Goldorak

No personal experience, but I'm afraid they will consider the re-price as one-way. Did you check if there is another flight he next day which could save you from some headaches ? Did you call the Ulti line, as they are much more flexible in their policies for the Ulti pax ? Of you course, if you bought the ticket through a 3rd party, it may makes the things more complicated.

brunos

I am not sure I understand.
My guess is that this is a return ticket where you have not flown the outbound yet.
If so, AF should refund the whole ticket because they cancelled your return flight.

If you have already flown the outbound, you should insist that they reimburse according the original pricing of the two segments. EC261 article 8.1.a could help.But how did you get back from Brazil?

Goldorak

San Gottardo still wants to fly the outbound flight which is not cancelled.

bostontraveler

Not really relevant to this thread (you should have started a new topic) but that said...

Beginning 16 June Croatia airlines has one flight listed daily CDG-ZAG
Beginning 1 July AF also has one flight CDG-ZAG . That flight is also listed from 16 June but shows zero availability until 30 June (which means it's likely to be cancelled during that time)

San Gottardo

Sorry for the confusion.

This was a ticket GRU-CDG-ZRH in P, and return ZRH-CDG-GIG in J. I flew GRU-CDG-ZRH already a few months ago, and was going to go back ZRH-CDG-GIG beginning of April, which I then re-scheduled a few times. What happened now was (i) the uncertainty if I'd be going to Brazil at all in the next six months is big (ii) AF again cancelled the CDG-GIG. So I decided to get a refund. On a ticket that did cost approx. EUR 8100 return I now received a refund on my credit card of approx. EUR 3600 (after a week of silence from AF the mail arrived a few hours after this post). I didn't manage to check exactly - the AF tickets don't show the fare construct - but it feels about right.

To answer the question that may come now: how did you get *to* Brazil? With Lufthansa ;-) And I have an open Brazil-Europe ticket with them, which I'll also get refunded. But that was issued by our corporate travel agent, so I am somewhat disinvolved from that process, my office takes care of that.

And, Goldorak, yes, I contacted the ULTI line. Where a lady apologised and explained to me that currently there was no dedicated ULTI service (nor a dedicated Premiere team for that matter). Basically the ULTI team got merged into the Platinum team and that merged team would answer ULTI calls, so you could end up with a "normal" Plat agent or with someone who otherwise would be part of the ULTI team, just as a "normal" Plat could end up with either of these agents. I never quite understood how ULTI is supposed to work anyway: they say there is a "personal" TA - does that mean that it's always the same person one deals with? Or is it merely a dedicated team, where then any person in that team works ULTI calls and mails?

Thanks for all the hints.

brunos

Understood.
I know the felling as I usually have different outstanding return tickets bought in France which is cheaper origin than HKG origin (even if more expensive than many other Euorpean origins).

It seems that you got treated nicely by getting back immediately 3,600 for th J inbound, while the P outbound was priced at 4,500 (8,100-4,600). As expected, that segment pricing indicate that fares ex-GRU are lower than ex-ZRH.

Goldorak

It is the latter, and like you, I have always found a bit misleading the term of « personal TA ».

ranskis

It triggered my curiosity. Actually BA sells F (I know, premium business is more correct) for 2500 EUR return for GRU ZRH (and other European destinations).

San Gottardo

Interesting. My ticket was way more expensive - but actually still not bad value - as I booked a few hours because Lufthansa had to cancel their flight, and the best way to get back from Brazil to ZRH with the scheduling constraints I had (AF leaves >1 hour later than LX and >4.5 hours later than BA) was to go through CDG. I didn't even spend time in Paris which is what I often do (it's one of my two bases), I just transferred. But the idea of the sub-par experience of BA and especially of LHR would not have endeared me to that option. On AF I had a 1H10 conection at CDG. They managed to get me to the lounge, give me 20 minutes for a shower in the P lounge and a grab-something-from-the-buffet-to-take-on-my-way, and still get me to my connecting flight without any rush. With BA I doubt whether a one-hour connection would even be possible, let alone have a comfort break between the two flights. And best part: I did the final hour of the flight and the landing in CDG in the cockpit of the AF 777 ;-)

Sorry for the off topic on disussing P fares and services from Brazil to Europe.

Tibszy

Can you please share how you did a successful chargeback? I went to Amex NL's website, and for travel related chargebacks they send you to AXA Insurance. I just got off the phone with a lady who told me that because KLM is offering me a voucher their policy considers me to be fairly compensated so they refuse to even open a dispute/chargeback.

bostontraveler

Yep. Same thing in France.

warakorn

You need to apply for a chargeback in a written form.
On a phone line it is easy to fob off cardholders.

bostontraveler

Certified letter, return receipt requested.

In France, preferably with lots of stamps on it too :-)

mfkne

I called them back on March 26th, spoke to a friendly gentleman who spoke Dutch with a Flemish accent and it all took less than 5 minutes. A few hours later I received an e-mail asking for the required documentation. I submitted that and 5 days later I got another e-mail confirming the chargeback had been accepted.

paulieccc

How far in advance do AF make a call on their schedules; cancellations etc?

I'm booked on an AMS > GIG flight in October but considering the mess Brazil is in at the moment, it's the last place I want to visit.
KL705 (AMS>GIG) has continued to operate throughout March and April which I can only assume are continuing repatriation flights. My only hope is that the connecting flight from DUB>AMS is cancelled so I can at least get a voucher instead of full forfeiture.