Panos17

Hi
My flight is from ATH to CDG then to Washington DC. Booked with Delta but flights are Air France.
The first flight from ATH to CDG was delayed for 2 hours which caused me to miss my connection to Washington.
I received an email that they rebooked me to Washington on Tuesday (!!!)
which means that I will have to spend 2 days in Paris.
Of course I don't want to spend 2 days in Paris as I am working tomorrow.
What should I do?? Should I try to persuade them to put me on a flight tomorrow instead of Tuesday? Also what are my rights? They should offer me accommodation correct?

irishguy28

Are you at the airport? Go to the transfer desk and ask to be rebooked. Any self-service kiosk (if they have them in CDG), the AF app, or the phone line should also allow you to investigate other options.

You will get €600 compensation but will have to apply for it. Don't worry about that now, that's not what is important.

AF would be required to pay for food and lodgings during any unwanted layover in Paris; it does not necessarily mean they provide this to you, but instead you arrange your own, keep receipts, and claim it back in the coming days and weeks after you get home. However, don't splash out for the Honeymoon Suite at the George V, or order the most expensive meals you can find. They will refund reasonable expenses only, and AF certainly know what a reasonable rate for a walk-up last-minute customer is in the CDG region.

But rather than that, you should be getting yourself rebooked for departure on any other possible routing this evening (There are 2 AF departures to JFK tonight, one in 30 minutes the last in 90 minutes. There'sa final.AF flight to YUL at 1945 etc etc) You are running out of options this late in the afternoon. Get busy dealing with a rebooking NOW. You should get rebooked for tomorrow as it is now probably too late to be rebooked on a flight leaving tonight

Goldorak

Definitely don't accept the auto-rebooking in 2 days. There should be other 1-stop option available before. Discuss with a human being at the airport

Nico40

I can't find any AF/DL/KL flight to the East Coast not zeroed out in Y tomorrow (hardly any further availability in W and very scarce in J - the cancellation of AF682 to ATL probably doesn't help. So not surprised that an algorithm can't sort it out.

As suggested by Goldorak, an agent able to provide a more complex itinerary / class change / company change / standby is necessary.
He / she might be able to build up a reroute onto AF10 / DL8744 (JFK at 4:30pm) where 2 J seats are available, or AF62 / DL8760 to EWR (7:30pm) where W is empty.
DL29 NCE to JFK (2:15pm) might also help, plenty of Y seats, but this implies a further connection.
Creativity required...

cvision

They also need to provide rebooking on any interlining carrier, so e.g. UA, LH/LX via Frankfurt/Munich/Zürich.
Probably not what they want to offer first off but the regulation is quite clear.

Panos17

Ok so here are my updates:
1. What was also frustrating is that even with that delay from ATH, there was still a slight delay for the CDG-IAD flight today, I dashed to the gate and I think I only missed it for like 10 minutes. Based on what the pilot said, there were also about 30 others like me who missed the IAD flight. If they could delay that flight for a few minutes we would probably make it..
2. They initially rebooked me for the direct CDG-IAD flight tomorrow at 1.30pm, albeit on the 4th position on a waitlist. I demanded to speak to a manager and complained a lot, and the manager somehow managed to "confirm" a seat. I received a text that says the word "confirmed", so I guess at least I won't be waitlisted.
3. They sent me to a filthy hotel, B&B Paris Roissy CDG. Motels in the US are way cleaner than this. I am hesitant to even take a shower in this disgusting room. Food is only pizza and water. USB charger doesn't work, my phone is running out of battery, can't charge my laptop either as I didn't anticipate to take a US-EU adapter with me.

Other than the hotel food + the 600 Euros, am I entitled for refunds for meals I buy at the airport? E.g. If I have breakfast at the airport and not at this junk hotel, can I keep the receipts and submit for reimbursement?

Panos17

yeah I provided the manager 11 different flights from google flights with different airlines but he claimed that all flights were full. I insisted by telling him that there were seats available for purchase, but he claimed that his system showed all of them as full.

nk15

It makes me wonder in situations like this, when you can tell right away that you will misconnect, if you could have pushed for the direct ATH-USA flights when you were still in ATH.

Btw, why don’t you have a US-EU adaptor, what were you using in ATH…You can also get those at the airport…

nk15

Does anyone know what’s up with that, are they trained to lie, or does the airline somehow block these seats…

FabCW

I understand you are very frustrated. Things like that happen across all airlines and countries. People miss their connections all the time. When it’s you, it’s the worst of course!

Inventory can be low in the summer—especially this weekend, which is peek summer travel. All will resolve itself. Lots of flights from CDG to the US. They’ll get you home!

PS: Always pack an adaptor to charge your electronic devices!

dblumenhoff

I can't say for sure in this case, but there can be situations where they wouldn't be lying. 1) for individuals booking, you can book a seat that will overbook the flight. They'll charge you an arm and a leg because they can idb someone if necessary, but they won't overbook for a misconnect. So there aren't available seats, but you can still book a ticket. 2) an airline might not make their last few seats available for other airlines to book in order to protect them for their own irrops victims

Mwenenzi

Depending on the reason for the delay EU261 may apply. If extraordinary circumstances it does not. And duty of care - reimbursement of reasonable costs.

Typical AF EU261 thread below Are others. You claim on the operating airline after you get to the final destination. Compensation based time at final destination. Not any intermediate delays. And reimbursement of reasonable costs. But no consequential losses (that's for your travel insurance)
FT thread-->Help navigating AF EU261 claim

Very general wikipedia-->https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pa...hts_Regulation

Good luck.

Panos17

Well that's exactly what I did. I told the check in agent that I would miss the connecting flight (I had already received an email that "I was very likely to miss it"), and asked the agent to put me to the ATH-ATL flight which was about to depart in an hour (the IAD one had already departed) which was also operated by Delta. The agent instead "reassured" me that I was going to make the flight as she was showing a delay in the IAD bound flight as well. Turns out however the delay was not enough, the flight left almost on time. Looks like this is standard tactics the agents are trained for.


The reasoning they gave me at ATH for the delay was that there was a general delay effect in CDG (and that's why the agent argued that I would still make the connecting flight). There was no weather either in ATH or CDG that delayed flights, and I don't think there was any other kind of force majeure. Either the airline itself or the CDG airport (if I believe the agent) were fully responsible, so I don't see why EU261 would not apply (given that I will reach IAD a day after my original arrival time).
Thanks for the links.

nk15

Sounds like a reasonable excuse, and maybe they are stricter with international flights, but I am wondering if high elite status would have made a difference...Probably not in an outstation like ATH, but perhaps with a DL phone agent, if you were Delta Diamond. But maybe it would be too close to the flight and under airport control....and not enough time to get them on the phone...

irishguy28

Unfortunately it is almost impossible to do this an outstation with no actual AF staff on hand. I doubt they have any discretion there and are presumably trained with the mantra: continue to Paris, they will revook you while en-route and/or sort you out on arrival as necessary