Really sorry to hear about this situation, rubbish for a long planned holiday night flight home. I saw this exact situation play out at the gate in St Lucia in 2021, the lady who was downgraded was on a special holiday for her 60th birthday with a friend and they both ended up in front of us in WTP. I roughly explained her rights and directed her to this forum, the crew didn’t even bring them a club amenity kit or acknowledge it at all.

I do understand why BA oversell on a route like New York where there’s so much movement in the loads and there’s so many options to rebook people, however they really should review this policy on routes like this, where people book months in advance and very rarely decide not to travel home from their holiday, and where the tiny 32J cabins are always full, so they can’t be moved to the next day easily. It’s a big blow to people who’ve spent their last day relaxing, in the knowledge they’ve got a nice comfy flight home to end up being downgraded at the gate, but I suspect it happens most nights in the Caribbean.