Upper Class downgrade

Just being ultra cautious and wanting to know where we'd stand if the worst comes to the worst.

We're flying to MCO soon and somehow we managed to get 5 Gs on the way out. If too many people show for the flight and we /some of us are downgraded, what are we entitled to?

Thoughts and insights will be very much appreciated.

It would be very unlikely to happen on that route as is is mainly holiday makers flying on fixed dates and they would be unlikely to oversell the cabin in the first place.

But under EU261 you would be entitled to 75% of the fare back.

And that would be of both the miles and cash elements.


What they would do in practice is ask for volunteers first with an offer of cash/miles/change of flight before they start downgrading people. But then they would be loathed to spilt a group up.

It would all depend on how many seats they needed.

Thanks for the info tonty. Very much appreciated.

Depending how badly they need the seats there can be some very generous offers.
I took a CX flight a few years ago where they offered £1000 in cash if you moved into economy on your booked flight or moved to the next day.

If the EU compensation gets you a 75% refund then surely in some cases it could run into several £000s people could be entitled to?

Potentially, yes. That's why UK airlines don't tend to do it unless they really have to. I suspect they'd rather rebook premium passengers into their booked cabin on another flight as then they only have to pay the set EU261 compensation - €600 max plus maybe a meal and a hotel room.

non EU airlines are not bound by the same rules so to get £1k plus travel on the route is not bad. Especially as most of the J seats on CX (in those days at least) were paid of by companies so the £1k in cash to the ticket holder was something to be considered carefully

non EU airlines are not bound by the same rules so to get £1k plus travel on the route is not bad. Especially as most of the J seats on CX (in those days at least) were paid of by companies so the £1k in cash to the ticket holder was something to be considered carefully

EU 261 applies to ALL airlines leaving the EU area.

When flying into the EU it only applies to EU registered airlines.

So it applies to e.g VS and BA but not DL and AA operated flights.

So it would apply to DL and AA flights on their return leg from LHR ?

Correct.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/2200/Major_di ... ssible.pdf