In my case, I booked flights Thursday evening (22h) for myself and a friend. The route was DUS-CDG-MAD (well, I am flying GVA-CDG-MAD myself). By lunchtime next day (Friday), I observed that neither itinerary had been ticketed. Could this be because I had clicked through the German cashback portal www.shoop.de? I called the German number of Air France, and the agent indeed confirmed that neither itinerary had not been ticketed. So I got him to issue them immediately on the spot.

Fast forward to Friday evening, where I noticed that every segment in my friend's ticket was in X-class (she credits to AirEuropa SUMA). A quick look at wheretocredit.com revealed that X-class is an ineligible booking class for mileage collection in every scheme except that of Air France, the Flying Blue programme, so that ruled AirEuropa SUMA out. I tried to get through to the German number of Air France, but it was after closing time and everybody has gone home. So I called the main Air France call center, saying I wanted to cancel under the 24h rule and start again, booking the ticket in the next class available. Impossible to cancel, the German office which had issued it had to do that ... except they were closed now. Also, they said there was no 24h rule as such, but if you wanted to cancel for free you had to do it within the same day as the booking. So, with not much hope I went to sleep, hoping to sort it out with the German call center the next day.

The German call center was amazing. They processed a refund of the first booking (EUR174) with no fee, and then issued a new ticket in V-class (EUR190) which is eligible for AirEuropa SUMA, so all is well. It is unclear whether they were observing a 24 rule, or made a "Geste commerciale", or were responding to my Gold status, or were making concessions to passengers in the light of all the strikes, but it was amazing customer service. All I can say is, try and be as sure as you can about your flights before clicking on purchase, if possible.