Wrong information by airline staff

Topic Type: Help

Wrong information by airline staff led to financial loss. Please inform me about proper channel for complaints

Msg: #1 137 days ago, July 17th 2008

I have booked a return trip in Airfrance from India to Budapest via paris. I took the onward journey as per plans. While returning I have mistaken the travel date as 11th July where as it is 10th July. I saw the date only when I went to the airport on 11th july.

Immediately I went to Airfrance ticketing counter and explained about it. They told me that “you lost your ticket. You have to book a new ticket which cost 1800 Euros”. I asked them two more times about whether I can change the ticket I had or anything else they can do with that ticket. The reply was “we cannot do anything with this ticket. We can only provide a new ticket if u give 1800 euros. You can ask your travel agency whether they can given you any money once you are back in India”.

I believed they are right and booked another comparatively cheaper flight in Austrias airlines for 965 Euros and reached home.

When I went to my travel agent, I found to my shock that the ticket can be changed by paying around 100 Euros. It is because of the wrong and confident statements of the Airfrance Budapest airport staff, I lost nearly 865 euros.

I agree I was careless. But because of the wrong information I paid a huge price instead of a small one.

Can somebody give information, whether it is possible to make a complaint against the company for this loss?

Please give me the relevant information which will be helpful.
Thanks in advance

Mell

Mel Fla
Post Count: 5066

Msg: #2 137 days ago, July 17th 2008

Hello Gm1orchid :)

I think maybe you can change the ticket if you do so before the date of the flight. Is your travel agency sure you could still have done it after the date was past?

But I certainly think AirFrance were being mean about it. I missed a British Airways flight once from Canada to England. I went to the British Airways office several weeks after the flight date. They gave me a new ticket, free of charge just like that.

I am not sure it is worth making a complain. There is generally so much chaos with these things and one only gets a satisfactory response if one is lucky enough to deal with a reasonable employee. But it would be worth phoning their customer service department to find out what their attitude is about it. It may be that the staff at the airport are particularly bad.

I also had an incident where I got stuck in traffic and showed up at the airport 30 minutes before my flight instead of the 40 mins that are stated in the rules. This flight was with Ryan air from Dublin to Luton. The airline had already sold my ticket and the tickets of around 10 other passengers who arrived around the same time as I did. They gave us all tickets for the next flight for 30 Euros extra. I phoned their customer office later to tell them that I think the airport staff could be more flexible with the rules. They were more than a little rude.

My sympathies to you. :(

Mel

Mell

Mel Fla
Post Count: 5066

Msg: #3 137 days ago, July 17th 2008

I deleted your duplicate post from the Europe forum. Please avoid posting duplicates.

PA Leslie

Pierre-Alexandre
Post Count: 231

Msg: #4 137 days ago, July 17th 2008

You have few routes...but not that many. First, sadly, by going to Austrian, it will be difficult to go back to Air France.

You should be able to get a partial refund or at least money that you can use on a further flight from the flight you didn't use.

From now, make sure you do everythig by email to customer service. Keep a copy of everything. Be reasonnable in your claim. They may have done a serious mistake, but you may have some tuff time proving what was told to you. If you get half of your orignal ticket back, that may help you to recoup some of your money.

Good Luck...and be ready for a very long process....

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