You bought an Economy Plus or a Business Class ticket, and your return flight is either oversold or they changed to a smaller airplane — and you’re downgraded.

They owe you a refund. But how do they calculate the fare difference?

In many cases, the airline will apply the cost of a full fare refundable cost of a coach ticket and then pay you the difference. As a result, you get back a whole lot less than you think you deserve. And you’re not wrong.

The key here is that when you talk to the airline about that refund, the price of that coach ticket they want to apply against your refund amount is actually negotiable. And you need to remind them that you didn’t voluntarily downgrade yourself.