Originally Posted by
WhiskeyBravo
I don't understand why stuff like this happens in 2015. We have all this technology, but we also have _people_. I work in technology (it pays the bills), and many times I advise teams that human solutions are a great supplement to their tech solutions.
As a suggestion/example....
DL/AF/KL/VS are in a TATL JV. It would take very little time to instruct all the red-coats at complex stations like this (e.g. LAX) to meet and introduce each other over 30 minutes of coffee once every two months (keep it fresh). Get a little name and face recognition, and exchange supervisor desk/cell numbers. One day fgirard walks up to the counter and the following should've happened....
- fgirard tries to check in with CI (check-in) agent
- agent is blocked by computer, gets supervisor
- supervisor is also confused/unclear. See's it's a DL ticket. Somehow cannot see/access the ticket.
- Supervisor picks up phone, dials DL supervisor desk at LAX, "Hi Linda, this is Jerry over at AF, having a problem with a ticket, can you help me clarify? ticket # is 123456.", then, "Oh hi Jerry, we met at the LAX supervisor coffee meetup right? No problem, I see this ticket is a confirmed reservation for AAA > BBB purchased via DLWEB and is for fare class J. Anything else you need?"... "Yeah, it says the ticket is under AIRPT CTRL but we can't unlock it, can you help?"...."Sure, let me call the gate and get them to XYZ." And the two of them continue until the issue is resolved. The passenger waits for 5-10 minutes.
Why is the passenger running between terminals? This is simply poor management and customer service.
I suspect this example you provided wouldn't work in this case because between the time OP bought the ticket and check in, AF sold his seat in J creating and oversold situation.
Since AF/KL are the same company, the best solution would be AF placing OP on a KL flight to AMS (if that flight wasn't sold out) with a short hop to CDG. But alas, since AF/KL has a INP culture, it doesn't surprise me.
The AF/KL JV with DL is probably the reason why OP's ticket, although purchased on AF.com (us site), has a DL ticket code. This allowed AF got pushed the problem DL to handle (cost and headache) rather than handling the problem themselves.
On hind sight with such an Issue, I would have gone to DL earlier and they may have placed me on KL rather than deal with AF. This is a case where AF let is elite member down not DL imo.