Originally Posted by
flarmip
An update on the CEDR case I raised for my relatives, which in the end turned on whether YQ was subject to downgrade reimbursement.
CEDR ruled in their favour, since BA did not provide any evidence that the YQ was the same for both classes of travel. However, they only awarded reimbursement at a 50% pro-rata rate - since the affected portion of the journey was between 1500 and 3499km. That seems slightly stingy since they were not supposed to be changing planes at all - it was booked to be a direct flight, albeit with an intermediate stop (beyond which the flight was cancelled). However overall I'm happy with this outcome, which has not let BA off the hook.
BA historically charged the same YQ for both J and F. If they are able to provide evidence of this, this may mean that others making CEDR downgrade claims may face the YQ element being refused.
BA now charges a higher YR for F than J, but the YQ element is still the same. Being cynically minded, I wonder whether this is an attempt to limit any reimbursement claims to the (currently small) YR element...
Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Thanks very much for documenting this, and to my mind it makes no difference if the Carrier Impose Charge was the same, that's a distraction from the fact that YQ and YR are part of the fare for Mennens calculation purposes. I was slightly concerned by "ruled in their favour" since I misread that to mean BA, but of course you meant your relatives. The 50% seems justifiable to me since this was the "lived" experience. But yes, it's good to have that printed, I just wish we can get wording somehow that says YQ = fare.
This is an area that has had me confused in the past and equally so now. The second ruling in the Mennens case says:
2. Article 10(2) of Regulation No 261/2004 must be interpreted as meaning that, the price of the ticket to be taken into consideration for the purposes of determining the reimbursement owed to that passenger, where he is downgraded on a flight, is solely the price of the flight itself, to the exclusion of taxes and charges indicated on that ticket, as long as neither the requirement to pay those taxes and charges nor their amount depends on the class for which that ticket has been purchased.
Does this not mean that, because the charges
and (at least
some of the) taxes do - very much - depend on the class of ticket purchased i.e. APD being different in Club/First compared to Economy or even WTP and thus class dependent, they all form the part of the price of the ticket that should be considered for reimbursement? Further, as you say CWS, the equivalent costs of travel on the downgraded component are irrelevant - the 'penalty' on the airline is to reimburse a percentage of the price of the ticket. It doesn't matter if you are downgraded from First to Economy, WTP or Club - it's the First fare that is reimbursed against.