Vol annulé part 2

I was so terrified of the Evil Eye Trio that I had fled the ticket counter without checking to see if I had an aisle seat, nor confirming my special meal for the rebooked flight, nor did I get my taxi vouchers.

AF ended up paying the hotel only for those who were in Paris via a connection. This meant that all the people who were not on a connection were forced to find somewhere to stay. While this was not a problem for the French people or those of us resident in France, it was a problem for those who had come to Paris for business or vacation, and were merely on their way home. So in addition to the fact that the gate was a complete and total anarchic mayhem, lots of people were really pissed off. The businessmen started calling their secretaries to book them hotels while the low-fare econ passengers were stuck trying to figure out how to book themselves a hotel. I overheard the gate attendants instructing the clerks to "pay for hotels only for those on connecting flights; connecting business pax get a hotel and a taxi, coach connections get a hotel and a free ride on the shuttle, elite and business pax get a free round trip taxi voucher, and economy non-elite get a free bus ride into Paris. Ah! Once again I was grateful for my Flying Blue card...

They had in the meantime opened up a third rerouting desk and there was one AF employee attendant guy there who was just standing next to the desk, not really doing anything. I went up to him and asked him timidly if they were paying for the taxis. He said yes and said I had to get in line. So I started to line up (or rather, join the chaos) when I said to the guy, "Oh, but I already have my rerouting boarding pass, is this the line just for the compensations?" "Ah, they did not do your taxi voucher when they did your boarding pass!" sighed the guy. "Come with me, I will print them out for you." He kindly led me to an empty desk at an unused gate, and printed out my round trip taxi vouchers, explaining that once I had to go back out past security, take the train back to terminal 2E, pick up my luggage at carrousel 40, then go upstairs to the departures area, where there was an AF service counter, and ask them to call me a taxi. I took advantage of the situation to ask the nice guy about my seat - he checked on the computer, said I had been assigned a window seat, and would I like him to change me over to an aisle seat? I was so touched and relieved by how nice he was (after all, this is Air France; I had expected him to tell me to bugger off) that I nearly cried with gratitude as he reassigned me an aisle seat and printed out my new boarding pass.

I managed to get my luggage, which the luggage people had kindly left on the conveyor belt (they had organized the luggage into econ pax luggage in one corner, business in another, and priority luggage remained on the belt). For some reason, the ticketing agent had put giant neon priority tags on my luggage (not sure why, as this was a direct flight, unless it is another elite perk, though I don't usually get the priority tags unless I am transferring). So I hauled my heavy suitcase into a trolley, spent 15 minutes trying to find an elevator that worked, and made it to the service counter where they called me a taxi.

My cab driver was really nice, rather young, and reminded me of a friend of mine. H was convinced that the taxi driver took a longer than necessary route, and I replied with a shrug. "So what?" I said. "Air France is paying for it and I think he was right to take advantage. I hate Air France with a passion!"

I called my mom again when I got home - I had called her quickly from the airport to inform her that my flight was cancelled, as she was supposed to pick me up at JFK. Mom was disappointed for me, but said, "Well, look on the bright side - if it was a technical problem with the plane, then we should be grateful that they caught the problem before take-off. It's better to have to deal with the hassle of a cancelled flight rather than to have a major accident at 30,000 feet over the Atlantic."

H and SIL obviously felt very sorry for me, as they both knew how much I was looking forward to going back home. Not to mention, it had apparently been a stressful situation, judging by the new pimple that miraculously broke out on my cheek during the whole ordeal.

Mom had suggested I call Flying Blue to see if I could use my zillion miles to upgrade to business for both legs of the trip. I called Flying Blue in the U.S. as their desk was still open (it was already 10pm) but they said that since I had been ticketed by Delta, I'd have to call them. So I called Delta US and they said I couldn't use my miles to upgrade since it was an AF codeshare, and I'd have to call Air France. I explained that I had Air France miles, and had just gotten off the phone with them as they told me to call Delta. Finally I just gave up on the whole upgrade thing, though H said it was a shame because I might end up being seated next to the Evil Eye Trio. Delta also confirmed my gluten free meal for the reticketed flight, though I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with yesterday's meal...I guess we'll see this afternoon.

I have to admit, I'm quite miffed, between the Apple France fiasco and now the Air France fiasco (the 2nd one in a row). Why do I always end up with the crazy situations? Anyway, I think I am going to switch airline companies - I can't deal with Air France anymore (although I quite like KLM, but not sure if this is all worth it). Unfortunately, as Mom pointed out, I have accumulated close to 200,000 miles that I am going to have to use up. But the problem with Flying Blue is that only the most expensive coach tickets (the ones that cost over $1000) are allowed to upgrade to business, and you have to book award tickets like a year in advance. How on earth am I supposed to know my vacation plans a year in advance???