Downgraded from Premium Comfort

Personally I feel that this whole bait and switch thing with planes is ridiculous. I have read about this happening to others.

I'm sorry about your experience, and I know how frustrating that can be, but I do not believe it is a "bait and switch thing." Booking with a third party is always a bit riskier than booking direct, and you do run the risk of flights changing and your seat getting switched, even when you book direct.

That is one reason I always check my seats and the flight every few weeks. Because you don't always get notice of it, especially if you're booking through a rewards center like Chase Travel. That said, I would certainly contact Chase Travel at some point and ask them for a refund of the extra money you paid for the Premium Comfort seats.

How frustrating! Before you receive replies that say you should have booked without the Chase company in the equation, it’s not always their fault. Here’s an example:

Recent airline woes: While I was in Italy, I received an email from Delta that they changed the flights for my Fall trip to Italy. Instead of Spokane, Washington to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Milan, they were now going to send me through LA! Oh, and giving me less than an hour to make that connection! Since it already takes 24 hours to go from Airport 1 to my hotel in Italy, I’m definitely not interested in an extra long swing through LA. But when I tried to change it on the Delta website or their app, it just kept giving me errors. Frustrating! I had to give the info to one of my daughters in the US to call & fix it before I lost the decent seats I had booked several months ago.

Thank you Mardee. Yes, I typically book directly with airlines, hotels etc, but no matter what I tried if I selected Premium Comfort on the way there it wouldn’t allow me to select economy on the way back. Chase Travel was quite helpful and this would have happened even if I booked directly with KLM. It’s almost impossible to actually speak with a human at KLM in my experience. If I had been able to book with them directly they might have at least notified me which would have been helpful. But the bait and switch I’m referring to is my belief that airlines shouldn’t sell a product that they later decide not to provide. But I do understand that they sometimes have to change the aircraft used. It’s just very frustrating. And disappointing.

That's so frustrating. I had a similar, but opposite experience. I booked premium economy for our upcoming trip to New Zealand and Australia. Our flight from Auckland to Sydney was on the same booking, so it was also in Premium Economy.

About a month ago, I received a notification that the flight to Sydney had been cancelled, so we had been booked on a flight a day earlier, instead. I didn't want that, because I had a tour booked for our last day in Auckland, and I had accommodations booked for Auckland and Sydney. I didn't want to switch everything up, and I didn't want to lose a day in New Zealand, as it is already the shorter part of the trip.

So, I started looking online for an alternative that left on the original date, and I kept seeing a flight with our original airline at our original time. However, when I tried to do a test booking on it, I was unable to book Premium Economy. So, I called the airline and was told that there was a change in plane, and the new plane didn't have a PE section.

Fair enough. But it's a <4 hour flight, so, PE isn't really a necessity for us on that one. I asked to be booked in Economy for the original date, instead. I also requested that we get free preferred seat selection, since we'd already had seats selected on the original flight. The agent agreed, so we were able to select the best seats available for no charge, plus I was told to contact them after the flight to get a refund on the difference in price between PE and E.

I'm satisfied with that, but I would have felt differently if this had happened on the long flight portion of the trip.

Two things I don't like, though. 1. I don't like that our dates were just summarily changed to start with. I feel like we should have been notified of the situation and given the option to choose our solution. After all, had I not investigated further, I might have simply assumed that I couldn't fly on the original date and gone ahead and changed everything else, losing a day in NZ. 2. I think the refund should be given at the time of booking. I don't think that I should have to futz around with trying to get it after the fact.

Anyway, I sympathize. This seems to be a not-uncommon scenario.

Good luck with your trip.

Chase Travel was quite helpful and this would have happened even if I booked directly with KLM. It’s almost impossible to actually speak with a human at KLM in my experience

I didn't mean to imply that your problem was because you booked directly with Chase. It's just that it is an extra layer you sometimes have to go through. I had a flight cancelled last year that was booked with KLM but was a Delta flight. The Delta portion from AMS to MSP was cancelled (while I was in the air coming from LHR to AMS) and I lost my Comfort+ seat. Since it was Delta's flight, they refunded the difference to me a few days after I arrived home. FWIW, I went to KLM at the airport after receiving notice of the cancellation, and they could not have been nicer or more helpful. They booked me on a later Delta flight and I got home the same day.

So I would definitely contact Chase Travel and also KLM about this. In fact, you might want to talk to KLM at at the airport, since there will be KLM personnel there that could possibly help you, or at the very least, tell you who to contact about getting a refund.

Thanks everyone. I just needed to vent to fellow travelers. I will definitely speak to the KLM people at the airport. Just to see what they say about next steps at least.

So basically we do all of our travel research and make plans and carefully book and pay for our flights and then the airlines can do whatever they want. What a bizarre business model. It sure would be nice to be “beamed up” and transported instantly in Star Trek mode! But then we would definitely be complaining even more about crowds! Lol

In the future, if you want to book two different classes, instead of "round-trip" try the "multi-city" option.

Even booking directly with an airline won't assure you get what you booked. I've been downgraded to Economy from PE when the aircraft was switched. I was refunded the difference, but no option of Business class at the last minute. Yes - frustrating.

Apart from venting, which is hopefully making you feel a bit better and maybe helping others,
there are a couple of additional points to make:

• if something like your class of seating changes, there are options. Whether or not they are
  attractive to you may be another question. You could ask to be routed through a city, e.g.
  New York, that has premium economy seating. You could change the day of travel if the plane
  change is a temporary thing. You could try to negotiate an upgrade to business class (maybe
  avoiding the bid process and getting it for not as much). You can cancel the whole thing, get
  all your money back, and start over. You could see about moving your flight to Air France
  (same alliance as KLM) and rearranging your itinerary.

• if you care, you need to get details about the fare difference that KLM (not Chase) will propose
  to refund you. Chase will be the middleman, and I suspect they won't care all that much.

Most likely KLM will propose to refund you the difference between Premium Economy at the
date you booked and the cost of Economy now, which won't be all that much. But you have
been inconvenienced here and do have some leverage to negotiate. For instance, you can
probably get more in a voucher (whether you want a voucher or now, well....) than in cash.

It will most likely take some time also, so be prepared for that.

• I am also amazed that KLM made you pay for the Economy Comfort seats when they downgraded you.

I might consider writing a (nasty) letter to someone higher up the food chain documenting the
history and proposing a resolution.

Saf,
We frequently book for different classes when going to Europe. The usual overnight to Europe either premium economy or business.
We find our flights searching for the lower class level (the return in our case) and when in the booking stage of the outbound upgrade to the better class. The airlines always present an upgrade at that stage. When we are locking in our return, we just stay with the lower class.
It always works for us.
btw, we tried that technique using our points, but could not get it to work

Regards,
Dennis and Elinore