atourgates

By booking nearly a year out, I was able to snag 6x (economy) seats on a direct DL/AF flight from CDG to SEA on January 3rd.

Today, I got an email that flight had been canceled, and I'd been rebooked on a 18+ hour itinerary connecting through ATL.

It looks like my direct AF/DL flight was replaced with a different flight number, leaving just a couple hours earlier. I can see 6x economy seats available on that flight via Air France, but when I called Flying Blue, they said they don't have any available seats on that flight, either that day, or a day on either side.

What are my best options here? The rep suggested that availability might open up later on, but how do I check to see what availability they're seeing? Are they just looking at mileage awards? Do they not have the ability to move me into a non-award seat?

Goldorak

Some details are unclear : were you booked on the DL or the AF flight (as both carriers serve the route) ?
And when you say "flight was replaced with a different flight number, leaving just a couple hours earlier", is that really the "same flight" by the same carrier or the other scheduled partner flight (AF or DL) ?

atourgates

The flight I was originally booked onto was AF 0338 - direct from CDG to SEA.

I've been rebooked onto:

• AF 0688 - from CDG to ATL
• DL 1771 - from ATL to SEA

The direct flight I see with availability is DL 35 / AF 3622 - which I believe is DL metal.

The other (slightly confusing) factor, is that I still see AF0338 (our original flight) for that date listed in ITA Matrix. Does this mean anything beyond ITA not knowing that it's been cancelled yet?

Oxymore

Looking at ExpertFlyer, it seems like AF338 does not exist anymore on that day, and the only direct option is AF3622, which is operated by DL. Now you could certainly ask Flying Blue to try and liaise with Delta to ask them to open up award space on the direct flight (not a guarantee).
Try and see if you could route via LAX, SFO or even YVR, you might have more luck.

atourgates

Thanks for the advice and feedback.

I reached out to KLM via a Facebook message, and they were able to move us to the DL 35 / AF3622 direct flight. Not sure if I got a particularly unhelpful rep on my first call, or a particularly helpful rep on my 2nd try via Facebook.

Kudos to them for embracing social media DMs as a customer service tool. This is my 2nd positive experience with Skyteam and getting issues resolved via social media DMs. Both times, much more pleasant than a phone call.

I'll be curious to see what's going on with AF338 - if they're cutting service between CDG and SEA, or just changing their schedule. I've been able to find pretty good award availability there, and it'd be a shame to lose it.

BigFlyer

This thread illustrates the difference between European and American terminology - in American, a "direct" flight makes a stop, while a "non-stop" flight does not. It appears in this thread "direct" meant not making a stop.
Given the ambiguity, using the term "non-stop" is probably better because it is not ambiguous.

cirrusdragoon

Ditto

While the distinction of direct vs. non-stop is correct, I hardly see the need to mention it here, or why would you consider it to be a difference between "European Terminology" to "American Terminology"

BigFlyer

I consider it a difference between European and American terminology because European carriers use the term "direct" to mean non-stop, while American carriers use the term "direct" to mean the opposite.

Got to klm.com and start a booking dialog. When the flights are listed as "Direct", it means non-stop.

Go and book on united.com - the flights that don't make a stop are called non-stop.

You will not find an American carrier using the term "direct" on its website to mean non-stop.

According to Travel and Leisure magasine:

Direct flights, however, don't offer the same convenience. Instead, “direct” means that the flight number doesn't change, even as the aircraft may make one — or more — stops. http://www.travelandleisure.com/airl...n-stop-flights

Ditto

I'm afraid I still don't see the relevance here... plus your data point of a single website hardly proves anything about terminology, but as this gets very much off-topic, I will stop here.