Downgraded Club World – Companion Voucher Used

[adam_2388]

Hi,

I know this has been asked multiple times, I’m just looking for a bit of final help before contacting CEDR.

Overview – Downgraded Club World to World Traveller Plus on return journey only, booked via cash (£900 Total)/avios (180,000 Total)/companion voucher.

Not getting anywhere with BA, they have automatically refunded £127.50 for myself and £127.50 for my wife. Also been offered the standard £300 voucher each or £200 cash (ignored this request for now), but no Avios have been refunded and they seem to ignore my emails.

180,000 Avios paid total – so for one way 90,000 plus companion voucher equalivent of 90,000. Then x 75% I should be expecting 135,000?

Unsure about the cash aspect though and which fees to deduct? (£900 total cash paid)
Looking at my original reciept;
The fees paid were Government, authority and airport charges total GBP 313.48
British Airways fees and surcharges carrier Imposed Charge GBP 420.00
Total taxes, fees and surcharges per person GBP 733.48

Any help working out how much cash I should be claiming for will be much appreciated!

[JDB]

@adam_2388 – the voucher/cash BA has offered is usually an ex gratia payment on top of the statutory downgrade compensation but they will likely take that offer of the table once it goes to CEDR or MCOL.

In terms of calculating the cash element for the return flight, it should be on your e-ticket, but if you don’t have that, taking the full RFS (£225 each for this sector, if the £900 sum quoted is precise) is the best place to start. The outbound RFS will have been fully consumed by the APD and Heathrow PSC.

When making your claim to CEDR, you will need to set out your claim very clearly and the reasons why the full 75% compensation is due on both the primary and the companion tickets as the second ticket was in no sense free, but was paid for by the voucher with a value equivalent to 90,000 Avios for that sector so constituted valuable consideration. This element matters as downgrade claims are routinely lost at CEDR and MCOL.

[ekposh]

Sorry to hijack but always wondered – out of curiosity what happens if one gets downgraded Club to Economy? Is it still just 75%?

And @JDB, if one was to accept voucher / cash offer (ex gratia as you say) would that not impact a claim at CEDR ?

[Aston100]

Related question:
If you order a special meal, does that help with avoiding a downgrade?

[AndrewT]

Or does it just mean you still get downgraded and have nothing to eat for good measure 😀

[Lady London]

Aston100 wrote:

If you order a special meal, does that help with avoiding a downgrade?

@Aston100 I suspect you already know the answer to this.

Sometime about a year or not muvh more ago a kind contributor posted BA’s internal priority list of who they choose to downgrade, on here in the Comments.

As we had all suspected but were occasionally reassured was not the case, passengers travelling on award tickets were a higher priority to choose for downgrade if someone had to ne downgraded, than a number of other types of passenger. I had the distinct impression a couple travelling on award tickets one of whose seats had been paid for with a Companion Voucher, were an even greater target for downgrade. But that may only have been my own conclusion.

I am extremely doubtful that having ordered a special meal would protect you from being downgraded, if you were in a priority category to be chosen. I could only see selecting a special meal, let’s say a kosher meal or a halal meal, saving you, if there had been a court case judgment that made airlines think they had better not select passengers who’d selected some types of special meal for downgrade, in case the airline could be accused of having made the decision on religious grounds (illegal). So far as I kmow, that hasn’t happened yet.

However anecdotally a lot of people think that ordering a special meal *will* stop you getting an upgrade, if they’ve got to choose someone to upgrade.

Not a risk for takkng if you’ve no other reason for a special meal 🙂

[Aston100]

Lady London wrote:

However anecdotally a lot of people think that ordering a special meal *will* stop you getting an upgrade, if they’ve got to choose someone to upgrade.

I had that in mind when I thought I’d come up with a cunning plan.

[NorthernLass]

That’s assuming they load the meal, @Aston100, you can’t count on that these days!

[JDB]

ekposh wrote:

Sorry to hijack but always wondered – out of curiosity what happens if one gets downgraded Club to Economy? Is it still just 75%?

And @JDB, if one was to accept voucher / cash offer (ex gratia as you say) would that not impact a claim at CEDR ?

There’s no extra compensation for multi class downgrades under 261. Israeli Aviation law modelled on 261 does provide for differentiated compensation.

Any ex gratia payment accepted shouldn’t impact any CEDR or MCOL claim although BA may choose to offset any payment if the issue is litigated.

[Garethgerry]

There’s no extra compensation for multi class downgrades under 261. Israeli Aviation law modelled on 261 does provide for differentiated compensation.
[/quote]

Absolutely true

This is one of the anomalies/stupidity of this legislation

Logically if say first was over booked by 1 seat , business and PE full but space in economy.

From a customer service point of view, you might think

1 First to business
1 Business to PE ,
1 PE to economy.

This is what happened in old days,

But now this triggers 3 x compensation.

Just moving First to Economy triggers same compensation as First to business, and no other, but a much angrier First customer.

Luckily I don’t think many Airlines take this rule to its logical consequence