible fare class by Elite status. An MVPG purchasing a K fare is eligible for immediate upgrade with U availability but a Q fare class y-up will be cheaper. It is 6 fare buckets below K. It is also below N which is the minimum fare class that a GGU can be applied to.
There are a lot of moving parts. Without knowing the route, how far in advance the ticket was purchased, the fare class, underlying fare code and inventory availability, it isn't so cut & dried to say the fare difference should be more than $160.
I would suggest having the party call AS and discuss it.
James