Kaasschaaf

Hi All,

We have booked a return flight from Calgary to Amsterdam, booked through the Amex portal. The outbound is two segments: WestJet Boeing 787-9 to Toronto (which has a business class cabin), following by a segment on KLM A330. As listed while booking by the Amex portal: 1 Stop Business (C, Z) Operated by WestJet & KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. On the way back we fly direct KLM. All email communications we received from Amex and KLM say the WestJet segment is in Business class.

Immediately after booking, the KLM portal showed that our flight to Toronto with WestJet was seated in W, which is also confirmed by WestJet.

I am wondering what my rights are with regards to this seemingly downgrade and what I could do (either before or after flights).

Thanks!

Goldorak

You are booked under AF code-share and C/Z are definitely business class fares for AF. You should contact Amex travel ASAP and ask them to sort this out.

Miika747

I have a similar itinerary with a flying Business class to AMS with the YYC-YYZ segment in W. When I bought the tickets, it showed as Business class but after I paid, it was showing Premium Economy 😞 I think it’s because there is no Business class on some WestJet flights. (Premium Economy is the highest class). It’s misleading either way & I’m wondering about lounge access at YYC &YYZ.

Kaasschaaf

This Is what we are told every time we call any customer service, until we tell them we are flying on an aircraft that definitely has a J cabin. Luckily we have priority pass that should allow us into the lounge but it should be through the ticket.

Miika747

I have Priority Pass too but I’m not sure about how easily accessible (time/distance) those lounges @ YYC & YYZ will be.

Are we only able to select our WJ seats during online check-in? With my originating flight being on WestJet (YYC-YYZ), Air France said I could not select my seat & would need to wait. This is not a good J experience so far…

Kaasschaaf

you can give Westjet a call and they’ll be able to find your reservation based on flight number, date and name. We are now working with Amex to get our booking rectified but it takes time. It is being escalated.

feederflight

W class is the highest booking class on all flights operated by non-787 aircraft.
Business Class is only sold on 787 aircraft, for such flights, even domestic, the respective booking classes (J C D) are available.

What I suspect is some kind of table maintenance error:
Likely, Amadeus is maintained in a way that WS operated flights sold by AFKL will book into W/O/R in WS inventory by default (irrespective of the AFKL booking class) since only a handful of WS flights even have Business Class (only the ones operated by 787).
In fact, AFKL is selling J/C/D/I/Z class on their codeshare flight numbers operated by Westjet Encore Dash 8-400, where there is no Business Class anywhere left, right and centre.

I experienced similar issues and booking the WS segments under the WS flight number solved the matter.

Kaasschaaf

Hi, can you please explain how you were able to do this? Amex are pointing to AF and AF are pointing to WS, WS are pointing to Amex. Nobody can help and amex has given up.

Kaasschaaf

After over 6 months, the saga has come to an end. Air France has given us a $100 refund per person, and Amex 10k MR points.

stevendorechester

Not surprised. DL also does this with WS operated flights. I don't know if this is intentional or not, but they have been selling " first class " on WS and delivering ony premium economy, which I have flown one and was basically ann all-economy cabin with the middle seat block on one leg, 2-2 seating on another. The other irony is if you look up premium economy on either DL or AK/KLM you will not be offered premium on WS.

I guess it won't change until people report this bait and switch either the TCA, DOT or other regulators.

AnaTFN

I had a very similar story with Lufthansa. LH sold us an itinerary last summer in J (within europe) with one flight operated by Brussels airlines... economy only. No lounge, no middle seat, only extra luggage was recognized. I asked LH for a downgrade compensation, they ignored me. I tool them to the german arbitration body and I got 290EUR for 3 people. That's essentially what you got. Very disappointing. More than a downgrade it felt like a ticketing fraud because they portrayed as business a non-business segment, only visible after purchase.

Sjondorn

That's for domestic flights, which is a bit different story. An all-economy cabin with middle seat blocking on narrow bodies is "European style" short-haul business class btw.