Originally Posted by
vasantn
My belief (probably unwarranted) is that a Y seat has to be available (obviously), but it does not have to be in the originally booked inventory. If someone who has been upgraded gets to the airport and has no stickers in his/her account and is not able to purchase them, is he/she going to be refused a seat on the aircraft unless the originally ticketed inventory is available? Even if there are empty seats? I don't think so. But as always, I'm willing to be corrected.
Not sure if N, for example, has to be available for eVIP downgrade, but it is the case with domestic upgrades to X.
Well, I was just speaking to the EXP about my ZRH trip and decided to ask the agent about our topic at hand. She confirmed that the original booking class has to be available for the downgrade otherwise you will also get charged a fare difference upon the downgrade. This was a Tucson agent with quite a bit of experience and unlike some of the newer agents, knew how to look up the eVIP upgrade waitlist on the old reservation system so FWIW, I tend to believe her.
As for the example of what happen to a PLT who decides on a downgrade at the airport, as we all know TAs and GAs have a quite a bit of latitude and suspect they would downgrade the passenger without much fuss (assuming it isn't a full flight). But this is just an assumption on my part based on my past experiences with TAs and GAs.