SilverChris

Trouble is, the aircraft type was never part of the agreement when the OP purchased the ticket. AF's CoC expressly provide for aircraft swaps.
https://wwws.airfrance.ca/en/informa...o-cg-airfrance

If the OP chooses not to go ahead, they can try getting a medical waiver for a full refund, which must of course be accompanied by the appropriate documentation.

YVR Cockroach

Just booked a reaccommodation on AF to get from LAX-BKK since SV dropped LAX service. Seem to remember the 1st LAX-CDG flight of the day, when I had it penned it to offer as an alternative, was a 359 but now it's a 77W.

ijgordon

I'd love to know what travel insurance policy will pay trip cancellation costs for a change in equipment. Come on.

Goldorak

Agreed, that doesn't make sense. When you see that travel insurances often refuse to cover costs when they should, with very creative justifications...this case is an obvious refusal.
Either the pax is in sufficient health condition to fly or he/she's not and the plane type is irrelevant.

carnarvon

Plus, the event has occurred already!

As if you wanted to insure your house against fire, after it had been destroyed by fire already.

HL8210

The medical literature states that patients who are symptomatically stable should not be restricted from flying, and that air travel itself is not a cause of clinically significant arrhythmias in people who are stable. That said, if you knew that your husband's Afib is unstable during air travel, then this was a poorly calculated move on your part to book a ticket that was not changeable//refundable. Your best bet is to make sure your husband is properly anti-coagulated and has a backup plan for rate control; I highly doubt a doctor's note would do much help here considering that you booked this ticket knowing he couldn't fly on certain aircraft (which is the only thing a doctor's note would prove here). As others have stated, equipment swap is pretty much never a reason for any airline to provide a refund.

YVR Cockroach

Looks like AF must be increasing capacity on this route. 3x daily 77Ws (didn't investigate which variant) in July, with the 359 - on the days there's one - continuing from (or to) PPT, and then there's the DL 330Neo.

carnarvon

I booked BBK/CDG on an A350.

AF changed it to a 777-300.

brunos

IMO, your only hope is to get a Medical certificate stating that traveling at a cabin pressure of 6,000ft (A350) is fine, but that cabin pressure of 8,000ft (77W) is dangerous for his health. Then argue.
But, it is really hard to guarantee that there will be any A350 operating that route in August 2024.

And if the fit to fly depends so crucially on the difference between 6 and 8 thousands pressure, I would advise not flying to the mad house that Paris will be during the Olympics. And remember that air conditioning is not common in France.

Goldorak

Do you seriously believe a (competent) doctor could write this ? Especially a US one with all possible litigations associated if something goes wrong.
Why not also adding that the plane should not fly above a certain altitude en route.
Even if OP was able to get such a certificate, the insurance will just laugh at it. It makes no sense.

brunos

The insurance will laugh at it. I was saying to try with AF.

Whether a medical practitioner will ever write such a certificate is indeed questionable (wifey is MD).
The OP must have received that (strange) advice from some Doctor. Maybe that same Dr would be willing to put it in writing.

orbitmic

A few airlines actually do consider an equipment change a form of timetable change (AA springs to mind) but the immense majority don’t and AF certainly doesn’t. They also precisely do not have to act as a free surrogate travel insurance.

I too can’t really reconcile the logic here. It’s not only that equipment changes are frequent but also irrops are a big part of the airline life - op what would you do if on the day, the plane went tech and af had to reroute your husband and yourself on a flight via ams on kl or via jfk on dl using 320s, 737s, 767s or 777s? This will literally happen to some planes every day. in what world is a specific flight, equipment, or routing ever guaranteed enough that you could medically count on it, let alone in a period which will be intrinsically chaotic and disrupted?

With respect, I genuinely can’t imagine why one would risk booking a non changeable ticket - if relying on air travel at all - if your description of the situation is to be taken at face value. And if I’m honest, like PUCCI I also can’t imagine a case where it would make sense to organise a trip right into a situation that will inherently involve chaos, overcrowding, uncertainty, and stress. The whole set up is simply not prudent and there is a discrepancy between the worry about equipment and the seemingly extremely relaxed cumulation of risks and perils your travel plans seem to involve without planning resolution strategies for potential incidents which you yourself describe as having potentially dramatic consequences. If I'm honest and without wishing to sound harsh, I just can't really make sense of this.

As for medical insurance, it would have needed to be contracted at the time the trip was booked and you would have literally needed to negotiate a bespoke (and undoubtedly extremely expensive) contract with an insurer explicitly covering you for equipment change, given the immensely unusual situation you describe of someone being fine flying on two specific aircraft types and medically forbidden to do so on any others.

At this stage, pragmatically, your option would be to cancel your trip and get the taxes back even if the ticket is non refundable, wait and do nothing hoping for a further change, or change at your own cost bearing in mind the itinerary may well be affected by several other changes in due time. Based on what you describe, the first option may well seem the best as other forms of travel may well be a lot less worrying and perilous (and therefore undoubtedly a lot more relaxing and enjoyable) than the long flight and trip towards the middle of what will likely feel like a stressful madhouse. Either way, I would not expect AF to bear the cost of whatever you decide to do.

kath00

Thank you for the excellent advice of just waiting and hanging on! I woke up to an email that our AF flight was cancelled and that I need to change to another plane. Yahooo. Oddly, I see the plane on the schedule still so I dunno if finally their computers caught up with the equipment change I noticed last week. That flight only got delayed 40 min... But whatever, who am I to argue, lol.

They gave me the option of taking a much later AF flight on the A350 ORRR the Delta flight on the A350 at 5pm. Soooo, I hope I didn't mess this up too much, but I chose Delta. I googled some videos of the lovely business class seats on their planes and I am hoping they won't change the equipment. If anyone has Delta experience, would love to hear.

Appreciate the comments about health, doctors, etc. But I would love to stick to the planes.

FabCW

Delta has two types of A350. The ones with the suites, which I really like. And the ones inherited from LATAM, which are horrendous. Hopefully you are on the good A350.

kath00

Yes! It is the suite ones.