Air France sold me a "Flex, refundable" ticket and issued a non-refundable one. Always check your issued tickets immediately!
So this just happened to me and I'm still angry about it.
I was booking my mom a trip to Paris for her 80th birthday. Vancouver to Paris, direct both ways. I picked the Flex fare on both legs on purpose because she's 80 and I wanted something I could cancel if her plans changed (which at 80 can happen easily). That's the whole point of paying for Flex.
Partway through checkout the price drops $276. Little note pops up saying "ticket conditions may have changed." Okay sure, I'll check them to be safe. But the payment page still says Flex. Still says changeable, refundable. I click trip details and it literally says "This ticket is changeable and refundable" on both flights. So I pay. $971.27 CAD.
That said, something in the back of my head told me their website was screwing up. As great as Air France KLM is, their customer service can be really bad, especially with refunds. I've dealt with that before. So I took screenshots to be extra safe.
Then I go into Manage My Booking and hit the refund button just to check. "This booking is eligible for a tax refund only."
What the hell....?
Then the confirmation email shows up. Same booking, same $971.27. Both legs: "you will only receive a refund for the government taxes and fees." And "The ticket is non refundable."
So their own website told me three times I was buying a refundable ticket, then they issued a non-refundable one.
I called right away and they refunded it, credit where it's due. But think about it. If I hadn't checked, I'd have found out months from now when my mom needed to cancel. I call in, the agent sees non-refundable on the ticket, and it's my word against theirs. Good luck with that. Not going to happen.
And honestly, I get why they'd double down. I used to do front-line customer service and tech support years ago, so I've been on the other side of these calls. I don't blame the rep. They look at your ticket, see non-refundable, and figure you're trying to pull a fast one, which tons of people do. They hear "oh, but I didn't know" all day. Except in this case you're not that person, and good luck getting them to believe it. I can tell you from personal experience with a similar Air Canada glitch: they would not listen.
Screenshots in order:
Me picking Flex. "Refundable if you cancel before the 1st flight."
Payment page. Still Flex, still "changeable, refundable," now $971.27.
Their confirmation for the same booking. "The ticket is non refundable."
If this happened to you and you didn't think to screenshot anything, which honestly who would, feel free to show them this. At least it shows you're not crazy and it's happened to someone else.
My new rule: any time I book with Air France/KLM, Air Canada, or literally any airline, I take screenshots. If you ever need to do a credit card dispute, that evidence is a goldmine. I'm not playing around with these guys anymore.
If their website loses your session, or swaps the fare in the background, or shows you old info from the cache, or whatever the technical issue is, I honestly don't care. That's their problem to fix, not mine. And I know I'm not the only one. I've searched online and seen other people talking about the same thing, including here on Reddit.
This is absolutely unacceptable and, quite frankly, atrocious. It drives me crazy because I know other people are getting burned. People are excited they made the booking, they rush off to work or call their friends to tell them. Why would they pick the ticket apart? You click every button, make sure everything is correct before you hit pay, it all says correct, and then magically they email you a receipt with different terms. You shouldn't have to do legal due diligence after paying. And sure, some people will say "just look for the word refundable." But for most people it's mumbo jumbo. Taxes, no taxes, taxes back. I fly a lot and work adjacent to the industry so I know this stuff, and most of you on here probably do too, because let's be honest, we're the nerds about this. The average person booking a trip for their mom has no idea.
What I'm doing from now on: as soon as I book, I go into Manage My Booking and hit refund. If it says taxes only and I paid for a refundable fare, I call them that minute. Read the ticket conditions in the confirmation email too. And if the price suddenly drops mid-checkout, don't trust it. Screenshot everything.
Anyone else had this happen?