Originally Posted by
bostontraveler
Several people have spoken of this "ordonnance". Where is it? I have not yet seen it published anywhere.
Yes. You're correct, you can sue Air France but given that there is no "small claims" court in France it is pointless and they know it.
What is reprehensible is a) the blatant lying on behalf of AF refusal to be compliant with the law and b) the complicity of American Express in not providing the services that I pay 600euro a year for...
Not to speak of the thousands of euro I spend every year on AF as a Platinum member.
Not a layer, but it looks like AF is relying on ordonnance 2020-315, which was decreed yesterday and published in the official journal today. It allows various travel operators to give refunds in the form of a voucher, which becomes refundable at the end of its validity period. The wording seems to suggest that these vouchers are considered to be equivalent to giving a full refund. I also saw that Air France has updated their website to say the vouchers are refundable.
The EC, in their guidance from March 18 say that these laws around refunds fall outside the scope of EC261/2004, so it looks like their position is that if national law allows for refund in the form of a voucher, it still counts as a refund. The government and EC seem to be giving AF and other airlines legal cover to do this, which probably also why the credit card companies are refusing chargebacks: the airline has done what the law requires them to do under the circumstance.
Now, this all could be wrong and the courts may disagree, but from a practical standpoint, it would probably take over a year to resolve such a court case, so you're probably better (IMHO) just to take the refundable voucher.