I have to admit to some surprise on some of the responses

I wanted a first class seat, so I bought a full Y with an immediate upgrade. These are the rules that CO sets - not me. On many occasions, when no Y upgrade was available I have purchased full first. On some occasions First is cheaper than full Y so I do that then also.

The equipment change was from an expanded first 737 to an unmodified - 4 fewer seats. If had been given a first class seat on the basis of EUA then I would have been unhappy but sucked it up, since I had not purchased a higher fare class in order to sit in the front. It is interesting to note that they did downgrade by fare paid - my seat still existed on the new aircraft but was issued to someone else: presumably a full fare F passenger.

WRT to going after the additional $50. This amount relates to the amount of compensation due according to the CO document given to me by the gate agent. She felt only authorized to issue $150, but the document she referred me to (and signed) clearly states that $200 was due.

I have not looked over terms of carriage, and she may have issued that document in error. Nevertheless, it was issued.

Here is a dilemma: should airline to tell the passenger bumped down from FC on Y ticket to shut up beacuse he bought it in Y
or should they think that they better compensate or next time he would not buy Y ticket and they would not get more money.

Brittex,

I feel your pain. I think one of the oddest aspects of this story is the fact, as you point out, that full Y is sometimes more than F on CO (obviously, I don't know if that was the case on your trip).

It seems that the more expensive fare, regardless of its designation, should always entitle the purchaser to a higher spot in the pecking order.

a few years back i flew on BA from ORD to LHR, and there was a platinum customer complaining about not being upgraded from business class to first, ms chicken said very calmly and repeatedly "we do not give away our product, and there are no available first class seats. You purchased a business class seat, and we are obligated to provide you with such"
Same situation. Other pax had purchased fc tickets, the op had purchased only a y class ticket, CO was required to supply only a Y class seat, which they did. IMHO, the OP paid for Y got Y. If he wanted first should've paid for first. Simple as that.

I'm a bit torn on this one, but the more I think about it the more I'm inclined to side in favor of CO, despite my sympathy for the OP. Letter of the law? Sure, he gets bupkis. Airlines going after goodwill? Not in the era of 90%+ load factors.

The problem lies in this: CO is blind to a customer's reason for buying a Y ticket (flexibility or the auto-upgrade to first class). Since the customer did, in fact, buy it for the purpose of getting into first class, he rightfully feels upset that he has been duped on an element of the bargain.

BUT - CO sees the upgrade to F on a full Y fare as a 'perk' for those paying for flexibility -- much like free upgrades for elites. From a sales point of view, they do not consider it a way to buy into F -- and I think the OP, given his knowledge of how YUPs function should have been exected to understand this.

I understand you fully. You wanted to sit in FC for the least amount of $$$ out of pocket. I Dont blame you and think and would do the same. But in the end what you purchased was a Coach tkt.

this is the game that CO as well as all the others want Us to play, no different then with Upgrading on Intl seats where there arent any seats that can be confirmed at time of purchase.

im waiting for CO to start selling "Z" BF fares as a standby Only, thats Only if they cant sell them as J or D will they then allow the passenger to sit in BF.

My $0.02 is if you were bumped from F to Y and you paid full Y, you are entitled to the same compensation that any other passenger who paid to be in the F cabin would be.

Often, full Y is often more expensive than fares available in the forward cabin. And CO's Elite policy pretty much guarantees the F seat at booking if it's available at the time of full-Y purchase.

It certainly would not have been unreasonable to rebook you onto the flight in the least expensive available fare class and then refund the Y ticket.

Steve

I have been bumped a few times - equip change and (I suspect) an added Sky Marshall on an EWR to DCA flight.

Each time on full Y.

Sucked it up. Did not ask for anything - did not get anything.

Happy that it is only an occational issue and upgrades are better then most other airlines.

This is exactly why CO doesn't want to compensate the OP. From CO's point of view, a Y purchase is for flexibility (never mind that there are often H fares that are fully flexible and much less expensive, that may not have been the case in this instance). A benefit of the ONEPASS program is that elites get upgraded to F on a Y purchase. The operations department doesn't really care about the onepass benefits, particularly in an irregular op situation. You purchased Y, that's all you are entitled to. The original poster may have better luck taking up this issue with Onepass customer service as opposed to regular customer service, but again, don't expect much because technically they don't owe you anything.

Now, since the OP was on a full Y fare, s/he obviously could have cancelled upon the downgrade, but I understand that this is not always practicable.

But for the future, know that A fares are often only ~$50-100 more than Y fares round-trip, and I think the difference is usually worth it for 1) the COS bonus miles, and 2) less likelihood of a bump due to irregular ops.

OLCI pretty close to the 24 hour mark on DFW to IAH this afternoon. Scored an upgrade to 1F for the ~45 minute flight. Moments before boarding, heard my name called from the GA. When I approached and identified myself, was told he had bad news. Due to "equipment change" they had to downgrade me back to coach. Before I even had a chance to process the "bad news," he told me that they re-seated me in 14F exit row, had two drink coupons and a $100 cert as compensation.
All in all, a pretty sweet deal, especially for such a short flight. But it didn't even give me a chance to really get upset. This is exactly the kind of pre-emptive action that keeps a customer happy.

Good job CO ^

This is the consistent problem with CO - they do not deliver or they revoke what they themselves offer.

pjm44 ^ for searching!

The issue here to me seems to be centered more along the lines of how CO orders downgrades.

It seems to be the fairest way to develop a downgrade hierarchy would be to do the opposite of the EUA hierarchy. Hence when a seats broken or the aircraft is swapped out the �booting� order would be: silvers on L,X,...,K,H fares than golds on L,X,...K,H than plats on L,X,...K,H than silvers on full Y, golds on full Y and finally plats on full Y.

I also like the idea of CO offering a "service recovery package" (or whatever you want to call it) with some drink coupons/voucher, etc.

Life happens and people understand this. However, one would think by giving the boot to the full fare Plat last as well as giving those who did get the boot some free goodies displaced customers would A) be happier, B) not spend the next few hours steaming up hate mail to WeCare.

Thats utterly ridiculous. No logical person would ever buy an "A" fare if they are platinum, and can get upgraded immediately from a Y.

It all boils down to CO common sense. Of course, to the rules, you get nothing, but common sense says that somebody might buy a Y to "get" the upgrade confirmed on the spot. That is COMMON SENSE. Yes, the "rules" say you bought coach. Logic says " you bought coach to get F, and because you're loyal, we reward you". You DO NOT throw that back in a customer's face when things don't go well for the company, and they have to change equipment. You appease the customer with apologies, and CASH. You don't say to a dedicated customer who paid a very high fare "You got what you paid for". IF at the time of ticketing, he wanted coach, he wouldn't have paid a Y. PEOPLE - GET REAL!

COMMON SENSE, PEOPLE - COMMON SENSE. Rules apply when they need to be applied, not when they're screwing their best customers. Please. Take the contract of carriage and burn it. Its an absurd document. There is absolutely nothing logical about airfares.

I was downgraded this week on IAH-ORD (inop seat) and was given a customer care positive space upgrade....
that was nice!