Ebookers flight problem

xfive71

Hello all, just a quick query to check whether we have any grounds for this.

A friend of mine booked a flight ticket from Singapore to London an AirFrance ticket via ebookers.com. When she tried to check-in at the Air France desk at Changi Airport, she was told flights were overbooked and all full.

The poor girl panicked, tried calling both ebookers and Air France and spend some 10 hours at the airport, frantically trying to get some sort of resolution. She had been pinged back and forth between the two and in the end, had to pay over the odds in addition to the ticket she had already paid for, to get on the next flight. To add to that, for her return leg, she has to go via Eurostar and onwards to Charles de Gaulle to catch her flight to Singapore.

Excuses from ebookers range from blaming Air France to saying that since she booked with a credit card, the ticket is on hold and not confirmed.

It transpires after much discussion with Air France that she was sold an ID15 ticket - ie staff ticket via ebookers - which would explain why she was not on the confirmed flight list. Nowhere on the booking or on the ticket confirmation did it state it was a staff ticket and that she was on standby.

They have been trying to get some sort of leeway with ebookers but not having much luck. Can anyone help? THank you

richardw

Sounds like a clear mess up by ebookers.

What are ebookers saying?

xfive71

Not much luck with ebookers. I'm trying to help as much as I could but wonder whether ebookers is off the hook because she chose to pay to get onto another flight.

richardw

Did ebookers give her a booking that detailed a confirmed flight ticket on a set date from Singapore on Air France?

Alan_Bowen

If there is any truth in the story they are selling staff tickets to non members of staff they risk losing their IATA licence which would put them out of business, this would be a sackable offence in most agencies and could only work if the agent she dealt with somehow proceessed the payment outside of ebookers system. This needs escalating beyond the person she booked with, who is presumbaly the original thief, stealing from both the airline who should have been paid the full fare and ebookers, ask Air France to confirm this was not a public fare and then insist on speaking to a manager, the problem as I recall is that the call centre is in India....

xfive71

Thank you so much for the above. I think it would give us good leeway to press the case. My friend was repeatedly told by the Air France desk that her ticket was ID15. At that point, she just wanted to get onto a plane to fly to her husband.

Westin

I would very much doubt that she was sold a staff ticket and wonder if the check-in agent was inexperienced and told her the wrong thing. I have heard of ID75's and ID90's but never an ID15. ID means Industry Discount and the figure is normally the percentage off the published fare, so an ID90 would be a standby ticket that an applicable travel industry employee ( or their family ) might travel on paying just 10% of the published fare.

Can you ask her to look at the status on the ticket. If it is a positive space ticket it hopefully will have 'OK' on it. A stand-by would have 'SA'. That might give us more clues to what may have occurred.

I think either the flight was oversold by Air France and the ground agents at SIN handled this incorrectly and did not follow procedures to offer an alternative flight to your friend, or she had been booked onto a weight listed flight. If the latter she should have been told this by ebookers. It's rare for such a ticket to be sold I have to say. It means the flight is technically oversold but the airline continues to sell a ticket believing seats will be freed up from cancellations. The passengers is (normally) aware of this and someone might accept this weight listed travel because that have to travel (death, family illness, critical business meeting etc). Never heard of this however being sold on a web site - normally direct with the airline.

Certainly a case to take up with the booking agent.

xfive71

Westin, thank you very much for your comments. The price she paid was relatively cheap but not by a long distance (about SGD 1400 for a return).

Ebookersservice, yes, I will PM you.

Moonchild

I would also agree that there is little chance of it being an actual staff ticket (I havn't heard of an ID15 either, but there are lots of informal industry discounts that airlines offer beyond the standard ID90 & ID75 so it's quite feasable). And as said if it had been sold, not only would the staff member lose their job, Air France could pull their contracts with ebookers group (massive loss as would include KLM).

I do, however, trust Air France as far as I can throw them. I am guessing that they have simply tried to deflect the blame for an oversold flight, or ebookes have incorrectly issued the tickets. Either way, I bet the explanation is simple, but someone cocked up badly and thus has used smoke and mirrors.

Quite simply if they had been overbooked, then normal overbooking procedures should have applied. Fairly standard, and all check-in staff are used to them. That's why the whole Eurostar to Paris thing doesn't make sense. If it was Air Frances fault they would have rebooked them onto the next days flights, or onto another airline (especially KLM).

But first and foremost, it's not your friends fault. They should go nuclear with this to both ebookers and Air France.

richardw

Moonchild wrote: »

I do, however, trust Air France as far as I can throw them. I am guessing that they have simply tried to deflect the blame for an oversold flight,

If they were denied boarding, then compensation under EU regulation EC261/2004 may be due.

littlereddevil

So what was the outcome to all this?