I've got strike questions, who's got answers?

Sorry, my crystal ball is out for repairs. Snarkiness not intended but since this strike is unlike any others in that it is described as "rolling" meaning two days strike, three days work, two days strike . . . until the end of June there is no way of comparing this strike to others.

Be flexible and have a backup plan. No way of knowing, just follow the news every day.

And it wouldn't be an "authentic" French experience without a strike thrown in here or there.

You may find this information from Trip Advisor forum helpful -
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g187147-i14-k11366624-Understanding_the_upcoming_SNCF_strike-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

Thank you, Doyle, for including the link to Trip Advisor with detailed information about the rail strikes! Very helpful to me as I'm traveling on Thalys train from Paris to Amsterdam on a strike day, 23 April. We bought our tickets through Rail Europe 2 months ago. Hopefully, our train runs on time, or, if not, we will still be able to travel on the same day. I usually do not schedule any activity on the day of arrival when I'm traveling between destinations.

doyle501, this is a good general guide. The only thing is that it was written a couple of weeks ago when French mystique, and I too, thought the strike would be lighter than it is. This is a hard strike with more cancellations than most of us predicted.

I am also in fear of having our long awaited trip disrupted by Air France. We are scheduled through Delta to fly AF from CDG to Venice on Thurs. April 26. That flight has been cancelled on strike days, as well as the later one that day! As I await the announcement of future strike days, I have called Delta to ask what I do if my flight is cancelled. They tell me to call their reservation number. I have waited hours on hold as this crisis unfolds. Would you suggest I call another airline myself (like EasyJet) to book a back up flight if the strike affects my travel, or wait on hold for Delta to try to squeeze us in on a KLM flight from CDG that I see goes to AMS then on to Venilce. Anyone have experience with this dilemma?

Book a back up flight. If you see the thread on problems and solutions, you'll see that people have to put money into the problem to solve it. If Easy Jet is going, don't wait until the price is sky high. If your flight to Venice is cancelled, you'll get refunded and can file for compensation.

Agree completely. Book the Easy Jet as soon as you can. Prices here for the bus transportation alternative to trains as reported on France 2 tonight, have in some cases doubled.

I wish that were the case that it would "be cancelled by then." But I'm not going to bet on it. Four of my booked days in Paris are strike days based on what has been announced thus far, two of which I had planned on day trips taking the train. We shall see.

The BBC this morning mapped out the specific 36 rail strike days through June so this should be VERY useful in terms of buying rail tickets.

I hope this is helps.

Bets,
You encouraged me to book a back up flight, and I have been looking into this. My question is, if my flight is cancelled, and I call Delta to request a refund for that leg of our itinerary, will they do that or refuse by insisting on rebooking us on another one of their code shared flights? My husband is not anxious to put more money into this if we aren't going to be compensated. AND it has been Delta's MO to give Delta Skymiles members credit for another flight, which we definitely don't want. What do ya think? Anybody have any experience with a cancelled flight through Delta?

A very good source of information - google "oui.sncf strike info."

On this site, in addition to the schedule of strike days, sncf makes a distinction between trains due to run in April, for which a number of options for contingency planning are offered, including rebooking, cancellations, and refunds. They do say that it is too early to plan yet for May and June, so they do not yet offer such options for those trains, unfortunately. We will just have to keep an eye on the site, as our trains are in May and June.

My question is, if my flight is cancelled, and I call Delta to request
a refund for that leg of our itinerary, will they do that or refuse by
insisting on rebooking us on another one of their code shared flights?

Delta's own flights will not be affected. A Delta code share on an AF flight however will be affected.

Thank you for all this information. Am I correct in assuming the Paris Metro is not affected by this?

I too have a trip planned in May. Flying into London, taking the Eurostar to Paris on a Saturday, back on a Wednesday. As of today, those are not strike days. But I'm making back up plans just in case. I did realize that the credit card I used to purchase my VRBO rental has trip interuption/cancellation coverage for this event. They will reimburse you for non refundable reservations that are cancelled due to strikes. It'll be worth it to review your credit card benefits. There's actually some really good ones.

@Barbara and Barb: we had our AF flights cancelled on April 10 and 11 and we were able to rebook on KLM through the US Air France number. I've reported the details on two other strke threads on this forum.

There is also a very helpful FAQ section on the AirFrance US website. Click on the announcement at the top where it has Strike information. They discuss re routing, cancelling, flying into different destinations, etc. we were able to change our flight one week in advance as soon as it was announced by AF in their "bulletin". Until this happens you can only watch and wait. Also, we waited no more than 15 minutes for an agent to help us at the 800 number I posted on the other threads by Bets and 50720.

Mona,

Thank you for the very helpful information on the Air France link and 800 number on the other thread. I'm glad you were able to get another flight.

I am confused by one thing though that I hope you can clarify for me please. How do you know your actual flight was cancelled already? The strike link on the Air France page only announces the strike dates, and claims it is too early to evaluate possible impacts. There is nothing listing which flights have been cancelled, in other words. Did they tell you it was cancelled when you called?

Our Delta operated by Air France flight isn't for another couple of weeks, but I want to be fully prepared in case God forbid, they decide to cancel then too.

Thanks much!

Dear Mona,
Thanks for this info. Our reservation is through Delta, with Air France as a code share is taking us on 2 legs---- from CDG to Venice and from Zurich to CDG. Delta tells me that I have to call them and not Air France to reschedule should the flights be cancelled. I am not as concerned about the flight leaving Zurich as our planned trip will be over and heading home. However, the CDG to Venice leg is the beginning. We have hotel reservations that could be compromised, not to mention how exhausted we will be from no sleep on an overnight flight. I am waiting for new strike days to be announced with a lot of trepidation!

@Mom2bunky --I don't know if our flights will be cancelled on the 10th and 11th or not but once they appear on the Air France link like ours did yesterday and an inhouse "bulletin" has been issued (only they will know that part), they have the authority to rebook you on a partner flight if that's what you want to do. We couldn't wait until the night before to find this out as we are hours away from the airport and have an exchange family coming to our house.

It's important to check the website daily from about one week out to see if your flight date gets listed.

It's important to know what partner flight you want to be switched to. They will also give you seats on your new flight and register your different carrier FF#.

On the AF link they show statistically how many international and domestic flights are typically cancelled. I don't think it's a time to gamble though. If your flight date appears on the link, call to see if it's on their bulletin and tell them what change you want made. They have a good FAQ section too at that link.

Okay thank you Mona, I think I must have misunderstood. You must have meant that you "cancelled" your own tickets with Air France when you rebooked with KLM.

Four more strike dates have been announced surrounding our departure date, 17 & 18, and 23 & 24. Thankfully none of those are our date. But I'm going to keep an eye on things anyway just as you suggest.

@ mom2bunky. All I know is that when AF lists a flight date as a possibility of a cancelled flight, like the just posted dates (7, 10, 11, 17, 18, 23 and 24 April 2018) you can request a change from AF at no cost to a partner airline. The original flight may not actually be cancelled. Earlier on the AF website they were reporting statistics that 85% of their international flights were happening. I just didn't want to wait to see if our flight would be a "go" on the day before we flew so we asked AF to rebook us. They cancellled our tickets and rebooked us, but our flight may actually fly next Tuesday. If it does, people who waited it out will have extra seats around them but it was too uncertain for us to gamble on.

Mona, that's exactly what we plan to do if Air France lists our date as a strike date. Even with 75-85% odds of our flight still going, I'm not going to chance it. Not with so much money invested in a 2 week trip- our first to Europe.

Once the dates post online we'll just call that Air France number that Bets was kind enough to provide and ask to re-book via KLM if our June departure date is announced as a strike date(hoping the strike won't last that long). If there's no extra cost I don't see any reason not to re-book with an airline that is not on strike and avoid the risk of a cancelled flight. I assume many other fliers will be following this strategy, if they are aware of their options.