Originally Posted by
spgaston
I have read over in the AF forum about pax being downgraded from Biz on very busy routes such as PVG-CDG. I imagine award seats would be downgraded before paid business, and hopefully pax upgraded from coach would be downgraded before award ticket holders.
This makes me slightly nervous as I have 4 longhaul AF segments upcoming on a RTW award in J. I imagine you could insist on being reaccomodated on a different flight (with some sort of compensation) in J rather than taking the downgrade.
A downgrade technically gives right to a partial refund with the amound dependent upon the price originally paid and the length of the flight, with some exceptions including French DOM-TOM flights.
The refund amount depends upon the price of the ticket, but it's unclear to me whether this means the total price or only the price for the sector(s) on which the passenger is downgraded? Also unclear is what price to use for an affected sector if the ticket is anything other than a single or simple paid return ticket. That is, award tickets and round-the-world tickets are covered by applicable laws but in such a way that the remedy stipulated under law is unclear; put the two together and you are in even more amorphous territory than was already the case*.
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* Even on a simple paid return ticket what do they do in a situation where the discounted biz fare is cheaper than the full coach fare or cheapest coach fare available on that flight at time of downgrade?