Your tickets are essentially put on hold while in the ticketing queue. The OP will see a "Pending" on their credit card statement and perhaps a test charge by Air France to see if the card is valid. If the card is declined the reservation gets cancelled or in some cases will go back to the hold status and the OP has 24 hours to contact the airline with the new payment info.

Sometimes it can take airlines awhile to process the credit card charges from Pending to Posted. Also just by having the Record Locator Number does not mean its a valid ticket. You need the Ticket# which can take anywhere from 2 hours to 72 hours or instant. All airlines have up to 72 hours to ticket or deny the reservation which is why its important to check the status online or via the call center and ask"Is my ticket ticketed, on request or on hold".

Also you can ask if the FOP(Form of Payment) has been approved and processed and posted to the reservation.

This helps to ensure you do have a valid ticket in case the fare goes up and you were not ticketed you could repurchase a ticket before you show up or find out weeks or months later that you were never issued a ticket.

Here is a story of why to always confirm you are ticketed and to confirm that you are put on the correct flights within 24 hours and to make sure your names match the Passport/ID card.

A friend purchased a ticket to Europe and thought all was fine and dandy. He showed up to the San Francisco International Airport with the Record Locator Number(this was before online checkin/online manage my trip was popular). The Ticket Counter Agent said "I'm sorry sir there is no reservation under this Confirmation Number".

My Friend got so upset as he told me and said "But I paid for my ticket" and had a confirmation number. There was no ticket number and he was forced to repurchase the ticket for $2,500 the cost of the ticket for that day if he wanted to fly(A very expensive lesson and yes he did have to pay that because he was on a pre-arranged tour and had a family event that he needed to attend). His original ticket was $770 r/t and this was back in the late 90s. It was during the busy summer travel period. If he had called the airline to confirm that he was ticketed he would have more than likely been able to repurchase the ticket for around $770. I asked my Friend if he checked his credit card statement to see if the airlie took his money and he said"Yes it all looked good". Not sure how he dealt with getting compensated and where the error took place but the Ticket Counter Agent was only following the policies of the airline as if the passenger just walked up and wanted to buy a ticket for that day.



There is a Fraud Department especially for international transactions they will audit reservations and this can delay ticketing its to protect the airline and the customer so a random stranger won't book a ticket using your credit card without your authorization.

Its best to have Online Banking Setup and link your credit card so you get alerts when a card has been charged etc.

I hope this helps.