Jan 20, 2016, 9:14 am
Last edit by: Palal
Brief History
On 6 January, a fare appeared for a few hours on Ethiopian Airlines (ET) and online travel agencies (OTAs) offering BRU-ADD-(GBE)-CPT r/t in fully refundable business (C-Class) for 530€.
Several days later, many members got e-mails stating that they "actually booked economy tickets" and were downgraded from fare basis CRTBE (fully refundable business) to TLES6MBE (economy). Some who booked through OTAs have yet to receive this downgrade, and some have been downgraded with no notification from OTAs.
Several people have also successfully flown already.
Next Steps
1. It's (now) safe to call/email the airline.
2. It seems 2 options are given: travel in economy, or full refund.
--> those who have chosen a refund have mostly gotten it promptly.
--> those who have contested the e-mail have not received any type of response.
--> other options were presented here, although others have not seem to replicated the result.
3. Contacting any Ethiopian offices (London, Vienna, etc.) have resulted in being redirected to the Ethiopian Brussels office.
4. For those who plan to fight it, see below. Note that no one has had a successful outcome yet.
5. Update: Some users are reporting getting the offer of 75% refunds to travel in economy as per EC 261.
Avenues of contest:
1. Try Art. 10 (2) lit. c of the Flight Delay Compensation Regulation 261/2004. It may be possible to get up to 75% of the ticket price back, although this is unconfirmed and debatable.
2. Befriend a Belgian lawyer with a penchant for pro bono work
Kidding aside, it is not wise to go the legal route.
You should email the Belgian enforcement body at: [email protected]
In the email state your name, eticket, travel date, attach ticket receipt.
State that your ticket has been purchased and issued in business class and that the airline is offering to either cancel or downgrade without compensation. Politely ask for their help in enforcing EU Reg 261/2004 Art.10 2(c).
Planned Trips:
early February OwlMan
early April mattking2000
March-End Culture Guru
late April Palal
Further/concurrent reading (for the German-inclined):
http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/first-business-class-tarife/91159-et-bru-cpt-524-euro.html
On 6 January, a fare appeared for a few hours on Ethiopian Airlines (ET) and online travel agencies (OTAs) offering BRU-ADD-(GBE)-CPT r/t in fully refundable business (C-Class) for 530€.
Several days later, many members got e-mails stating that they "actually booked economy tickets" and were downgraded from fare basis CRTBE (fully refundable business) to TLES6MBE (economy). Some who booked through OTAs have yet to receive this downgrade, and some have been downgraded with no notification from OTAs.
Several people have also successfully flown already.
Next Steps
1. It's (now) safe to call/email the airline.
2. It seems 2 options are given: travel in economy, or full refund.
--> those who have chosen a refund have mostly gotten it promptly.
--> those who have contested the e-mail have not received any type of response.
--> other options were presented here, although others have not seem to replicated the result.
3. Contacting any Ethiopian offices (London, Vienna, etc.) have resulted in being redirected to the Ethiopian Brussels office.
4. For those who plan to fight it, see below. Note that no one has had a successful outcome yet.
5. Update: Some users are reporting getting the offer of 75% refunds to travel in economy as per EC 261.
Avenues of contest:
1. Try Art. 10 (2) lit. c of the Flight Delay Compensation Regulation 261/2004. It may be possible to get up to 75% of the ticket price back, although this is unconfirmed and debatable.
2. Befriend a Belgian lawyer with a penchant for pro bono work
Kidding aside, it is not wise to go the legal route. Code:
Article 10: Upgrading and downgrading 1. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class higher than that for which the ticket was purchased, it may not request any supplementary payment. 2. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class lower than that for which the ticket was purchased, it shall within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), reimburse (a) 30 % of the price of the ticket for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less, or (b) 50 % of the price of the ticket for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres, except flights between the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas departments, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres, or (c) 75 % of the price of the ticket for all flights not falling under (a) or (b), including flights between the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas departments.
In the email state your name, eticket, travel date, attach ticket receipt.
State that your ticket has been purchased and issued in business class and that the airline is offering to either cancel or downgrade without compensation. Politely ask for their help in enforcing EU Reg 261/2004 Art.10 2(c).
Planned Trips:
early February OwlMan
early April mattking2000
March-End Culture Guru
late April Palal
Further/concurrent reading (for the German-inclined):
http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/first-business-class-tarife/91159-et-bru-cpt-524-euro.html
[PREMIUM FARE GONE] Ethiopian Airlines-Brussel to CPT (r/t) in J on 787 for €530 in J
Jan 6, 2016, 5:14 am
#77
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: The Hague, NL
Programs: GMLFL, Life 2.0 - Mucci Premiere Classe & des Chevaliers Toulousiens
Posts: 22,911
Thanks to mlqsko we know that:
Of course they did not spell guaranteed right... 
I think they have more or less disconnected their website from everything, so I would not try and do too much right now.
FARES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE
AND ARE GURANTEED IF TICKETED AT TIME OF MAKING
BOOKINGS.
AND ARE GURANTEED IF TICKETED AT TIME OF MAKING
BOOKINGS.
Jan 6, 2016, 5:20 am
#84
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: BRU, AMS
Programs: Miles & More, FlyingBlue, Iberia Plus Gold
Posts: 485
Jan 6, 2016, 5:25 am
#88
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: The Hague, NL
Programs: GMLFL, Life 2.0 - Mucci Premiere Classe & des Chevaliers Toulousiens
Posts: 22,911
Their website is now more or less out of order and they need to decide on a plan of action. The best thing to do right now is to do absolutely nothing. ^
They have withdrawn almost all their fares from the public domain, so OTAs may have cached it (it is still on google for instance) but it is as dead as dead can be. You will not be able to book it anywhere anymore.
Jan 6, 2016, 5:27 am
#90
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
If the ticket is at least partially flown then the newly re-issued ticket will be repriced using the historical fares that were in effect on the original issue date. The newly re-issued ticket must satisfy any advance purchase requirements, minimum/maximum stay requirements/et c. such that the fares would have been valid for pricing the itinerary had the new itinerary been originally bought on the original issue date.
The above is IATA standard practise.
Last edited by Calchas; Jan 6, 2016 at 6:27 am