If you were downgraded from a paid business class fare, you should receive some sort of cash refund in addition to your voucher to use later.

If you were lost a space-available upgrade, then you should get your upgrade instrument back plus some sort of "downgrade kit" - in your case, the R/T voucher to use later is actually better than what many carriers give you.

Oh, and the guy who tried to rip lounge access from a passenger who had just been involuntarily downgraded should be fired. That's just low rent.

OP: Can you come back and post additional details about your trip? Airline, route, date, etc.

Although accepting the upgrade certificate might limit your legal rights, you should be entitled to reclaim the entire difference in fare from what you paid and the lowest fare in Y that was available at the time you originally ticketed. In addition, they should let you keep the upgrade cert at the very least.

If you are not financially compensated for the fare difference, I suggest you take the airline to small claims court (if you're in the US) and sue for the fare difference and additional compensation for your physical discomfort.

If you're still suffering physical discomfort from the trip, and can prove you always buy business or first on long haul flights because of the physical comfort issues, you could also consider hiring a lawyer and taking the airline to regular court, suing for punitive damages as well for your 'pain and suffering.'

Another option for future consideration - if you're flying on a refundable full fare business class ticket and the airline pulls these shenanigans, order them to print you a paper ticket and endorse it, flip them off and march over to a competitor who is likely all too happy to take the other airline's tickets - some might be willing to accept the paper ticket even without an endorsement. Or, you can tell them to issue you a refund immediately, then go buy a business class ticket on a competitor - the fare might be the same. If you opt for either of these options, send a letter to the airline CEO with copies of the new airline boarding passes/receipt, an explanation of what happened (with employee names) and a note that you're taking your future business elsewhere and will be publicly blogging about how you were treated.

I agree with this part - the more we know, the better the advice we can provide.

Please be aware that if you are based anywhere other than the US, the first part of this may or may not work, and the second will get you laughed out of court.

I wouldn't go so far as another poster did by saying that all carriers overbook their premium cabins - some do not.

But overbooking is only one of several reasons why you might get bumped from a premium cabin despite holding a confirmed reservation. Don't assume that the reason was overbooking unless you know that for sure. Another situation where this can happen is when there's an equipment substitution. For example, the flight was originally planned to be operated with an aircraft having 50 Business Class seats, but at the last minute it gets swapped out for an aircraft having only 40 Business Class seats. If they sold out the original 50 seats and everyone shows up, there are going to be 10 Business Class passengers that need to be bumped/downgraded even though they didn't oversell the flight.

Also, always consider that another option rather than being downgraded is to agree to wait for the next flight where you can be accommodated in your ticketed class. Assuming this works with your schedule, this is often the better option, especially if you have a bad back or otherwise will be miserable in coach. I've been fortunate enough to never have been downgraded, but if I was on a trans-oceanic flight, I'd almost certainly opt for waiting for another flight (even the next day) rather then doing it in economy, unless there was a hard scheduling issue where I really needed to be somewhere (and if that was the case, I probably would have factored this into my travel plans to start with and built a day of slack into my schedule).

Since when does the CI staff has anything to decide in regards to Lounge access ?

And what sort of expensve drinks are available in ICN ? Seems like I missed out a few times

Reminds me of an involuntary downgrade I had a few years ago with Qatar Airways flying DOH-LHR due to an aircraft swap. Not only did they downgrade me to a middle seat in Economy Class, but they also rounded up all the downgraded pax (about 6 of us) and escorted us out of the Premium Terminal immediately. They were very polite about the whole thing but still a very negative experience.

Anyone else smell a hoax?

OP comes on - first post ever touches a perfect FT nerve...then disappears forever...

C'mon guys.. fess up.. who was it?



That said, I'd always been under the impression that premium cabins were not overbooked as a general policy, but now I see otherwise.

That's pretty rough being escorted out of the Premium Terminal. You'd think they'd show a little more class than that...

Isn't everybody's first post to FT a gripe about being downgraded? I'm laughing because my first post to FT was exactly the same - LH took my C boarding pass (given to me by UA), ripped it up in front of me unceremoniously, then put me in Y with a snarky comment "UA doesn't have the right to upgrade you on LH". No, no bitterness here