Originally Posted by
LeonS
About a decade ago I worked as a check-in agent for Lufthansa and back then the policy at the station where I worked was to allow connecting passengers to switch an earlier flight upon request if enough seats were available and the passenger could make it on time to the gate (without any risk of delaying aircraft).
It was explained to me that it was a Win-Win situation: happier passenger that uses a seat in a flight leaving soon, freeing space in a later flight (space that who knows if the airline might need later in case of IRROPS of other flights). Plus why make a passenger wait for a later flight that might end up being late for whatever reason.
Given how unlikely everyone is painting this with AF at CDG I don't think we'll even try unless the first flight is ahead of time or the second one is delayed.
It’s not win-win for AF I guess. I think they did their calculations on this.
It might be less lucrative for AF because you give the passenger the option to buy a lower fare class with a good option to take an earlier flight without any costs for the pax. So that will take the urgency away from the pax to actually book that earlier departure for extra costs so extra turnover for AF.
On top of that, you are giving the gate staff and other ground staff extra work in order to rebook customers.
All this doesn’t contribute to AF profits.