Ben1989

Apologies everybody. I wrote this and it was our last few days with our family in America and I was getting high anxiety so I left the site until I got home. I have answered many of your questions below and I will follow up with a point by point what happened.

I was quite shocked too. It seemed at one stage we were getting routing changes every month. The routing eventually settled on MAN > ATL > PHL, after initially being booked as a MAN > JFK > PHL. My parents were flying with us (under a different booking) and were flying MAN > JFK. My wife is American and we were visiting her family while my parents visited NYC first. So this flight worked for us as my parents could help us with the long part of the journey while we then connected and continued to PHL which is near to my wife's family's house.

Before we got our infant an official ticket we called and the customer agent said 'booking for Ben, Jen & Lily' as the first comment.

I apologise CPMaverick. I appreciate all your advice. I was in a stressful spot.

Original MAN>JFK>PHL. Final MAN>CDG>EWR. These tickets were booked directly via Delta.com. Having searched through my emails our infant was not mentioned on either ticket. In my naivety I assumed because she was a lap infant it wasn't an issue, because she's basically just sitting on us. Obviously, I was wrong.

We tried but it said something along the lines of 'directing you to you our partner airlines website' and just errored out. I figured it was because of initially flying air france. In hindsight should have seen it as a warning sign.

I'm not experienced enough to know SAS routing sadly as I would have contested that bit of information.

Initially, my wife and I had receipts with attached ticket numbers with price paid etc and out of our bank. My daughter eventually had her ticket receipt with attached 13-digit number. I have screenshots if it's easier to see.

Yes we do. Yet to see what we're entitled for through the insurance company yet as I'd rather go through Delta first.

We went to the check-in desk where it was said that myself and my daughter had a ticket and that my wife's ticket had been voided. This was done at initial check-in at our departing airport (MAN). They said she had no ticket for the entire first leg (didn't mention the returning leg).

Yes this is why. Flying further, security etc as you say. Also, our layover in ATL was more than our layover in CDG. It added 6 hours to our journey, with a baby, for the first time. We settled on the CDG connection as we had booked into Manchester Airport Hotel the night before and a few smaller reasons.

Ben1989

Step by step.

• Booked flight 22nd August 2017 through Delta.com. Tickets given to my wife and I.
• Immediately called Delta to which they replied 'all good' and the infant was taken care of. No mention of payment.
• Initial route MAN>JFK>PHL.
• Flight schedule times and route changes meant our flight changed to MAN>ATL>PHL.
• Called, requested airport change to EWR. Change confirmed. Tickets re-issued.
• New flight route MAN>CDG>EWR.
• Called Air France to ask about bagging allowances for infant (week before flight). Told we had reservation but no ticket.
• Called Delta about this. Indeed said she had no ticket. Honoured original booking price and ticket given for Ł40 ($72).
• Arrived at MAN. Attempted check-in. Informed myself and daughter had a ticket but my wife's had been voided.
• Spoke to Air France Customer service desk. Said it was Delta's error that they had not 'released her ticket to Air France' and was voided.
• Air France called Delta where Air France informed us that Delta could fix the issue. On hold for a while.
• Didn't get through in time and forced to purchase a ticket for my wife MAN>CDG>EWR for Ł900 ($1,200).
• Checked in where management had to re-open the flight on their system to allow this. That is how long we waited for Delta's response before acting.
• Spoke to Delta a couple of days before return flight. They said nothing was wrong with the initial ticket and it was open with the first leg obviously unused. Also said everything was completely in order for our return flight and that we will not see any issues.
• Return flight PHL>JFK>MAN.
• Arrived at PHL to some check-in issues.
• Initially had my just my wife down as flying to PHL>ATL>MAN. Rectified.
• Then said we had to pay $0 for our infant. Dusputed this, even if it was nothing, and didn't 'pay' in the end.
• Told we had to pay $99 for infant's bag. Their policy clearly states one additional bag with a purchased international ticket. Was 'waivered'.
• Boarding cards given and on our way

Ben1989

I don't understand how only my wife's ticket was voided and not mine or our daughters also. There has been no separate discussions on a person by person basis, always called and booked as a family. My wife said that our infant was down as being on her lap initially (with no ticket). I think she changed it to me and that messed everything up? I really don't know.

Air France Customer Service had said that they see this sort of issue fairly regularly, unfortunately.

We just want our $1,200 back but we really think that we won't

Ben1989

We called Delta US as we know that they have more 'powers' etc. Cost us a lot of money in phone bills

PHXflier

Most economical to call them via Skype or equivalent. It's usually not more than a few pennies a minute and the quality is quite good.

Ben1989

You can do this? I'm not familiar with Skype

ijgordon

Hmm...a competent international traveler not familiar with Skype?!?
You need a wifi connection (or the data charges will probably be as big as the calling charges if not bigger), but you can call nearly anywhere for pennies a minute. I think Google Voice might offer a similar service.

Sounds like beside the hellish experience overall, you're really looking for a refund of the walk-up fare you had to pay for your wife on MAN-CDG-EWR, right? This will probably be a challenge as DL and AF will point fingers at each other and DL will say you should have just waited until we sorted it out even if that meant missing the flight.

Ultimately I think this will need to be escalated up the chain at DL, if your initial round of customer service communications don't go favorably, perhaps write a snail mail letter to the CEO in Atlanta, those usually get passed onto a special team. Other options are (1) file a complaint with the US Dept. of Transportation on their website, (2) pursue a small claims court case against DL (possibly difficult from overseas), and (3) of course try your travel insurance.

Good luck and keep us posted.

TerryK

​​​​​​​You can use Skype to call 800 numbers, such as DL USA reservation, for free.

jdrtravel

Agreed. This is your primary sticking point. I don't think that AF should have just told you to call DL, they should have called DL on your behalf and resolved this for you. They are supposed to be able to act as customer service agents for each other and airport agents are supposed to fix day of travel issues. This is where the key mistake was made. Not being properly ticketed and/or having an agent not properly fix what was probably a very simple ticket issue on day of travel is not acceptable (the other issues don't matter).

Keep all documents and be in touch with Delta customer service. I would honestly leave out most of the details of your story. Focus on showing up at the airport and being told that your wife's ticket was not valid and being forced to buy a walk up fare by AF in order for your wife to board the flight with your family, even though you had already paid for her ticket. The baggage allowances, child fare, flight changes etc are not really relevant and will only confused whoever is trying to resolve your face.

"To Whom it May Concern,

I purchased tickets for myself, wife and child to travel on XX on confirmation number XXXXXXX, (ticket # XXXXXXXXXX). Despite having called Delta to confirm everything was OK in advance, when we checked in at MAN the Air France agent told us that my wife's ticket was canceled by Delta. We were told that the only option for her to board the flight with us was to call Delta to fix it or to purchase a new ticket, which at that point was $900. I called Delta but the hold time was far too long and we would have missed our flight, so in desperation I just purchased the ticket, even though I had already purchased one for her months earlier.

I later called Delta and the agent I spoke with told me that there had been no problem with the ticket. How is this possible? Please see that I am now in a situation where I need one airline to believe me that there was an issue, as I have now paid twice for the same flight.

I have attached receipts for my original purchase as well as the walk up purchase. I am writing to request that my walk up $900 fare purchased on XXX (ticket # xxxxxxxxxx) be fully refunded. I realize that this is an issue that will need to sorted out between Delta and Air France. Please realize that as a customer I am unable to go back and forth between two companies, so I kindly request that you sort this out with Air France and see to it that whichever party is ultimately responsible for the ticketing error promptly issue a cash refund.

Kindly,

XXX

MSPeconomist

jdrtravel

as a new FT user OP has reached the daily posting limit. OP PMed me and asked me to post this on his behalf:

from Ben1989
"Thanks for your replies.

I have spoken to Air France and Delta. Delta claimed that the ticket was live and completely valid with no reason to not allow her to be checked in. However, Air France have said that they suspect that Delta had messed up with one of the reservations. Air France have limited access but they saw that on our flight confirmation number that Jen's outward bound flight had not been issued, only her return leg, when changing route/airport to EWR.

However, Delta claim that her tickets were issued to a different confirmation number and Air France did not notice. I really don't know how these systems work. Does this make sense to you guys?"

jdrtravel

from Ben1989:

Delta have just responded to me on how to word an email.:

"No problem. We would love to see this resolved for you. When you write Delta Customer Care. First, give them Jennifer's confirmation #XXXXXX [actual number edited out by jdrtravel] and the first ticket number. They can follow the trail. Explain that upon check-in MAN. The AirFrance agent could not find an "open ticket" for your wife. It appears that with the schedule changes, Delta failed to reissue the ticket for the correct flights. Therefore, you were forced to buy the Air France ticket. Give that ticket number. You would like a refund on the ticket or a voucher for future travel due to the LON Delta Reservations not issuing the schedule change correctly. How does that sound?? *TCC"

jdrtravel

Ben1989: I would follow this suggestion. Is this from a Twitter agent?

However, unless you want a voucher for future travel, I would request only a refund and not mention a voucher. They will prefer to give you a voucher. You can write to Delta Customer Care following the comment/complain link on Delta.com. Good luck and let us know how this resolves.

HWGeeks

Whats funny you call Delta US because they have more power. But when ever I call Delta US they sen me to Delta Europe who do way more for me than anyone in Delta US has.

MSPeconomist