Neat0

I agree - if this were a "I didn't get my F upgrade" situation, it'd be water under the bridge. However, this was a case of, "I've paid for X, you've given me X minus, and not compensated/refunded/whatever semantics the nitpickers on here insist on using."

neofung

I know its not you flying, but you still shouldn't call MPC. It's not the right point of contact. It's just like you calling avios.com for a BA problem. MPC is solely a travel loyalty program, you or your SO should call the service provider instead. CX should compensate afterwards but not at the day of travel. An out-sourced ground handling might not have the authority to give out such a large sum of money.
And again, why your SO (although i dont know what SO means) don't select a seat at day 1 your SO buy a ticket but leave it until T-48?

Neat0

I'm not sure how I can be more clear. Partner checked in online, and there was no option to choose seats on the YYZ-HKG leg.

neofung

Do you aware that you can select a seat when you buy the flight ticket?

Neat0

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I believe you're just trolling now. @MoDs, could you lock this?

Thanks to @percysmith for the comprehensive options - I've gotten the answers I needed. Appreciate your helpful attitude, as always.

brunos

From your post it seems that this is very recent.
It is unfortunate indeed, but now SO should contact CX CS to claim refund and compensation. MPC is not the proper channel to contact.
But first, you should get the facts straight.
1. What is the fare bucket showing on the eTicket under "class"?
2. It is unclear if SO completed OLCI. SO might have mistakenly stopped the OLCI process before it was completed as it does not show in CX records. It could be due to some missing travel document information. You don't HAVE to OLCI, so that is no excuse if SO did show up in time at the airport counter.
3. The few hundred dollars handed out at airport should not be construed as refund.

Just write a polite factual letter/email to CX CS asking for refund and compensation. They will probably determine some amount of refund and you can argue that it should be more based on some the info provided on this thread. They should also offer some compensation in the form of miles or cash..

percysmith

Red herring. I have a friend who had selected seat in redemption J DUS-HKG but did not OLCI.

On arrival at DUS he was IDGed.
DUS MOD said it's because he was only redemption passenger this day (I thought CX was meant to bump by CIV but if CIV was used it would've been my friend who was bumped anyway).

(AM initially only refunded him pro-rated miles difference. I told him to kindly remind Asia Miles that 70% of the miles for that segment were due under EC261 and the difference was credited to his AM account within 2 weeks of that kindly reminder.)

Anyway this was in September. I confirmed with him again he did seat selection (yes) but not OLCI (neglected to). So seat selection is of no help if you did not (or in OP's case, cannot) OLCI.

percysmith

Would encourage CX to act like Scoot if this was the case.

Surely the difference had to be taken for comparable fare class e.g. C vs R(?), preferably on the ticketing date (this info is available - see my expertflyer screencaps above)

neofung

In CX logic they will downgrade or offload pax who didn’t do OLCI first. Hence if one have chosen a seat in advance, one should be able to OLCI. And therefore less chance to be downgrade theoretically.

As your frd is on redemption ticket, he or she will almost be the first one to be downgraded.

percysmith

So what point were you trying to make about the OP SO's failure to select seat?

garykung

I will take this 1 step further.

1. OP should cease discussing with CX immediately. The way I see it - OP has given ample chances for CX to make whole in a few occasions. But yet CX failed to act promptly.

2. OP should file a Small Claims case as soon as possible. For unknown reasons, many companies, including CX, don't take customers unless they are served with a court summon. By doing this, you take them away CX's control on the issue and force CX to face it.

3. OP should file this case in Ontario rather than Hong Kong. While it may be a disadvantage to OP given HKG as origin, Ontario has a generally better judicial system than Hong Kong, such as the convenience of online filing, as well as consumer protection laws. Also, if this ends up with a court hearing, CX will have to be responsible for OP's travel cost to Ontario as well.

So simply the costs alone will give CX a major incentive to settle the case.

QRC3288

Look no offense, but you posted here. There's no reason to be rude and calling out the board as "nitpickers" when folks are trying to be helpful. Not to mention, the devil's in the details here.

Airlines do dipshixt things all the time, unfortunately. But at the same time we see a fair amount of pax who are pissed about something but....really aren't entitled to anything. Not right or wrong it just is. You say your partner is on "full freight C". Technically, full freight is J sub class not C. I imagine your partner is on a cash ticket, but there are heaps of cash ticket types. The reason I say that is garykung, a reliable poster on this board, is recommending a legal path for you via small claims court. You definitely want to know the details the "nickpickers" care about before going that route: your subfare class. J, D, C, I and what point of origin and the specific pricing rules. That's because if you go hardball with CX, expect them to play it back including booting you from MPC and/or GO if your claim is a lie. They have every right to expel folks from the program. If you have actually priced in J or C or whatever, and that original fare class less the W fare class difference is higher than you received, you damn well are entitled to the difference...no ifs, ands or buts. That is flat out they owe you money and this isnt't even a customer service gesture - this would be they damn well owe it to you because it's the fare difference for a service they didn't provide. But I'm just saying... THE DETAILS MATTER! The details will determine how much you're entitled to. A lot of people say "full freight biz class", but biz is priced in heaps of buckets. It possible CX way undercompensated you, got it exactly right, or even over-compensated you.

Or, you can ask yourself if you're after something else - perhaps you calculate they indeed exactly gave you the right fare difference. But, you feel CX wronged you from a customer service angle which seems the case to me if true....involuntary downgrade sucks bigtime. It makes sense from CX's angle to compensate angry customers, even more frankly than the fare difference because business is about a relationship. In this case you're gunning for a compensation gesture, not the details we're talking about above with the precise fare difference. So I think you want to be clear with yourself: a.) you are entitled to the legal fare difference, but you should probably figure out precisely what that is. And b.) then probably you could ask for compensation, since that seems like the right business thing to do. But they don't have to give you "b", and my bet is if you try to sue them or small claims or whatever, "b" is definitely a non-option. They won't give you a dime more than you're entitled to which is "a". And you want to have the details in order for "a", because if you file a claim that's a lie or incorrect, you're not going to be flying CX in the future.

You may not hear what you want on these boards but it's a friendly forum of helpful folks so no need to shoot the messengers. All the posters who responded to you are veteran posters here on the board, and all have been long-time valuable contributors to the immense knowledge here.

garykung

Not only that. The provable detail matters.

Because of the downgrade, OP's reservation has been modified. So to show you are entitled something, you must show your original booking to substantiate that you are entitled a Business seat. Also, you said your SO got downgraded, then the PEY BP will be needed. Assuming CX will use the most restrictive method in calculating the fare difference - your fare minus by the full-fare PEY, you will also need to show what an acceptable full-fare PEY should be (Note - I believe full-fare tends to stay in similar prices. So the date should be a matter).

FWIW - regardless how unreasonable CX was in this case, OP should be reasonable in term of compensation, i.e. full refund is not possible. Having a reasonable number in mind helps the process.

Declaimer - I express no opinion in term of the reasonableness of CX in this matter.

neofung

IIRC, no seat picked means cannot complete OLCI.

spordniar

Be very polite to CX CRD and express your SO’s disappointment, lost in faith for CX, and ask politely what they can do to compensate such mental suffering experience.

Now the ball is in their court, as:

1. Their main objective is customer satisfaction
2. Hinting mental suffering could mean you are open to sue them, which is highly undesirable for them.

In the past, I’ve gotten points + upgrade tix, which is way enough to make up for the inconvenience (of course in your case + refund fare delta)

But you have to be sympathetic and polite, because the person from Cx CRD you are talking to didn’t overbook the flight nor did she had anything to do with your SO’s situation in the first place.

So bottom line is - help her wanna help you & your SO to resolve this together.