downgraded

my wife was downgraded from uc to premium last week due to lgw-mco
flight being cancelled all put on one flight.
they told her she could get 40000 miles or free economy flight
to be used within 30days and they would refund a part of the fare
is this what would normally be offered?
she was not asked if she would downgrade she was just told

[honey lamb]

When we were offered a downgrade from UC to PE in Dubai the offer was 50K miles or a free economy return

[Scrooge]

Do a quick search in the clubhouse, there is a thread from last year where we went over what EU airlines are required to give as compensation.

[Nottingham Nick]

Don't like the sound of compensatory miles / flights that have to be used within 30 days. [n]

Is that new? In fact, is it legal?

Nick

Article 10 of the denied boarding compensation regualation (EC) no 261/2004, (that piece of legislation we all know well[:)] ) states

' Upgrading and Downgrading
1. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class higher than that for which the ticket was
purchased, it may not request any supplementary payment.
2. If an operating air carrier places a passenger in a class lower than that for which the ticket was
purchased, it shall within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), reimburse
(a) 30 % of the price of the ticket for all flights of 1500 kilometres or less, or
(b) 50 % of the price of the ticket for all intra-Community flights of more than 1500 kilometres,
except flights between the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas
departments, and for all other flights between 1500 and 3500 kilometres, or
(c) 75 % of the price of the ticket for all flights not falling under (a) or (b), including flights between
the European territory of the Member States and the French overseas departments. '

therefore it would appear that dependant on the amount of refund they offered you she has actually been offered more than legally Virgin have to compensate her.

My only concern as nick is that to have to use it within 30 days makes it almost worthless, unless the miles can be used credited to her account to be used in the future.

PS if anyone wants a copy of the EU regs PM me and i'll send them, i always carry them when flying and it's amazing the responses from airlines that try to fob you off when they get produced and quoted [y]

[RichardMannion]

Are you aure it wasn't 50k miles or a free flight anywhere in Economy (apart from SYD) - that is the normal Virgin compensation (Red Select Voucher). They do not have a 30 day lifetime, it has to be used to make a booking with a year if I recall (but that booking could be up to 330 days in the future). There should also be a refund in the difference in fare for that sector.

That is the Virgin implementation. Obvioulsy you can overide that and push for the EU compensationa s detailed by chumba which would in this case be a refund of 75% of the ticket.

she was issued with a red select voucher it was the person that gave her the voucher that said she could get 40,000 miles or
the economy flight but had to be used within a month

quote:Originally posted by alexb
she was issued with a red select voucher it was the person that gave her the voucher that said she could get 40,000 miles or
the economy flight but had to be used within a month


I think I'd be ringing FC to seek clarification.

Paul

[Nottingham Nick]

What do the T&C on the voucher say? If there is no mention of 30 days maybe it is a mistake?

I've had a few Red Select vouchers in the past for volunteering to get the next days flight. The voucher had a 12 month validity period, and then you were able to book well into the future , efectively giving you 23 months to use it.

Perhaps the Ts&Cs have changed, although I would suspect not.

Mark

If I got an invol downgrade, I'd push for the cold hard cash.

Mike

Me too, cash is king.

Have to say for me the cash option would definatly be the prefered option, not sure what your good lady paid but am guessing she would get at least 1k back,[y] but if you go down this route remember legally this is all you are entitled to so VA may pull the offer of the select voucher [V] if you pushed for the cash. It also depends on who actually paid for the ticket, if you paid then grab the cash, if it was the company you may loose the select voucher and the company grabs the cash ! So you will get NOWT ![n]

Depends what is more important to YOU.

my wife is still in florida so i cant check the voucher the 40000 miles was put in her account yesterday but no sign of the refund
for the z class fare she paid for.
is there a special dept that deal with this at virgin is it just the outbound part that should be refunded

it is a red select voucher that my wife was given it says free ecomony flight
or 40,000 and it is 18 months in the term& cond.
the guy that spoke to her said it was only 1 month for the free flight

[RichardMannion]

The guy was wrong.