Originally Posted by
Samuel Hotchkiss
EU guidelines require a refund of 75% of the fare paid for long haul flights when involuntary downgrades occur. Hard to say the impact on a mileage redemption and the impact on an airline’s bottom line, but for a $5,000 to $15,000 one way fare, I would have to imagine it would be in the airline’s best interest to rebook for the following day and pay the hotel and other expenses in lieu of a $3,750 reimbursement (on the low end).
AF once offered me a proactive flight switch the morning of due to malfunctioning WiFi. Im not sure of they would have paid for another night in Paris, but I found it odd they were offering when there was really only one other flight option and that flight was full in P.
The rule of 75% applies to award tickets in the same way. I had this happen to me last year on a LP ticket with Stopover. It was MEX-CDG in 2023 and then 10 months later in 2024 CDG-SIN. I had only paid 285k miles for the whole trip in LP which was a steal!. For the CDG-SIN, I was downgraded due to equipment swap (at least it was new cabin and got seat 1A), I couldn't move my flight to the next day which they offered (my partner was in J Award and they also offered to move him to the same flight with me the next day). I first got a 550 € voucher then they offered the LP ground services from start to finish with LP lounge, Sisley facial for both of us and car from home and to plane. After the flight, flying blue made a calculation based on the distance ( it took 2 months and some calls for them to do it right). So in my case CDG-SIN represented roughly 153k miles and MEX-CDG 132k and I got refunded 75% of the 153k so around 115K miles! I did not wanna pursue anything on taxes as I believe I had already been more than fairly compensated.