UPDATED6/30/18 (results 7/9/18) Disappointed in Hop! operated by AirFrance and won’t book again

Good grief what a mess. I am so sorry that this happened to your daughter-in-law and granddaughters -- this is absolutely unconscionable for AirFrance/Hop! to be giving different information to different members of the same family!!! (I bet they didn't count on that!!!). Good onyou all for keeping the screen shots, etc.

I hope they will eventually get reimbursed and get some compensation but I know you would have much preferred for them to receive the service they had initially booked (out of an abundance of caution not to be tied up by a train strike) without all the extraordinary hassle and stress. Very disappointing.

Mona, I wonder if HOP had overbooked the flight and therefore had to bump some passengers, and did so by lying about the flight being cancelled? Do you remember another story similar to this a year or so ago when a husband and wife got bumped off and were told the flight was cancelled only to discover that it flew? I hope your family gets all the maximum's it is entitled to. What a huge amount of stress to deal with, worrying about making it onto the int'l flight. Sure glad you have family verification as well as the screen shots. And while it may be "the norm" for airlines to behave like this, I too find myself avoiding businesses that find it acceptable to treat their customers so shabbily.

This isn’t weather. This isn’t equpment change. This is unethical. Of course it was oversold , so status passengers and those who paid higher kept their seats but your family got involuntarily bumped, denied boarding. Duly noted, and that your case isn’t the first. This isn’t to be shrugged off.

So the EU has some pretty clear laws about situtations where there is an involuntary denied boarding (EU 261). I suggest that your daughter in law make sure sheunderstands her rights under this law prior to settling with the airline.

That's the first thing I told them about dealing with this airline and I gave her the link. Their original flights were less than $200 for the 3 of them. The compensation that they seem to be entitled to is almost 10x this amount. They even sent attachments of their phone bills that night. They've been pretty thorough. They've sent the 7 page form with attachments off and moved on with their busy end of the school year lives. They had a wonderful week in France at their French cousin's wedding and this didn't dampen their enthusiasm. They are still walking on air from the close family time.

I just wanted to alert more travelers about how things can go south in a hurry and it's good to have backup plans (although the train strike added a layer uncertainty until the last minute), keep records or screenshots and follow through once you're out of the mess. Then move on which we're now doing.

Mona, what a terrible experience. I know that you and your family are experienced travelers, not first timers, which makes the complaint even more compelling.

We had something similar happen a few years ago, when BA changed one leg of our flight to Europe to something much more inconvenient, claiming the code share carrier had canceled. But yet it was still on the schedule...

I hope this experience doesn't sour your wonderful travel outlook.

Au contraire Jane. They're ready to go back in a minute. The girls are learning French in school and in addition to the first cousins in France they have an aunt and more cousins in Montreal so they love to travel.

Please let us know the resolution of their claim. Thanks for posting. It’s one thing to be bumped for an oversold flight, but for an airline to say the flight was cancelled when it wasn’t is wrong. and there should be repercussions against that business practice.

Agree with the others, totally un-ethical! Go gett’em!

Wise of you to have the presence of mind to take screen shots and double check that flights were, indeed, not canceled as you had been told. Please check back in to report how your claim was settled.

Wonder if this a little language problem/translation. When they were saying the flight was cancelled did they mean just your tickets were cancelled? Cannot believe they would be saying a whole flight was cancelled when it is so easy to check on that statement. But it also puts point on the standard recommendation of never travel on a separate ticket to meet your flight home. The stress will be high. Hope it works out in the end for you.

It was believable because on one of our screenshots it shows the 9:15 AM flight and then says in bold letters to the right FLIGHT CANCELLED and when they spoke to an AF representative that's the wording they used too. It's all in the EU regulations form's database now. And yes Frank I totally agree with your reminder not to book two modes of transportation on nonconnecting tickets on the day of travel back to your home destination. They'd been given this caution. The backup plan was always train or flight from Marseilles but the train strike was adding some uncertainty and getting to Marseilles was another thing for her to deal with if they couldn't go by train or plane from Toulon. It never hurts to have a couple of backup plans but I try not to live this close to the edge.

Mona, thank you for sharing your story. This is why I appreciate the RS Forum. It brings awareness for all of us who travel. Hope you will keep us posted with the outcome. All the best.

You cautioned them about separate flights on the same day. What can we say—offspring have to learn on their own. My son’s family is doing the same thing—TGV from Marseille day of the flight. Our young ones thanked us, the old ones, for our advice and said they had already studied the situation. Different risk tolerance.

So true Bets, so true. They did learn the lesson about pushing the Buy Now button though if they see a great ticket price for a flight. I heard our older son tell his wife several years ago, if we (mom and dad) see an unbelievably good priced flight they need to be ready to pounce on it. He told her it was like getting a great tip on the stock market--buy. This year he learned about spending a few dollars to hold a fare for 24h when all of the wedding festivities hadn't been fully set. That part worked out fine with a couple of phone calls back and forth to France and news of a great fare.

Air France has responded to our daughter in law with a long apologetic email. They have agreed to the full compensation she asked for, 250€ per person (based on flight distance), international phone calls, purchased TGV tickets and a refund for their HOP! tickets. They are sending a check to each family member affected. The email also said that Valerie’s complaint and request for compensation was also being sent forward to the “Flight Operations Leadership Team” to improve services in the future.

It was nice to see that the EU 261/2004 rules can produce results. It was so hard to deal with for all of them when it was happening with little warning the night of the culminating sedar and wedding dinner.

It was an apppropriate response but I don’t think I’d book this AF subsidiary again and we had our own frustrations with AF on our spring trip.

I'm happy they are getting compensation and very glad you came back with an update. At least it was a satisfactory conclusion (assuming you get the checks, lol!) altho at the time it must have been sheer frustration.

Daughter in law and granddaughters received their full compensation checks today, about one month after their issue with HOP! They filed their claim on June 4 and received full compensation on July 9. I want to thank people on this forum, past and present, for helping us know about EU regulations and offering encouring words for our family and others who have glitches in their travel plans. What a great community of help!

Wow -- they got fully reimbursed in five days!!!?? That's fantastic.

Glad the story has a happy ending (and that you all were resourceful enough and they were resilient enough to find another solution at the time).

Thank you for letting us know the resolution.