Once I was stuck in Athens airport (snowstorm!!).
All the flights were cancelled until further notice.
You can imagine the very long lines in front of check-in/ticket desks.
There was such a mess in the whole airport that I decided to call the AF Platinum service, which found me a flight on Olympic Airways the next day.
The lady told me that I need to withdraw the ticket at the AF ticket office, as it is a paper ticket with an other airline, but I can do it when the ticket office won't be that busy.^