...alias: AZ-AF - a
not so seamless experience.
PSR-FCO-CDG-BHX being the itinerary in question, with the FCO & CDG flights operated by AZ, all booked through the AZ website under one single ticket/PNR (or at least that's what I thought
), a fully flexible business class fare. I was able to check-in for the aforementioned segments but, when trying to do exactly the same for AF1064, the AF website would not recognise my booking. Okay, let's call AZ in order to get AF's PNR, which was [not promptly] given and with the operator adding a rather annoying “You'll not be able to proceed with on-line check-in anyway”... Thanks very much
(P.S.: he was right). Alright, let's call AF and tell them about the issue, mainly given that my connections weren't that
comfortable and that even a slight delay could have literally compromised the last segment as of missing the check-in deadline: the operator was unable to help and added "They'll surely be able to check-you in at Pescara", in a more classy way than her AZ counterpart, may I add. I therefore got to the airport with plenty of time before my first flight and explained the situation to the check-in agent, who literally went "I can't see any other flight - your itinerary is Pescara to Paris via Rome. Go to the transit desk once in Rome and ask them to help you”... We landed in Rome just before 8:30 and I was at the transit desk (the one downstairs) by 8:45 (with my CDG flight already boarding): the agent insisted that I was booked on two separate tickets and told me to go upstairs and see the other transit desk as "up there they can also deal with Air France bookings" (...): different agent, same story i.e. "Sir, your itinerary is formed by two flights and I can't see the Birmingham segment because you must have booked two separate tickets"... She was then pretty swift to give me the passport back and even re-printed my boarding pass, telling me to speak to AF once in CDG, without even a little bit of an effort in [at least] trying to investigate this further.
AZ318 landed in CDG roughly 20 minutes ahead of schedule - I therefore thought to get to the lounge at the F gates, confident that AF would be able to check me in: to my amusement, it appeared that my name was not amongst those booked on AF1064 and the lounge agent didn't seem to be that helpful and kept telling me "Sorry, I'm unable to see any reservation under your name". I then called both AZ & AF ("I can see your ticket, Pescara to Birmingham, however you're not booked on the last flight"
) whilst in the lounge - both quite unhelpful, even though I could understand AF in the sense that it wasn't really their booking. Frustration was obviously hitting hard, mostly due to the extremely annoying nonchalant attitude on all fronts which, frankly, I was not expecting. The funny (for all the wrong reasons) case obviously got other lounge agents interested until one of them took the phone and spoke to both AF & AZ ticket offices: after at least half-an-hour of frequent calls, messing up with their systems in the lounge, other agents coming & going, they decided to arrange a new booking for me on AF1064 which, in the meantime, was showing as delayed (and good job it was as otherwise I would have definitely missed it).
How the hell (frustration - sorry) is it possible that two airlines, long-standing partners and members of the same alliance, would firstly treat you with such a
don't care attitude and secondly still be years behind when it comes to communicating between their systems and offering a real seamless experience, not this crap. Also, I was frankly annoyed to hear the assumption (all & over again) that I must have done two separate bookings: why would I tell them a lie when the whole itinerary was clearly showing on both my booking confirmation & even the AZ phone app, from where it was painfully clear that all 3 flights were booked under a single ticket/PNR...
I know it all ended well, but what a stressful morning...
G