ixs

Gold means SkyTeam Elite. That's as high as it gets.

Henry III

Well, I still haven't had the pleasure of an email from AF informing me that I've been checked-in automatically, with an attached BP.

Anyway, this morning I received the usual email telling me that I could check-in for my flight tomorrow (T -30 hrs). So, in due time (the email actually came at T -30.25 hrs) I went to the AF website, logged on to my FB account and clicked "Check in;" it worked! (First time ever I've not had to enter all sorts of further info so that the system could find my booking - so I suppose that's progress. )

However, when I got to the second page of the check-in process (where you are shown your flight and seat number), the option of changing my seat had vanished: gone! So, I'm stuck in an aisle seat (near the front, though, and it's only a 1 hour flight), even though I was the first person to check-in (Seq. # 001 on the BP).

What's going on?

-- Henry

brunos

You are simply getting the new system, why you did not get it before is a mystery
When the flight is full all seats are preassigned and you cannot change the seat.

Henry III

That's what I like most about the AF website - the "Sweet Little Mystery!"
But, according to FlightStats.com, there are still (at least) 47 available seats (J2 Y9 W9 A9 K9 V9) and it's only a 100-seater Rj85!

-- Henry

orbitmic

Seats in the various buckets don't 'add up' they are just a sign of how cheap the airline is willing to sell the last seats to be booked on the plane, so as far as this goes (i.e. if you buy 5 seats in V the whole count could change both in V class and in higher economy buckets), the flight could have 10 available seats or 60 - or even 0 as AF always sells more tickets than there are seats to allow for a proportion of no shows, etc. Still, I agree with you it is weird to have absolutely all seats taken at t-30 (I have already had only 2 or 3 seats left available to switch to but 0 sounds stiff!!). So it may be the mix of your first taste of the hated new system and something else.

Mokshu

Which flight is it ?

Henry III

AF5166 (= "CityJet for Air France" ), 4th Feb. I've never seen these EDI-LCY flights fill up an RJ-85, though sometimes when it's a wee Dornier the flights can be (almost) full. Maybe there was an equipment change?

...

But then again ... whilst writing this post, I went to the KLM UK website to check on equipment type; I logged in to my FB a/c, selected the 'next flight', went to 'Flight Details' and I was show as "Checked In!" There was an option to "Reprint BP," which I took, and -- lo and behold -- I was then given the option to change my seat - which I did (5C to 4A).

Moral of the story: use KLM to OLCI for AF flights!

-- Henry

irishguy28

It doesn't quite work that way, Henry!

The 9 means that there are at least 9 seats available in each of those fare buckets...some of which are for the same cabin...but this doesn't necessarily mean that there are 9+9+9+9+9+2 seats still available for sale! If you were to add up the "real" availability in each fare bucket, it would exceed the number of seats on the plane!!! Each seat, after all, could be bought in any of a number of fare buckets....

ExpertFlyer is showing this availability on your flight: J2 Y9 W9 S9 A9 K9 V9 L9 U9 X2 G0

Mokshu

Its the same Information System for both websites, and it's developped by KL.

Gajan

For some weird reason when I do OLCI on the AF website it can never find my booking while it has no problems finding my booking on the KL website.

Gajan

ajs123

you are not the only one!

NickB

Not just OLCI. 'Manage your reservations' is also flakier on the AF site, imo.

I have quite a few times encountered the systems-are-down-try-later message on the AF site whereas the KL site could pull the rez easily.

Also, if there are many segments in the rez (>8), the AF site seems unable to show them all whereas the KL site has no problem with that.

Mokshu

In fact, the "Manage My Bookings" pages that display your trip are different on AF.com & KL.com. KL.com updated the whole package a few months ago and I really like their MMB. AF.com hasn't really evolved in ages.

However, the rebooking engine/pages is/are the same for AF.com & KL.com (developped by AF) and it's not very efficient imho.

That issue has been raised more than one year ago :|

brunos

Besides the observation on your multiplicative maths

1. On such commuter flights, a significant number of pax change their travel plan at the last minute (or days). So the airline knows that some seats will fre up. hence their revenue management system oversell and still open quite a few open seat for sale even is the flight is technically full. In a way this is good for pax as it means that you can change another flight to that flight in the same fare bucket. So you cannot tell from some Y9 availability that he a flight is not "fullé and all seats assigned.

2. When the flight is "transferred to the airport" when check-in opens, the data gets frozen as it is not linked to the check-in system. For example EF keeps reporting the same data 2 days before a flight. So any new booking is not reflected in what you see on EF or flightstats.

orbitmic

The weirdest part to me is that while this is indeed clearly the same KLM based OLCI system from both websites (and it certainly used to be for OK and KQ as well), the check in options are different on the AF and KL websites (AF: ticket no, reservation code or FB number, KL: ticket no or reservation code+flight no, not FB number as far as I know). Never understood why (or if I have overlooked anything?)