Gig103

My friend's wife was flying home from the east coast and her Sunday flight was cancelled. She was rebooked on a Saturday flight (losing a day which she accepted) but they put her in coach without offering to wait for an F cabin or checking AA, their oneworld partner. She had to argue to waive the checked baggage fees, which they did, but after the flight they offered her $160 compensation for the downgrade. I don't know exactly what she paid for her ticket but I'm sure the Y to F difference was more than that.

Does she have any recourse for additional compensation, more in line with the fare difference or anything, now that she flew?

VegasGambler

She is entitled to the fare difference between what she paid and the cheapest economy ticket.

Many airlines will try to rip her off and give her the difference between what she paid and the price of Y when they rebooked her. I really wish the DOT would crack down on this but I guess people don't complain to them about it enough. She should request the price difference at the time she originally booked.

And, it's not "compensation", it's a refund of the difference between what she paid for and what she got. Additional compensation would be nice but it's not required.

flytoeat

Available at the time of ticketing (obviously).

olouie

This is why I always screen shot the prices when I book F or PC and get bumped into lower cabin.

stevendorechester

Unfortunate most passengers who are likely to be downgraded might not have status and most likely will not think to take screen shots.

What I try to do is price out in coach, when possible, and buy the ticket. Then I can simply upfare in most cases. Two separate transactions. If I get downgraded I can simply do a chargeback on the upfare as I paid $ XXX to move from economy to business and that was not honored in the end. Very simple.

Better yet though what is needed is a law that requires airlines to rebook on the next available flight, including other airlines, in the passenger's
ticketed cabin. Everyone is happy. The customer gets what is paid for and the airline doesn't have to refund anything.

VegasGambler

But when flights get cancelled, other flights can get quite full and any seat at all can be hard to come by, which is why many people accept downgrades in that case. If you are willing to wait for a flight with an available F seat you will be reaccomodated in F. But if there are not many flights on that route, that can take days.

unfrequentflyer

The price difference between Y and F is 3x to 6x

flytoeat

That's a pretty blanket statement. Not on my routes.

NoLaGent

Mine either, mine are usually far less than 2x.

unfrequentflyer

You are talking about 2 class flights, right?

NoLaGent

This thread is about F vs Y pricing on AS, what else would I be talking about?

VegasGambler

According to AS, Premium is a class

Flying for Fun

There are too many unknowns and assumptions. If we knew the route, fare class, fare code and original date of purchase, historical fares will help determine a differential. While it is easy to look up the historical data, what we don't know was what fare buckets were available when the ticket was purchased. Only higher economy fares might have been available when the F ticket was purchased. AS would have that data. Furthermore, each fare bucket can have multiple fares depending on advance purchase requirements.

Did the friends wife ask AS how they arrived at the $160 figure? It may actually be the fare difference.

On many AS routes, F fares are y-up fares. The underlying fare class is an economy fare bucket that books into the F cabin, usually as an I fare & dual inventory is required. Dual inventory means that there must be an I fare available in First to go along with an available economy fare class in the y-up bucket.

This is why you will sometimes see eligible economy fares for immediate upgrade to F (space available) price higher than just purchasing F. The underlying economy y-up bucket is lower than the eligible fare class by Elite status. An MVPG purchasing a K fare is eligible for immediate upgrade with U availability but a Q fare class y-up will be cheaper. It is 6 fare buckets below K. It is also below N which is the minimum fare class that a GGU can be applied to.

There are a lot of moving parts. Without knowing the route, how far in advance the ticket was purchased, the fare class, underlying fare code and inventory availability, it isn't so cut & dried to say the fare difference should be more than $160.

I would suggest having the party call AS and discuss it.

James

VegasGambler

This is all irrelevant. They are entitled to the fare difference between the cheapest economy ticket and what they paid. Whether the underlying fare basis is economy or not doesn't matter. It was sold as a first class ticket on the website (regardless of fare basis) and they were accommodated in economy.

MSPeconomist

Knowing the underlying fare basis would help to establish a minimum amount for the fare difference that is due to the OP. There might have been cheaper coach fares available when the ticket was purchased that didn't have (available) associated Y-UP fares.