LostAntipod

O B, just out of curiousity, and sorry if I missed it, but what is your BAEC membership level? It makes a difference in my mind if you were shafted on an Avios redemption as a blue cardholder, versus say a silver or gold.

I find it hard enough using Avios for longhaul premium redemptions when I want to use them...let alone the though of spending up to 355 days from the booking day worrying that I'm going to be busted down from J to Y for 8 to 13 hours.

scubaccr

Since I believe BA promise at least 2x Business awards per flight, I'd have also asked the manager why me and not other award tkt holder(s) , especially if one has BA/Oneworld elite status.

I wonder if Cruz has secretley required revenue managers to oversell Business Class (and First too maybe) by the number of award tickets released, and if necessary as then oversold always bump the award seat holder?

Also doubly annoying in 2-class plane, as CW-WT not CW-WTP type seats

Really hope the £300 offer sticks, as noted on this forum this offer of extra ££s is then denied being made at all after you have flown, and have no option to offload, swap carrier/flight-departure-time anymore

KeaneJohn

As much as it sucks I think the O0 said he had the £300 ATM card just hope for them it's not that instead of the 75% as well. I'd hate to be in that situation and would insist I was re-routed even if later.

JAXBA

At least 2 Club World seats may be available for redemption on every flight doesn't mean that 2 seats are redeemed on every flight - even if availability were to get down to J1 U1 and someone happens to buy the last J then the last U disappears untaken and only one award is sold on that flight

If there was another award booking however, that pax could have had higher status and/ or booked earlier. We'll never know.

HilFly

How is it a good result when the OP ends up flying in Y? Presumably if the OP had wanted to fly in Y he'd have booked Y in the first place.

dylanks

Agreed. Given that a typical return fare in Y is ~ £330 vs CW being 2200 ( Saturday stopover, 30 days in advance, Monday to Monday), I don't think it's a great deal, especially given how difficult avios redemptions can be to find. I still think that the involuntary downgrade compensation should be a minimum of the differenence in fare between the most expensive seat sold in the higher cabin and the cheapest fare sold in the lower cabin, plus some additional amount, to discourage sale of expensive last minute fares at the expense of those who book cheaper fares in advance, but I know that's a bit of a fantasy land on my part.

In my case, I pay a premium to never fly mediumhaul or longhaul flights in economy given a history of sports related injuries and surgeries, so I would not have made the downgrade an easy option for BA.

Sorry to hear about this OP, it is unfortunate you had no flexibility in your schedule and that you were singled out for the downgrade.

Flexible preferences

Although let's not forget most airlines overbook. If they didn't overbook fares would need to be higher.

When an airline overbooks, occasionally someone will need to be downgraded or offloaded. In this case, given the OP had paid with Avios (most of which will be refunded, as well as most of his carrier charge) an additional £300, over and above his legal rights, sounds very reasonable to me.