Reply To: Surprise tier points credit

[baec_newbie]

Downgrade compensation is paid based on the relevant percentage of the pro-rata fare for the leg in question.

The fact that booking GLA-LAX cost the same number of points and taxes as LHR-LAX is immaterial; if you went on that basis, you’d have to pay extra when downgraded on most ex-EU fares! 😅

So in your case, presuming your itinerary was a simple GLA-LHR-LAX, by my calculations this is 11,602 miles in total, with the LHR-GLA leg constituting 345 miles or 2.974% of this.

As the total displacement was over 2500km on your return leg, you are due back 70% of the pro-rata fare for the downgrade. So that’s 2.082% of the fare paid, which would include the points used as well as carrier surcharges – though quite how they’re calculated on an Avios redemption like this, I don’t know – might be worth seeing if there’s a breakdown available on through the Finnair e-ticket tool.

Obviously either way this is likely to be a tiny amount and you will get far more by way of UK261 compensation (assuming the reason for the missed connection qualifies) and/or a load of Avios for service recovery.