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This morning I set off on a return trip to Mexico City using Avios and a companion voucher to reduce avios by 50% as travelling alone.
Outbound is Iberia Business Class via Madrid on A330 LHR-MAD and A350 MAD-MEX. Inbound BA First Class MEX-LHR.
I reserved seats for all legs at time of booking. Seat 4A for LHR-MAD flight.
Checked in yesterday and downloaded boarding pass for 4A via Iberia app. This morning went to Iberia business class check-in to check in my bag. Staff in BA uniform swiftly checks me in and and hands me boarding passes and tells me location of fast track and lounge. When I get to fast track I go to scan my boarding pass and notice that the paper boarding pass says Y class and seat 55L. I don’t go through security but returned to check-in and showed the person who checked me in my electronic boarding pass for 4A and my paper boarding pass for 55L. I was then told that I had been downgraded “due to last minute aircraft change” and 4A was no longer available. I then asked to be moved to another flight which would still have got me to Madrid with plenty of time for the connection. I was told this wasn’t possible as my bag had already been tagged for the earlier flight. I asked why I hadn’t been notified of the downgrade when I dropped the bag off and he said he didn’t realise I had been downgraded. I was moved to 22D which is just 2 rows behind business class.
The same person was at the desk at the gate and I asked if any business class seats had become available. They hadn’t and he said that NINE people had been downgraded.
After boarding I watched a complete pantomime in business class. Other downgraded passengers had gone to their original electronic boarding pass seats and were refusing to move when passengers arrived with paper boarding pass for same seat. They refused to move until a man in HighVis green jacket came on board and forced them to move. At least one passenger got off the aircraft.
The business class cabin was 5 rows as when I checked in the previous evening with 4A. I don’t believe it was a “last minute aircraft change”. More like overbooking.
Eventually we departed about 45 min late.
What compensation am I entitled to in Avios, APD and surcharges for this sector downgrade. Does APD reduce to economy because I took an economy flight ex LHR?
Typing this from 2A in the A359 on sector from MAD-MEX. So far so good and very decent meal and wine.
Sorry about the nightmare start to your journey, but have a good time in Mexico City – a great place. You are entitled to a refund of 30% of the cost of the LHR-MAD sector excluding actual paid away charges; it will be calculated on a pro-rate basis for the distance, so won’t amount to a whole lot. If you were on one ticket, the APD doesn’t change when there mixed classes.
So you were only downgraded on the short LHR-MAD leg? And that was part of an LHR-MAD-MEX-LHR single ticket?
In which that’s 30% of the fare for that leg not including proper taxes and fees.
As for the APD afraid not as it was charged based on the full set of flights which negates the short haul downgrade.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/air-passenger-duty-and-connected-flights
“If 2 or more international flights are connected, it’s the final destination that decides what duty you should pay”
I suspect it was an aircraft switch. IB3175 has been operated by an A330-300 on several occasions, which has 29 business class seats. This morning it was an A330-200 which only has 19 business class seats.
It’s a risk of flying business class on the A330/A350 services on that route – they can switch the short haul services to different aircraft more easily, and presumably will do where necessary to accommodate the long haul services. If you get a smaller aircraft, and business class is full, some people are going to get downgraded.
On a slightly related note, is there any window of time to submit a complaint for a downgraded leg?
I once paid the £45 for a friend to upgrade to business the day before just for one of us to get downgraded at the gate (not even checkin).
She had no status while I was silver and I believe that’s how they downgrade people. This seems to be very common from what I read.
It took me forever to get the £45 refunded and almost had to get Amex to cancel the payment.
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