San Gottardo

I have been reading Air France's rules that are referenced in the Wiki, but cannot really find the information that I need. They only mention the case of tickets that have been booked before April 21. What about tickets booked after that date?

Concretely: I have tickets to Germany, but Germany just put arrivals from Paris and PACA on the test/quarantine list, so I don't want to go anymore. What are my options? Tickets are 2x award tickets and 3x Eco Classic fare.

Thanks for any pointing me to the relevant information.

pascalgr

For the Eco tickets you can change the date and or destination; If price of new ticket is higher than the original ticket you need to pay the difference; You can do the change online or the Plat line;
For the Award Tickets I do not know, at worst you need to cancel them and get reimbursed minus 50 €. I would recommend you wait few days before flight in case AF cancels flight due to low demand;

Keyser

i know they are following the rules so can't blame them completely....but given the fact that these are not regular scheduled flights that everyone is allowed to travel on, i was hoping they would be willing to make another change without adding on the fare difference....

funny you should mention that....i am a lawyer & i actually tried to use this on my call yesterday....the agent had absolutely no idea what i was talking about & she put me on hold for a long time....finally she patched me over to another department or a supervisor who stated that force majeure did not apply since i agreed to change my flight from august to september....i told him there was no way to know that i would not be allowed to fly when flights resumed in september....he kept saying that force majeure would not apply....

i'm going to wait another few days to see what's going to happen....regular international flights in india are suspended till 31st august so lets see whether they extend that or resume scheduled flights....if they extend the suspension then i will definitely call again to invoke the force majeure clause....

lynxy

The platinum line tried to pull the same "trick" on me yesterday.
I had a CDG/BES ticket for a wedding in early june (booked in october). The flights got cancelled, and once I knew the new date for the wedding (in october), I phoned them to ask if I could rebook now but possibly change the departure city later (I was not sure if I'd be originating from Paris or TLS then). The answer was a clear, "yeah, no problem, you can book and change later, but if you change the departure city, you will have to pay the fare difference". That was fine with me.
Yesterday, I phoned the plat line again to change the departure from CDG to TLS since it's now sure I'll be leaving from there. The agent tried to pull the "well it's rebooked and it was a mini fare, so not possible". After arguing a bit because her colleague previously told me otherwise, she went to see a supervisor and called me back saying that they agreed to let me rebook with just the fare difference!
I'm not sure if I'm happy or not with the plat line this time I guess that the rules are changing so often that even they are lost...

ranskis

In this case it would have been better to rebook to a slightly higher fare and pay the fare difference at current fare levels, and get the change fee waived due to the flight cancellations: this way, the new fares would have applied and they have free changes. Here you got involuntarily rebooked but the tickets rules are still the old onces that were not flexible back in October. That is a good way to flexibilize an older ticket At least in theory, in practice, as usual, it requires a lot of patience and time on the phone.

Keyser

so i called them again last night & all it took was one very lengthy phone call that lasted almost 2 hours....i was met with a lot of resistance initially by the agent who answered the call & then with the supervisor she connected me to....they simply refused to acknowledge the force majeure argument, stating that it did not apply in my case....

after going back & forth a number of times & being put on hold while they checked & re-checked the rules, i finally asked them what would happen if hypothetically i was prepared to come to the airport on the 12th of september & was ready to take the responsibility that i would not be allowed entry into the country when i landed in atl....in these circumstances, would they permit me to board the flight given that the flight was operating, i had a confirmed ticket & a valid visa for my destination....the supervisor said i would not be permitted to board....so i asked how they could state that normal flights were operating under these circumstances when only a limited category of people were allowed to travel????

another lengthy hold & finally the supervisor came back & offered me another date change or a voucher....this time i opted for the voucher, even though they couldn't tell me what the amount would be....when i woke up this morning i had an email in my inbox with the voucher & the value is almost half the amount of my original ticket....

i had to buy another ticket on a direct flight to complete this journey but at the end of the day i'm pretty satisfied with the outcome....

ranskis

Patience and luck worked out, congratulations, great outcome!
EU/DOT rules are quite easy to understand and implement, agents are used to them. However rules from conditions of carriage or Montreal conventions are much more rarely invoqued, resulting in the lengthy process you went through.

Keyser

the funny bit is that they flat out refused to accept the force majeure stance....they eventually called it a 'one time exception'....

The doomed

6 vouchers cancelled and converted to refunds with funds in my bank account this week. Job well done considering everything that has been going on.

ranskis

They are not very smart: if this coronavirus situation with ever changing entry requirements is not called force majeure, then airlines cancelling flights and adjusting their schedule would open to EU261 compensation for cancelled flight since it is only waived in case of force majeure

JournoFlyer

Hi everyone,

As of now, AF/KLM tickets can be rebooked without having to pay extra if your trip begins on November 30th at the latest. If it's later, passengers have to pay the fare difference.

Given the new wave of cancelations and the likelihood that a return to normal by the end of the year is pretty much impossible, do we have any indication AF/KLM will push back the threshold date?

I had booked flights to Japan for the month of May and rebooked them for October. That's obviously not going to happen, and almost all dates after winter involve paying a significant fare difference (on top of a relatively expensive ticket in the first place).

I'm aware that if I take a voucher I could benefit from the 15% bonus but even that wouldn't be enough to cover the cost of buying new tickets for next Spring, for example.

Any advice and/or insider info?

Much appreciated

IstKong

Just posting my experience with a destination change if it is helpful.

I had a ticket MAD-CDG-GRU/GIG-AMS-BCN and on a separate reservation, the positioning flight CDG-MAD/BCN-CDG. Both tickets on Air France, the first being issued by Air France Spain, the second by Air France "France".

The AMS-BCN got canceled and I called the customer service to kindly ask to change the AMS-BCN to a AMS-CDG. First they said I had to pay a fee because it is a destination change in another country, but then I said that my positioning return flight was also with Air France, and a supervisor waived the fee so my ticket is now MAD-CDG-GRU/GIG-AMS-CDG.


So now the return flight of my positioning ticket BCN-CDG is useless to me, so if anyone has a clue on how to convert this to a voucher, I would appreciate.

San Gottardo

This isn't strictly COVID-related, but I suppose people here may know nevertheless: last year in NOvember I received a voucher for 500 EUR as compensation for a delay of several hours. I have not used it yet, it will expire in October 2020.

Can I book a flight now, for departure in January 2021, and then if I don't need that flight anymore, cancel the reservation and get a new voucher, again valid for a year?

Thanks.

AZ112

I suppose that voucher is not refundable, so they will not issue a new one as policy.
You can try to call and explain your situation. I think that they will extend the validity of your voucher due covid-19 situation

Wil973

I dont Think they will extend... my friend had a 800 euros voucher and they said no...
yes you can do that but if flight is operating you will lose your voucher ...
book a 40 euros flight... you will receive a New voucher 460 euros valid one more year... just 40 euros lost