Airline has downgraded me?

[Gee68]

Hi all.
Bit of a first world problem this one.
My son and I are off to Vietnam on Sunday for a off road motorbike tour.All good and very excited until this morning when I got an email informing me that my tickets had been downgraded from premium eco to eco. We’ve never upgraded flight tickets before and this was like a big treat to ourselves.

My questions to the more seasoned travellers on here is,
1. Is this normal
2 is there anything I can do(changing flight is not an option)or do I just have to suck it up.

Thanks for any help offered.

[gotoPzero]

Which airline?

[Gee68]

Oops,supposed that would have helped,Vietnam airlines.

[gotoPzero]

It could be they did an equipment change - some of their aircraft have no PE.

I would make a point at check in, because if there are any business seats you might get an upgrade.

Although if its a plane swap I guess they might have 30+ others making the same requests....

[Louis Balfour]

Gee68 said:

Hi all.
Bit of a first world problem this one.
My son and I are off to Vietnam on Sunday for a off road motorbike tour.All good and very excited until this morning when I got an email informing me that my tickets had been downgraded from premium eco to eco. We’ve never upgraded flight tickets before and this was like a big treat to ourselves.

My questions to the more seasoned travellers on here is,
1. Is this normal
2 is there anything I can do(changing flight is not an option)or do I just have to suck it up.

Thanks for any help offered.

Change of aircraft type? Maybe your flight does not now have PE.

Here are the rules: https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers-and-public/resolv...

[Gee68]

gotoPzero said:

It could be they did an equipment change - some of their aircraft have no PE.

I would make a point at check in, because if there are any business seats you might get an upgrade.

Although if its a plane swap I guess they might have 30+ others making the same requests....

Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Checked on the flight after receiving the email and it looks like it’s quite full,few business class seats but nothing left at the cattle end of the cabin.
Pretty gutted really as I hadn’t told my son as I just wanted to walk on the plane and go “ta daaa” look what we’ve got.

[Gee68]

Just had another email through and apparently it’s down to change of plane and no PE available,that’s that then.

Thanks to those that took time to answer.

[Caddyshack]

Hope you have a good trip….i bet that will be amazing.

[mikef]

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

[Gee68]

Caddyshack said:

Hope you have a good trip….i bet that will be amazing.

Hopefully we will.Flying scares the bejesus out of me so as long as we have minimum turbulence I count that as a win.

Edited by Gee68 on Monday 21st October 21:18

[Gee68]

mikef said:

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

I’d love to have the funds one day to use your rule of thumb but alas at 56 I can’t see it happening without a lottery win.

However we are there 2 days before the tour starts So plenty of time to recover.

[Jimjimhim]

Gee68 said:

Hopefully we will,flying scares the bejesus out of me so as long as we have minimum turbulence I count that as a win.

It's the safest part of your whole holiday so try not to let it worry you.

[mikef]

Should be fine, I’ve just been flying for far too many years

[Caddyshack]

Gee68 said:

Caddyshack said:

Hope you have a good trip….i bet that will be amazing.

Hopefully we will,flying scares the bejesus out of me so as long as we have minimum turbulence I count that as a win.

Odd though as you are going to ride bikes in a place that you can easily fall off and yet you worry about a safe plane flight….to me, you are incredibly brave and adventurous taking that trip, I know I would love every second but don’t seem to be adventurous enough to do it.

[Gee68]

Jimjimhim said:

It's the safest part of your whole holiday so try not to let it worry you.

I know,I know it’s irrational but it’s something I just can’t shake.
I used to take Diazepam but the doctors will no longer prescribe it.

[Gee68]

Caddyshack said:

Odd though as you are going to ride bikes in a place that you can easily fall off and yet you worry about a safe plane flight….to me, you are incredibly brave and adventurous taking that trip, I know I would love every second but don’t seem to be adventurous enough to do it.

Never give riding mx/enduro /trials and road bikes a second thought but get me on a plane and I’m a quivering wreck.

Edited by Gee68 on Monday 21st October 21:48

[acer12]

mikef said:

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

That sounds very impractical. Do you not trust yourself or something?

Care to share why you need 3 days to recover from a long flight economy flight?

Also curious why it takes a full day longer for business v first class, modern business is as comfortable as first seat wise, 1st is just more luxury almost no benefit sleep / seat wise. Have you ever flown 1st class?

[mikef]

acer12 said:

mikef said:

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

That sounds very impractical. Do you not trust yourself or something?

Care to share why you need 3 days to recover from a long flight economy flight?

Also curious why it takes a full day longer for business v first class, modern business is as comfortable as first seat wise, 1st is just more luxury almost no benefit sleep / seat wise. Have you ever flown 1st class?

Yes, a lot, on business, mainly business and premium, some first

Select flight destinations based on taxis before I’m fully recovered

[djc206]

mikef said:

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

That’s one of the silliest things I’ve read on here. 3 days after flying to drive a car? You could overdose on smack and be fit to drive in that window. The differentiation between business and first is amusing too, the only real difference to alertness between the two being that first comes with better booze which would actually preclude driving for longer.

OP it sucks but sadly there’s not much you can do. I’ve been downgraded once on a flight I didn’t even want to take but we bartered with them (AA) and they ended up giving us an obscene amount of money for the relatively minor inconvenience it caused for a daytime 2 hour flight. Vietnam airlines are probably not going to play that game but it’s worth a bit of too and fro. You could start by playing nicely and asking for a decent price for a business upgrade in light of the situation? Never hurts to ask.

[Zolvaro]

acer12 said:

mikef said:

Hmm

My rule of thumb for driving a car after long-haul, let alone a motorbike

First class - 1 hour
Business class - 1 day
Premium economy - 2 days
Economy - 3 days

That sounds very impractical. Do you not trust yourself or something?

Care to share why you need 3 days to recover from a long flight economy flight?

Also curious why it takes a full day longer for business v first class, modern business is as comfortable as first seat wise, 1st is just more luxury almost no benefit sleep / seat wise. Have you ever flown 1st class?

Very impractical, I regularly fly economy between the UK and Australia and then jump straight in a car and drive