AIR FRANCE AIR FRANCE- KLM GROUP No use of in-flight ticket, return cancelled without notice, expensive option proposed instead of cheap return option Roissy CDG Cedex Nationwide

I booked two return flights Berlin-Paris for me and my fiancé (for 243 EUR) to visit my grandfather in France for his birthday on August 14th. Unfortunately my grandfather died the week before. In order to go to his funeral I had to change my flight to an earlier date, but AIR FRANCE hotline told me that as written on the fare conditions "not REFUNDABLE , NOT CHANGEABLE" I could not. Therefore I took a one way ticket with easyjet which was the cheapest option (120 EUR).

My fiancé took his AIR FRANCE inbound flight on August 14th.

Our backflight was booked for August 18th at 7:35am. There were issues with public transportation to Roissy airport (no RER B so only Air France buses were doing the connection to down town paris in a timely matter) which were as well announced in an email from AirFrance (good point). However the only public transportation - the bus airfrance- was leaving too late (6am) to enable Air France customers to take this flight at 7:35am. Therefore we took a room at a hotel next to the airport to make sure we come early enough at the airport on August 18th.

On August 17th we received an online invitation for check-in for our flight the following day at 7:35 am. We could not do the check-in online as it was not working and AIR FRANCE website invited us to proceed to the check-in directly at the airport.

On august 18th, we tried to print our boarding cards at the automatic machines, but the  machine spit out the very informative message " Report to desk- you are not allowed to check in at this airport" Strange indication, at which airport should we then go -sic- ? Then we went to the check-in desk, the Air France agent did not understand, there was a problem, she was not able to issue the ticket. I told her I could not take the inbound flight due to the sudden death of a family member. She said, I am sorry I cannot print your tickets, you have to go to Airfrance selling counter, they will help you...

But -as you guess- the Airfrance selling counter did not help. They said that the tickets were cancelled (without refund of course) as I did not take the inbound flight. I can take a one-way flight to Berlin now for 460 EUR!!! (please compare the two return tickets for 243 EUR and the seductive offer for a one way on the top of that just for 460 EUR!) We explained the story: funerals in the family and necessity for me to attend the funeral and to fly earlier vs no changeable clause for the Air France tickets, hence the purchase of an earlier ticket with the normal intention of using the backflight ticket for which we received an invitation to check-in and no indication that it has been cancelled. No understanding, no encouragement, no courteoisy. The agent just called her supervisor who showed neither understanding, nor encouragement, nor courteoisy.  Both just said "it s written in the general terms and conditions" and my fiancé "you mean the 200 pages nobody can take honestly the time to read?" We asked then reasonably for an alternative, for another solution leading to less additional expenses. They said this the only proposal.

Finally we took two low-cost one way to Berlin which cost 300 EUR  but were only departing in the evening and from the airport at the other side of paris. Therefore we had time to check aifrance proposal. And we found out that indeed one way to Berlin today cost 500 EUR -but a return flight Paris Berlin cost only 200 EUR!!!! This was a much better proposal (all the more as -as obviously I am french- i travel often back and forth!)! They certainly knew that return tickets would be much cheaper but did say: this is the only solution!

To summarize:

1. Air France Invitation to take the outbound flight via Email for online check-in whereas the flight reservation was cancelled by air france -->contradiction to their own general terms and conditions to which they refer to

2. Proposal to pay additional fees for more than 450 EUR as the only possible option whereas website shows return tickets alternatives for 238 EUR--> deliberate lie to customer

We were fully ripped-off by Air France, are feeling extremely frustrated and light (from the purse) as we are a very young couple with one of us still studying.

We will definitely not use Airfrance anymore (for caraibes, use air caraibes, for europe, use  ryanair (does not do the "No Show" clause for return tickets) and advise everybody to do so until they change their general terms and conditions and their behaviours.