Involuntary Downgrades
 

So I believe this has come up from time to time here. In Scott McCartney's column in the WSJ today he tells of a passenger on a first class ticket that got downgraded to coach due to a weather-related flight cancellation. Compensation was only the difference between the F fare paid and full Y - a whopping $90. Even though at the time of purchase a coach ticket was $400 and the first class ticket purchased was $1,000 r/t.

I nearly had this happen to me last week on a transcon but I just refunded my first class ticket and found a seat on American, so never even got to the point of arguing over compensation with CO.

What should Mrs. Simpson do? Written complaint to DOT? Small Claims Court? The amount of the downgrade compensation is not explicitly spelled out in the CoC to my knowledge, and so there's certainly room for judgment, and I have (would like) to think a court would logically side with the passenger.

IIRC, CO Insider has hinted that customers in these situations are "taken care of" but that clearly wasn't the case for Mrs. Simpson and CO did not seem to relent upon being contacted by the WSJ.

Big :td: :td: :td: for CO. :(

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123362464275141955.html

Step 1. Front Line, Step 2. Smith Street
 

Weather, you say. :rolleyes:

Well the first step's the front line but as I suspect Mrs. Simpson would rather not waste her time she should drop a little note to the DOT and the executive office. That seems to be the only way CO will actually step up and address these issues. :(

I wouldn't say the 'weather' issue is entirely on CO, the FAA causes huge delays in EWR due to a small wind, which then impeds CO ops at EWR.

Now the $90 that is the issue.....

I would say CO is a little too quick to pull the 'weather' handle.

During the recent BRU Pub DO, the 764ER we were taking from BRU to EWR was stuck in EWR due to a mx issue. On the PDA site and on Continental.com the reason given was 'mechanical'. As a light snow rolled into EWR the reason changed to 'weather'. We called to try and get rebooked and had to fight for it as the agent quoted weather as the reason, even though the plane was six hours late before the weather hit.

The FAA pulls the weather handle several times a week themselves. I am not saying CO is not too quick to use it, I am saying they are not alone, at EWR.

This is actually against the CO policy. I believe CO is supposed to give you the refund between your paid F ticket and the lowest coach fare on the day you bought the ticket.

The policy is actually quite consumer-friendly. Seems the implementation isn't quite right. ;)

What I don't understand about this is... do you think FC had that many people paying for FC that they could not give her a seat the next day? Or did they process free upgrades and not bump someone that was not even riding on a FC fare?

Even thought it's weather related.... really makes no difference... if she purchased FC that is what she should get. Now, if the plane the next day was a RJ, that might be a different story and they should have refunded her the price so she could have gone to another airline and get a FC seat.

If you buy a FC seat and they can't provide one (does not matter the reason) she should have at least been offered 1/2 of the what she paid for the ticket.

They did eventually code it correctly in the system. I received an apology TCV in the mail yesterday from that trip.

But I agree that CO has a habit of claiming weather/ATC when they can.

From my understanding, this is correct. This was instituted some time last year, but the general points are a full refund between the price you paid and the *lowest* prince on the day you booked the ticket and also some amount of compensation on top of that. I believe the latter depends on the length of flight.

Perhaps CoInsider can chime in and give us the details.

My understanding is that this also applies to people who were upgraded and then subsequently downgraded, not just paid F fares.

Flame me if you will, but this is another reason why I would prefer a system where the EUA wouldn't run until ~2-3 hours before the flight. This would allow FC the following day to remain open except for FC purchases in case weather or another issue causes a ton of people to be rolled over.

My other reason for believing in a system like this is because when I buy a last minute, full fare ticket, I'm often sitting in the back while lower elites on lower tickets are sitting in FC. OH, and it would allow Plats to get companion upgrades before silver/golds got an EUA.

The only drawback (that I see) to this system is baggage. If you get to the airport before the EUA were to run with extra/heavy bags, you'll be charged but might get bumped up to FC where your extra/heavy bags were free.

You'd probably be surprised how many of those "upgrades" are elites on Y (and now B) fares, and you can quibble whether a Silver on a Y fare should be in F while a Plat on a last-minute H (or even Y) fare sits in back, but that's how the program works and CO isn't trying to hide anything or screw anyone. I also do see what looks like a lot of paid F on longer flights (e.g., transcons) these days.

Sorry to go off topic...but this happened to me this weekend. My PHL-EWR flight was delayed so they emailed me and said that would put me on a non-stop. The connection was actually several hundred dollars more, but I bought it because of EQP's. I Like to make sure I rack them up early in the year since I never know how the rest of the year will turn out. Anyway, the res agent told me: It is wind and it is beyond our control. You paid to get from Point A to Point B and that is all we are obligated to do in our contract of carriage. I was a little shocked she started lecturing me because I really was quite nice about it. Anyway, nearly 4 hours later, the gate agent at the airport said it was a mechanical problem and that they were flying in a new plane from Harrisburg. So, the original res agent lectured me and she was wrong or just making up an excuse.

Now begins the age of Elite Downgrade Automation (EDU)...:eek:

In the re-route situation, you can contact OnePass and ask for "Original Route Credit" and I've never had them deny me! Even recently I was on an IAH-CLE-xxx route and the second leg was delayed a few hours. After 3 hours, I had them modify the reservation to IAH-CLE and return. I got a car to drive the rest of the way. I contacted OnePass and they had no problems giving me the 4 EQP and the EQM I had originally scheduled, even though I chose not to wait it out!

I got my first EUA from BOS to EWR and was #1 in the upgrade list for PTY. My flight was delayed for about 2:30 while 3-4 flights also going to EWR were cancelled. The GA very nicely told me that they could re-route me BOS>ATL>PTY on Delta because I was not going to make the connection and the plane was not going to wait for me.

Just after they gave me my new tickets, the other GA called someone and said that the conditions were not that bad. I just checked continental.com/info and that the flight left 20 mins after the DL.

Is it possible that they re-routed some free upgrades to give those seats to paid FC?. The positive things are that at least I got 3 bags free and arrived a bit early to PTY.