BA offers 75% of original Avios paid after a downgrade?

[Garethgerry]

There seems to be confusion, which I don’t understand as @JDB explained it perfectly.

A) Under normal contract law , you paid X for an upgrade , which you didn’t get so you are entitled to X back and nothing else.

B) Under EU261 you paid Y for original fare plus X for upgrade X+Y in total,EU261 works on total fare. You are entitled to 75% of (X+Y)

Depending which is larger you can claim for either A or eithet B. As simple as that. As @JDB said claim for largest

You cannot claim a bit of A plus a bit of B

[Karen Robertson]

So I got a reply from BA today and they finally seemed to understand that my claim did not just relate to a base fare of £233 for PE – I also paid £369 plus 30000 Avios for the upgrade that I did not receive. Their starting offer was £175 plus 22500 avios which did not feel fair at all. Then they added something as a ‘gesture of goodwill’ despite me being entitled to my refunds. Today I accepted a refund of the original £369 plus the 75% of the base fare (£175) (which they had already paid me) plus a £300 flight voucher and a refund of my original 30000 avios. As a non expert customer, I was truly perplexed by this whole process – I’ve probably got more than I would have received if they had just answered my refund request 6 months ago but the time it has taken to get through this means I don’t feel too bad about that. Thank you so much everyone for your comments as I definitely get the system a bit more now! On the downside I realised that my membership year ended after my double tier points USA flight last year – and restarted before my next flight. As a result I probably did not make silver due to timing – whereas hubby has a different membership year and he is lording it with his silver! Maybe next year……. Thanks again!! : )