AirFrance and changing departure date from USA
#1
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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AirFrance and changing departure date from USA
Air France told me via phone that I cannot change my departure date from the USA if I want to leave 2 days earlier to Paris. Has anyone had any experience with this possibility? They said I could change the arrival date to the USA. Doesn't make sense.
#2
Join Date: May 2003
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Airlines are very restrictive on changes. If you really must leave two days early and get nowhere with Air France then go to the airport on the day you wish to travel and see if they will let you go standby. You may want to check the loads on the flight before going to the airport.
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Also depends on the fare class the ticket is issued in. Some you can change with no penalty, some you have to pay a fee, and some (like those you get from Priceline) you may not change it at all.
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Thomas.....With most international discount fares,there are fairly heavy penalties for making changes especially close to departure.In almost all instances,if you change the outbound flight,then you have to resort to starting all over, in effect.So if the fare you purchased had an advacne purchase requirement, then you are not meeting that requirement to go 2 days early.What Air France was telling you was that you could not change your departure without a probably huge fare increase.And by the same token, most returns can be changed again with payment of a fee, usually $150 to $200 per ticket.What the airlines are saying is that they will offer you a discounted fare, but there are rules.And changed the outbound flight is one of the rules.If you were to go to the airport to attempt to go stand by, I would think it would be an exercise in futility, regardless of the "loads".Most fares that allow standby on either end of the itinerary allow you to standby only on the date for which you are already ticketed,not before and not after.While there are millions of example of exceptions to the rules domestically, it doesnt happen that often with an internaitonal ticket.I hope this helps...