The last leg of my most recent journey, over 3500km, was cancelled, and about a month later I received my compensation: a voucher for 940 USD plus, I think, the cash refund of an upgrade option I had purchased for the cancelled leg, which also resulted in downgrading on the new flight. This is way more than I expected, since the other time a similar incident has happened to me, my compensation had been a 800 USD voucher. Perhaps $940 already includes compensation for downgrading? Theoretically the cash refund is still pending approval, so maybe I won't get it after all.

That said, my question pertains to another inconvenience I experienced: on the same itinerary, my checked baggage was damaged (one wheel was missing at retrieval). This is the second time it happens to me with AFKL, but I happen to live a couple blocks from the luggage store in my hometown that is affiliated with AFKL for luggage repairs. I gave the store my AFKL claim number for the baggage damage, they handled whatever paperwork on their end, made the repair, and returned the repaired baggage to me free of charge (i.e. I didn't have to front any money out of pocket). This matches the experience I had the other time this had happened to me, at the end of 2021.

However, I seemed to remember that that one time I had also received some sort of additional compensation, on top of the free repair. Indeed, digging through my email, I found a customer service message informing me of a cash compensation of 150 USD for the inconvenience. I couldn't find any other communication with regards to my case. I sent a screenshot of that to customer service (the regular one that had emailed me on the claim, not dedicated PSL), inquiring as to whether I could be eligible for similar compensation again. They said no, because it's either free repair, or cash compensation.

So, why did I get cash in 2021? Was it a random pandemic act of kindness? Have things changed? Should I insist on it, perhaps going through PSL this time for more attentive service - or was my cash compensation on top of the free repair just a one-off act of goodwill?