As you by now already know reissuing the first sector means repricing the entire ticket. Something you need to be very hesitant about since CX can still change A/C between now and your travel dates so that new flight is without A.

As far as compensation is concerned: notwithstanding post #2 I do not believe that CX or any other airline offers compensation on an AONEx with a possible exception if it is the issuing carrier. I had my HKG-JNB segment ticketed in A, swopped back to D and luckily now back in A without any communication from CX and when I called them there was no offer on the table. BA issued my ticket.

General piece of advise: enjoy the trip and don't worry so much about the flights. You'll be fine in any class but whY and all this stress about being in A on a short flight should not interfere with the pleasure of travel.

What was the reason for the aircraft switch? Do CX switch to smaller aircraft if say I was only passenger in F cabin. How many people in F before they go with an aircraft with an F cabin?

On the day I fly HKG/ICN/HKG the only flight with F is the CX418/CX419 so no opportunities to switch.

No idea why there was a switch. I would guess it's because another route was more in need of a 747.

CX switched a 74A for a 773 with old regional seats on todays flight from ICN-HKG.

The change was made less than 24 hours prior to depature as when I checked the day before it was still showing as a 74A.

At checkin this morning I was told of the swap and no mention was made of compensation.

I eventually asked and the agent called over a manager who had already printed a copy of the AONE rules and showed me the part that said that flights could be booked in business if no first was offered.

I said but I was booked and confirmed in First and if I had have known I would have flown on another day. He said he would contact his manager and said someone would speak to me in the lounge.

I was paged in the lounge where the agent asked me to sign for a package of cash in KRW as compensation for the last minute downgrade and apologised for the inconvenience.

How much? Interesting to read that they were expecting the compaint and had the rules printed out, moreso that they also had the cash available.

We should note though that with a last minute swap, it's possible you may get compensation whereas when it is known well in advance; then you should not expect any.

Agreed. However, imo CX should not re-price nor charging fee if I change the date of the flight to get myself back into First class, especially CX cancelled (not even because of a aircraft change) a flight, and I have made every effort to work around my schedule to re-accommodate ...

I agree, public relations and customer service go a long way in this day and age...

If you do see a aircraft change before you check in, and you don't intend to change your routing/date then I wouldn't call the airline at all. As long as they don't proactively inform you beforehand, you should claim ignorance at check in to maximise your chance for compensation.

I am travelling HKG/ICN/HKG on 17 June on CX418/CX419 and on both the outbound & inbound sectors I am the only one with a seat showing in the F cabin according to Expertflyer seat map.

However on 18 June both CX410 (34C) & CX418 (74A) have F cabins and although there is nobody showing as having a seat allocation in F on the outbound on the inbound on CX419 seats 2A,3A & 4A are showing as occupied.

Should I switch my flights from the 17th to 18th for a better chance of securing an F seat & F service.

We should not have to deal with this lottery. If CX are taking our money for an F seat and ticketing it then they should provide the F service. If they want to keep doing these switches at the last minute to J then they should pull the F service completely if they do not want to guarantee it.

I really think this one is a lottery and you can't plan based on seat map occupancy.

I was keeping an eye on my flight to and from ICN in the weeks leading up to them and things didn't pan out as I expected.

On the HKG-ICN I was the only one with a seat assigned until a day out when I noticed 1 extra in F. I fully expected this flight to be chopped back as J was lightly loaded as well. This flight did go out with 3 in F. The return sector for this flight (the next morning) was only showing with 1 in F.

On the HKG-ICN of the flight I was to catch the return leg on there were 3 people in F for a long while out and J had a bigger occupancy as well.

I was the only one with a seat in F on the ICN-HKG of that would use that inbound aircraft though.

This flight was downgraded to a 777-300 and there were only 8 or 9 people in the J cabin.

I'm also curious about how much the ICN compensation was. Since those flights (ICN, BKK, HKG variations) are short-haul, it might not be a bad thing to get paid for going from A to D on those while retaining A for the long-haul flights.

I had an involuntary downgrade from D to L from a flight out of JFK recently. When I spoke to QF, the changed my routing to fly in/out of EWR, as it's all part of NYC (which is not what the normal ticketing people consider, but I wasn't going to argue). My next step is to get an infant paper ticket changed, but I asked the person I was speaking to to put a note in my file saying it was an involuntary downgrade, so here's hoping.

Technically EWR and JFK (and LGA) are treated as co-located terminals similar to LGW/LHR/LCY et al.

Suggest you write a letter to QF and see what happens and sooner rather than later. I would not be surprised to see a voucher (MCO) come your way.

Finally, if you purchased the ticket in the EU, there is a possibility you might be entitled to EU compensation so I suggest you do a search to find threads on the subject. There are a number on the BA and LH forums worth reading. :)

It isn't just a first class issue. You can have the same kinds of problems with business class. On my DONE4 last December/January, BA downgraded me to economy on 2 flights when they substituted 1-class a/c and LAN downgraded me to economy and premium economy on several flights when they got rid of business class intra-south america narrow bodies.

LAN provided zero compensation (indeed didn't see a problem putting me into economy class until the xONEx fare rules made it explicit that premium economy should be used if no business).

BA offered a pittance for compensation in the form of vouchers which effectively I cannot use (the cost to use the vouchers are higher than the amount of the voucher).

I wasn't expecting much but LAN and BA weren't prepared to meet even my low expectations. :(