Newest tactic in airline ticket bumping

Just to clarify---Air France moved him from flights on the 23d to the previous day (Apr.. 22) but did not notify him of the change before he got the check-in reminder on the 21st? And what reason did they give for the change? Obviously it was not a schedule change, as you were still ticketed on the Apr. 23 flights, correct? And could not have been an equipment change, as you presumably have records to refute that. So what justification did they give? And how are they able to avoid the EU261 compensation rules?

You should post this on Flyertalk, in the Air France forum. People there are very good at offering solutions.

Hi Lola,

Never contacted him about the change until the reminder to check it. As for the rationale, it changed depending on who we talked to. At first, Air France said our Amsterdam Paris flight had been cancelled. When I told them I was on the exact same flights and my ticket wasn't changed the service agent said that I would be. Which was interesting since they supposedly contacted my husband on the 14th of April and it was now the 21st and I hadn't been contacted. When we spoke to the Air France supervisor, the story changed again. It was now due to the fact that our Paris/LAX flight had a schedule change - of 10 minutes. When I explained that I was ticketed for the exact same flights but my ticket hadn't been changed, the supervisor just kept repeating "it's a schedule change". Which in truth it was - Air France changed the Paris/LAX flight time by 10 minutes - but even if that precluded us from taking the AMS to Paris flight (assuming the rationale is that that wouldn't leave enough time to transfer to the Paris/LAX flight) it doesn't explain why my ticket wasn't changed. Hee refused to address this - He concluded that he could not put my husband on his original flight and told us our only option was to change to a Delta flight.
When we got to the Delta agent, she went back to the Amsterdam/Paris flight being cancelled. I had checked the flight status and it still showed the flight scheduled. When I told her that, she said, "well, they just haven't notified you yet" - they've supposedly known this since the 14th and hadn't notified me? Hmm....
The next morning at the airport, the departure boards showed the flight being on time - no cancellation at all. Thus, the only logical conclusion is that they sold his seat to someone else and lied about it. As far as I understand, with the EU rules, since they put my husband on an earlier flight, he technically wasn't delayed. The rules say nothing about changing his ticket to a day earlier. As for the "schedule change" excuse, I am still trying to figure out if that provides a sufficient loophole - but if that's true then my ticket would have had to have been changed as well, which it wasn't. Their problem is that they assumed my husband was traveling by himself.

Thank you for posting this Nancy. This is outrageous. I really hope you get a resolution in your favor.

I hope you got a photo of the departure board showing that flight departing on time. That proves they were lying.

It is crazy that you could be denied compensation because they moved him to an earlier flight rather than a later one. What if he could not have made the earlier one?

Did you end up traveling back together even though you were on separate tickets?

We are really at the mercy of the airlines. I wanted to fly to BVI. The Sunday flight was cheaper than the Saturday one. I changed my reservations to Sunday because a flight was listed. A week later my flight changed to Saturday with no notice. I was ok because it was 6 months out. When I called all I was told was that it was an "equipment issue "I did ask how they knew there would be an "equipment issue" 6 months in the future?! They just did!! I'm sure they wanted to fill the Saturday flight before they flew the Sunday one. It is very frustrating to travelers who are planning on certain flights to fit with reservations.

Lola - yes we did travel back together and I got a photo of the departure board along with a screen shot from Air France's own site showing the time the flight departed and when it landed.

I'm currently pursuing compensation and will update when I learn anything. Hopefully my experience will result in useful information for my fellow travelers!

Thank you for sharing this! It's no longer safe to assume that once you've bought the ticket you're actually going to fly on that plane/schedule. As if we don't already have enough stress in our lives.

Thanks to this board we've become much more diligent and caught flight changes that somehow never generated an alert.

Did you book directly through Air France or did you use a third-party agency? Third-party agencies have been known to do this.

I've actually had very good experience working through the agents on the phone when I've needed to. So getting good customer service is hit or miss.

"Equipment Issue" could mean a change of plane type and yes it is done months in advance.

Let's say one day a week a flight is far from full and it becomes a pattern. The airline might change that day's flight to a smaller, less expensive plane to fly.

It is rare, very rare, that an airline will tell you exactly what it going on. It seems the culture is keep the passenger in the dark.

Booked directly on Air France - who BTW billed me twice for the same flight and refused to refund it. Fortunately, credit card company pursued it.

I agree Frank - the reason I think that airlines aren't upfront is that if they were honest about why tickets are changed, the public would be outraged and it would trigger much tougher laws regarding ticket changes.

Bottom line, the airlines regularly bump passengers in order to sell seats at a higher price. Historically the passengers find out at the airport. However, it appears that there is a new tactic in place - that of "rebooking" passengers to earlier flights without their consent.

Airlines are the only business I know of that can commit fraud... legally.

It could be that they bumped him for a passenger with frequent flyer status. Several airlines offer their top-tier frequent flyers "guaranteed reservations". That means they get a seat regardless of whether the plane is full or not. A non-elite flyer gets bumped to make room. And those status passengers rarely sit in economy, they get premium economy at least if business class is full.

I've heard of this, though not been affected myself. I haven't heard of an airline simply reselling a seat for a higher price. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But the "guaranteed reservation" bump seems more likely to me. Anyway, my condolences for a rotten end to your trip. Hope the earlier part was fabulous.

OTOH: Doing Schengen immigration at Schiphol not CDG, and US immigration at MSP not LAX is a lot quicker/nicer. Clarify: were you given Delta Comfort + for your "Premium Economy"? Were you able at least to fly into SNA as a little perk? Did you look at SNA/MSP (or SLC, SEA, ATL)/AMS as a routing when you bought the tickets? Delta has so, so many flights from the USA to AMS.

Would be curious to know if one of the tickets cost more than the other, or if one was bought earlier than the other. Seems unlikely your husband was selected randomly. I'm thinking that $$ compensation is unlikely but some Flying Blue miles likely.

For those who don't know, when flying internationally Delta, KLM, and AF act like one airline. In AMS, KLM staff handle all the check-ins, baggage handling, customer service for all 3, in the US for all 3 it's Delta, and in France it's AF.

I've never read it online, but I suspect that budget airlines (Icelandair, Norwegian, Condor, WOW) never do this kind of flight time changing and flight rescheduling/canceling because they have only one flight a day and don't partner with anybody to shift passengers around.

Airlines are the only business I know of that can commit fraud... legally.

If only....what about the financial industry? Or cable industry? Or healthcare industry? Shady business practices are not limited to airlines; just look to any place where there's a monopoly, poor regulation, or heavy lobbying and you can bet that the consumer comes last.

or government...

To All:

If EVERYONE who has been abused by the airline industry wrote their federal representatives, I believe these abuses would be regulated away in short order. The only reason this continues to be condoned by our elected representatives is because our voices are silent and the airline lobbyists' wallets are open.

Every elected representative has an email address.

Government is not a business, last time I checked.

I'd hate to say this, but a lot of complaints already go to the US DOT, which produces the regulations and tracks airlines on a number of metrics (delays, bags lost, etc). Just recently, a consumer-friendly rule concerning pricing transparency was "pulled" before implementation. The Trump Administration is not interested in regulation, so I would not hold my breath. Money talks and people may complain all they want, to no avail. I think that the number of people who are truly "abused" by airlines is tiny...more frequently, people are inconvenienced (and of course there are the tight seats and no food, but that's not going away either).

Have you looked lately agnes ;)

Got it...you must be referring to the huckster/grifter administration. Total agreement from me.