Goldorak

Yes, you can change the destination. Just changed a UK flight for Italy.

Thunderroad

I've read the Wiki and the Air France rules, and searched and skimmed this thread, but could use some help. FWIW, I'm a U.S. citizen who back in January booked to fly business SFO-CDG class on a Flying Blue award ticket a month from now, but due to Covid can't do so anymore. A couple of questions:

1. Despite Covid, it seems that Air France has retained a policy of a 50 euro redeposit fee for canceling award tickets. Is that correct?
2. AF has cancelled my 23:00 booking and changed it to 15:25 the same day. Any chance I can avoid the 50 euro fee in view of the time change?

Thanks for any info or advice.

AZ112

I think that you could try to ask to your Flyingblue team to avoid the required fee, 'cause they have done a consistent changes on your original itinerary.
Back two years ago, I've avoided the fee for a cancellation of an award flight (it was a DL operated flights, CUN-JFK-NCE).

nerdbirdsjc

It will be issued in the currency of the country where you seek the refund. If you call the USA call center, you'll get a voucher in USD. If you seek the refund in Brazil, you'll get a voucher in BRL.

nerdbirdsjc

Call Air France and ask the agent to convert your KLM vouchers into AF vouchers so you can redeem them all via the website. The process takes only a few minutes, and if you do it through AF's Australia line the new vouchers will be AUD.

krazykanuck

Gotta love AF. Trying to get a refund for the ex BUD biz class fare. Filed the refund request online as required and they emailed me back saying I had to call their Hungarian sales office and kindly provided a +36 number to call.

I replied back and laughed at them, as as much as I could in text, and essentially told them to figure it out and I wasn't calling Budapest​​​​​​ on my dime/time. Refund receipt arrived a couple days later by email.

Thunderroad

Thanks very much! So is the only way to do this to try calling, wait for a long time to get through and hopefully not get disconnected?

And is my assumption re question #1 correct?

AZ112

I don't know if fb cc is very busy at the moment, but I think that call is the best way to do that

concordian

I had award tickets for AMS-CPH for late July but flight was canceled and I got an option to ask for refund online.

I submitted the form and now I got an saying since flight was booked using FB miles, I need to contact them.We are sorry to inform you that we are unable to handle your refund request.
Your original document was paid using Flying Blue Miles, therefore, please contact Flying Blue Customer Service of your country of residence for the refund.

Does anyone have tips on best way to get my miles(34000 miles) & taxes($124) refunded?

etiene

Quick one [I hope]: got a booking for the end of the week that I'm not looking to fly and doesn't look like it'll be cancelled. Was booked after April so can't turn it into a voucher, not entirely sure when I want to fly but can take a guess [different route] - is the coronavirus change one time only? The ticket email says this:

Which wouldn't seem to limit me to one change...? Or would it be reissued as an entirely new ticket with the current prevailing conditions [which are presumably the same]?

Goldorak

Just call FB.

concordian

Update: Sent email to FB customer service with reservation and canceled emails. They returned miles and waiting for Taxes to be refunded.

Thunderroad

Thanks again for your help.

Just called Air France U.S. reservations number ((800) 237-2747), got through to a rep in less than five minutes (at 11 am California time). She informed me there would be no cancellation/redeposit fee. I didn't have to mention Covid or a change in my flight time. I then canceled the reservation. The miles were back in my account within 60 seconds. Much easier than I expected!

She added that the tax refund could take up to 90 days. So I'll watch that, but it's a minor concern.

Keyser

i have a atl-del-atl ticket in business class & have already flown the atl-del route (in early march)....my return del-atl flight was originally scheduled for the 1st of april with a connection in ams....india went into lockdown towards the second half of march so my april return flight was cancelled....

i asked af for a refund at that point but af only gave me a choice between a voucher or a free date change....since i had already taken the outbound journey, af said they would have to calculate what the voucher amount would be & they could only do so once they initiated the process....so basically they won't let me know what the voucher amount would be until they cancelled the ticket....i didn't want to take a chance of them giving me a voucher for 1/3rd or 1/4th the amount i had spent so i opted for the free date change....af re-booked me on a del-ams-atl flight for the 1st of august....flights from india had still not resumed at that point so my august flight was cancelled again & i was further re-booked for the 12th of september....

as of now af/klm are operating flights to & from india via a 'travel bubble'....indian citizens are not allowed to enter the schengen area & are also not allowed to enter usa if transiting via the schengen area....so basically a very limited category of people can travel on these flights....

i called af last night to figure out what my options are regarding my flight as i am neither allowed to enter the schengen area nor transit through it on my way to usa....i was told that i cannot change my flight for free anymore since i have already done so & its not their fault that neither the schengen states nor usa is allowing indian citizens to enter....they consider the 'bubble flights' as valid, even though i do not fall under the category of people who can take that flight....so as long as the flight operates on the 12th of september, i am neither entitled to a refund nor a free date change....the fare they quoted me for a date change comes to $2,869....seems ridiculously high since i can get a new roundtrip business class ticket for $2,985....

so basically what they are telling me in that even though i am not allowed to travel on the klm flight on the 12th, if i do not do so then they can neither offer me a refund nor change my date for free....

ranskis

Unfortunately they are following the rules. As long as you accept one of the three option (refund, change to the earliest possibility, change to a later date) they are not obliged to let you choose another option and old fare rules apply. Since you flew the outbound before the covid pandemic, the historical fare rules are not customer friendly (change fees etc.) whereas new tickets now have free changes. For a cancelled flight, you should have opted for a refund rather than a rebooking for a date where you take the risk that the flight goes and you cannot go. Alternatively you could have asked to leave the ticket open, to rebook it later once there is clarity on what flights go and which passengers can be accepted (meaning you keep right to exercise your lawful option when a cancellation occurs(refund, rebooking) to later).

Now, if they were a bit smart and consistant, they would waive the change fees due to COVID, however fare difference would apply, so if your original fare had a 1 month max stay, if you rebook with a 6 months stay, the applicable fare might be much higher, hence the possible addtional 3000 USD.
So you should hope that there is a cancellation or schedule change on any of the flights you are currently booked on, and I hope you will finally take the "involuntary refund" which is the value of the return fare component + taxes connected to these flights. If your ticket was let's say 3000 USD in D class for ATL DEL and 1000 USD in Z class for DEL ATL + 800 USD fuel surcharge + 150 USD taxes for outbound and 120 USD taxes for inbound, you would be due 1000+400+120 = 1520 USD, so less than a third of the total amount.

Finally, something not so known by passengers and airline agents, you can invoke the conditions of carriage of AF:

"Force Majeure"
means extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances that are beyond the control of the party invoking it and which could not have been avoided despite all the care and attention exercised.

3.3. Force Majeure invoked by a Passenger

If a Passenger possesses a Ticket, as described in Article 3.1 (d) above, which they have not used or have partially used, and if it is impossible for them to travel for reasons of Force Majeure, as defined in Article 1, the Carrier shall issue to the Passenger a credit note corresponding to the Gross Fare (the tax amount may be refunded to the Passenger separately) for their non-refundable and/or non-modifiable Ticket, which is valid for one year, for a subsequent journey on the Carrier's flights and subject to the applicable Administration Fees, provided that the Passenger informs the Carrier as soon as possible and provides proof of such instance of Force Majeure.


Since the ticket was booked before the coronavirus mess, the current situation was obviously beyond your control and could not have been avoided despite all the care and attention exercised. So you should be able to get the tax refunded and a non refundable one year voucher for the return part (so 1000+400 USD in my previous example if fuel surcharge is not considered as tax), so you should be able to get this voucher. However it might take quite a few lenghty phone calls, so I wish you patience and good luck!