Air France downgrade

Old Mar 18th, 2013, 09:47 AM
  #21  
 
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If everyone who made bookings on flights actually turned up for them, there would be no need for overbooking and this situation would not happen. Same with prebooking specific seats and finding out that they have been changed. It does happen very often and is not nice but it is not an issue of the airline's making, it is an issue of the people that book flights and no show.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 09:53 AM
  #22  
 
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I am sorry but I disagree with Odin. Airlines know about overbooking and no-shows. Overbooking is one thing; taking a BOOKED SEAT away from someone who DID show up for it is entirely something else.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 09:54 AM
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I can confirm that it happens very often. It is nearly always a case of "high contribution passengers" making demands at the last minute and getting their way, bumping down all of the little non-VIPs.>>

how do get to be a "high contribution passenger" kerouac?

sounds like it's a good thing to be!
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 10:05 AM
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I believe that means someone who is paying more for their ticket (high contribution).

I've never had that happen to me, thank goodness, but I can't afford those seats. However, I did have that happen to me once on a domestic United flight. It was a small plane and United has this insidious practice of marking certain seats premium economy even on very small planes, most of them. So if you want to book a ticket, the regular price seats can be sold out as there aren't that many, so you are forced to pay for the premium. That happened to me once on a flight from Chicago to Aspen (the website claims the premium seats have more leg room, they didn't look different to me). However, when boarding, the boarding ticket they gave me turned out to be for a regular seat. I didn't know it, of course, it wasn't obvious which rows were premium and which not, but I checked later and found out (it wasn't my original seat). It was about a $35 seat different or something. It took me about 2 months to get United to refund that fee I was forced to pay for something I didn't get.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 11:19 AM
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Kerouac,

Since I cannot speak to someone, I was told to fill out the form online and it may take 7 to 21 days to receive some correspondence back from Air France. Do I expect a form letter? I have read that they have to give a certain percent back from the downgrade. I have never had this happen so I do not know waht to expect. Do you receive any compensation or just the straight up cash refund. Thank you so much for your help.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 12:25 PM
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Glad I found this post. I have booked Premier Voyager seats on AirFrance for an Atlanta to Paris flight in May. I'll be frequently checking my seat status right up until I'm sitting in my booked seat!
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 12:25 PM
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Under Article 10 of Regulation 261/2004 the two involuntarily downgraded passengers are due 75% compensation http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes...g_2004_261.pdf
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 01:06 PM
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Dukey - you appear to be laboring under the erroneous assumption that when you get a seat assignment it is guaranteed that you will occupy that seat. This is a common error. Seat assignments are never guaranteed. Period.
Signed,
Learned the hard way.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 01:29 PM
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The rules for compensation are automatic, so you can expect an automatic replay. There are monetary amounts for each degree of fare code disrespected.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 01:30 PM
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automatic reply
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 02:35 PM
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Thank you so much for your reply Kerouac. I have received no e-mail from Air France and was told today to fill out the claim form online.If it is indeed 75% for the 2 seats, that is a fair amount. The flight attendants told me it may take a weeks or so for their report to get in the system but to try for the 3rd seat as you never know we may get that also as they documented that they let us all move together. I don't have the 1st set of boarding passes as they took them from the gate so if they ask for any more documentation shouldn't they have it all in their system?

Low Country Islander, I would definitely check in online 24 hours early as they told us that since we checked in 157th that is why we got moved. I still don't understand it but it is what it is. I just want to get some money back and hopefully go back to Paris soon. We could have had far worse happen to us than have our seats moved.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 03:16 PM
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Every airline will always just try to give you credit on the airline for a future trip. You only get actual money if you tell them "this experience was so horrible that I am never going to take your airline again." Of course, then you will wait much longer.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 03:26 PM
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I was told to fill out the claim form so do I just write that I want the percentage of money back? I can find no one to actually talk to at Air France. I plan to quote the Eu rule so they know I know that I am entitled to.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 03:29 PM
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And will they contact me or should I be ther one contacting them? Sorry to ask so many questions. I have never been in this boat before. That is probably a bad comparison as we are taking a cruise next year for a friend's daughter's wedding. On Carnival hope that goes OK-HAHA
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 08:04 PM
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So sorry....it is irritating and sometimes can happen if there is an aircraft change. Certainly your status with the airline in general and the amount you paid fr the ticket all come into play. I do agree that you want to check in as early as possible for trans-atlantic(we were once upgraded because we were first to check in). I woukd call them back...and no they may not have all the info in their system. Expect to do the work to get any money back.

I was bumped once with a confirmed, assigned seat because they needed to save on fuel for a flight in bad weather....me and another girl and both of us weighed about 110 lbs!!! Lotsa of heavier people made it on that flight. If you have any frequent flier status I woukd also work for additnal points as well as the refund.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 09:02 PM
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Trying to talk to a live human being at Air France is like...well, I can't even think of a good comparison. It's pretty much impossible. When our luggage was delayed for several days we worked with a representative of our travel-insurance company, who apparently had a number to call in such cases. Otherwise it's on-line forms and wait for a response. Be sure to print and date copies of any and all correspondence.
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Old Mar 18th, 2013, 09:41 PM
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I understand that one may not get the SEAT assignment , that its not guaranteed, BUT since you pay more for a different CLASS and get demoted to a cheaper class I think one should get compensation.
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Old Mar 19th, 2013, 04:35 AM
  #38  
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I have American Express travel insurance and I paid with my American Eaxpress card. i will call them but in the meantime I will submit my claim form online. I am going to try to get monetary compensation for all 3 seats if I can. If I can't talk to anyone how do I ask for anything else besides just the money, which is the most important thing for me to get back as my sister-in- law will not be going again anyway?
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Old Mar 19th, 2013, 06:10 AM
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If you think AF was bad, you should try dealing with United. They literally do not publish a phone number for customer service, it is a big secret, you can only communicate by email and it took months for them to respond to me. I would have been really steamed if it were more money. I did finally get my refund, however. United only has a customer service number for reservations, nothing else.

I would certainly expect you'd get a refund on the price difference, that is just factual, but if you are asking for some kind of damages for other reasons, such as disappointment or your seat wasn't as comfortable and you really wanted it, I'd forget it. You are never going to get that. But don't leave it up to them, they can give you FF miles, you have to ask for those in such cases. If you are not part of their FF program or the Skymiles or whatever, then that obviously is not an option. But airlines will sometimes give out FF miles to disgrunted customers, I always ask for miles and have gotten them usually in some cases (long flight delays for no reasons, etc.) but they won't give you money just for being disappointed, I suspect, how would they even value that.

United did not try to give me credit for a future trip in my case, I don't think that would be proper, this is an actual monetary difference in the seat you got versus what you paid for, I wouldn't think the airline could not refund the actual price difference legally.
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Old Mar 19th, 2013, 06:35 AM
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I think by EU rules they should have to give me monetary compensation. I am a member of their flying blue program and I spoke to someone from flying blue just a few minutes ago and they told me to call the 1800 reservations number and speak to someone. We will see.
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