Downgrades, Confusion
Korean Actress Hyeri, who is also a former member of Korean girl group “Girl’s Day,” revealed that she did not receive a refund after having her airplane seat unilaterally downgraded. Therefore, Delta Air Lines offered an apology in a statement.
According to Delta Air Lines, some first-class passenger seats were downgraded to economy class seats on a 2:19 p.m. flight from Los Angeles to New York City on Aug. 30 (local time).
During this process, Hyeri, who had booked two first-class seats, was one of the recipients of a downgrade.
“The downgrade was not due to overbooking, but was an inevitable part of the process of replacing the aircraft with a smaller model for safe operations,” the U.S.-based airline said with respect to the downgrade.
“Following our rules, we allow passengers to board the next available flight in first class or to be refunded the difference in the boarding ticket prices when they take economy seats,” the airline said, adding that the refund was in the process of being given to passengers who chose to take economy seats.
“A customer service representative of Delta Air Lines will directly contact the passengers to apologize to them for the inconvenience,” a Delta Air Lines official said in the statement.
“I booked a first class seat in a Delta Air Lines flight a month and a half in advance but Delta Air Lines downgraded my seat to an economy class seat because there were no first class seats,” Hyeri said in her Instagram story page on Aug. 31. The American airline doesn’t give me a refund and tells me to take the next flight if I don’t like the seat.”