I booked an award ticket on Delta and a paid ticket on AF a few months ago. I'm taking a longer route from LAX-FCO as that was the availabilty with the DL award. I can see on AF's site now that the leg from ATL-CDG is fully booked in coach. I want to travel together and I was wondering if anyone has had luck in getting an airline to change a ticket (sort of pre-bumping me on a more direct route ~ of course) because the flight is sold out in that one segment. If so, anyone special I would want to contact? TIA

You may have a better chance of a helpful response in the Air France Forum.

Hi Rut Dog,
Actually, I thought I might get a better chance of an answer here because of the ghostown atmosphere in the AF forum , not to mention the question could be applied to any airline. I was looking for knowledgable people's opinions or perhaps past experiences of others in a similar situation...

If I understand you correctly, you have an award ticket on DL from LAX-ATL and a revenue ticket on AF from ATL-CDG-FCO, and you want AF to reaccommodate you in advance on a more direct flight (e.g. one connection instead of two) because of a prospective oversell situation. Sorry, but that's not going to happen.

First, AF is not going to help you get all the way from LAX to FCO when they are only obligated to transport you from ATL even if there were nonstop options from LAX, which there are not on any carrier much less AF (in theory, the most you could accomplish is to eliminate one stop by making a single connection either at an American or European hub). Second, all airlines are almost universally unwilling to entertain a voluntary bump in advance of the flight.

The best you can hope to do if you arrive at ATL to find your AF flight to CDG oversold and AF in need of volunteers is to ask them to rebook you on DL's nonstop ATL-FCO service (DL #70).

[This message has been edited by cAAl (edited 08-01-2003).]

Hi cAAl,
Thanks for your response. I didn't, however, make myself clear. I have 2 rt tix LAX-FCO, one paid AF, one award DL (didn't have enough DL miles for a 2nd tix as I had transferred to HH for the Cavalieri!) I paid for the AF tix to match the route given on the DL award. So there's 2 tix on the AF/DL ATL-CDG segment that AF could sell for additional revenue by putting us on a LAX to CDG route, assuming that there's space left when we leave in a few weeks. Obviously I can, and will, call AF directly closer to the departure date but I was hoping that someone may have had something similar happen or knew how the way to go about it.
It does sound like a pipe dream, though, given the way airlines operate

emphasis added:

#1: Air France, like any airline, can and do overbook, so that eliminates the "problem" of your using up two seats on the ATL-CDG flight

#2: As my geometry teacher from the 9th grade would say, "assumption is the root of all evil."