I think you might be entitled to a reimbursement of the amount paid for your original upgrade if you simply paid a supplement (eg for a holiday flight) , or if you were 'down graded' from a higher class of travel to a lower one (eg from a scheduled flight's business class to economy), the difference between the ticket costs.

I think you might not get any compensation for 'loss of enjoyment', but it might be worth asking.

The regulations cover downgrading in class so if you book first and are downgraded to business the regs apply. If you are booked in economy you cannot be downgraded.
I presume you are talking about the Thomsons Cuba flight that went out on a 767 that had a short haul seating configuration? I doubt you would get that covered as downgraded as far as the regulations go.
Unfortunately I don't think any of the other things you mention would fall into downgrading category under the regulations either. They only cover downgrading in class.

You can try sending a complaint into the tour operator. It is up to them to pay any compensation for such occurrences. Good luck.

thanks for your replies. there is an ongoing thread on this flight on TA and many people have complained. someone posted today that they had their premium upgrade refunded and also a refund against the plane being downgraded, so i will go back to thomsons/firstchoice and see what they say.
thanks again.

In the regulations "Class" is technically what is stated on the ticket although these days clear tickets often don't exist since many airlines either only have one class or sell higher classes as upgrades rather than at their own price. If you've paid for an old style higher class ticket and get downgraded you obviously want the difference in fares (and as fares change that could be a huge source of argument), if you paid for a flat rate upgrade it's easier - you want that money back.

BUT it gets murky if the plane is changed from what is "normally" operated.

If the airline never specified what the plane would be and the higher class seat wasn't as good as you expected, if it was better than the basic seats then you are still better off and would struggle to say you've been downgraded.

If the airline did specify the plane/facilities and then sent one that wasn't as good, if you are still in the higher class part then you still might struggle to prove that you've been downgraded but now you've got a claim verging on breach of contract and you might even be able to get that sorted through your credit card company.

Claiming for loss of enjoyment is difficult, especially if the airline is not UK registered, but claiming for an advertised facility that simply wasn't provided is easier.

hi steve482 - thanks for your reply. as sunaddict said we were on the cuba flight that was changed to a shorthaul plane. that in its self was annoying as it didnt have the seat pitch much lauded on its web sight as being better than british airways,virgin etc, but its the return Arkfly plane that replaced our plane home that we are more annoyed about. it was dreadful with no legroom, no bar, we could not purchase drinks of any kind,either alcoholic or water,soft drinks or tea etc. no bar snacks,no duty free, no seatback entertainment. we were told drinks could only be served with meals and that was it. so as far as we are concerned we didnt get what we paid for. so i was wondering if this counted as being downgraded?
thanks.

It is difficult. You will be entitled to the cost of the upgrade (half of it for each sector) as per the Terms and Conditions of booking.

Whether it is an actual class downgrade is a little more difficult to establish. As has been explained, it depends on the type of ticket and the class it states on the ticket (eg Y being economy and J being first class for example). One way of establishing this is the amount of tax paid so I would try to get that information from Thomson. If the tax on the outbound flight is in a higher band than the usual economy class band, you could argue you were downgraded as the premium service (and therefore higher class) wasn't provided.

Mark

Mark
I think the OP was travelling in economy not premium.

hi sunaddict,yes we were just normal seats,not paid to upgrade to premium. but we booked with firstchoice because of all the blurb on their website about their longhaul flights and all the "extras" you get as standard. could have got the holiday cheaper with thomascook but they dont have the 33" seat pitch as standard that firstchoice supposedly have.may seem a trivial complaint, but still didn't get what we paid for.

bushbaby

I agree you didn't get what you paid and you quite rightly feel strongly about it, but I think it is more of a matter for the tour operator as a 'nomal' complaint, rather than quoting regulations as a downgrade.
Incidentally, Thos Cook do have 33" seat pitch as standard on their longhaul flights.

Arkefly is TUI's Dutch airline (like Thomsonfly). Their website translated by Google at http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arkefly.nl click the Aboard tab to get to class details. Bear in mind this is an automatic translation so odd words go a bit iffy at times!

Sorry meant to add the link to the relevant regulations.
Upgrading/downgrading is covered in Article 10

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:EN:PDF

thanks for your replies. sunaddict - i agree that its a complaint for the tour operator to deal with,but was curious about the regulation about downgrading as this was brought up by a post on t/a, and they had actually quoted it to thomson when they complained. i had never heard about it before. thanks for the info on thomas cook, i didn't know that they now provide 33" seat pitch. thats useful to know as often they have had the same holiday as firstchoice, but for a lower price.