Involuntary Downgrade Compensation Offer Question
 

I was involuntarily downgraded on a United Award ticket on Thai Air Royal First Class to business class in the beginning of August on a FRA to BKK flight. This led to myself and wife sitting in different classes of the plane.

Per the advice of the gate agent, I contacted Thai Air for compensation and today I received an email which stated, "
With regard to your Downgrading Compensation, we have asked our Los Angeles office to arrange payment to you in the amount of USD300".

Does anyone think this is fair or unfair based on their experiences or what they heard and what is the best way to handle this to request a more favorable offer?

I appreciate your input.

First of all you should be lucky that they even contacted you about a award ticket downgrade

You will not be able to get any more money from TG, this is pretty much a standard downgrade (at least for awards tickets) comp.....i am not well versed with EU comp downgrade rules and not sure if there is anything there to fight

though i am sure the our presiding Mr/Ms/Mrs somkiat self proclaimed Plutonium member will try to disprove your statement and insist that you are lying about downgrade offers on award tickets.....but i will leave that up to him/her to elaborate and chime in on this

EC Reg. 261/04 is applicable for your flight when departing FRA, but I have no idea how to calculate 75% of the fare for your award flight. If you want to escalate this you can complain to the German LBA.

IMO USD 300 is a ridiculous low amount. If this had been a LH flight the compensation would have been in the region of EUR 1,200-1,500 :eek:

LH F->C downgrade irrespective if it is a paid booking for award is said to be set at EUR 4000

I believe it is supposed to be 75% of the actual fare for the route. I will try to find supporting evidence of that.

Sorry, I forgot that this was not a C to Y downgrade (which would yield up to EUR 1,500). If your info is correct - I have no reason to doubt it - it makes the TG offer even more appalling.

1. As a FRA departure, the downgrade is covered under EU 261/2004.
2. OP needs to make a specific claim for compensation under EU 261/2004.
3. The rule is 75% of the fare paid. There is an ongoing dispute as to how award tickets are handled, but that's not the immediate issue.

Reject the offer, make the specific demand under the law and set things in motion.

Ask for more...

The points difference in the FC and B award is as much as 17500 points (80k vs 62500) on a direct award. Possibly less on a larger award ticket routing.

You would need $690 used just to get the lost miles back.

You are entitled to 75% of the one-way F class fare filed on that nonstop route pair according to EU261/2004 and precedents for similar cases (on TG and other airlines). The German Regulator (LBA) may be of assistance.

As this is a very large sum of money, expect to fight for it.

I would use euclaim a paid service.

I'm nervous this is going to happen to me on a UA award from FRA-BKK on the A380.

I just called to try and get seats for the flight I've had booked using UA miles for several months. The flight isn't until November, but all of the F seats showed as full. I was unable to receive a seat and was told I'll need to do it at the airport.

If I'm likely to get downgraded, I would much rather switch to LH F if it opens up. Although, if the compensation is more than $300, I could probably manage.

TG blocks many of the middle seats. Are you sure they are all assigned or can it simply be that none are currently availalble to be assigned?!

None are available to be assigned. It's not clear if all seats are actually assigned or if a few will just be released at the airport.

if you post your flight and date I'd be happy to look it up for you.

TG blocks a good chunk of the seats, dont worry