mridley2

Was scheduled on the SEZ CDG AF 247 flight for Friday Feb 11, 9:35am. Received notification few hours ago the flight has now been delayed by 18 hours. New departure time 2:55am on feb 12. Early Sat morning. Ugh ok. Another COVID test for the 48 hours. Maybe they will take the original test?

also I see the inbound aircraft AF 254 CDG-SEZ left on time this evening feb 10th at 6:25pm. So what is causing the 18 hour delay in SEZ? Since this route is a 2x weekly flight I assume AF is sending extra crew on the outbound to work the return flight??

anyway all kinds Of issues now with extra hotel and meals etc. what is the compensation due for the severely delayed flight departing SEZ?

Goldorak

Usually, in those circumstances, they accept the original test. But you may double check with AF, especially if your final destination is not France. In case you need another test, you can certainly claim the extra expense with AF.

The crew serving SEZ-CDG is certainly not ferried via the CDG-originating flight but has likely arrived by the previous flight. If the incoming aircraft has left CDG on-time, the likely reason for delaying the return flight is the unavailability of one or several crew members. A likely possibility is that one or several crew members who have arrived in SEZ a few days ago are Covid+ (or are suffering from whatever disease) and AF has bring a fresh crew on CDG-SEZ departing today but they will need the mandatory regulatory resting time before flying back to CDG (the 18hrs delay seems plausible with such a reason).

You can definitely claim for your extra expenses to be reimbursed by AF (or by a travel insurance).

mridley2

Thanks for info. A few additional points of information.
1) we are continuing onto the USA which requires a test within 1 day of arrival. So the previous test would get us into France but not into USA.

2) this service round trip CDG SEZ only operates 2x per week. So I’m not sure it makes sense to station crew in SEZ for only a 2x weekly flight. But perhaps you are right. We will try to find out more information from the purser tonight.

3) yes we are gathering and saving all receipts for reimbursement: hotel, meals, COVID testing, taxi rides, etc.

Fabo.sk

I don't think it would work regulations wise to have a crew arrive on a flight and then immediately work the return flight, or vice versa.
You could perhaps fly crew in the day before on a different carrier, but I hardly think it would be more efficient than a couple nights hotel stay at crew rates.
Even if they would fly in on AF, you still have a reasonably large number of lost seats you could otherwise sell..

flyerCO

The test is fine as long as delay is not of your own making. AF staff may be confused/ concerned but rules are clear, test is fine even over 1 day if delay is due to issue with flights.

flyerCO

As long as crew has sufficient rest, no issue with same crew. (Example, most US carriers do this for South America flights. Get in early morning,, rest at hotel,, fly back that evening) As for other concern, these flights are far from full. No issue blocking X seats for return crew. This has been done lots in last 2 years.

s777bg

In a similar situation , Chase insurance reimbursed for everything but the taxi rides …

Goldorak

My guess was right : the delay is due to unavailability of one of the pilot. Very likely sick (Covid or something else)

Goldorak

it makes sense if this is the way to comply with regulations and if you don't want your aircraft to stay on the ground for a very long time instead of flying and generating revenues.

Fabo.sk

Yes, but the way you describe is X odd hours of rest. AF has a ~2hr turnaround in SEZ.

flyerCO

I had no clue how long between flights at SEZ. The examples I gave all involve over 12 hours at minimum.

mridley2

Apologies for not reporting more information sooner. We had a great conversation with the purser on our much delayed 18 hour flight, and I few additional information points to share.

AF does indeed "station" crew in SEZ in between the 3x weekly service. Depending on the day of the week Pilots or FA's are housed in SEZ somewhere between 1 and 4 nights. Nice work if you can get it. heh.

AF 247 was delayed because a pilot who was stationed in SEZ had gotten sick from some type of food poisoning. Not covid. Anyway Pilot was sick so AF had to ferry in another pilot from CDG and the new pilot had a mandatory rest period in SEZ before they could pilot the return flight from SEZ.

Because we were continuing onto the USA our now delayed departure allowed us to utilize one covid test in SEZ for both the SEZ-CDG and CDG-JFK flights. It will still an unnecessary extra test but it avoided us having to get a rapid test at CDG airport as we were originally planning to do.

We have gathered all of our additional expenses and documents and will submit our claims for reimbursement and compensation one day this week. Air France please be kind to us.

Happy Travels!

flyerCO

Why would you have needed an extra test if not delayed?? US goes by day before you depart (as long as connection is under 24 hours), so 1 day before leaving SEZ, not CDG.

Goldorak

thank you for reporting back here. Very few posters do it.

mridley2

This story just keeps getting better...

We submitted receipts (hotel, meals, extra covid tests) to Air France and they did reimburse us for that cost which was about $400 USD total for 2 passengers. We also claimed EU 261 compensation because our flight was delayed more than 6 hours. Air france denied this claim because we reached our final destination (JFK) on time. Originally we had an 24 hour overnight layover in CDG and had made plans for a nice dinner and an evening in Paris. With the AF SEZ-CDG delay we arrived within a couple hours of our original CDG-JFK flight. So technically AF was right that we did reach JFK on time but we did not think the ruling followed the spirit of the rule. Nevertheless we pushed back on air france and they (french politely) told us to go pound sand.

Although our trip was in Feb 2022 it took us 5 months to sort everything out with Air France and for them to make the decision they would NOT honor EU 261. The Air france portion was resolved in August 2022. At that point I filed a claim with Delta air lines to try and claim EU 261 compensation. We never heard back from Delta and honestly had completely forgotten about the whole delay.

AND NOW THIS WEEK. Literally April 5th 2023, Delta emails me with the following response to my complaint.Your travel falls under the guidelines of European Union Regulation (EC) 261/2004 defining an airline's requirements when flight changes occur. Air France Flight 247 on February 11, 2022, from Seychelles to Paris was delayed due to crew issues.

After reviewing this claim, compensation is due in accordance with the EU recommendations. I’ll request a check in the amount of $684.24 USD equivalent to EUR 600 (for each of you). Please allow up to 30 business days for processing and postal delivery of your payment.
I sure hope Delta sends the bill to Air France. It does seem odd that Delta would have to pay compensation for an AF operated flight but maybe that is part of their skyteam agreement. I'm not sure. So we are on the look out for a physical check to arrive in the mail in the next 30 days.