Oh, Fun: Tunisair Downgraded Me From Business Class… But Why?!

In the near future I’m supposed to fly Tunisair, and I just got downgraded from business class to economy. Now, operational issues do arise, though I can’t help but find both the execution and the actual downgrade to be a bit puzzling.

Tunisair downgraded me with no explanation

As I recently covered, I’ll be taking a rather roundabout routing from the United States to France, as I’m flying Air Algerie from Canada to Tunisia via Algeria, and then I’ll be connecting on Tunisair to France.

My flight between Tunis (TUN) and Marseille (MRS) was booked separately from the Air Algerie ticket, and I paid for business class, which was rather reasonably priced. The flight is supposed to be operated by an Airbus A320.

Well, ahead of my flight, I just received a notification that I’ve been downgraded. The email is only in French and not English, and based on a translation, it says “we are writing to inform you that your flight reservation has undergone changes.” It then shows the same flight I initially had booked, but in economy, rather than business class.

What cracks me up here is that the airline acts as if this is just totally cool. There’s no mention of how to request downgrade compensation, or anything. For that matter, there’s not even an explicit note about “hey, you’ve been downgraded.” Instead, it just shows a new fare class.

I can’t wait to see what an adventure that compensation request becomes — I’m sure they’ll be very prompt and generous with my refund. 😉

Do some Tunisair A320s not have business class, or…?

Not to sound like a certain drama king and self-proclaimed multi-award winning whatever whatever whatever who always gets “scammed,” but… I don’t actually understand what’s going on here?

For what it’s worth, I booked my flight just days ago, and the flight was wide open — there were almost no seats occupied in business class, and economy at least showed the maximum inventory in all fare classes (which isn’t to say the flight is empty, but it definitely wasn’t booked out).

Now when I try to pull up the flight, it shows all inventory zeroed out in all cabins. The thing is, both before and after the change, the flight shows as being operated by an Airbus A320. It seems that Tunisair has two types of A320s — some have a dedicated business class cabin with real recliner seats, while others have an intra-Europe business class style product, with middle seats blocked, so that the cabin can change in size with every flight.

Does Tunisair also have a small number of A320s where business class is just never offered? I’ve searched all of the carrier’s routes, and across two dozen different flights, I found one other flight where business class wasn’t for sale. If the size of the cabin can be converted with each flight, what’s the argument for not offering it?

Even if we were to assume that this is a one-cabin aircraft with no business class for sale, it’s also strange how the flight suddenly shows as sold out. The flight had plenty of seats before, and swapping to an A320 without business class increases capacity even further. So was there a huge last minute booking, or what?

I’m excited for the double whammy of almost certainly being denied lounge access on account of the downgrade, and likely also having to fight tooth and nail for a refund (well, or at least to have to wait months to even hear back from them).

Bottom line

Flying in North Africa is always an adventure on many levels, and my Tunisair fun is starting before I even get to the airport. I just received a notice from Tunisair that I’ve been downgraded from business class to economy, with no explanation, and no process for receiving downgrade compensation.

Operational issues happen, but I can’t figure out how I’ve been downgraded out of a wide open business class cabin, especially when Tunisair has a flexible business class cabin on most of its A320s, as I understand it.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Does Tunisair actually operate flights in an all-economy layout, and I’m just confused, or what?