Change of plane and class - PE to Economy

Hi everyone. My boyfriend booked MAN - JFK through Delta in August to fly next March, and he's just received an email saying that our seats have been changed from PE to Economy both ways! Given that our outbound flights fall on my 40th birthday, my user name has never been more apt! It looks like it was due to a change of aircraft, but does anyone else have any experience of this happening? Will there be any chance of us keeping our original class?

Looks like you're on a leased ex Air Berlin A330-200 with no PE product on offer.

It looks like you've fallen victim to the aircraft changes discussed in this thread

Basically, Virgin are leasing some A330-200s from Air Berlin. They only have a business and economy class, no PE section

Here's their news release about it

You've got a number of options:
- Get refunded 75% of original cost of flight
- Change your travel dates (free to change)
- Fly from Gatwick or Heathrow (free to change)
- Fly to a different destination (pay difference in airfare)

Quick update - our downgraded seats were showing as more expensive that was on offer on both the VA and Delta websites, so my BF called Delta, cancelled the original booking and rebooked direct with VA.
It’s a bit of a shame, as we’d both been looking forward to the VA PE experience, but as we live 5 miles away from MAN, there was no point in trekking all the way to LHR or LGW. NYC will still be there at the end of the flight, whether we turn left or right when we get on the plane.