csb001

Hi,

We booked flights on Air France in business class during the Easter holidays.

However this morning we received a notification that the flights will be operated by Amelia in a single class cabin and we will thus be downgraded to economy.

Called the Belgian service line and they say the flight is still in business class.
Air France Website also still shows business class, but the seats have been changed and there’s no longer a free middle seat.

seat Alert on the expert flyer app shows no more business class, only economy.

So the question is: what source to believe and what to expect?

considering to cancel and look for an alternative.

Goldorak

which route is this ?

csb001

sorry forgot to add:
Paris to Tunis

Goldorak

I think you can forgot J if Amelia is operating the route. Very weird that AF is "subcontracting" this to Amelia. Amelia operated mostly ATR and E145. In theory, they could have 2 cabins, but I believe it would limit too much the number of pax.
AF is operating several daily flights to TUN, so you may check if other flights are still operated by AF metal and, if yes, ask AF to move you to another flight with J class.

atflyer

Somehow Tunis seems a downgrade dark hole these days, see below. Agree with Goldorak that with luck other AF flights will be done on AF metal and you may be able to be rebooked to that.
Help - Saudia downgraded flight TUN-JED

Igrek257

Paris to Tunis 29th april to 04th may 2023
booked with Air France and they decided to change it for an Amelia aircraft which I dont know anything about.
i called the customer claim service and they were terrible !!!
if you want we can call them and complain all together.
dont know where you are from but I live in Paris and we could go to the agency?
i told them if I go to Dior and purchase a pair of shoes for 600€ and go back home open the box and find an h&m pair worth 10€ it would be the same thing !
they said "i understand your point of view" as if i was crazy !
i will publish something on twitter as well i will let you know!

Nico40

Amelia received a 319 last year (ex LATAM - and another is expected later this year, ex AF F-GRXI actually) so they might manage to offer a J cabin, with similar experience to AF (middle seat blocked, slightly better pitch for the front rows and that's it).
This aircraft operated for Air Corsica this week.

jerry_greece

EF shows no C seatmap for this flight and they have removed the C and D booking classes. J is still there. Amelia seems to have 144 seats on its 319 (rows 1-24 incl. row 13 for the superstitious). Their sole 319 for now is F-HDSJ which for now is operating for Air Corsica.

BA6948

my CDG-TUN is also affected . Are we all traveling on the same flight 😀

Xandrios

Doesn't AF serve TUN with a widebody on some days? You may be able to make a change for free due to the downgrade.

jerry_greece

I don’t think there is wide body to TUN but indeed there are 3-4 flights a day from CDG and at least 1 from ORY, so you can request a change to one of these schedule permitting.

atflyer

Agree there is no widebody. I have the flight from ORY to Tunis end April, and for now still scheduled as operated by AF. Since I fly Y, it will hardly make a difference if they change it to Amelia for me.

tourguide

I see only one AF flight from Orly, and starting only from April 20th. It leaves at 7:25 AM and is AF metal with business class on board. But as OP says he/she booked this for Easter holidays, this may be too late. Also, as OP is from Belgium, an overnight may be required as the flight leaves very early. Otherwise, it looks like some of the flights CDG-TUN are still operated on AF-metal, according to EF. But it is mostly the A319 by 8R (Amelia), with on board 1 class, 144 seats, 24 rows of 6 seats across. I am sure that you will have some of the perks of booked business class, like lounge and luggage, but on board i doubt that there is different catering and, as you mentioned yourself, no empty middle seat. You have not many alternatives. But one of them is TunisAir: they often use a widebody from ORY to TUN on TU719 at 12:40

csb001

On the dates I need all flights from CDG are on Amelia and from Orly there are only flights on Transavia.
Only alternative would be on ITA leaving from Brussels with a night stop in both direction, so will probably juist bite the bullet and ask for a refund (like Air France suggests in its e-mail).

They are still selling our flights in business class on the Air France website, so I hope we get at least lounge access and business class luggage allowance, and we will sit in out in the air (still have seats on row 1).

Booked Air France because of better timings and not having to requalify this year under Miles and More, but Air France is doing its best to chase me back to Star Alliance this way

csb001

We should bring food and drinks and create our own business class 😄