Voluntarily downgrading during a flight can be rewarding
Getting a free upgrade on a flight is a hard to beat thrill. They're the Holy Grail for regular travelers but while rare, flight upgrades do exist. The chances of getting one though, unless earned, can be slim. But what about a downgrade—the upgrade’s arch rival? While scarcely talked about, downgrades happen quite frequently. Usually, when this occurs, it is termed an involuntary downgrade and all one can do is grin and bear it –because it is still better than getting bumped off the flight.
Unfortunately, passengers don’t have much protection against involuntary downgrades. Yes, in general, if a passenger is downgraded from a class of service and is not re-accommodated in a seat in an equal or greater class of service for which a fee has been paid, the passenger is eligible for a refund of this fee. However, the ensuring discomfort and hassle of obtaining the refund doesn’t make for a landing.
Burak Ates, who held a business class seat on the one – hour domestic leg of an international flight that originated from Istanbul airport, was asked by staff when checking in, if he would downgrade to an economy class seat to enable a bureaucrat who needed to travel with the secretary of some ministry. As the staff confessed to not been able to anything else in this situation, he agreed to help them under the circumstances.
He was moved to an economy seat at the front row just before the curtain that separated between economy and business class. Whilst there was more leg room, it also enabled cabin staff to provide him business class level service during the flight as he was seated close to the premium class compartment.
An airport executive of the airline greeted and escorted him to the business class lounge before his flight, thanking him several times on the way, for assisting the airline overcome a tricky situation.
Normally the flight would have earned him 600 miles on the domestic leg. Instead, he was rewarded with 20,000 miles by the airline for being so helpful.
A couple months later he booked an international economy flight and was immediately called by the airline for a free upgrade to the business class; He didn’t initially want it since he wasn’t travelling alone but the airline offered to upgrade both him and his companion. Now, that’s a pretty good way of compensating for that initial one-hour inconvenience.
Thanks to Turkish Airlines (the airline involved) Barak’s flight resulted in a very happy ending.
Hospitality Sri Lanka
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