Reservation disappeared?
 

Hello, in late 2019 I'd booked my sister and her husband a Delta-ticketed round-trip on an Air France operated flight. The departure is April 7 and I was just waiting for them to officially cancel so I could request a full refund.

Today I noticed that Delta can no longer pull up the reservation. It just says "Whoops! We're sorry, we could not find any reservation with the information you have provided. Please check your documentation and try again." If I go to the Air France site, I get a similar message: "Your reservation file is empty. Please contact our customer service for information about this file."

Is this normal that you can no longer pull up the info if they cancel the flights? I'm guessing I have to call in to fix this? It was booked via Amex IAP, so should I call Amex or Delta?

You should call Amex, as they're your travel agent in this situation. And don't know what happened here but sounds like your flights have been cancelled and there aren't suitable replacements available, or the auto-rebooking system wasn't able to figure out what those flights would be. You could try searching for tickets on Delta.com for your original itinerary to confirm that the flights are gone, although at this point most long-haul flying has ended so it's a safe bet that they are cancelled. If so, you should be eligible to get a refund from Amex.

I get the same error message whether I search by record locator or ticket #.

I have an IAP ticket, but I did receive an email from AX stating that DL can take over the reservation.

Based upon your post, I just pulled my PNR up, and wrote down the ticket number from the receipt, just in case the same thing happens. DL will be able to track the ticket / value from the ticket number (starting with 006).

A PNR will typically disappear 24 to 36 hours after the last event (flight, hotel stay, etc.in it) has occurred. It looks like the same occurs for a cancelation.

Sorry, I meant you could search as if you were buying new tickets for the same itinerary you had originally booked, to try to confirm whether your original flights have been cancelled (if they're no longer on sale). But most likely they have indeed been cancelled.

I have something similar and talked to AMEX Travel yesterday. (HNL-LAX-CDG-ARN) leaving April 8. Only the HNL-LAX and LAX-HNL segments are showing on Delta.com (AF-marketed flights operated by DL). The same flights are the only ones showing on the Air France site as well.

AMEX Travel told me they couldn't process a refund and I had to submit the refund form on AirFrance.com.

These were discounted biz class tickets.

Good luck, everyone.

I just called Delta and they said, 1) yes, it is a reservation with no flights and it does qualify for a refund, 2) only Amex can do the refund... not Delta. I hope Amex doesn't tell me the opposite.

From DL's current policy, it looks like DL can issue you a credit you can use (if that is an option). But for a refund, the issuing agent typically needs to process the refund.

It's basically normal I think at this point depending on the carrier's infrastructure: if they can rebook you same day they might, but if they can't (because of cancelled flights) then you can get the empty record. Appears to be the case with Delta, know personally it is the case for VS.

To my knowledge, Amex is the one that has to ask for the refund; in my case with Chase they had to call VS (not me) to get the refund and I assume that's actually standard across the industry as well. On the plus side there's a separate queue for them on the airline side at least for me, VS front door CSR's were 2-3 hour wait, the Chase rep got through in under 15 minutes while I was on hold and we were sorted quickly after that.

AmEx should take care of this for you. That's (partly) why you paid them the ticketing service fee--at least for IAP discounted business class tickets purchased by calling PTS/CTS.

Bottom line is that if OP has sought a refund from the TA, e.g. AMEX Travel, and has been told that it cannot process a refund, it may be worth a call to AF, only to be told that it is AMEX Travel which it must do so. If that happens, simply file a chargeback. Do not delay in doing this as the law only requires the card issuer to process a chargeback for 60 days after the item first showed up on a statement. Presuming that was in January, we are either at or over 60 days. While Amex has traditionally allowed up to a year, and there are other arguments to be made when a service is not provided, now is not the time to depend on past practices.