Ackislander

Amer_can's "take a chance, fly Air France" slogan is certainly out of date. Of the airlines we fly to Europe, AF consistently has the best food and the service is as good as anyone else's, though that could be damning with faint praise.

Overbooking happens. The later you check in, the more likely you are to be bumped. You should be compensated for your loss.

socialworker

I vigorously agree w/Ack. No better food in the air than AF, and generally gracious service on the ground and in the air! I just try to avoid connections, but I do that w/every airline. Sometimes you cannot avoid them....

Altho I cannot remember the exact sequence of events, unlike china _cat, I *was* able to get seat assignments for our outbound Delta code share on AF from BOS to CDG last October, but I made the reservations 6 mos or more before the flts and now do not remember exactly how I did it....

lrock5

I agree. We do like AF and have had relatively good luck with them. We made a very tight connection to Rome on the 1st part of our trip and all of our luggage landed safely with us. We have been upgraded 2 times when they have overbooked. This time I actually paid for better seats but got downgraded. Stuff happens and as long as we get some compensation we will fly AF again as they have a straight connection to Paris from Houston and better food and free wine, which my husband loves and takes advantage of as he is afraid to fly.

StCirq

I love Air France, and will never forget how amazing their service was when I flew last September with a broken foot and on crutches. There was someone to help me at every step of the journey, like clockwork - just incredibly gracious, helpful, efficient people.

lrock5

Only the crew at the gate at CDG were not helpful. The flight attendants on our plane were flat out fabulous even offering to write a report that we did not use the premium economy seat. They even thanked us for being so calm and not making a fuss on the plane.

amer_can

I stand corrected and that's a good thing!!! Sounds like it might be a good idea to "take another chance"!!! Haven't flown them in years due to several very poor experiences previously. Thanks for the update..

amer_can

Just got an email from AF..re: specials fares from Canada, if anyone is interested.. 4/1 to 6/18 and 9/11 to 12/14..Well under $1000. Know that this may not be the place but much interest in AF prompted me to share.

lrock5

Just got something from AF customer care saying that they are giving my husband and sister in law(who will never fly them again) a $200 voucher on a future flight in addition to the refund we need to send to claims dept. We e-mailed back what happened. Don't know if they received it or not. Very frustrating not to speak to a live person. They did apologize for being told at the gate as we got on the plane we had been downgraded though. This response was from the tweet.

amer_can

Looks like the situation is geting straightened out..Good!!I, personally, would not be satisfied with a future flight voucher as who knows what tomorrow brings and trips on AF may not be on your priority list.. Keep up the quest!!

lrock5

Will do. I plan to FAX the refund request tomorrow. It would be nice if the voucher were actually for me and not my sister in law though.

kerouac

Ah, now there's the rub -- compensations are linked to passenger names unless you can prove that you paid for all of the tickets.

lrock5

I paid for all 3 on my American Express card.

amer_can

Get in touch with AMX..They may have some suggestions or maybe able to help..Worth a try...

lrock5

They will try to dispute the charge but I am going to try to ge the refund and see how much that is first. I am not sure if AF will give back 75% of the ticket as the EU rules suggests or try to wiggle out with only the last portion of the flight. I did put the rule in my FAX along with the fact that they should have let us know that we were getting downgraded BEFORE we were walking on the plane. We will see.

lrock5

Refund Faxed off. We will see. I will let everyone know if I hear anything as unfortunately these things happen and if I can help anyone else in the future I will. I will also try to work on a trip report this weekend.

It was a wonderful trip from Rome and no Pope to meeting my husband's extended family on Sicily to landing in Paris during the blizzard of March 12. Quite an adventure.

Again, thank you for all of your help and advice and understanding of the pleasures of flying!!

Lisa

Tulips

My elderly mother was downgraded by Air France from business to economy while flying on her own to South America. They were very rude about it too, she was just told that they were overbooked. She had booked and paid for business ages in advance.

When she tried to leave the plane after getting to her destination, they stopped her and told her to wait for the business passengers...

She got a refund an apology in the end, but it took some paperwork.

lrock5

Your poor mother. What we went through was frustrating enough without paying for Business and being moved to economy. I'm glad she got a refund AND apology. I

lrock5

Today I got a $200 voucher to go along with my husband and my sister-in-law's last week. The person from AF apologized for the actions of the gate staff at CDG. Apparently this was a goodwill gesture on his part. So now I am just waiting on the refund for the fax I sent last week to the refund department. That may take a while.

lrock5

Oh and by the way Socialworker, we got the vouchers through posting on Twitter. Thanks for the heads up.

socialworker

I am so happy to have been able to help, Irock!

I only knew to do this b/c of the younger people in my family. All of the businesses want to maintain good relationships and connections with the Twitter generation, and if you complain via Twitter, they assume that you are young and they do not want to lose that demographic!