Originally Posted by
Thai-Kiwi
Presumably there were stranded J pax from the strike that were accommodated in their purchased cabin on other flights, resulting in reversed upgrades for some other pax.
Most likely.
Downgrades can happen for "operational reasons" so even if your flight is operating as normal, you can still be downgraded to reaccommodate pax from other flights that have been disrupted.
Another example of this which I've seen on here before is when one of the two LAX-AKL flights (NZ3 and NZ5) gets cancelled last minute, and so they move as many pax as they can from the cancelled flight to the one that's still going.
If there's not enough J seats available on the plane still flying to accommodate paid J pax from the cancelled flight, then upgraded pax are at risk of being downgraded - even though their flight is operating "as normal".
While it can be disappointing having a "confirmed" RU/EAPDU reversed, it makes sense given paid J should always be seated in J regardless of disruptions/equipment swaps.