LAX

That's exactly what I had in mind! To be treated like OP did when flying in PAID premium cabin, it would be difficult to give it another try.

It's one thing if someone screwed up, then apologized & at least try to correct the mistake. It's totally different to be sneered at & told to accept the screw up as is, IMHO.

LAX

kilton

This thread is really amazing. And airlines wonder why they're so hated.

DeaconFlyer

Who hates airlines? They fly you places that would take much longer to get to via other forms of transportation. They provide a valuable service.

Sure, they can screw up - but do people really feel hatred towards them? I, for one, are very happy they exist.

dinoscool3

I don't know, I find there could very well be some hatred to the new CO/UA, by many crazy UA lovers (I often find that I'm one of the craziest CO lover, and I don't hate he new CO/UA so I won't say CO lovers hate it)

TWA Fan 1

Obviously.

But that's not the point here.

What other industry would downgrade you involuntarily, not provide you any compensation (without you having to put up a fight), and act rudely to you in the process?

Imagine you arrive at your hotel and you are downgraded from a suite to a standard room, no compensation offered, and the front desk informs you that your "lucky to have gotten the room."

Imagine you arrive at the rental car company and you are downgraded from a luxury premium car to an economy model and you are obliged to pay the original price for the luxury rental.

Why would anyone accept that?

We are all thrilled that airlines exist and take us safely from point A to point B.

But that doesn't excuse this kind of business practice, which is downright awful and indefensible.

And I'm sorry to say it, but in my experience, CO ranks among the worst in this category.

channa

Sorry about the poor treatment.

CO actually has a solid downgrade process on paper, that is. However, like many of CO's procedures where customers are to be treated fairly, CO's staff are not well educated in them. Instead, they throw up the walls and fiery hoops as you encountered, which contribute to the frustration. Unless you're lucky to have sfogate or one of the three (3) CO agents who know these policies, you have to do what you did and roll with it and try to deal with it later.

CO's policy states that they should attempt to solicit volunteers who are willing to downgrade for a voucher, and if not enough volunteers are solicited, involuntary downgrade customers in reverse upgrade priority, providing them compensation based on a distance tier, plus a refund of the fare difference or upgrade mechanism (e.g., cash and or miles used to get into F in the first place). It actually is a very fair downgrade policy, and perhaps it's one of the FINEST such policies in the industry...when followed, that is.

Clearly that was not followed, as there were upgraders who were allowed to fly in F. Hopefully you'll get resolution from CS.

walkerci

The correct response from CO in this case is to rebook the passenger in F on any other airline's flight that is acceptable to the OP.

cruisr

wow, just wow. The rude responses is the culture of EWR. I have sadly come to realize the reason I am always so amazed how nice people are at other airports is because compared to EWR personnel anybody woud be nice.

I always try to get row 1 or 2 when I am in F as I've never had an equipment change where rows 1 & 2 no longer exist

You are definatly entitled to more than the $500. voucher. I wonder what would have happened had this not been a Platinum that it happened to? Maybe nothing at all.

channa

That's simply not practical on a hub-to-hub route such as EWR-IAH.

The correct response is to downgrade in the appropriate downgrade priority and compensate per the policy.

It's perfectly fine IF they follow it.

I've "suffered" two equipment downgrades in the past two weeks -- UA and DL. In both situations, my seats were the ones impacted in that they no longer existed on the new aircraft. In both situations, my F seats were preserved and a lower Elite got the downgrade. To me, my seat assignment just changed, no biggie.

It's a normal thing, and airlines can handle it just fine if they follow their own procedures.

dinoscool3

Really? I highly doubt CO has to do this.

TWA Fan 1

Except, what other airline flies EWR-IAH non-stop? I don't know of any. So, in this case there likely was no acceptable alternative.

I think it would be far more equitable to downgrade upgraders before any paying passengers.

channa

I know people like to blame EWR, but it's worth noting that some of the runaround was provided by IAH. I think it's the culture of CO, not EWR, that allows for this runaround -- lack of agent empowerment, lack of training, and weak systems that probably make this sort of thing more of a burden on the agents than it should be. All this combined with an arrogant superiority culture where many think that blowing off a premium customer is acceptable.

sfogate

Major whoops time in EWR. Sorry but you should not have been downgraded while others got upgraded on Y fares. The gate agents should have re-worked those that were upgraded on Y fares and downgraded them accordingly. Not sure what went wrong when the equipment was changed and the react list was run.

You did receive the ETC, which is policy and you are also entitle to a refund based on your ticket price in Z down to Y.

cricklewood

Similar situation - IAH to EWR. We, both platinum, didn't just lose our first class seats, we didn't even make it on to the smaller plane. But a red coat took us over to the next gate, to get away from the chaos at our gate, booked us up front on the next flight and gave us each a $500 voucher. Two happy CO campers.
We even arrived earlier than the scheduled flight as they had children flying on one flight with the parents arriving later.

GoingAway

How about the IDB compensation you were owed on top of that?