My wife purchased a round-trip ticket from Phoenix AZ to Paris France for $2880.53. The ticket was listed as changeable at no charge. When we changed the return date from August 30 to September 22, Air France charged us an additional $1238.50, claiming that they changed the fare basis. When I checked the flight on their website, it was listed at the same price as we originally paid. When I asked for a refund of the $1238.50, they canceled the flight.
At this point, we have paid $4119.03 and have not received what we paid for, a round-trip flight, only the one-way flight to Paris.
I requested that Air France refund the additional fee of $1238.50 and honor their commitment to provide a return flight for my wife at no additional charge.
I have filed complaints with the French MTV, the US Department of Transportation, and the Better Business Bureau.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Might want to send an email to the CEO as well - they'll usually route this through some form of elevated customer service department with the power to address your concerns. [email protected].
@faris-3 Thanks Faris, good idea. Since this was a code-share flight with Delta, I'll also each out to them.
I'm sorry, but there's a lot to push back on here..
1. "The ticket was listed as changeable at no charge" - You obviously misunderstood this. There aren't any change fees on AF fares for travel originating in the US, but you are responsible for any increase in the fare. You should read the rules of the fare you purchase before committing.
2. "When I checked the flight on their website, it was listed at the same price as we originally paid." - Purchasing a new ticket and changing an existing reservation are two different things. Just because the fare for a new reservation was the same as the original fare you paid doesn't translate into your change being cost free. When you change an existing reservation, you have to follow the rules of that reservation. Often time, those rules will result in a higher fare. There's no way around that.
3. "When I asked for a refund of the $1238.50, they canceled the flight." This is simply not believable. Airlines aren't in the business of canceling reservations simply because you call them to ask for a refund.
4. "At this point, we have paid $4119.03 and have not received what we paid for, a round-trip flight, only the one-way flight to Paris." If this is the case, why not just dispute with your card company? You must have some evidence to support your claim of an "Air France ripoff".
5. "I requested that Air France refund the additional fee of $1238.50 and honor their commitment to provide a return flight for my wife at no additional charge." What commitment? You purchased a ticket that has fare rules. They are simply applying those fare rules to the change you want to make.
I wish you the best of the luck with this!
@larryinnyc Not necessarily. I'm an advisor that deals with these types of scenarios on a daily basis. AF/KL are especially challenging when changing just a return. Sometimes they'll want to go back and apply historical pricing to the entire reservation (which doesn't make sense), and sometimes not. Even just making a simple change to a return (in the same inventory mind you), will increase the fare. I've had the OP's same scenario happen. Only solution is to cancel the entire booking, take the credit and rebook. I only book fully refundable fares on AF/KL due to their very stringent change polices. Anything non-refundable is booked using DL codeshare as it offers a lot more flexibility.
@thekellyd Agreed - they repriced it for a oneway from europe which is very much more expensive than a full RT. I suspect this is where the fare difference occured.
@thekellyd I can’t imagine why anyone would buy a “changeable at no fee” ticket if they thought AF could pull this crap and charge whatever they want. I wouldn’t have and would have bought a refundable ticket. But I wonder if AF would have only refunded part of the ticket cost. Sleazy, fraudulent advertising.
Seems to me that when you asked for a refund, the agent thought you wanted to cancel
@cr Unfortunately the "agent" was an AI. A human agent might have told me there would be an additional charge of $1238 for a "no charge" change!
Oh wow,.. a whole new element to this has just came to light.
I can’t even imagine trying to understand, let alone advise you, on how a misunderstanding with an AI agent resulted in your cancellation.
This has reached a point where I have a hard time differentiating between user error and Air France error.
your credit card company is gonna be your best source for a resolution… just don’t expect to fly air france for quite a while if you dispute the charge.
Wow, what a mess. DOT is useful for getting responses from the airlines, but often does not enforce much; credit card dispute will provide an immediate credit, but likely will be reversed when the airlines respond, so will need to appeal, sometimes multiple times, and still may not prevail; BBB is worthless.
What is your goal here? Get a full refund? A credit to use towards future flight?