Tag Archives for downgrade.
Airlines overbook coach, but rarely overbook business and first class. The airline may sell more tickets than seats, but it’s the passengers in back who usually risk being kicked off the flight. And this actually makes sense.
United flight 363 from Newark to Honolulu was supposed to be operated by a Boeing 777 on Saturday. The airline swapped the plane for a Boeing 767-300, and that meant fewer business class seats. The airline needed ten volunteers who were willing to downgrade.
These ten passengers each received $10,000 in travel voucher compensation for volunteering, or $100,000 total for the one flight, and they still got to fly in premium economy seats.
n America Airlines passenger tells the story about buying a paid transpacific business class ticket on American Airlines but being downgraded for their Chicago – Tokyo flight a few weeks ago when their inbound Boston – Chicago flight was delayed.
The passenger says their Boston – Chicago flight was running late due to crew availability (a flight attendant “had woken up late and was on her way”) and that meant arriving into Chicago 45 minutes late. They had to run to their connecting gate, but they made it while the Tokyo flight was still boarding.
Back in April I mentioned (here and here) a promotion code to instantly upgrade your Hilton Hhonors account to Gold status. It’s a code meant for Citibank Chairman’s Card credit card holders, but Hilton apparently made no effort to restrict up front who could use it. It isn’t even just a situation of a secret promo code that got out. I called Hilton one day and the promo code was mentioned in the voice tree without even reference to the Citibank Chairman’s Card. Now, however, Hilton is haphazardly going through their records and demoting the status of people who signed up using the code. I say haphazardly because some people who were eligible for the promotion (they had the Citibank Chairmans Card) were downgraded, and others who were not eligible still retained their status. What’s…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
