Air France T&C; small claims?
Discussion
I was wondering if I had a case for a small claims court case against Air France:
I booked a series of flights for my business , UK to Dubai, Dubai to France, then Switerland and back to France then home to the UK. Cost about £800.
I booked on the phone and was told that some legs were flexible, some were not, which was fair enough.
A few days later the Dubai trip was cancelled so I called to change the itinerary, expecting to simply drop the Dubai legs (and probably lose that fare) and book/pay for a new initial Uk-France flight to pick up my route. Appears not. If you don't make all the check-ins on all segments the ticket is cancelled along with all legs of the trip. I could not even get off in Paris and have a few days R&R while my seat to and from Dubai was empty.
I have ended up rebooking with other airline as AF wanted £300+ a leg, but bizarrely the final leg home is with Flybe on the exact same flight from my original ticket. I now have 2 seats on that aircraft, one I cannot use because I didn't complete all segments.
Given that the only terms of and conditions given at booking were that some legs were not flexible, not that any change would invalidate the whole ticket, and this addition T&C was only evident in the e-ticket issued after the phone booking I thought AF should refund me the segments I have lost which were described as flexible.
I have got contradictory advice from AF. The first guy offered to change the ticket, but wanted £400 to get me to Switzerland, I went away and got that flight for £150 elsewhere but when I called back to drop the Dubai leg there was no record of that conversation kept for my ticket and they insisted I cancel the lot (and just get the departure taxes refunded, excluding the fuel charges; £150).
I have raised a complaint but frankly suspect it is going nowhere given their attitude on at the call centre.
Should I try a small claims court on the basis that their phone line verbal T&C said it was flexible, but that only their written T&C for the ticket which arived after I had paidshowed all segments must be completed?
I booked a series of flights for my business , UK to Dubai, Dubai to France, then Switerland and back to France then home to the UK. Cost about £800.
I booked on the phone and was told that some legs were flexible, some were not, which was fair enough.
A few days later the Dubai trip was cancelled so I called to change the itinerary, expecting to simply drop the Dubai legs (and probably lose that fare) and book/pay for a new initial Uk-France flight to pick up my route. Appears not. If you don't make all the check-ins on all segments the ticket is cancelled along with all legs of the trip. I could not even get off in Paris and have a few days R&R while my seat to and from Dubai was empty.
I have ended up rebooking with other airline as AF wanted £300+ a leg, but bizarrely the final leg home is with Flybe on the exact same flight from my original ticket. I now have 2 seats on that aircraft, one I cannot use because I didn't complete all segments.
Given that the only terms of and conditions given at booking were that some legs were not flexible, not that any change would invalidate the whole ticket, and this addition T&C was only evident in the e-ticket issued after the phone booking I thought AF should refund me the segments I have lost which were described as flexible.
I have got contradictory advice from AF. The first guy offered to change the ticket, but wanted £400 to get me to Switzerland, I went away and got that flight for £150 elsewhere but when I called back to drop the Dubai leg there was no record of that conversation kept for my ticket and they insisted I cancel the lot (and just get the departure taxes refunded, excluding the fuel charges; £150).
I have raised a complaint but frankly suspect it is going nowhere given their attitude on at the call centre.
Should I try a small claims court on the basis that their phone line verbal T&C said it was flexible, but that only their written T&C for the ticket which arived after I had paidshowed all segments must be completed?
Can you even take action against a French company in a UK court? Unles there's an AirFrance UK Ltd?
Might be worth a punt using MoneyClaimOnLine, they'd possibly be so confused they wouldn't defend so you'd win by default. Enforcing it could be interesting.
I think you just have to suck up this sort of thing. What you're supposed to do it book fully flexible business class tickets. Of course they're 5x the price, so you chose not to do that (we never do either). We seem to have a fair number of cancelled long-haul trips at work recently, but it would still cost way more to book flexible tickets.
Might be worth a punt using MoneyClaimOnLine, they'd possibly be so confused they wouldn't defend so you'd win by default. Enforcing it could be interesting.
I think you just have to suck up this sort of thing. What you're supposed to do it book fully flexible business class tickets. Of course they're 5x the price, so you chose not to do that (we never do either). We seem to have a fair number of cancelled long-haul trips at work recently, but it would still cost way more to book flexible tickets.
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