You didn't need to wait for the NEB ( nor even contact it ) , it seems to have just extended how long it has taken

I understand but you have to know that the court here in Sweden works a bit different then in the US. If the amount is more then 20000SEK it does not count as a small claim. In the worst case that I lose in court I will get stuck with paying for the whole thing. Crazy thing in Sweden I know. So I first need to talk to my lawyer and let him look in to it and if he thinks it will work I go for it. Otherwise it not a risk I'm willing to take. On the other hand they will set the standard in future case like this if I get the right compensation.

But as I sad will get back to you!

This evening I was reviewing my travel plans and saw I was downgraded from F to J on the DXB - ATH portion ex SFO. I read through this thread and decided to phone EK to see what they could do. The agent was clueless and when I asked if I could just reroute to MUC he put me on hold and said yes I could, they would waive the change fee (on a full F flex fare ticket?!?) and charge me the fare difference. He also asked me how I found out about the change, which I thought was odd. I thanked him for his time and just sent an email to customer affairs in New York.

To that end, I am reading some conflicting posts and am unsure if I have a EU 261/2004 claim (of course after flying)? The ticket was booked by AMEX (US) ATH-DXB-SFO-DXB-ATH. I would be fine with EK changing my ticket to MUC in F, but the one agent I spoke with said it wasn't possible.

Did you make the change to go via MUC or not? It is a bit unclear

The regulation is pretty simple in that if a passenger is downgraded on a flight where the regulation is applicable then 75% of the fare is due to be reimbursed to the passenger

It also seems that EK will not pay up without a fight

Unfortunately the one person I have seen who has posted having tried to take it to court seems to have failed after failing to turn up to present their claim ; apparantly EK sent no one from its side to defend it

The more recent poster ( in this thread ) never did come back with information on the outcome of his claim

Unfortunately for you in your specific case , the flight which has been downgraded ( DXB-ATH on Emirates ) is not one which is covered by the regulation , so you would have no claim in this case

If it was an ATH-DXB sector, then that would be covered


In order for a flight to be one under which EC261 applies , in simple terms has to either be

A flight departing from an airport in Europe - on any airline
or
A flight departing from an airport outside Europe to Europe - on a European airline

( it is slightly more complicated than that but is close enough for most purposes )

Thanks for the response. I didn't change the flight to MUC as the fare difference was outrageous. I did get a quick email response from NY Consumer Affairs telling me to call the reservation center. My email to them was in response to an unsatisfactory answer from the reservation center. I will make another call and see if they will switch our flight to Munich with no extra charge.

EK seems not to have any fares listed for MUC-SFO and the cost would be very high to change. Going to SFO-MUC via DXB is extremely circuitous

You are likely to have to just accept the downgrade with little compensation ( given how small the fare difference for ATH-SFO r/t is ) or cancel ( which with the downgrade you can do without penalty )

@sonomawine you can't reroute the last sector to a different country under the same fare. Any suggestions by EK that it's possible means they're repricing as separate one way fares via DXB.

I've tried doing that once at several points and it was a no all the way (including at the transfer desk at DXB). The only exception given is under severe conditions when a route is stopped due to war. For example when DAM was suspended, reroutes were permitted to IST, BEY or AMM. Prior to that when TIP was suspended, they allowed reroutes to TUN and CAI. More recently when KBP got suspended, they allowed rebooking onto FZ which didn't even have business class (not sure if routing via MOW was allowed), I know of someone who got disadvantaged because of this cancellation, put his foot down. The only compensation given along free rebooking onto FZ was the possibility to cancel and refund.

Obviously your case involves the last sector of a return ticket so you have no option of cancel/refund.

So yeah, unless a major shake up occurs in Greece there will be no reroutes.

After reading all this, it seems a shame that EK makes so many changes. It also is funny that this is the one change airlines cannot get away with (there's no way to have a first-class if there is no first-class. But you can change the time or cancel a flight and that's fine).

From reading this it seems like customer service isn't really the airline's forte. In terms of attitude. I've had plenty of Asian airlines fly with a first-class cabin with very few passengers (most recently CX, 1 passenger in F). Even Delta flew a plane with very few passengers. Maybe Middle Eastern airlines aren't really up to Asian airlines in terms of customer service quality then.

duplicate

Are your travel plans set in stone? It could be a one day equipment swap to a 2 class instead of a timetable change and as it's a downgrade due to that you should be allowed a free reschedule.

I would certainly advise you to go via your travel agent though - there was some drama on another thread with changes where a someone went straight to the operating carrier resulting in problems

I had American Express that issued the tickets call Emirates. They too were amazed at the lack of customer service or responsibility accepted for a downgrade. After the AMEX rep was transferred several times they were eventually told that I should ask for a voucher when I check-in for the flight, but couldn't provide any details about the voucher.

I did check to see if it was just a one day equipment change, but unfortunately it is a permanent change.

Thank you all for your input. I will let you know how the voucher plays out, if at all.

I am not sure why American Express is amazed

You really have the choices to

Accept the downgrade
Rebook for a day when there is availability
Cancel

If you cancel , the airline is not going to charge you any penalty ( and if it was to do so, then AMEX would be able to assist in that service purchased wouldnt match supplied )

I would be surprised if you got much of a voucher if at all given that the fare would almost certainly not be any cheaper

Dave,

Does this mean that a connecting flight from Dubai is not covered?

For example, LGW DXB then 3 hour connection DXB PEK is downgraded to a 2 class that would not fall under 261?

I've booked the above but am slightly concerned about them swapping the 77w. If they do I'm going to court if I'm covered under 261, enough of EK customer affairs!

I think you would be highly unlucky m3red for this to happen. There has been 1 downguaged equipment using the 77W on the DXB-PEK route since the beginning of June.

Hopefully you won't have any issues with your flight.

http://www.theeksource.com/routetracker.html

SAfe & Happy Travels

S

You would not be covered since the DXB-PEK is not departing from the EU