Air France Downgrade- The Final Answer???
 

Well, after some research based on the very good information from the brilliant Kerouac, I think I may have the answer on why Air France is saying they do not have to give the EU Compensation from Premium Economy to Economy.

I did not know about the Solidarity Tax that airlines in France have to pay. After being alerted to that by Kerouac, I did some research. It looks like economy and premium economy are both taxed at the economy rate. This means that Air France makes a bigger profit on those tickets, pays less tax and is technically off of the hook for EU Compensation for downgrades based on the fare code. While I may not agree that this is the right way to do business for their custmers, it is what it is.

My best advice to anyone flying premium economy on Air France is to do online check-in 24 hours before the flight and hopefully everything will go smoothly. Someone on my original post wrote in that they were downgraded, or reseated in AF terms, on the exact same Paris-Houston a few weeks after us.

In the end, I am thanks for all of your help!! We will be in Paris next February for another trip and I am counting down the days!!!

This is useful information should I ever fly Air France. Thanks for updating with regards to the resolution.

I thnk so too. Now at least we know what we can expect if something like this happens again.

Well, at least everything is clear now.

However, it is not the airline that pays the solidarity tax (whether it is 4 euros or 40 euros) -- it just passes along the amount that the passengers have been obliged to pay.

Actually one of my duties was to fill out the civil aviation forms for this, and every month we had to give the number of passengers embarked in economy class and the number embarked in "any other" class and pay accordingly. The other forms -- noise tax, security tax, airport tax -- were easier because there was no distinction in classes for those.

I see. But it does allow Air France to offer the service and get a higher fare for the seats though they aren't technically a different class and have a small penalty when they move you from said seats.

I am just glad it is clear too. AF did and said everything but this when they tried to explain things. Thanks Kerouac. We will be there in February and we owe you a bottle of wine!