Kleffen

Hi,

I used 65K miles to fly my wife from Houston to Amsterdam later today, on an A330.
This morning I got an email about her being downgraded to Economy because the flight (KL662) has a change of plane. It says Economy because the plane does not have Premium Economy, which sounds weird also.
They offer a compansation of 940 euros.

What can I do about this? 940 euros after I spent this amount of miles and she is being move to Economy?
They should at least refund some of the miles also, since 940 is not even the difference in the ticket price, and I would never spend 65K on an Economy ticket.

Any suggestions what I can do aout this?

I went on twitter and spoek to a computer which gave me a link to call KLM. The link did not work.

Thank you for suggestions

Kleffen

I called KLM and managed to move it to Monday instead. Seems like the A333 had been swapped with a 772.

CyBeR

That's strange though because the 772 has four *more* business class seats than does the A333.

Edit: Indeed yesterday's flight (which arrived about 20 minutes ago) operated with a B772, but today's flight (arriving tomorrow) is operated by an A332 which has much fewer business class seats.

Xandrios

It all depends on how you value your miles. Obviously if the pax prefers to fly business then moving to another date is the best option. However if moving to another date is not possible and the pax is forced to fly Economy, do keep in mind that 940 euro's probably equals (or or goes beyond) the value of 65K miles. The EU regulation requires the airline to pay a lower amount than that (I believe its 600 euro officially), so I feel the offer was already a little more generous than strictly needed.

Another option could have been to book something else (if another cheapish flight was available), request a refund through KLM, and use the compensation (Which would still be due) towards the price of the new flight.

Fabo.sk

EU requires the airline to pay 75% of the fare paid. KLM elected instead of fiddling with partial return of miles and partial return of money to pay what they decided was equivalent to 75% of the fare, 940 EUR. This means they value the leg at 1250 EUR, which sounds reasonable.

Kleffen

Hi,

Thank you for all this useful information.
My wife has worked a lot lately so I really wanted her to have a comfy seat on this long nightflight, so I chose to change the date. 772 on Monday.
She also has a lot of luggage this time, so with the downgrade to Economy, I guess we would have to pay for additional luggage and overweight. C har 2 x 32 kg, not sure what Y has.
I also paid 200 and something Euros in addition to the 65K miles, so I also took that into account.

I am not sure why the downgrade happened in the first place. I guess KLM sold a very expensive J ticket and weighed it towards downgrading an award ticket with compensation, or they were overbooked.

Does anyone know if the C in A332 and 772 are different ?

CyBeR

Well the equipment change slashed the number of seats available by just under half (30 seats to 18), so if more than 18 seats were sold (wich is likely), and given that there is no higher class of service, some pax would have to be downgraded. Downgrading pax on award tickets first makes business sense to me.

Quite, in favour of the 772.

danielflyer

Just to confirm, is OP referring to Premium Comfort Class or business class (C booking class)? I noticed he references a switch to a plane without premium economy, hence my confusion about the use of the term “C class.”

The 200 EUR paid in taxes makes me think OP is referring to premium economy.

Although it sounds like the problem was solved, 940 EUR is a good offer for being moved from premium economy to economy.

CyBeR

It is not possible for OP to be referring to Premium Comfort class as that product is not sold on AMS-IAH at this time owing to the fact that it is operated by equipment in which that product is not installed and will not be installed for some time to come (772) or ever (330).

pmarrsouth

Gladly accept the €940 for goodwill and then file for 75% downgrade compensation of the original price of your miles ticket purchase

Kleffen

I can clarify, that this was a Business ticket that got downgraded to an Economy ticket.

Kleffen

Does this mean that I would get the 940 and 75% of the 65K miles, or 75% of the approx 200 euros I paid in addition to the 65K miles ?

It is not so much about the money or miles for me. I wanted the wife in Business and I thought 65K was a decent offer.

pmarrsouth

Understood about the last part first

Regarding compensation vs refund, it’s depending on the wording. EU is very clear on a 75% refund downgrade

irishguy28

The €940 *is* the downgrade compensation.