Long story short:

1. Booked two seats on Aegean using Singapore Airline miles (so a simple *A redemption award booking).
2. Got an email to bid for an upgrade, we bid €140 each.
3. Two days before travel, credit card is charged €280 under Aegean, booking now shows both passengers in Business (I class) and seats 3A and 3C allocated. I have a PDF confirmation of the upgrade. Even selected breakfast (the tomato and feta omelette for full context).
4. Approximately 14 hours before departure we are now back in Economy, phoned Aegean who said mileage tickets / *A award tickets are ineligible for upgrade bid so they can’t go ahead.

The €280 is no longer “pending” on my card but is now a charge that is authorised.

I explained all this to the phone agent and the best they can do is refund us the €280 and apologise. I suggested adding complimentary fast track as a gesture of goodwill since it’s only €6 but they said no. Asked about lounge access as a gesture of goodwill, again no.

In short, they invited me to bid, they accepted the bid, they took the money, allocated me seats and asked me to choose my meals, and then bumped me back down.

Is there a better remedy to this or do I just have to accept it and take the downgrade? Does this count as a downgrade in the eyes of EU261 or whatever the relevant article number is?

Thanks in advance!