DominicB

I have been dealing with customer services about a flight cancellation which led to an extra night in a hotel, a 24 hour delay in getting from Jordan to the United States, and a downgrade on the final sector of this journey, from London to Seattle. to my bewilderment, they have now compensated me the EU261 money that is due, and the expenses incurred for the extra night in the hotel. However, they are saying they simply cannot do anything about the downgrade from first class to business class on the last sector, and, very unhelpfully, given me a UK phone number to call for the ‘change booking’ team.

Quite aside of the fact that they know I live in the United States, I find it extraordinary that customer services cannot compensate somebody for an involuntary downgrade. Is this advice really correct?

groenroos

I've no personal experience with this, but this does not sound correct to me. Might be worth just calling the same US number again, and seeing if a different agent has different opinions.

Was the LON-SEA leg a cash or reward ticket?

DominicB

Cash - there is definitely compensation due...

DominicB

This was not by phone - this was an email from Customer Services. I do find it very curious...

Often1

There is no compensation due. It is a refund or reimbursement of 75% of the base segment fare under EC 261/2004. Unfortunately, the call center took you literally and that resulted in being fobbed off.

The easiest way to claim is to simply complete the claim form available online under "other". This can be done with your PNR or e-ticket number. While not relevant here as you have already received your compensation for the delay, this same facility can also handle delay compensation and accept receipts for duty of care expenses such as hotels & meals.

You may expect push back from BA on this front as it will maintain that you could have been placed in the next flight with availability in your ticketed class of service. It will, in that case, offer you the fare difference between what you paid and where you flew. That might not be much, so triple check the arithmetic calculations.

DominicB

Very helpful, Often1. Is there any way a normal lay person can work out what the base segment fare is? I only know the price paid for the four-sector ticket...

Anonba

Referring to change booking for refund of difference on the ticket is correct, if due customer relations would handle downgrade compensation.

corporate-wage-slave

See also the advice previously given here:
Delayed refund
Given the way tickets can be changed, BA calculation of the refund can't happen until travel is completed. You can do the Mennens calculation now, but that also depends on you sticking to your booked plans.

Often1

Yes.

1. You won't be refunded until after all segments have been flown. That seems inconsistent with EC 261/2004, but likely doesn't matter if your journey is not a long one.
2. Depending on how your ticket was priced, there may be a segment in the e-ticket receipt fare calculation for LHR-SEA. In that case, you can see the charge for the segment, multiple by 0.75 and have your number. If this is a published fare for AMM-SEA, then it will be calculated based on the percentage of the mileage for LHR-SEA as a fraction of AMM-SEA and then the 75% applied.

DominicB

C-W-S is recalling I was asking a question about delayed refunds last week - that was a separate issue. The travel on these tickets is complete. I can't see any allusion to any segments in the email that confirmed the booking from BA. The full ticket was SEA/LHR/TLV...AMM/LHR/SEA, with 3 segments in First and AMM/LHR in business. Do I just get the respective mileages and do the math, based around the fare paid?

Often1

No.

This is a lot more complex than you make it out to be. If you want to post your fare construction here (making certain that all information identifying you is redacted), it may be possible to help you. Otherwise, this is not as simple as you are making it out to be.

DominicB

I'd happily do so, but I am not sure where to find it. I've seen fare constructions when I use Matrix. But all I have for this booking is the email confirmation from BA, on what feels to me like a very typical BA email. So I can see the different taxes laid out, things about baggage and extra baggage charges, but for fare breakdown it just says "The price of your ticket includes a carrier imposed charge per sector levied by the carrier. All taxes, fees and charges are to be paid by the member (not British Airways)." Is there anywhere else I could look?