kerouac

Just wondering -- does Twitter have a private message function or are you exposing your life to everybody in the world by tweeting? I don't use Twitter enough to know such things.

cathies

If you are going to use twitter to complain then the whole point of it is that the complaint is exposed to everyone who follows Air France or whoever the complaint is aimed at. Companies hate those sorts of social media complaints for that very reason.

I had a problem with a phone provider and my daughter complained on twitter about it. The problem was resolved within an hour and that was in a Sunday!

LowCountryIslander

kerouac...yes, twitter does have a private message function. The way it has worked with me in the past (with Delta) is that I put out a tweet with my issue and Delta tweeted back and asked me to send more information (such as ticket number/confirmation number) to them via private message.

socialworker

But yes, the real point of why they respond is the public nature of the Twitter forum. Your Twitter identity does not have to include your actual name, if you choose not to use it.

You can only send truly private messages between fellow followers--that is two Twitter account holders who mutually follow each other. But if I tweet to Air France, for example, everyone and anyone who looks at the Air France twitter feed will see my words, but they will only know the identity that I chose to share as my Twitter name....Hard to explain, but becomes clear upon using it for a while.

The poster above tweeted to Delta and then it appears that Delta started to follow them and that allowed them to continue their communication privately. But the public aspect at the start is what lights the fire under them.

lrock5

Air France tweeted us privately and asked for our reference number and we gave that to them privately.

Christina

I think it is pathetic that a company has different service standards for people who complain on Twitter to those following normal routes. What on earth does that say about how they respect their customers.

kerouac

Irock5, are you actually doing things and appreciating your trip to France or spending all of your time getting compensation for the downgrade? I approve of people who follow up problems (I always do and I even fought with a motel in Georgia for 7 months after my last trip to the U.S.), but I do tend to put such things aside until I have completed my trip.

china_cat

socialworker, that's interesting that you were able to get seat assignments on your airfrance/delta flight. We booked about 2 months in advance, and as far as I know we did HAVE seat assignments. They showed up on my reservation, and I did it over the phone, the agent told me I had them. When we arrived to check in, we were told we didn't have them. I don't know if we never did, or if they got cancelled when we didn't check in 24 hours in advance.

My issue is that my DH and I book 3 seats for 2 people for the extra space. We need them to be in a row, or we might as well throw our money away. We often cannot checkin on-line because we have no passport for the 3rd seat, and most airline systems have trouble with this. Heck, most desk agents at the airport have trouble with this.

Jetblue is the first airline I have encountered who handled the extra seat business flawlessly.

socialworker

Oooh, china_cat, I wonder if I lied.....

We flew into London and back from Paris and when I look up the receipt, I see the seat assignments to London but the AF segment says "Not Assigned"....BUT, I remember that I *did* have assignments b/c I told DH not to freak out about it saying not assigned. They just did not show up for whatever reason. Since it was our return flt, I remember stressing about it less, but it is coming back to me that when we checked in at AF in Paris, that we did have them. I am just not helpful b/c since I was doing this a year ago, I cannot remember how I did it.

In your case where you are paying for an extra seat, it is crucial that you know upfront. Can they not just assign 2 seats to one of the travelers and do it that way to circumvent the passport issue. I would be very irritated if I were in your shoes!

FWIW we were traveling on miles and they may be a confounding variable.

cathies

Kerouac, I think the problem occurred on their flight home, not on the flight to Paris. A trip report might be good though.

kerouac

Oh, right, I missed that for some strange reason (otherwise known as "not paying attention").

lrock5

Yes, I will post a trip report eventually. I just got a response from AF and apparently they think they do not owe us the 75% compensation just $420 per seat. I thought this was a EU rule for downgrades.

lrock5

When you call AF in the US you get Delta. I spoke to a supervisor who knows nothing about EU compensation rules and she had me fill out a EU compensation form on Delta. I did that and now we get to wait to see what will happen. They make it really hard to get compensation. I think that most people would probably just think they got some money and move on as they really give you no information. If not for this website, I would not know about them (EU rules). That is disturbing.

annhig

They make it really hard to get compensation. I think that most people would probably just think they got some money and move on as they really give you no information.>>

well, congrats to you for your persistence. i think they rely on people not knowing their rights and giving up after they get knocked back a time or two.

seafox

I had a somewhat similar exprience with Delta from Paris a few years ago. My lesson learned, was to put my complaint in writing, be clear about my expectations and be direct. I also looked up the names of the Delta customer service Execs on Google finance and copied them in on the letter.... two weeks later I got a very polite apoologetic call, miles credited to my account that covered another trip to Europe for each of us and refunds. I was speachless....

seafox

I had a somewhat similar exprience with Delta from Paris a few years ago. My lesson learned, was to put my complaint in writing, be clear about my expectations and be direct. I also looked up the names of the Delta customer service Execs on Google finance and copied them in on the letter.... two weeks later I got a very polite apoologetic call, miles credited to my account that covered another trip to Europe for each of us and refunds. I was speachless....

welltraveledbrit

In the letter I would include a link to this discussion.

kerouac

Working for an airline for 35 years, I was told never to spontaneously offer any sort of refund if it was not requested. I completely ignored this directive and refunded all sorts of things on my own initiative. I even refunded quite a few non refundable tickets. I'm sure that the airline has become much more profitable since I left.

soogies

Thanks, I rock, for posting this. I learned a lot about downgrades, twitter , etc and now a major airline is probably much more profitable without Kerouac .

Seamus

lrock - if I am reading correctly, two of the three passengers were involuntarily downgraded and the third person chose to give up the upgrade. Does that mean the Article 10.2(c)of Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004 AF compensation of 75% of the fare for that segment is owing to just the two?
At 75%, $420 would equate to a OW fare of $560, or a R/T fare of $1120. Is that close to what you paid?

I also note that the same article requires that the compensation be paid within seven days according as outlined in Article 7(3) - i.e., "in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank orders or bank cheques or, with the signed agreement of the passenger, in travel vouchers and/or other services" (emphasis mine - meaning they can't claim that travel vouchers are your reimbursement unless you agree to that and they cannot force you to agree) It's already well past that date, wonder if that has any additional penalty?

Maybe kerouac or someone with similar professional insight can comment...