Thanks for all your comments.
Couple of things have happened. I complained to Luxair customer service department who told me that the attitude of the (Lufthansa) employee at Frankfurt was not correct and that we should have been allowed to board the Luxembourg flight without extra fees if there were free seats. Luxair are going to refund at least the cost of the 4 tickets Frankfurt-Lux, which, if they do it, will be very gentlemanly of them.
I have looked at airline comparison websites and am quite frankly amazed at the slagging-off which Ryanair attracts. I am well aware that Ryanair can be more expensive than other airlines and so choose my flights with great care. If I am paying as little as € 25 for a flight, I am prepared to put up with a lot. I have found the service on Ryanair quite acceptable, although I am not fond of the vivid yellow and blue seats nor of their inflight food slogan "Hungry? - we will fill you up!". Their flogging of train tickets, lottery tickets etc. I find no more objectionable than normal airlines tendency to get the food and drink bit over with asap so as to flog duty free booze, perfume etc.
What really pissed me off was getting much worse service than Ryanair on a flight that cost me €1000. That is unacceptable.
So far, perhaps I have been very lucky with Ryanair and indeed Air Asia, I have never had a bad flight with them.
W.r.t. business class passengers resenting it if others are upgraded or have paid a lot less for their ticket.. why should they - the chances are if they are corporate travellers they didn't pay for their ticket themselves anyway, ultimately taxpayers and consumers did. It is no different to pax sitting on the same charter flight having paid vastly different amounts for the same holiday and that happens all the time!
I have also complained to Gulf Air, but am much less hopeful of getting any kind of response from them.
Will let you know if I do.
