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Need Some Help from Experienced Flyers

This October we are taking our first tour (RS Best of Italy). Booked the tour mid-January and flights through Air France 2 weeks later when I found a price and itinerary that worked for us.

Since the first leg of the flight was on Delta (LAX to JFK), and I’d read they often change their flight schedules, I checked our reservations in late February and found that the Delta flight had been cancelled, but Air France “was working on it”. Long story short, five weeks later they were still working on it and after getting advice on this site I called Air France and changed our flight to KLM (LAX to AMS to Milan) at no extra charge.

However, now we have an electronic ticket for both of us from Air France with the first itinerary, an electronic ticket from Delta/KLM for me (and as far as I can tell, not my husband) for the changed itinerary, and Delta flight receipts for both of us with a flight number the Delta website doesn’t recognize (though their customer service person did confirm we have a flight and knew our original AF reservation number).

Delta can’t send me another e-ticket that shows my husband’s name. (We’ve tried twice and always end up with another flight receipt.) Air France says e-tickets don’t matter anyway. So, before I spend more time on hold with the airlines, my questions for you more experienced flyers are: 1) Do e-tickets matter or do we just need a boarding pass? 2) Can Delta change the KLM itinerary we currently have, or is that up to KLM? 3) Who on earth do we check-in with online? Even though our original booking was with Air France, Delta is the one who can sell us seats ahead of the 30-hour online check-in time, but they say we check-in with KLM! Thanks in advance for your help, all our other international flights have been very straightforward so I feel like I’m in over my head here.

Posted by
11613 posts

All you need is the boarding pass, but to get it in advance you have to check in online.

Or, at the airport, you can scan your passport at check-in kiosk and get your boarding pass, but I would want to have the matter settled before then.

Which airline is on your credit card statement? That is the one I would call.

Posted by
2141 posts

I had a similar issue with another airline. We booked with a partner code share for a Turkish Air flight (I don't remember which one). Turkish air fixed my issue and actually allowed us to pick our seats months out! But, I had to make several calls to them to find someone willing or who knew how to fix the problem. The airline code share with the original reservation kept saying Turkish Air was the only one who could fix it. If you haven't called KLM, try them. I know the time it took me to get my situation taken care of and it took hours of being on hold!
I wouldn't rely on an e-ticket that does not have proper info.
I am sure this can be taken care of but don't let it sit just in case there is a problem that you can't fix once you get to the airport.
Good luck!

Posted by
11879 posts

As best I can follow it, you bought your ticket from Air France. Air France sold you a ticket on a Delta flight, which Delta has cancelled /// Air France then put you on a KLM flight, but maybe didn't include your husband.?

I would start with Air France as it appearIs they are the ones who sold you the original ticket

If the front line rep cannot fix your problem, ask for a supervisor. If the supervisor tells you to "call the other airline" ask them to do a conference call and make them sort it out

Personally, I would spend the time on the phone to have it sorted out long before going to the airport, with it still in the murky situation you now have

Posted by
362 posts

If you are in the US, check with Delta. While they do codeshare with Air France, you are probably booked through Delta on the US origin leg of your flight. What kind of seats did you purchase?

We have a reservation which we booked through Delta for later this year which still does not seats for us on the last leg of our flight, but Delta is the ticketing agent in the US for us. Maybe call them and see what they have to say?

Posted by
985 posts

Yes, I would get this settled to make sure that hubby does have a ticket. You will receive an email telling you that it is time to check in. If you try to check in with the wrong airline it will direct you which airline to check in with.
Ex: bought tickets RT with Delta. Flew to Amsterdam on Delta and checked in online with Delta. Return home was on a codeshare with AF so had to check in online with AF, not Delta.

Posted by
1339 posts

This sounds like my idea of a nightmare! I don't know if it helps to know this but KLM is owned by Air France, so I would guess you need Air France to resolve the issue, as they appear to be the 'source'.

Hope you get it fixed so you can travel with some sort of certainty.

Ian

Posted by
443 posts

Thanks for the input. My husband is included on the KLM flight--we have a flight receipt just not an e-ticket, but what I'm getting from you all is that Air France is right and the e-ticket is not necessary. Air France is still in the mix since they are the ones who rebooked us with KLM (and our online reservation with AF shows that flight, it's just not on the e-ticket unless it's now in the QR code), and they also did the original booking for our return flight with Alitalia. (Yes, I know, another possible problem, but we're returning 2 weeks ahead of the end of the government support, so "fingers crossed", and Air France did confirm that they are responsible for getting us home from Rome, plus we bought excellent travel insurance.) I guess the confusion is partly because Delta handles KLM's reservations in the US (or so I've read), otherwise I don't think they'd be involved at all since they cancelled the one flight leg we had with them on this trip.

I will try calling Air France again since their wait time is WAY shorter than Delta's, and ask them specifically about online check-in. Last time my call was about seating--AF shows our seats back from Rome, but Delta/KLM doesn't, and vice versa on the ability to choose seats for our flight to Milan. I'll also contact KLM and see what they say. I tried signing up for flight notification through the link in my KLM ticket and that was another one that didn't recognize the flight. It's getting a little unnerving. Fortunately I have 3 months to straighten this out. Thanks again.

Posted by
17429 posts

If you want advice from knowledgeable people I suggest you try the Air France forum on Flyertalk.

Posted by
10623 posts

Air France, KLM and Delta all use the same call center, so just keep asking for supervisors until you have confirmation numbers for both of you.

Posted by
443 posts

Thanks again for all your help. I went to KLM's website, used our Air France reservation code and they had ticket numbers for both me and my husband, plus they had the information about the seats we had already reserved on our Alitalia flight. I was able to purchase our seats for the KLM flights, and they confirmed that we can check in online with them 24 hours before our flight. I'm feeling quite relieved. Now I can get to counting down the days until we leave (96!).

Posted by
10198 posts

oh good, so glad you were able to work it out. Still, what a pain they put you through!! you shouldn't have had to work so hard to have tickets on flights you had purchased!!!!

Have a great time.