Marianna

Has anyone purchased tickets online on Delta's website for an international flight - a codeshare flight managed by Air France - selected seats online and found out that the Delta configuration of the plane does not match with Air France? That Delta confirms the seat selection and that Air France must approve the seat selection but neither Delta nor AF notify you if, for some reason, the seats are not approved? That although you confirm with AF by phone, AF can later deny the seat selection and still not tell you and neither does Delta? That the explanations and information changes depending on if you talk to Delta or AF which makes it very confusing - one blaming the other for for all the confusion? That, although you have the seats confirmed by AF, Delta does not have some assigned seats for your reservation in their records? That, when you ask about this, Delta tells you that you purchased seats but even though you have 4 seats confirmed together by AF, you will not necessarily be in those seats or together on the plane when you check in (this was said to me by a Delta supervisor as more of a reprimand than information - "you don't buy the seat Mrs. XXX since you do not take it with you after the flight! You simply will be seated someplace on the plane and not necessarily all together no matter what is noted on your file.") I have experienced this with Alitalia so I do know that this can happen, but it was how it was said to me.

Has anyone else had a frustrating experience like this with an international flight booked on Delta but managed by AF? It is obvious that they are not on the same page.

qwovadis

You are right but typical of most codeshares

BA worse on AA(fuel surcharges of hundreds of dollars)

than AF on Delta but similar issues

Many reports of the "red-headed stepchild" syndrome on AF

They give priority to their own first you get the leftovers

Accept this or re-book for better experience.

Just got FREE Paris flights on AA.com by getting 2

AAdvantage Cards(40000 miles each bonus) booking my

off peak flight including seats GREAT deal then cancel cards.

Last 2 weeks in April 2012 for me...

Might try something like that if time otherwise suck it up

airlinequality.com AF for nasty reviews there are plenty.

Sue_xx_yy

"which makes it very confusing - one blaming the other for for all the confusion? "

Ah yes, the wonderful world of intermediaries. Including codeshares, in which one airline supposedly is the intermediary for the other - which then denies any such thing.

Unfortunately nearly all airlines have in addition weasel phrases in their ticket contracts to the effect that seat selection isn't guaranteed. The Delta agent, while perhaps less than diplomatic, was correct in telling you that their contract is limited to getting you from A to B, more or less in the vicinity of a certain time and date.

Marianna

For a while after I was told that we did not have seats yet, I thought we would be assigned the toilet seats for our flights!

hpeabody

I have a solo ticket for Nov-Dec purchased through Delta with an Air France return (Code Share) from Papeete, Tahiti. At the moment I have a seat selected via Delta website (I have not yet called Air France to confirm) but at least the flight looks pretty well available at the moment. This post is a good reminder for me to confirm with Air France, Thank You OP. I had read sometime ago that there are these issues and will keep my fingers crossed I keep the seat I have assigned now or I am able to get better. I just can't tolerate being smushed in the middle seat, that is what I fear most. I do not think there is much we can do about it, though.

Marianna

Hpeabody, do the AF confirmation now. AF said we did not confirm our original seat selection with thme and it didn't matter that it was confirmed by Delta when we purchased the tickets in June. No one told us this info. I called by chance a week ago and found out. Our trip is next week. We were lucky to get the seats -further back on the plane - but all together.

NoFlyZone

Problems are significantly reduced if one goes into the Air France website to select seats. A Delta ticket number or confirmation number will get you to seat selection.

Femi

I booked 11 months in advance (through Delta) and confirmedmy seats with both Delta and AF and still got my seats switched to undesireable ones at the last minute. No response when I sent an e-mail to Delta customer service.

hpeabody

After a little difficulty getting the Air France locator code out of Delta, I went to the Air France website. The Air France website appears to show all my information including the seat I selected. I did not find a way to look at the seat selection airplane to make a change to it, however. There were 3 options cancel modification, assistance and confirm. Confirm takes you back to the previous page, assistance leads you to contact #s and FAQs, and ask a question, which me lead right back to where I was. I am not about to click cancel. Their offices have east coast hours, so I was not able to call. I did look at Seat Guru, WOW, It is quite noticeable they are in the business of selling premium seats. There are quite a few less economy rows on this flight than a normal 307 pax 777-200. All in all I think all is OK for now (still plan to call AF, though) Thanks all

hpeabody

BTW, NoFlyZone, The Delta confirmation# did not work on the Air France web site. I did not try the ticket#, I got lazy, instead of looking for it I just called Delta.

hpeabody

I was able to reach AF this morning. I was advised that the seat selection I have done is definitely in their system. There are quite a few seats blocked for airport check in and elite people. I also thought to ask about baggage and found out that there is an issue to deal with as Delta to Sydney and AF allowances are not the same.

denis2

I purchase my ticket to Europe on the Delta web site. I get a KLM flight to Amsterdam. I very seldom can get seat assignment on the Delta web site but if I do, when I get to the airport and checkin at KLM I usually do not have a seat assignment. I usually try to get to the airport early when I check in so that I can get a good seat assignment. It is very frustrating.

Marianna

Just happened to come across this and thought I would post some end results of our dilemma.

In addition to all the confusion I described above, we finally got seats further back on the plane but our son and DIL were shown as unassigned seats even though they did have assigned seats and the two seats next to us were taken (we assumed it meant son and DIL).

Being the nervous Nellie that I am, I decided to call the Atlanta CS number to bring this whole thing to their attention. It took several frustrating discussions and hang-ups by CS to finally get someone who would really listen. After a quick summary of my concerns, I asked to speak to a manager and turns out he was one. He listened, asked numerous questions and was taking notes about my experience. In the end, he offered me four $200 Delta vouchers to be used on another trip. Very nice - I thanked him. He also told us to check in early and see if we could get other seats as they do hold seats for check-in. My husband is an Elite Delta member and the person who purchased the 4 tickets so he said all four of us should be able to get better seats upon check-in.

When we checked, we asked about seats and were upgraded, free of charge, to the upper deck. So, it all ended well!

klam_chowder

Glad it ended well for you Marianna.

I missed this thread initially but yes, I have had a similar experience when I flew Delta/Air France to Stuttgart, Germany in early August.

Due to a technical issue with their website, I was unable to book the flight so phoned in and a Delta rep was great in getting me one of the last fares available. DH's flight was booked thru work and I was trying to get on the same flight. She said she seated us together on 4 of the flights but was unable to access 1 flight.

There were 2 connections and neither airline was able to select seats for us on 1 leg. I phoned both of them after I checked my reservation on-line.

When we checked in, they were able to seat us together on the first flight (where we had no seats selected) and I found out we were only seated together on 1 of the other 2 outbound flights.

What worked for us was to check-in early and see if that agent is willing to help. Some deferred us to the gate agent. When we arrived at the gate, we asked immediately. Some gate agents were definitely more inclined to help than others.

In the end for us, DH & I sat together on all legs both ways. We were travelling with another couple who were also seated apart. They were less tenacious and sat separately but for only 1/3 outbound legs.

Delta & AF really suffer from some confusion. At CDG, both airlines' kiosks printed tickets telling us to see an agent. Both airlines' agents referred us to the other's desk...arrrgh!

Enjoy-la!

Cali

I bought tickets on Delta for KLM flights and it listed both the Delta confirmation and the KLM confirmation and I just went on the KLM site and made the seat selection. I have done this several times and it works well.

jlovettjr

I have just experienced the total mess that the Air France - Delta information systems can create.

1) Because of mess-up by Delta on a previous Houston-Paris Round Trip, I went directly to AF website and booked two Premium Voyageur seats for sn upcoming IAH-CDG rountrip. All went smoothly. Seats confirmed. E-mail confirmation received same day. Mysterious confirmation sent to my wife, however: in French but substantively same as confirmation.

2) Recently I went to AF website to verify that all traveler info for international flyer was correct. AF system could not find any record of booking. Twenty minutes wait on telephone finally got me an AF person who informed me that, one month ago, booking was taken over by Delta. No explanation why could be given. Worse, Delta had never notified me. Neither AF or Delta informed me that there was a new booking number in the Delta system.

3) Going to Delta site resulted in finding record but now it was not showing seats and was missing the SkyMiles numbers. Seats were impossible to verify online now because, of course, they show as taken. I cannot enter correct SkyMiles numbers because system refuses to recognize me -- Name on AF ticket (full passport) and name on SkyMiles Account (done 20 years ago) are different. Delta refuses to correct or enter anything.

I am more than angry about switching my booking to Delta and resulting mess of booking record. I, too, am now in position of wondering exactly what will happen 24 hours before trip, when I try to check-in online. No one at Delta will promise anything will be as I requested.

jlovettjr

Here is a follow-up to my incomplete Delta-Air France Code Share Flight. Recent e-mail exchanges with Delta's help desk has resulted in 1) instructions that patently do not work and 2) an e-mail saying they cannot help me and I should call international reservations.

Call to international reservations number resulted in a finding by agent that someone (Delta/Air France) never linked original AF tickets to new Delta booking number. This was the booking number created by Delta and about which they never informed me. Agent assured me that 1) link was not made, 2) Delta FF numbers were entered, and 3) previously made seat reservations were on file. He suggested I wait a "couple of days," then check web site.

I waited two weeks, just to be safe. Well -- Web site still refuses to recognize any FF number, returning "internal error" messages instead. Still shows that seats have not been selected. Seats we supposedly have are showing as unavailable. I am still unable to enter and view/edit TSA Traveller inforamtion. Obviously, linking tickets and booking number failed to solve problem with Delta's systems.

My frustration is increasing. We are fast approaching departure day and I have no idea what our ticketing will contain.

Marianna

We recently booked Delta/Air France for a trip to Lisbon in July. My DH did the reservations online. We used our vouchers which are mentioned above. We got seat assignments and called to see if we could get seats in the upper deck. Strangely, there were 2 seats available outbound and return (Paris to Boston and back)so we took them and hoped that upon check-in we could get our son and DIL upper deck seats, too.

The next day, I called and made sure all was in place and explained what had happened a year ago. She checked and said that DH and I were all set with upperdeck both ways and she checked for son and DIL and could get them same seats in the upper deck on their return trip which is a few days before our return. I was pleased!

Now, we need to see what we can do for the Boston to Paris leg for them.

The key thing is to make sure Delta checks with AF (tell rep to check with AF) and gives you their confirmation numbers. I called AF to make sure all was in place and we, so far, are all set except for son and DIL Boston to Paris.

It is very frustrating that, at times, one airline has no idea what the other is doing.

Stay on top of it,jlovettjr. Call the CS number if not resolved yet and insist on speaking to a supervisor or manager. That is what I did last year.

Good luck!

rkkwan

jlovettjr - You need to call to get this resolved ASAP. Don't waste time with email, and you can't wait two weeks for things to happen. You are NOT confirmed, you are NOT flying unless YOU push DL to get this resolved.

luvtotravel

I thought I'd add my two cents since I booked a code share with Delta/Air France last night. I booked through Delta's website and selected my seats on all three flights, the first of which is on Air France. I called Air France this afternoon to confirm my seat number. It took no more than one minute to reach a live person, and she confirmed the seat number for me. I gave her my ticket number and she gave me my AF reference number. I used that number on AF's website and, voila, there it was in black and white. It was all so simple--I just hope it works as I'm going non-stop LA-Paris.