Rights in case of downgrades in both legs of the flight
Jun 4, 2018, 12:50 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2017
Programs: Flying Blue, Miles&More
Posts: 38
Rights in case of downgrades in both legs of the flight
I also posted this in the change of plane and class thread, but I think it might get more and faster feedback if I posed my question in a dedicated thread. If this is against the rules, my apologies and I will delete the post in the change of plane and class thread.
Back from my trip. Oh boy, I also got downgraded on the flight back. Instead of the A350 with Premium Select, they flew the old A330 and I got downgraded to Economy Comfort. They let me know about this when I was already at the Madison airport. I contacted Delta if there were any Business Class seats and how much I had to pay to upgrade. There was 1 seat left and they asked 5300USD for this. A flight from Detroit to Amsterdam... At least the ground hostesses at Madison were friendly. As it happened the ground stewardess who was at the gate was the same person who helped me a week earlier with my Luggage which got damaged during the flight. The handle was torn off and there were cuts and grooves on my hardcase Luggage. Anyway, when she heard that I had to pay 5300 USD for the upgrade, she was also astonished. I fly business class when the flight takes longer than 7 hours and I especially picked the Premium Select, because it was 1000USD cheaper than BC and I could sit at the front and had a lot of legroom and plenty of recline. I was counting on sleep, cause I had a meeting in Holland 3 hours after I arrived. Anyway, she empathised and told me I definitely should contact customer care when I was back in Holland. She also offered to give me airmiles, but I don't subscribe to the Delta loyalty programme, but to KLM/AF's Flying Blue.
And yes the flight back to Amsterdam was quite unpleasant. I was seated next to somebody with a strong body odour, the food was lousy and the leg space was cramped. the only good thing was the bottle of water. And the flight on the CRJ was not something I care to repeat either. It was small and I couldn't even look out of the window, cause the window was positioned too low and there was no seat divider, so I had bodily contact with my fellow passenger, a sweaty, overweight middle-aged man, we both wore short sleeves, so lots of unwanted skin to skin contact. This all added to the claustrophobic feeling I had. The flight only lasted for 30 minutes, but with the waiting and the taxiing I was in that plane for about an hour!
And today Delta finally contacted me. Their offer; a 250EUR voucher OR 10k airmiles for the inconvenience of 2 downgrades and all the unpleasantness.
Well I expressed my surprise, while trying to remain civil. And told them that I expect cash back for the difference as promised earlier by the ground stewards, on top of the voucher AND airmiles AND XP for the downgraded segments based on the Original classes and not on Economy. They will come back to me.
I was unpleasantly surprised by this, I expected a much better service from Delta after what I had to endure. To be fair it was somebody from KLM/AF who called me back after I registered my complaint, but still to think they think could get away with either a 250EUR voucher or 10k airmiles... I paid almost 1200EUR(about 1500USD) for that planeticket, an economy ticket booked via British Airways to Madison is less than 600EUR.
Anyway, my question is: I never had this happen to me before and am unclear what my rights are. What is the minimum they have to offer and what is usually being offered for these kind of situations?
By the way, regarding the Luggage, it was filed immediately and they said they would reimburse my when I buy new Luggage and send them the bill. Now I wonder whether they will keep their word or find excuses to renege on their promise.
Besides the things that happened wrong, Premium Select is a nice seat to travel transatlantic and the ground hostess that helped me at Madison Airport was really nice and gave a lot of information and really seemed to care, empathise and seemed genuinely sorry for the bad experiences in the CRJ and the Luggage that got damaged.
Back from my trip. Oh boy, I also got downgraded on the flight back. Instead of the A350 with Premium Select, they flew the old A330 and I got downgraded to Economy Comfort. They let me know about this when I was already at the Madison airport. I contacted Delta if there were any Business Class seats and how much I had to pay to upgrade. There was 1 seat left and they asked 5300USD for this. A flight from Detroit to Amsterdam... At least the ground hostesses at Madison were friendly. As it happened the ground stewardess who was at the gate was the same person who helped me a week earlier with my Luggage which got damaged during the flight. The handle was torn off and there were cuts and grooves on my hardcase Luggage. Anyway, when she heard that I had to pay 5300 USD for the upgrade, she was also astonished. I fly business class when the flight takes longer than 7 hours and I especially picked the Premium Select, because it was 1000USD cheaper than BC and I could sit at the front and had a lot of legroom and plenty of recline. I was counting on sleep, cause I had a meeting in Holland 3 hours after I arrived. Anyway, she empathised and told me I definitely should contact customer care when I was back in Holland. She also offered to give me airmiles, but I don't subscribe to the Delta loyalty programme, but to KLM/AF's Flying Blue.
And yes the flight back to Amsterdam was quite unpleasant. I was seated next to somebody with a strong body odour, the food was lousy and the leg space was cramped. the only good thing was the bottle of water. And the flight on the CRJ was not something I care to repeat either. It was small and I couldn't even look out of the window, cause the window was positioned too low and there was no seat divider, so I had bodily contact with my fellow passenger, a sweaty, overweight middle-aged man, we both wore short sleeves, so lots of unwanted skin to skin contact. This all added to the claustrophobic feeling I had. The flight only lasted for 30 minutes, but with the waiting and the taxiing I was in that plane for about an hour!
And today Delta finally contacted me. Their offer; a 250EUR voucher OR 10k airmiles for the inconvenience of 2 downgrades and all the unpleasantness.
Well I expressed my surprise, while trying to remain civil. And told them that I expect cash back for the difference as promised earlier by the ground stewards, on top of the voucher AND airmiles AND XP for the downgraded segments based on the Original classes and not on Economy. They will come back to me.
I was unpleasantly surprised by this, I expected a much better service from Delta after what I had to endure. To be fair it was somebody from KLM/AF who called me back after I registered my complaint, but still to think they think could get away with either a 250EUR voucher or 10k airmiles... I paid almost 1200EUR(about 1500USD) for that planeticket, an economy ticket booked via British Airways to Madison is less than 600EUR.
Anyway, my question is: I never had this happen to me before and am unclear what my rights are. What is the minimum they have to offer and what is usually being offered for these kind of situations?
By the way, regarding the Luggage, it was filed immediately and they said they would reimburse my when I buy new Luggage and send them the bill. Now I wonder whether they will keep their word or find excuses to renege on their promise.
Besides the things that happened wrong, Premium Select is a nice seat to travel transatlantic and the ground hostess that helped me at Madison Airport was really nice and gave a lot of information and really seemed to care, empathise and seemed genuinely sorry for the bad experiences in the CRJ and the Luggage that got damaged.
Jun 4, 2018, 1:12 pm
#2
Suspended
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Mods notified of the cross-posting. This is best handled in the existing thread on the exact same topic.
Jun 4, 2018, 1:42 pm
#3
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Jun 4, 2018, 3:49 pm
#4
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