Circling back on this one. I’m not sure if they asked for volunteers but four or five people (traveling as part of a group with a number of others who remained in Polaris) were involuntarily downgraded to Y around when boarding started. This was clear as they grumbled to their friends walking back to Y. Said they got $500 ETCs which seems low. In any event, due to no shows, 3 were ultimately upgraded to W and 1 back to J. I never heard anything more than sarcasm and grumbling but at one point, the purser (who was great) did make a full plane announcement that the downgrade was not their fault and verbal abuse would not be tolerated which seemed slightly overboard at least based on what I saw. A manager was around dealing with the situation throughout it seems but not sure it was well handled at the beginning.