Two years ago my siblings and I arranged for our parents to go on a "romantic" trip to Paris for their 35th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, the initial elation of the destination wore off as me and several family members, including my parents, went round-for-round with one of the undisputedly, "rudest", commercial airlines, AIR FRANCE…and won!
My mother being a French teacher, and from a French speaking region in Louisiana was floored by the surprise trip we presented to she and my father at their anniversary party. She never visited France, though teaching the language since the 70s. Why? Well, she had six children and as everyone knows that life happens. Everyone was teary-eyed when she jumped up-and-down after reading her itinerary. Finally, she would take a trip she had dreamed of so many years ago.
We booked the tickets in August so they could leave in September. However, their plans were stumped when my father became gravely ill, was hospitalized, and told that he could not travel. I phoned Air France to see what I could do and I was given instructions to cancel my first tickets, re-purchase some more then write to the airline's headquarters in Florida to request a refund. My mother and I followed the directions in detail and about a week before they were to board, I got my money back.
Their flight was out of New York, but they live in Los Angeles, so we arranged for them to arrive in NYC early enough to comfortably travel. Everything was going great until they attempted checked in. They discovered that AIR FRANCE cancelled the wrong tickets! That was when all hell broke loose.
For almost 48 hours we were embroiled in a nasty, and I mean nasty fight with some of the discourteous, unprofessional, and cowardice customer service people you ever want to come across. At first, I thought, hey, it was a little mistake by AIR FRANCE, they can fix it. All they have to do is just book them on the appropriate flight and they're off to gay Paris. Oh, but hell no, AIR FRANCE told my parents they would not honor their previously purchased tickets and that they had to pay the current rate which was almost $2000.00 more than the original price.
Of course they refused and demanded to speak to a manger. The people at the counter conveniently explained that they really weren't AIR FRANCE, but DELTA, and that my parents had to get in contact with the proper airline. Don't you just love beaurocratic bullshit?
Well, we started with customer service. That poor guy didn't know his arse from his the holes in his nose. So we asked for the guy's manager, who was such a nasty bitty, I still wonder how she got to be "manager" of customer service based in Canada. But that title is still in question because these people refused to give their names or corporate information when I requested it—totally out of protocol.
Then I called the headquarters in southern Florida, but the woman who brought up the case files also rejected my request to assist in getting them on a flight and also refused to give her name. This was after I waited for almost twenty minutes on my cell phone. It seemed as if everyone was double-checking with the other so that they wouldn't give the wrong information and stay in wrong position. However, they didn't know my family, we are relentless and we are strategists.
I can give you all the details, but just to let you know there was a lot of ball passing, playing dumb, and then finally, people hanging up on us when we called because they knew who we were. All along, we logged every detail of this fiasco. I even faxed and phoned the headquarters of KLM (a partner of AIR FRANCE), and AIR FRANCE's headquarters.
There was one ray of hope. I knew that AIR FRANCE partnered with DELTA, so I called Delta so see if they could clear up what had gotten into a shitty mess. I was on the phone for about three or four hours with the nicest customer service representative who indeed fought for me. She told me that AIR FRANCE was supposed to at the very least, offer my parents to purchase tickets at the rate they originally bought them and then commit to investigating the situation further so they could get a refund. She was very upset at the story I retold and went back-and-forth with her supervisor. The most she could do was to extend the original price through DELTA and my parents ended up buying a third pair of tickets.
By this time, my parents have spent a night in New York. The hotel in Paris told me that it was too late to cancel and the charges would still end up on my credit card. My mother, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis was exhausted and doubled over in pain. Everyone was else was pissed!
Finally, when my parents went to check in with their new DELTA tickets the bastards at AIR FRANCE refused to honor them. It was on again!
Luckily, I lived in Atlanta at the time, the headquarters of DELTA. So I went to the office and requested to speak to the manager of AIR FRANCE. My strategy was the non-threatening, very rational black woman façade. So, I put on my Anne Klein suit and pulled back my locks, slapped on the heels, took the car to get a quick wash. Please, don't let my locks fool you. I've had a time or two, or three in corporate America.
Well, I got some answers and some progress. I spoke to the regional manager, who was quite polite. I asked if arrangements could be made so that my parents could be placed in first class. They weren't, but that was alright. They finally made it, a day late, but not a dollar short because DELTA refunded the third pair of tickets they purchased.
However, the fat lady did not sing. I wrote a detailed argument of the dilemma and sent it to AIR FRANCE's headquarters in Florida. They didn't respond to the first packet, but they did to the second correspondence. My parents were given approximate $500.00 back for the fiasco.
The process was very exhausting and I was very disappointed with AIR FRANCE. However, when I look at the photos of my parents that I have graciously shared, my mother's smile and my father's satisfaction are worth it. I would do it again.
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