Lawrious

Hi all,

Well, during my research last night for a flight from London to Singapore via CDG I decided to reserve a booking via the 'Time to Think' option to essentially reserve the price for 72 hours. However, I then found out this morning that it had completely disappeared from my account pages to complete and finalise the booking. Trying to reenter the booking reference to add it to my account flagged a warning that it had been 'cancelled'.

Oddly, I rechecked my email to then realise the time I had to complete the booking by below:



As you can see, it only gave me a measly ~3 hours or so. I have used this before with no problems, so, has anyone else used this feature and encountered the same problem. To say I am annoyed is an understatement and I am currently trying to get in touch with AF.

Xandrios

I haven't used this option specifically on the AF website. However from what I understand, generally, there are two ways to offer such feature.

1. The fare rules specify how much time is allowed between booking and ticketing. When a flight is far out this may be 2 weeks. For a flight a month out it may be 72 hours. A flight in a few days may only have a few hours in which the ticket needs to be issued.

2. The airline can 'break' their own fare rules and allow more time. This will, obviously, only work if the booking only contains segments of that one airline - partner airlines wont allow this.

The first option is what travel agencies generally use to give time to their customers. Its also the reason why you sometimes see flight availability go down and up again - some TA's book huge amount of flights this way and let them 'timeout' if they are not needed in the end. This version is generally free.

The second option is only possible when buying through the airline direct, and generally requires a fee.

The 'Time to think' option that you used, did it require an additional payment of a few euros? If it was free then likely the first option was used. Though it does look from your screenshot that the flight is still 2 months out - I would have expected more time to be available. Maybe the specific fare was a promotion that was due to expire at that time?

thibderoc

I used this option yesterday evening and everything is fine : I can see the booking when I logged on the AF website (I used the french one).
I have to pay before tonight (but already know that I won't)

What's the difference between the fare then and now ?

Lawrious

From what I have seen across the website, intercontinental flights appear to charge ~£14/€15 for the 'Time To Think' option. I have used this before on other intercontinental flights and it was the same for those.

Although, I have been lucky in that the fares have not changed since last night; they have changed in the past by simply closing down the browser, presumably due to cookie settings.

irishguy28

It's not broken. The minimum period appears to be until midnight on the day of activation. You are not guaranteed a 72-hour hold in all cases.

Just out of curiosity - has the fare increased since yesterday?

Xandrios

If they advertise a 72-hour hold and do not disclose that its actually less than that before purchasing the option, I would definitely complain about that. The confirmation email (Presumably after payment of the hold fee) may show that the hold was only for 3hrs...however if not shown before I think everyone would expect to get 72 hours of hold time. Even if the fineprint may mention that it could theoretically be less.

Lawrious

It has been 72 hours consistently in the past, and I paid £14/€15 then as I did on this occasion. During the process I clicked on 'time to think' and it stated 72 hours before I proceeded. Of course, I have no way to prove that since I do not screenshot everything I do. Perhaps I should start doing so.

Besides, £14/€15 for 3 hours is expensive considering it doesn't even contribute to the final payment. If they are going to make the time variable at least make the pricing variable as well inline with that.

Lawrious

Yes, I find that a strange thing to do and it could be considered pressure buying. However, during booking it did state "72 hours" for myself and I paid the £14/€15. Like I said above, if they are going to make the time variable at least make the price variable, since previous uses on intercontinental flights charge the same price for more 'thinking time'.

In answer to your curiosity, thankfully it did not increase drastically, in the past it had increased by £200 in some cases. AF/KLM booking seems to be more of an art than a science.

carnarvon

3 hours should be free. In fact, if you go through the booking process and stop just before payment, the PNR will have been issued already. It will be possible to retrieve the booking for a bit of time afterwards (2, 3 hours?).

irishguy28

All bookings can be cancelled for free within 24 hours, so long as they are made on the Air France website (or direct via an AF agent/office).

https://www.airfrance.fr/cgi-bin/AF/...BOOKING_REFUND

Lawrious

The booking disappearing from my account is what set-off alarm bells and led me to believe it was broken. Because you are right, you have 3 hours or so as you will receive a PNR as a limited window in which to finalise payment. However, I paid £14/€15 for 72 hours.
I am in touch with AF at the moment and I am awaiting their formal response.

Lawrious

As an update, Air France have said there is nothing wrong with what has happened and I was in the wrong. I am not sure they responded understanding the situation. Something is clearly bugged with their website if it offers to charge me £14 for 72 hours to only work until the end of the day instead. It made me wish I booked on klm.com.

carnarvon

This is definitely new to me, even though I have (a bit lol) of experience.

Since when has this rule been in effect?

brunos

The rule applied to KL for a while.
It has been mentioned to extend to AF several months ago.

The weird thing is that it was impossible to find it on the French language website. I think that it still so.

irishguy28

I don't know.

Neither AF nor KL made much noise about the change, but it is listed on both of their websites for some time now.

(I would, however, really advise against relying on this - i.e. don't book with the intention of cancelling again a few hours later....in case the process of cancellation turns out, for whatever reason, to not be so straightforward as it should be)