Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,758
This is certainly interesting. AY is known to sell "J" tickets where the connecting flight is in Y, but it is not the case here. AY is selling CX metal but AY flight number, and in that case, the booking code is decided by AY, and R is business class. Somehow this doesn't carry over in the right way to the CX system, which interprets this according to its own booking classes and seats OP in PE, which is clearly wrong.
I have no tips, but it seems that this is one of the more unusual codeshare problems (of which there are so many), and as is customary, neither airline takes responsibility. However ,the CX e-ticket clearly states "Business", so OP should be able to argue at HEL and again at HKG. Whether it will help is anybody's guess.