Edgerfly

I was supposed to fly out today on Air France flight 379 which has the new 772 config in J from Vancouver to Paris, connecting to Croatia Airlines to Zagreb. This was a paid business class fare. No miles

Apparently because of a mechanical problem, they delayed the flight till tomorrow, and did not notify me. No call. No text. No email. AF just rebooked me on the flight for tomorrow. I can't go tomorrow because I'm meeting up with friends, and the hotel is under my name. Also nothing showed on the airport board as cancelled or delayed. The only way I found out was because the agent at the third-party plaza premium lounge told me that my ticket said tomorrow now instead of today.

So I called Delta (who I booked the ticket through) and they rebooked me on the KLM flight going through Amsterdam and getting in approximately the same time. However the KLM flight is an A330-200, and obviously a huge downgrade. I also have no choice of seats but the bulkhead or the last row. Any suggestions?

Am I entitled to anything as far as compensation should go? Should I complain? If so to who? I'm very angry that I'm not going to get to experience the new J product for which I had paid for and now am stuck with this very old product.

Ditto

No, there is no downgrade here as you are still getting a J product, even if it is not as shiny.
Also you seem to be still getting there in time, so also no delay compensation due.

You can still complain, just be aware that you are not entitled to any compensation.

Also AF has no liability to notify you, they only deal with DL who should have notified you and give you alternative options.

Out of interest, how did you manage to (online?) check-in and get all the way to the lounge without noticing that your boarding pass is for another day?

Edgerfly

Ok well they didn't notify me either. Also when I booked and paid for this ticket I had the option for this flight and passed it up for obvious reasons.

SEA-Flyer

You could ask DL for a different routing - they may or may not offer it to you - YVR-SEA-AMS-ZAG or something like that.

Edgerfly

I should have looking back, but flight is gone now.

Goldorak

As per AgentConnect, the reason of the cancellation is "unavailability of one of the pilot".
I fully understand and share your disappointment and frustration, but as already said by other posters, you are not entitled to any compensation because you will not fly in the new BEST seat. Compensation would be dure only if you arrive significantly later with the new routing. If you are a FB or Skymiles member, you can still file a complaint with AF or DL and they can maybe offer you a couple of thousand miles as a gesture.

Edgerfly

Could I make the arguement that I paid and chose this flight for it's fully flat product and now I'm stuck with an inclined seat which is bad for my back which is gonna be rough on me for 9 hrs?

If this was a mileage ticket I wouldn't care so much, but I paid out of my own pocket. Not to mention the poor communication and just randomly rebooking me tomorrow without a phone call or notification.

Ditto

Yes, of course you can claim that, but it doesn't mean you are entitled to a compensation, anything the airline might offer you will be a gesture of good will.

Edgerfly

Just closing the door, and I think the seats may be from the 90's. 😂

Goldorak

a type of seat, as well as a plane type is never guaranteed in the contract between you and the airline. You booked J and you will travel J, so end of the story. And trying to tell them a supposedly back pain and rough flight will just make your story ridiculous. If you think you'll have a rough flight in J, think about those flying in the cattle class (there are plenty of pax in Y who would like to have a rough flight during 9hrs in J, even an outdated one). Again, just stay factual and express briefly your disappointment + the lack of communication.

CyBeR

You can certainly make that argument to customer service and they'll likely be receptive to it and give you a voucher for some amount as compensation, or a couple thousand miles. But as said, you arrived at your destination at roughly the same time (so there was not enough of a delay) and in what is sold as a J class product, so you're not entitled to anything, really.

3Cforme

Day of departure issues are on the operating carrier, not the ticketing party nor ticketing carrier. Notification and rebooking should have been handled by AF (even if they were Delta North America agents contracted on behalf of AF). IATA convention.

brunos

How did you book the ticket? On DL website or though a TA?
If a TA, they probably notified the TA.

In any case, the unavailability of a pilot (probably sick), AF must have been managing the situation at the last minute. This is also shown by the fact that the flight was not announced cancelled at the airport until close to departure. You can hardly claim that you have not been notified, as the lounge dragon did notify you. AF had probably set up a counter near the gate to arrange rerouting for pax who connected from other destinations or had printed BP without checked luggage.

It is a sad experience, but not much you can argue about. All you can hope for is a few miles on your FB account (or possibly on SM account).

Edgerfly

I booked directly through DL.com I didn't even know TA's still existed. For the record, they didn't even have the flight status officially cancelled until about 2 hours before departure.

Im upset about the downgrade, but the communication and just automatically rebooking me the next day was a complete customer service blunder. If the plaza premium lounge attendant hadn't come up to me, I would have never known. Everything was shown that it was as scheduled up until then which also really angered me.

Often1

There are two sets of issues here which have become conflated because people conflate the term "compensation" to deal with required payments by law and contract and sensible gestures as a matter of customer service.

First, what OP experienced was not a downgrade. He was offered a reroute which he chose to accept as it met his needs and that is the end of it. AF, in fact, could have operated its flight with substitute and "inferior" aircraft and OP would have had no choice at all. Downgrade is a specific term meaning that OP was required to fly in a lesser ticketed cabin and that would entitled OP to a refund under EC 261/2004.

Second, although the thread title is misleading, it sounds as though OP was rerouted to arrive at his final ticketed destination of ZAG ontime. Presuming that he did so, there was no delay and he is not entitled to any delay compensation under EC 261/2004.

Finally, OP was ticketed through DL and AF would have notified DL of any cancellations or changes. It is DL which would have had contact information for OP and ought to have notified OP at whatever contact information OP supplied. DL is pretty good about this and I am surprised that it did not. Is it possible that there are messages stuck in OP's spam filter?

I would complain to DL because DL provides customer service for AF in the US and simply note that you were disappointed in the failure to notify you and in the poor quality of the reroute. You may or you may not see some smallish gesture, likely in the nature of SM or the like. But, do not be surprised at the small size of the gesture.