Gwilly

Hi there,
Was wondering what the same-day change rules were for AF. I am used to DL being very flexible in terms of being able to change your flights on day of departure for very min fees, and I’m curious as to what AF practice is.
Are you allowed to transfer flights if cabin is available? What are the fees associated with such actions?
Thanks for your useful insight.

Ditto

You are allowed to do what your ticket conditions say, no more and no less.

orbitmic

Another way of phrasing Ditto's answer is that there is absolutely zero difference between changing your ticket on the day or x weeks or months before. Expect no added flexibility whatsoever due to it being 'same day', for AF (and most non-US airlines) it is an entirely irrelevant element.

irishguy28

Only those holding tickets issued as Flex can "go show" in this manner.

Otherwise, you would have to pay the change fee associated with your ticket, and buy up to a Flex fare. This would, in some cases at least [cheapest available ticket bought well in advance of travel], cost more than what you initially paid for your ticket.

However, Light tickets issued in most markets (except for departures from Denmark, Spain, Finland, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Sweden) are not changeable; in such a case, you would have to buy a brand new ticket.

ranskis

All business class tickets allowed goshow, I did it more than once on AF on semi flex Z fares. However I don't know if it is still the case.

Gwilly

Got it! Thx y’all.

Adam Smith

Bit of an older thread here, but it since it's right on topic, I figured I should use this rather than start a new one...

It was suggested above that, at least at one time, all AF business fares allowed go show for an earlier flight same day. Anyone know whether that's still the case or not? The AF website makes it sound like that's only available with flexible fares, but just thought I'd ask given what was posted above, even if that was a couple of years ago.

I'm looking at making a booking where I would prefer the first flight of the day, but it's much more expensive than the second one. If I can go show/standby/whatever you want to call it for the earlier flight (which is not guaranteed, subject to availability, etc), I would probably just book the second flight and take my chances. But if not, I might pay up for the earlier one.

This would be restricted business (looks like I fare class), not flexible.

Goldorak

only with flex fares indeed.

smf_ltn

I was not allowed to change (without change fee) my AF business "Z" fare class to an earlier flight out of GVA to CDG in January. It was annoying, but not unexpected.

Adam Smith

Thanks for the quick responses
@smf_ltn, I presume that when you say "change fee", that's change fee + fare difference, since there's no SDC fee like we're used to here in North America?

irishguy28

No; change fee means change fee, and it is always payable (except when there's a waiver, like you have been posting about already today)

Fare difference is only chargeable if there is actually is a difference in fare. (This is to stop people like you buying a seat on the cheapest flight of the day, then rocking up to seat yourself on the most expensive flight of the day. But in some cases, the new flight will be cheaper than the ticket already held, so there is no "fare difference" (they never refund the balance if you go cheaper) and therefore only the change fee is payable).

atflyer

...not sure if it was pure luck, but I had a AMS-BKK/BLR-AMS ticket changed to an AMS-BLR return on another date for the outbound flight. Indirectly due to Corona (I would not be allowed to a meeting mid-March if I had been in Thailand 2 weeks before). The AMS-BLR return was cheaper -> instead of the 150 Euro change fee, I ended up with a net extra costs of 100 Euro since I also had a -50 Euro fare advantage. It was a cheap Y ticket. I assume I benefitted from relaxter rules due to Corona?

ranskis

Aroujnd 3 years go, restricted Z fares within Europe had the go-show provision in the fare rules and I used it a few times back in the days. Now this has disappeared.
Regarding go-show (same day stand by on an earlier flight), you can indeed book a later cheaper flight and take an earlier flight that would be more expensive, in this case there is no fare difference that is chargeable (there needs to be seats available in the same or lower class). Since go show is only allowed on FLEX fares nowadays, there is obviously no change fee either. Note that the flight needs to be exactly the same, although perhaps a CDG AMS XXX could be changed for an earlier direct AF CDG XXX .

Adam Smith

You make it sound so sinister

I understand what you're saying, but in North America, the airlines have decided that they'd rather collect a SDC fee (or give the privilege away with certain fares - even many inflexible ones - or with certain status) and get someone on an earlier flight than try to collect a fare difference. It also helps them with IRROPs, since it frees up seats on later flights for those who may have been delayed and so on. Evidently that's not the case in Europe, or at least at AF (I've done SDC with BA a couple of times before on inflexible paid business tickets and not been charged, but I don't know exactly what the applicable rules were), and that's fine. Consider me schooled in yet another way that the European legacies are less customer-friendly than the North American ones (round-trip pricing for intra-continental flights drives me nuts, for one) and we can move on

irishguy28

If IRROPS are likely, or in play, you'll be able to go earlier, or indeed later, if it helps the airline.

Otherwise, the equivalent of your "SDC fee" is the change fee.

Given that in NA, they fill up the "First" cabin with free upgrades, there's more of a culture of giving away something of nominal "value" for nothing on the day of departure (or shortly beforehand). You could argue this incentivises your customers to pay less (buy Economy, fly "First"; buy a cheap ticket at an undesirable time, fly out on a more expensive ticket at the actually-wanted time - here I'm assuming the SDC fee is less than it would have been to buy the seat you wanted outright from the start?). That's never taken off over on this side of the Atlantic.