carnarvon

Until now, if a ticket was not available on the website, the Plat line would issue it and charge the internet service charge.

This will not be the case any more.

I have just heard from the Platinum line (and got it confirmed during another phone call) that all tickets they issue will incur the manual issuing service fee (€ 30 and € 40).

The only exception will be if there is a website malfunction.

They currently have some leeway not to charge, but this won’t last.

In my case, it was a multi destination ticket which was priced only in “Light” fare. It was not possible to get a “Standard” fare.

They confessed having problems with long haul business class and premium economy tickets as well, which come only as non-refundable as long as the fare bucket is available.

flying_blue_white_red

Ohh!
I did not know the PL could remove the hefty fee.
A multi destination ticket was booked via the Sales & Service center (3654) - as s specific flight was not available on AF website ( but available on any other OTAs though). I was charged the €40 fee.

danfl44

That sucks. If your IT systems are uncapable of issuing certain (complex) tickets, the passenger (and definitely plat-members) shouldn't be charged a fee for calling in.
Though their social media teams are quite helpful too, and most of the times are able to book those complex itineraries for you.

Goldorak

I think there is some kind of misunderstanding here. The Plat line has waived the fees when you wanted to book a ticket on the web, that is normally bookable on the web but for whatever reason you could not (glitch, etc). A complex multi-itinerary ticket has never been bookable on AF site (and in most cases on any airline site) and they have always charged for that. So there will be no change for this.
What’s new (and bad) is what Carnavon is telling us : now they will charge for all bookings.

nldogbert

This is not good news - what about changing a ticket to get on an earlier flight?
I really do think that they should have these sort of charges waived for Plat (&Ulti) members as we've already contributed so much to their big wallets.

Cheers!

NickB

Carnavon can clarify but that is not how I read his post. He is saying that they will continue to waive for website malfunctions that results in a ticket that is normally bookable online not being bookable but that they will otherwise charge.
What you are saying is that what Carnavon is describing was already official policy, even though, in practice, Plat line agents had (or believed they had) some discretion to depart from this and not charge in some other cases of unavailability from the website such as complex multileg bookings.

ranskis

I have never paid a service fee using the PSL to book tickets, even those bookable online, for example when need to hold the ticket while purchasing another ticket for someone else on some common flights and then paying for the first ticket once the second ticket was issued. There are multiple reasons where the PSL can help its customers. It looks like AF wants to turn the PSL into a profit centre, not into a service for its most frequent travellers.

carnarvon

Yes, this is what they said.

I disagree.

The Plat line has always said that if I could not book on line, for whatever reason, then they would wave the fee. This was not a belief of theirs, it was actual stated policy which has been systematically applied over the years.

Every time I was not able to book on line and called them, they issued the ticket without fee. In fact, they always spontaneously said that there would be no fee for the very reason that the fare was not available on line.

So it cannot be "some discretion" as you say. Not once in the course of my dealing with them over the span of my 10+ years of Platinum did I have any issue with the waving of the fee. If it was discretionary, I would have had the odd agent wanting to charge the fee. This NEVER happened.

I can give you a few examples:

- CDG/HEL/HAJ was priced € 311 in light fare only. The booking engine does not allow to choose "standard" fare. I called and this is when I was told that in the old policy, they would wave the fee, but this was going to change soon.

- In the old days, when mile accrual was based on fare (25%, 50 % etc of distance flown), I would often call to check if there was not a fare bucket which would generate 50 or 75% instead of 25%, just for a few Euros more. When the price difference was minimal, I would ask them to issue the ticket and there was no fee.

- if you look for biz fare long haul ahead of time, the only choice is non refundable fare. With the old policy, if you needed a flexible fare, the Plat line would wave the fee. Now they will charge. It was presented to me as NEW policy.

- same goes with Premium Eco.

NickB

It seems to me that it is Goldorak's post that you are disagreeing with rather than mine. I was not expressing any views on the matter (I have none) but merely restating Goldorak's position.

carnarvon

I did not say whom I was disagreeing with.

Kidding....

NickB

San Gottardo

There are a couple of other scénarios where this will then apply: for instance

• booking award tickets for UM
• mixing a UM leg with a non-UM let on the same ticket
• ticket changes which will result in the re-issuance I’d the ticket (?)

flyingjapans

While I appreciate the hard work provided by those folks on the Platinum Line, who are (for 99% of them) proactive and solution-oriented, I cannot understand that move.

The 40 euro fee is an amount you pay for an extra service of having a physical person book the ticket for you.
Now, if the website isn't able to find the type of ticket you want to buy while you're supposed to be able to find it, then in that case the Platinum line doesn't provide an extra service, but rather the minimal amount of service and thus you shouldn't be charged the fee.

This is simple commercial logic, but AF proved multiple times that they have trouble with those concepts.

NickB

To be fair, AF are not alone in thinking alone those lines. BA has had for as long as I can remember a virtually identical policy of only waving offline fees for its own elites when the functionality is normally available online but not available right now (and therefore not waving if the functionality is not normally available online).

r0gerthat

In my experience the Platinum line already charges a fee of EUR 15 when doing a booking or change that can be done online as well, so this is not really new to me. What I am surprised about is that the price is a bit higher.

For reference: I have booked tickets through the platinum line when the website was not working, both paid tickets & reward tickets. And then the fee was always waived. I assume this stays the same.