Involuntary Downgrade
 

I'm being ambiguous, but hopefully someone can still help (because I'm really lost on this one).

Scenario:

Passenger flies from DE via CH to Asia on a First Class award ticket.
Flight from DE to CH is delayed due to weather - misses connecting flight from CH to Asia.
Passenger is re-accommodated on OA out of CH on a class lower than initially booked.
Passenger arrives 12 hours after originally scheduled arrival time.


Is CH participating in the downgrade compensation rules?
If yes, I'm assuming that the following applies:

Is that correct? I always thought it was Euro 4'000 for a downgrade from F to C.

As a passenger I would hope to get 50% of the difference between a first class award and a business class award back.
Nothing even close to EUR 4000. Where does this "rule" come from?

Maybe a less cryptic post would help - it had been posted that on the LH board that LH in general would pay in the region of € 4000 for an IDB - but as there are no LH flights ex ZRH this is not applicable. Then again another question is why the hypothetical pax acccepted the offer rather than wait for a flight that offered the booked COS - against the risk of being delayed further....

Cheers

Thomas

I fully agree. Some more information would be quite helpful. From reading this post I would think that it was an LX flight but could be a totally different airline as well.

Who is CH and OA :confused:

LH once paid me 4100 EUR because one F seat was broked and they downgraded me to C.

I just assume that you talk about a connection flight from germany to switzerland connecting to Swiss (LX) ?

Well this sounds more like a misconnect than a denied boarding situation. If the flight you got accomodated on has no F available than unfortunately this is the only way to go. I think alternatively you could have waited a day and get F on your original flight.

That is - to the best of my knowledge - not even remotely a downgrade :confused:.

The pax is a simple misconnect. And LX would be happy to shuttle them on the next flight which has F availability. This can however be a day or several days later.

As the misconnect happened due to weather, the airline is not liable for lodging during the wait for the ongoing flight.

So moving them to OS (is that what OA means?) is a compromise in comfort and efficiency between keeping the pace and providing acceptably stylish transport.

Now if the award was issued by M&L, I am convinced that they would retrospectively settle for a split award C out, F back. If the award was issued by MP or another *A system, then it might get tricky but refunds did and do happen even across the systems.
Yes but they are lower than LH's. And this isn't a involuntary downgrade. Still, the pax would get the published fare difference which would be the appropriate amount of miles. If that can be done.

:confused:
DE -> Germany -> LH
CH -> Switzerland -> LX
OA -> ??
Olympic Airlines?

Or as weero says OS?

Very close...

OA = Other Airline/Carrier

Sorry for being 'cryptic.'

Flight from Germany to Switzerland (ZRH) was on LX.

Flight from ZRH to SIN was on LX.

Passenger has been reaccommodated in C on SQ because - for some reason - the agent handling the ticket assumed that the passenger used an ugprade instrument into O (and paid C).

Perhaps that helps?

Ironically, there were 15 minutes to connect between the incoming and outgoing ZRH flight - would have easily made it if they had picked him up with a car from the tarmac (as they did in my case a few weeks ago for an even shorter connection time).

hm well i asume

DE -> Germany -> LH
CH -> Switzerland -> LX
OA -> Other Airline (maybe TG or SQ or even some non *A)

*scraps head*

Okay i try to write down what happened as far as i can go through tha post.....

Scenario:

Passenger flies from Germany via Switzerland to Asia on a First Class award ticket.
Flight from Germany to Switzerland is delayed due to weather - and the Pax misses connecting flight from Switzerland to Asia.
The Pax is rebooked (in order to provide him/her the fastest possible connection) on another Airline (might be SQ or TG) out of Switzerland on a class lower than initially booked (that might have been Business Class). The Passenger arrives 12 hours after originally scheduled arrival time.


Hm so far so good.

In my opinion and as far as i can look over the case, you is at least entitled for some miles back, which means at least for the Outbound you should get the difference between First Class and Business Class back.
For the delay due to weather actually no one is responsible so no compensation here.
It also needs to be clarified if it was a voluntary downgrade or an involuntary, means if you had the ability to wait for another First Class flight which would have caused further delay (none is responsible since weather stuff) or if you HAD to fly business on advice of the airline. If they just offered you the Business Class flight and you accepted it, it was NOT an involuntary downgrade it was a voluntary downgrade which is a BIG difference.
However at least you can claim the difference between First Class and Business Class for the Outboundflight.


Hope i was asuming the whole happening correctly here.



Hm yeah well, hope i described it in correct or at least understandable English, if not well *shrugs* i had a hard night so please fogive me.....



edit: Damn i was to slow. Well 15 minutes never make it with a car in my opinion. The Agent did wrong here but on other hand Full Fare SQ isn't that bad if you give the Miles and More number on the checkin you might even be lucky and earn some Miles on the Award Ticket :D

Correct - F was available on the flight. But nothing was said when the re-accommodation took place. The agent seemed so stressed... many people were going to miss their connections.

Thanks for all the responses.

runabout, congratulations on finding a keyboard with a shift key at last :p.
has rambuster managed to send you one? :D

IMHO all you can hope for is miles back, definitely not money. Why would LX pay out cash if you haven't even spent any (but miles)

Also, ending up in C on a SQ 777 is (in my opinion) far better than LX F... plus it was direct rather than thru BKK... so if it were me I'd be happy :D

only my 2 rappen though ;)

No *shakes head* thats a side-effect from beeing out all night and having lotsa drinks

i see you've got one of these ;)

...because a ticket - even if miles were used - is still purchased (the currency is simply different).

I remember there were 2 passengers downgraded from FRA to CPT because the aircraft was swapped from a 3-cabin to a 2-cabin - they were on US Airways awards and received Euro 4'000 each.