og

Mrs og was advised at check in of an invol downgrade (FRA-LIS). She was travelling with me on a LH issued Z class RTW. Apparently the flight was oversold in Business by one seat and LH chose to breakup a couple (us) so they could accommodate a single person in the Business cabin. This meant I had my originally booked seat and Mrs og was sent down the back to Economy instead of sitting next to me as per the seating allocation determined 6 months ago.

Mrs og was given a MCO for €200 at the gate as compensation. There was no time for debate about fare difference and adequacy of the compensation. Nor was LH interested in debating their decision to break up a couple on the one itinerary to solve their oversell problem. I offered to downgrade with her but that was refused.

This was obviously a most disappointing situation and killed all the good will that LH had built up in previous flights.

So, is a MCO for €200 reasonable compensation for this problem of LH's instigation?

DownUnderFlyer

And for a moment I thought you paid LH EUR 200 to not having to sit next to Mrs. og.

What was the compensation you were expecting? EUR 200 is not too bad, EUR 300 would be nicer, EUR 400 is generous. Just write to them and ask for more. I would write either to the LH MEL centre or the LH office in Sydney.

rotanes

In your situation I would have given my C-seat to Mrs. og and for myself the Y-seat...

oliver2002

Incase of Invol downgrade you are entitled to (AFAIK 75% of paid fare) compensation. Write them again here: http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Feedb...dbackType=FBCA asking on how they arrived at the 200€ figure and why it is not more (maybe offer a similar Z fare as comparison). If the response doesn't satisfy you ask the regulators of their opinion using the complaint form here: http://www.lba.de/cln_009/EN/Custome...nn=30638#Start

They won't touch your case if have not debated it atleast once with the airline.

rotanes

This calculation might end up in worst case with less than 200€, if prorated from a RTW-fare for the segment FRA-LIS

oliver2002

Thats why I asked the OP to ask LH how they arrived at the 75% figure If their calculation makes sense, then well, bury the battleaxe and move on...

Guillaume

I was thinking the same here. And 200 Eur for a short flight with hardly any difference between C and Y is not a bad deal, it will pay for a couple of nice meals at your destination!

NewbieRunner

Are you sure it's as much as 75% for such a short flight? According to EC261/2004 Article 10 a reimbursement for downgrading should be:

"50 % of the price of the ticket for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres"

oliver2002

FRA-LIS is 1874km @:-)

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=f...OR=&MAP-STYLE=

NewbieRunner

So it's an intra-Community flight over 1500km.

Of course €200 must be far less than 50% of what LH charges for C on this route.

rotanes

You mentioned "50% of the price of the ticket" and not "50% of a flexible fare". So I still believe it will be less than 200€, if based on the OPs probably cheap RTW-fare.

Rambuster

I was recently rebooked onto a new flight as my orifinal flight went mechanical.
What they forgot to tell me is that my C seat was changed into a middle seat in Y.
(D class changed to M class on DUS-MUC).

As it was only a small hop I agreed, did however mention that they should make a note, as I don't pay business fares for economy travel (even it is always feels that way ).

The fare difference whould have been EUR100 between D and M.

Guess what LH refunded ?

Unbelievable EUR 49 ....

I have now gone back to them and asked them to keep their EUR49 and alternatively next time I will book economy class and upgrade to Business for EUR49!

NickB

Well, you would be entitled to reimbursement of 30% of what you paid for your D fare. Did you not ask for that?

TRAVELSIG

If the OP booked through a travel agent I would suggest they have them go back to LH and ask for a proper compensation.

300 EUR is the usual invol downgrade shorthaul in my experience if you take an MCO or 200 EUR cash.

i can see things are working really well when HON on D class tickets are getting downgraded to middle seats and couples on RTW fares are getting split apart and downgraded.

The strategy of retaining premium passengers is working swimmingly.

8420PR

This is another area where the EU 261 legislation is a mess. It is clear you are entitled to 75% of the ticket price, but it isn't clear which ticket price this refers to.

Some regulators (Netherlands) seem to be taking the full price (i.e. including all other flights on the same ticket) and others just the segment (e.g. the UK, where BA get away with paying from GBP16 for a downgraded EU leg that is part of a transatlantic journey).

I received €150 for a downgraded domestic flight, so to me €200 does't seem enought for a long EU flight.