Hi everyone, I wanted to share some good news about claiming compensation for a canceled Air France flight that I had booked with Flying Blue (FB) points/miles.
I used FB points last month for a trip to Naples and Paris. I booked 3 one way economy class flights: 1) NY to Naples with a layover in Paris; 2) Naples to Paris; 3) Paris to NY. When booking the first flight, I saw several overnight options from NY to Paris, each a few hours apart. There were also two flights from Paris to Naples, one in the afternoon and another at night. I opted for an overnight flight that departed NY around 6 PM and landed in Paris about 7 AM, paired with the afternoon flight to Naples. My plan was to use FB points to buy a pass to the CDG Air France lounge for the 6ish hour layover. Then I would arrive in Naples in late afternoon for a leisurely dinner and early night.
The evening before my flight, after I had dutifully checked in 24 hours in advance, I received a text and email from Air France saying, "Unfortunately, your [outbound] flight has been cancelled due to an anavoidable [sic] change to the flight schedule." This was my first time experiencing a canceled international flight, and I panicked. Also, in a feat of poor timing, at that moment both my home smoke detectors started beeping like the batteries were about to fail--the noise did not help to calm my mood!
Air France emailed me a few suggested itineraries for rebooking. They offered other overnight flights from NY, all arriving at CDG at a similar time to my original flight, so that was OK. The bad part, however, was that I saw no options for the afternoon flight to Naples; I was presented only with the night flight. Purchasing a new ticket on the afternoon flight looked very expensive ($700+), so I opted for the night flight despite the resulting 10 hour airport layover and an expected arrival in Naples at 10 PM.
Air France had assigned me to a middle seat on the rebooked overnight flight to Paris. I decided to pay $50 for a window seat, which I believe helped me sleep a bit on the plane. Upon arrival at CDG, I opted to book a day use room at Yotel Terminal 2E. I had to wait a couple hours for my room, but it felt great to take a shower and sleep a solid 5 hours in a bed. The room cost $160. I decided the extra $210 was worth it because I had a low cost award ticket: $266 in fees/taxes.
Unfortunately the flight to Naples was delayed almost two hours, so after landing at the airport and taking the bus to the Naples train station, I then had a 10 minute walk to my hotel after midnight. I like Naples, but I do not appreciate walking around any metropolitan transit center late at night! The main avenue was deserted except for military police in camo carrying rifles and people in tent cities bedding down for the night--interestingly, neither group interacted with each other, and everyone ignored me (which I attribute to my menopausal superpower of invisibility). I used my phone to plot my route to the hotel, which prompted an elderly woman hanging out on the street to admonish me to put my phone in my purse. Ugh, signora! I know, I live in a city where people are mugged not infrequently. Anyhow, I finally made it to my hotel room around 12:30 AM, but it took me a while to wind down and finish cursing Air France. I missed a Neapolitan pizza dinner because of them! Not to mention a lot of missed sleep.
After my trip (which was much much better than how it started!) I filed a claim with Air France because the rescheduled itinerary they offered me constituted a significant delay. The airline emailed me 10 days later and approved my claim, offering my $627. I received the money in my bank account 8 days later. Doing the math you can see that I... actually made money from this SNAFU, even accounting for the day use hotel. I would have rather been on the original flights, of course, but I appreciate EU 261/2004.