Pulling A Fast One On Us – Delta Cancellations On Air France Mistake Fare
I expect other people are filing for Delta cancellations after Air France tried to pull a fast one on us. Courts have said airlines aren’t required to honor “mistake fares”. I had low faith that Air France would honor these, but they tried to pull a fast one on us. I’m not playing along and am using their option for Delta cancellations on the codeshare ticket.
Air France Mistake Fare
A week ago, buzz in our Diamond Lounge Facebook group was about an ultra-cheap fare for Air France La Première first class. This was for one-way flights starting at ALG airport in Algiers, Algeria and heading to several cities in the U.S. Fares were $500 and under. That’s a deal for business class. For a first class product that you can’t book on points/miles without Air France elite status, it’s a gem. Numerous people booked the flights, myself included. Then, we waited to see if Air France would cancel our tickets.
Air France Issues New Tickets
Delta issued the bookings with their internal 006 e-tickets. However, the flights are operated by their partner Air France. Air France did something interesting: they took over the bookings and re-issued the tickets with their own 057 series. This made Air France the owners of the tickets.
I booked on March 26, 2020. 6 days after my booking, April 1, I got an un-funny email stating that I’d been rebooked from F class (first class) to Z class (discount business class). The first email came from Expedia stating that my flight had been canceled, and I’d been rebooked on the same flight but in Z not F. That was followed 5 minutes later by an email from Air France with new e-tickets and booking confirmations.
This means I’d fly in a lower cabin AND earn less miles on my flight from the cash fare. I wasn’t too happy about this sleight of hand. I decided to contact Delta and Expedia about honoring my original booking.
Cycle Of “Talk to Someone Else”
Delta told me the ticket to talk to Expedia, since I’d booked through them. Expedia said the changes came from Air France, so talk to them. Air France said I’d booked through Expedia, so talk to them.
April 3, I finally received an email with something worthwhile. Air France sent a generic email stating that there had been an error. To correct the error, my ticket was re-issued for business class. I could accept that or receive a full refund. I’m going for the refund.
Why The Refund?
“Why are you taking a refund? This is still a great deal on a business class fare.”
That’s true. This is a very good deal on a business class ticket. Air France business class from Algiers to Paris and then Paris to Houston costs around $3500. This is an 85% discount. For comparison, the first class fare is $10,000+, so that’s a 95% discount. This is a good deal if it works for you.
Unfortunately, it’s not that great for me. I live in Brazil. That means that I’d need to get myself to Algeria first. Then, I’d need to get myself home from Houston. That’s quite far out of the way for a business class ticket that doesn’t really “serve a purpose” for me. Algeria is a beautiful country that I recommend you visit some day. I’ve been there, and I don’t have any need for going to Houston, either.
For an unreal discount on a first class ticket, I’d do it. I don’t know anyone who’s taken Air France La Première, but the reviews are amazing. I’d do it for that. For tons of extra travel time to ride a product I’ll also experience on another trip at the end of the year, it doesn’t seem worth the extra effort of getting there and getting home.
Final Thoughts
I’m not too surprised Air France won’t honor the fares. I’d wondered how this would play out, given their recent shenanigans with customers and their history of not honoring mistake fares. However, airlines are also desperate for cash right now. I thought they might honor it just to keep our money. Instead, they tried something different. They want to keep our money but move us out of first class.
I’m glad they simply stated we could get a refund in their email. This makes it simpler. I’m sure that a lot of arguing, headaches, and effort could’ve eventually led to a refund from Expedia by pointing out that the airline isn’t honoring your booking. Instead, this should make it simpler. Given how backed up Expedia is, I don’t know how fast my refund will process. However, I’m glad Air France clearly stated I could get one. I’m sure I’m not the only one entering the Delta cancellations queue on these bookings.
Did you book this fare? Are you keeping it or cancelling? I’m interested in how others are approaching this. For me, it’s just too “out of the way”.
Update April 9
Yesterday, I received an updated email from Expedia outlining my right to cancel and how to cancel with Delta. Here’s that email:
I called the cancellation number provided by Delta. After keying in some information and waiting less than 10 minutes, I spoke with a phone representative. I read her the email and told her I’d like a refund. She asked for some information to verify my identity and then read me a refund policy statement. The policy is as follows:
- Allow up to 21 business days for Delta to process the refund
- Refund will be sent to my original form of payment
- Allow 1-2 billing cycles from the time Delta processes until it clears my credit card
All in all, that’s a lot of time. 21 business days is more than 4 weeks, and 1-2 statements is another 1-2 months. Essentially, they told me to wait up to 3 months before calling to ask what’s up. I attribute this lengthy process to the volume of refunds they’re issuing right now related to COVID-19 cancellations. However, their phone system allows you to track your refund status with the case number. Less than 2 minutes after hanging up, my refund request confirmation email came, and it had the case number provided by the phone agent. Now, I wait.
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I can’t fathom why anyone would be travelling unless it’s “essential” at this time…
The bookings aren’t for right now.
One thing eating me on this, if it was Delta’s mistaken fair, and AF took it over knowing it was a mistake, how is AF not obligated to honor it. AF took over the ticket with purpose. AF didn’t post a mistaken fare. So how does their right to cancel the fare exist. They took over a knowingly mistaken fare. There is a difference right? If I buy a second hand defective product, the warranty normally doesn’t transfer. How does their protection for someone else’s mistaken fare transfer?
I’m sure I’m overthinking this.
This is the million dollar question. AF took over it to downgrade it, obviously.
Is Delta going to refund priceline booking fee and FX charges incurred?
Richard I know a great optometrist who can help you with your vision deficit. Why don’t you read the post first, analyze the intent of the poster and then respond?
So an out of the way route in First is good but in Business it’s not. That doesn’t make much sense to me. I enjoy AF First and Business products and this is a downgrade for sure but why would you book it in the first place if you had no desire to fly the route at all. Just the mileage run alone is worth the price on this in business. Besides it’s not like they moved you to steerage on a basic economy ticket.
I think he made it pretty clear that he wanted to book it because he wanted the experience of flying Air France F even though he had no need to go from Algiers to Houston. He will experience Air France business class anyway later in the year, so the time and expense of positioning wasn’t worth the hassle.
Jed nailed it.
Unfortunately, they stated in their email and thereby acknowledged that it was a mistake/error fare. Otherwise, I am pretty sure it would fall under EC261 as involuntary downgrade and people would be able to receive 75% of their ticket price back.
Exactly. But they’ve also just canceled these bookings in the past (AF that is) claiming “errors” and haven’t been forced to honor them at any time I’m aware of. So the downgrade is the part that’s new. I think it’s the “we need money right now, but this is too cheap for F”. Hoping they can hang onto the money by meeting in the middle.
You knew it was a mistaken fare and you know just about all travel suppliers have escape clauses for mistaken fares that gives them the right to cancel your reservation and issue you a refund with no further compensation. I’m just amazed at all the people who post on social media, “hey there is a mistaken fare on XX and YY going to ZZ. Better go buy your tickets before they realize their mistake and take it away.” Then boards of people post a couple of days later that they got emails from XX or YY canceling their reservation and refunding their money and these people are pissed the airline won’t honor their reservation. Really people – seriously. A perfect example. Last week people were posting about an obviously mistaken fare to Australia. Then the next day or so posts started showing up that the airline they booked this obviously ‘mistaken fare’ on sent them an email saying the fare was a mistake and that their reservation was cancelled an a refund issued. Hooray for the airline!!
Now to your issue of where you think Delta played dirty trick on you by moving the ticket to AF. Actually they did you a favor. Cause if it stayed with Delta, they would just cancel the reservation automatically and give you a refund. By transferring it, AF gave you the option of keeping it as a Business class ticket (which is a HUGE favor to you cause you know they could have not given you this choose) or allowed you to cancel for a refund (which is what Delta would have done on their own). So in stead of looking a gift horse in the mouth – you complain.
In the future don’t be promoting obvious ‘mistaken fares’ cause you know the outcome and you won’t be disappointed. The problem with that is it would take away a couple of blog posts that you would make over it.
Richard – I want to separate fact from fiction, because you made a bunch of claims in your comment that never happened.
1-we didn’t promote this fare on our site anywhere. I heard about it from other people chatting about it in our forum. Massive difference.
2-I specifically mentioned airlines don’t have to honor mistake fares.
3-You’re claiming to know what Delta would’ve done, but unless you know the people at Delta making these decisions, I think we actually don’t know anything here.
4-My point is that they want to keep the money while moving passengers into a lower class. THAT is the issue. They didn’t honor the ticket. Sure, it’s a deal for those who want it, but not honoring the ticket while still trying to keep the money shouldn’t be praise-worthy.
5-Yes, I’m glad they mentioned the option to get my money back. That’s the only thing AF or Delta did correctly here.
6-There weren’t “a couple of blog posts” about this, just this 1 drawing attention to the switch.
Now that we’ve cleared up what actually happened vs what you’re claiming in your comment, if you still disagree with my view, that’s fine. However, I think what you think I said and what I actually said aren’t the same thing at all.
Wow! Throw a bunch of stuff my way claiming I said it.
1. I didn’t say YOU promoted it. As a matter of fact I didn’t say anything about THIS issue. I mentioned the Australia fare. Totally different.
2. I didn’t say you didn’t mention that the fares don’t have to be honored. It makes no sense to even write about this when you admit up front the fares doesn’t have to be honored.
3. Well actually neither or us know the CEO of Delta and what they would have done but I think we both can agree we have a really good idea what they would have done. So by transferring to AF they were doing you a favor.
4. This argument of yours makes no logical sense what so ever. Instead of outright cancelling your ticket, which we both know they have every legal right to do, they rebooked you in business class. That was a huge favor to you and you know it as they could have just out right canceled the tickets and given everyone their money back. They rebooked so as to protect all those business class seats. And then they sent you an email saying we rebooked you into business class and if your not happy just cancel your reservation and we’ll refund your money. Where do you get they are trying to keep your money??? Even by the farthest stretch of my imagination I can not see them trying to keep your money. Did they not give you the option to cancel and get your money back – you say they did. So they are NOT trying to keep your money. You can’t even see where they are doing you a favor by even giving you an option. Geez.
5. No need address this as we agree.
6. My comment about blog posts was meant to be a generalization of bloggers posting about these mistaken fares and the ensuing complaints from people who are pissed when their tickets were cancelled. So that one I’ll give you if I wasn’t more clear in my statement. It was meant as a generalization.
Now having said all this, I still stand by my comment that they actually did you a favor by transferring to AF who gave you (and I’ll assume everyone else who jumped on this) the option of a business class ticket (which we both know they are not required to – plus even as a business class ticket that’s a heck of a bargain) OR cancelling. So they aren’t holding your money hostage at all. Just ask for the cancellation and you’ll get your money back.
I said “keep your money” and I think you heard “keep your money without giving you something.” Yes, Delta and Air France want to keep our money. I think the difference is that you think I’m saying “keep your money without giving you anything”. Big difference.
Remember this was a Delta marketed fare and on Delta’s ticket stock so it was Delta’s error fare. Blame Delta, not Air France. If anything, Air France is just trying to protect its First Class cabin and AF was generous by offering Business class (which is still heavily discounted for ~$500 one-way.)
Joey – true. See below about attempting to engage Delta & it not being worth my time to attempt further when I know it won’t go anywhere.
Christian – courts have held that mistake fares are burning so not sure what type of “legal action” you would take. Instead of simply cancelling the fare as a mistake Air France rebooked one business class (still a great deal) and gave you the option to cancel for a refund.
No legal action would be successful since Air France went above and beyond when they could have simply cancelled the ticket as a mistake.
Bingo!! An obviously smart comment. There is no basis for any type of complaint, lawsuit or demand for compensation other than your money back.
As far as you go, you are completely correct. My issue is with Delta handing off a ticket to another airline so the customer can get hosed. It was a Delta issued ticket, so them handing it off seems of dubious legality.
but we don’t know if they handed it off or if AF just jumped in and took over, so we have to make a bunch of assumptions here either way. I’m not comfortable making conjecture in order to argue about that process without us actually knowing the process.
I think you’re letting Delta off the hook easy here. The ticket was issued on their ticket stock so it’s their problem. Frankly, I’d look into legal action since they voluntarily handed over your ticket to a third party, who then intentionally downgraded the ticket. While i already have an extremely poor opinion of Delta, I’m impressed that they found a new way to burn people here.
While Delta is being confusingly hands-off here (which I agree should be pressed, but the agents I was able to talk to needed an explanation that first is higher than business, and it was a giant waste of time) I agree with AC pointing out that they aren’t legally obligated to honor the booking. The fact they made an effort to send a note, not just change it and hope I don’t notice, tells me nothing would stick. It’s not worth my effort. Maybe others will feel differently, but I’m happy to just fill out the refund form and move on.
You just admitted they aren’t obligated to honor the ticket and they aren’t as it’s an obviously ‘mistaken fare’. So why all the attitude about it being wrong and suing and filing complaints?
Richard – where in the world did I say I was going to sue or file a complaint? You have an axe to grind, and I don’t know what it is, but you’re making up a bunch of things I didn’t say just so you can argue with those imagined statements. If you disagree with my views, that’s awesome. It’s a free world. However, it’s strange to invent things I didn’t say and then argue with those.
Same story here but I bought my ticket through AMEX travel rather than Expedia. I have already filed a complaint with the DOT because of the shenanigans and am holding onto the ticket until the AF reaches out to me directly because of my complaint. If they won’t give me F class I will be cancelling the reservation!
Did you get the email saying you were rebooked into biz?
Yes I was auto booked to Business
So you’re waiting for more communication post-complaint? Just trying to be sure I understood what you’re waiting for on the “reach out to me”.
If you are giving any travel company money right now, you get no sympathy if they keep your money.
I don’t understand this argument that we should accept being mistreated and robbed for making purchases, no matter what time it is. Can you explain this idea?
You weren’t robbed. You purchased a fare that was an obvious ‘mistaken fare’. Most suppliers have in their CoC or T&C’s they won’t honor obvious ‘mistaken fares’. No sympathy for you or anyone else who does this knowing they won’t honor them.
Richard – I’m not sure if you’re intentionally trying to misunderstand my post and the comments, but you’ve misunderstood.
Tino is implying that it would be OK for the booking sites to rob us, and I’m questioning why that is. I didn’t say I was robbed. Hope you’re cleared up now.
Richard’s other name is Dick. He is being his other name.