Involuntary Downgrade Issue
 

My daughter was involuntarily downgraded flying from LYS-YUL. She was on an award ticket that I paid 220K miles and almost $1300 for. I filed a case through the AC website and received a response yesterday apologizing for the inconvenience and offering 45,000 miles as a "gesture of good will." I tried to respond to the email but the email was returned because the address was either invalid or couldn't be found--[email protected].

What is appropriate compensation for this incident? She was downgraded on the LYS-YUL leg from business class to premium economy. She flew YXU-YUL-LYS and returned LYS-YUL-YOW-YXU.

Anyone have a working email address for customer service? I called this morning and couldn't even get put on hold due to high call volume. If it matters, I have Elite 50k status.

At a minimum there should be a "refund" of the points difference between J and PY. The difference is 35k. Based on that.... a 10k compensation seems a bit low.

I'd send another request, including that an offer of 45k is not reasonable considering there should have been a refund of 35k. If they came back with 35k + 20k as compensation I'd probably take it.

The taxes likely wouldn't have been much different

Are there any EU regulations regarding downgrade in service that would be applicable?

If you paid 220,000 points was that for two people? Did they both get downgraded or only one?

the EC 261 regulations should apply to your situation and I think it is worth pointing that out to them. At a minimum you should be getting back 75% of the price of the ticket excluding taxes and fees. Assuming You paid 110,000 points per ticket, that is 55,000 each way, so the "goodwill gesture" is 82% of the price. Thank them for the goodwill gesture and go back for an additional 41,250 points as per EC261 and see if you can get back part of the "carrier surcharge" as well.

https://refundor.com/news/flight-dow...re-your-rights

Since it happened leaving Europe, yes EC261 applies. It would not apply if flying on AC to Europe.

I'd bet the tax difference is substantial. I was flying from LHR-ORD last month and was lucky enough to be flying in F on British Airways. The FA explained to me that they can be fired for upgrading someone because of the tax issue. She had been told it was something equivalent to misreporting tax revenue.

This may a function of a request for compensation rather than an EC 261/2004 request for a refund. As noted above, that is 75% of the base segment fare or roughly 82,500 miles. Any of the $1,300 in cash which is not for government fees & taxes is also subject to the 75% refund. You should be able to see the breakdown of taxes on the e-ticket receipt and thus calculate the refund due.

Doubtful that the taxes will change on an xLYS ticket. Indeed an xLHR ticket would be subject to lower APD (departure tax) based on lower class of service, but I don't think that the French departure will vary.

She, not you, should file a claim and keep it to the very specific, e.g., downgrade and request for specific refund of miles + cash.

You'd get better clarity over on the BA forum on this issue. I'm not sure what she said is true, but if it is, the issue is likely the UK Air Passenger Duty, a tax on air tickets that differs significantly based on cabin. That would not be applicable in this case since your daughter was flying from France, where the difference in taxes between PY, Y, and J is not meaningful if any.

I appreciate everyone's help and advice--thank you.

It was for one ticket.
Total for 1 Adult - Fixed Mileage Flight Reward - Business 220,000

Carrier Surcharge - $1,120.00 Canada Domestic/International Air Travel Security Charge - $25.91 Canada Harmonized Sales Tax - $0.91 Canada Domestic/International Airport Improvement Fee - $7.00 France International Passenger Service Charge - $21.98 France Air Passenger Solidarity Tax - $65.81 France Domestic & International Airport Tax - $24.08
- $26.28
Subtotal
$1,291.97

Why was 1 adult 220k miles?

Good question for AC. I seem to recall some kind of marketplace pricing option which allowed me more flexibility with dates etc.

If it were Market Fare, it would have said "Market Fare" rather than "Fixed Mileage". I'm guessing you have status (but not SE) and used a Priority Reward to get access to seats on certain dates on a flight to or from YXU? Priority Rewards open up more seats in Y for Aeroplan bookings but double the price.

Correct. I have 50k Elite status which my friend has given me for the last several years. He gets to award one person with 50k status as part of his VIP perks.

[MENTION=8897]chet[/MENTION] do you have any status with AC? The only reason I can think of that you would be charged double mileage is if you booked this as a Priority Reward (referred to as IKK around here). When I had status (lower than SE) I did occasionally see business Priority Rewards available at twice the regular mileage. In those cases there was a business seat available via regular inventory, but a connecting flight needed IKK to get a seat in Economy, and that doubled the required mileage on the entire trip.

EDIT - I see that chet answered my question as I was typing my post.

Yes, I have Elite 50k status thanks to my friend who has VIP status with AC.