James Asquith, 32, holds the Guinness World Record for being the youngest male to visit all 196 UN-recognized countries. Now he claims Air France is deliberately selling “fake” first class tickets then downgrading passengers who purchased them to business class.
Air France Fake First Class Tickets? One Traveler Makes His Case.
I missed it, but apparently Air France recently offered a “sale” on first class transatlantic tickets recently between New York and Paris, selling them at about $2,200. While that is a steal for La Première, it hardly a cheap ticket or a so-called “mistake” fare.
In fact, $2,200 seems like a reasonable price to stimulate demand right now considering the La Première lounges are closed in New York and Paris. Several days after ticketing, he received the following letter and was promptly downgrade to business class:
When Asquith was downgraded, he did not just accept it. Instead, he wrote back.
If you have a few moments, read his hilarious letter to AF. He’s quite the wordsmith.
Dear Ms Rigail,
I feel the need to write an open letter to Air France after your airline basically ran away and hid from tickets you sold to many passengers – very akin to Napolean in the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Just to introduce myself, my name is James, and I’m just a guy that flies quite a bit. I travel with a mini stuffed koala bear called Tony (he’s kind of a big deal) and he’s into the finer things in life, unlike myself who is a bit of a peasant really.
So, when I suggested to Tony that we fly on Air France First Class (La Premiere as you so eloquently put it dans Francaise), he initially said he would rather sit on a baguette than fly Air France. Don’t worry, I disciplined him for this, but he then said, and I quote: ‘I would rather dunk my fluffy face in a tub of Camembert than fly Air France.’
I digress. A while later, after convincing Tony that Air France first class has a curtain divider akin to an IKEA shower curtain, and a few mid to average fine wines onboard, he came round to the idea, although he still don’ts understand why they are called French Fires, but that’s beside the point.
Interlude: What do French ducks say? Quoi quoi.
Regardless we passed over our hard earned $2,200 to book an Air France ticket, which considering the current awful situation for aviation, one would expect that is great revenue for Air France, potentially keeping more staff employed.
Now, again, I’m a peasant and have flown perhaps over 1,000 economy flights in my lifetime, on all sorts of airlines. I know luxury items are quite the ‘thing’ in France, but to be honest, I’m very un-materialistic and simply occassionally like to fly in a nice seat.
Therefore, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but your business class cabin sucks. It’s truly abysmal. I would indeed rather flush my head down a toilet than fly Air France business class (and you don’t even want to know what Tony said). You can therefore imagine my dismay when you send an email downgrading all the tickets because of your ‘mistake fare.’ This is not the first time you have done this to me during covid.
I’m quite positive that selling false first class fares and downgrading them to a difference class is illegal, and not only have you done it to me several times, but many other people too. I really don’t care too much about myself or flying Air France, but employees need support from people, why are you trying your hardest to antagonise paying customers. How many people have you done this to?
Furthermore, under EC261, you are entitled to pay all these downgraded passengers compensation, not just tell them you have downgraded them and expect them to feel grateful, so please, for goodness sake, stop ripping off people supporting your airline in tough times.
Now, I have a solution regarding my ticket. I was once quoted in the media as saying: ‘I would rather get waterboarded (again) than fly on Air France’ – yet here we are again.
Being a bit of a sadist, here’s my proposal to you: downgrade me yet AGAIN, into economy, and donate 10,000 baguettes (or the equivalent, which at €0.90 a baguette on average I calculate to be €9,000, to the humanitarian food crisis in Yemen). This way it will be part me and part you contributing to a good cause. This is Air France’s chance to shine, just how Napolean couldn’t.
The cursing from Tony as I write this is ridiculous, the thought of Air France economy is palpably nauseating to him, but I’m happy to do it for a good cause.
I will even wear a French beret and striped shirt, whilst walking around with a little French flag to plug the world’s 80th best airline, whilst singing Joe Le Taxi and randomly belting out Vive La France.
Let’s turn another miserable situation into something good. May your Christmas be filled with Gian servings of escargot and all the Brie your hearts could desire.
Merci.
Cordialement,
Jaques Asquith
Certainly I’ve had my own experiences (several over the years) with “fake” first class Air France tickets. The French carrier is highly restrictive with its premium cabin and has gone to great lengths to preserve to “protect the integrity” of its premium product.
> Read More: Air France Cancels My First Class Reservation…96 Hours Later
And while I do not concede that a $600 one-way ticket from Northern Africa to North America is so outlandish during good times, I certainly cannot understand why Air France suddenly deemed a $2,200 ticket a “mistake” when transatlantic travel is dead.
So fight the good fight James. Let us know if you have any luck. Qui vivra verra…
image: Air France
LOL He’s got a way with words. This has made me laugh out so loudly.
I wonder if Tony, his stuffed koala bear, would be categorized as an emotional support animal and by the new rules I don’t think bears can no longer fly in the cabin. Maybe that is why Air France downgrade him? 🙂
The did the same to me two years ago. I flew from London to Paris and bought a first class ticket. Later, they said it was a mistake and they don’t sell first class within Europe.
Utterly hilarious ROFL
My only experience in AF F was a $2800 RT flight using the AMEX travel discount from JFK to BCN in 2017. That was considered a steal then.
But I can totally understand how $2200 would be considered a legit fare.
Hey, I flew that too! That was fun 🙂
What ever happened to your dispute with Swiss?
Hats off to James Asquith’s pithy writing! I commiserate with his plight. The one time I flew AF turned out to be the most disastrous trip to date. Late departure from JFK resulted in a missed connection at CDG. They re-booked me on alternative flights, which were then cancelled due to bad weather and a mechanical problem. I wound up spending the night – and indeed a full 24 hours – at CDG. The icing on the cake: lost and damaged baggage. Thankfully, KLM and KQ retrieved, repaired and delivered my luggage, along with a heartfelt apology (not at all their fault) and a voucher. AF’s response: nada. Bon débarras!
I fully expect Madame Rigail to answer with Florent Pagny song N’ importe quoi:
Dis-moi, pourquoi t’es comme ça,
Pourquoi ça va pas,
Pourquoi t’essaies pas,
Pourquoi tu veux pas.Dis-moi, pourquoi tu souris
Et pourquoi tu pleures,
Pourquoi t’as envie,
Et pourquoi t’as peur.Dis-moi, pourquoi tu dis ça,
Pourquoi t’y crois pas,
Pourquoi t’y crois pluS
Tu vois, tu retrouves plus ta rue.
T’as paumé l’étage.
J’crois bien qu’t’es perdue.
Tu marches pas, tu nages.Et là, tu crois
Qu’je vais rester là sans rien dire?
Ah oui, tu crois
Qu’je vais rester planté là
A te voir partir dans tes délires
Et te laisser faire n’importe quoi?Dis-moi, pourquoi tu fais ça,
Pourquoi t’arrête pas.
Tu te fous en l’air.
Ça a l’air de t’plaire.Pourquoi, pourquoi tu comprends pas
Que c’est pas vrai tout ça,
Que tu reviendras pas
Si tu t’en vas par là?
Ummmm. Did nobody notice he can’t even spell Napoleon? I checked in Urban Dictionary that I wasn’t missing some new play on words, but nope. I think the French will just laugh.
@Matthew (or anyone else) – Would a downgrade actually entitle him to compensation under EU261? And if he has been involuntarily downgraded, would he be entitled to a refund? And if Air France actually is selling “fake” fares, what would be the purpose of that?
I can only answer your last question and I would assume (though I cannot confirm if that is actually the case) it would be to stimulate cashflow. It seems to me, though, that AF would have fare greater priorities than deliberately tricking flyers.
Hilarious response to quite frankly a ridiculous situation. I agree, with cheaper mistake fares, like the ALG one then I get why they’d downgrade, but at an over 2k price point money is not being lost and simply cancelling it is madness from a rev pov. Anyhow I’ve seen that James has made a video on the ordeal, maybe some of you will have a chuckle like I – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o6dnnY1C4I
In 1970 I was a penurious student flying Air France from Paris home to NY. My bag was a few kilos overweight and they wanted to charge me $100 extra ($667 in 2020 dollars). All I had was a $20 bill for emergencies AND THEY TOOK IT! That was the last time I took that benighted airline (and I’ve had to add extra pages to my passport). It would seem that they haven’t changed in the past 50 years.
Ugh – this guy is so annoying. “So, when I suggested to Tony that we fly on Air France First Class (La Premiere as you so eloquently put it dans Francaise”, He’s trying to put something inside the French woman? I’m confused?!? I appreciate his efforts to be witty but – come on – rise above the linguistic squalor of most anglophones and at least be grammatically correct.
he’s likely an anglo saxon clown another wasp. Good riddance
The are French what you expect
No need for all that prose. Just buy an F ticket from a competitor and send them the invoice together with a letter before action.
They won’t respond. And unless you have successfully done this I don’t know why you are advising this. After all, doing so not only puts the $5k for competitor first class ticket on the line but also the significant cost of litigation (especially when small claims court doesn’t apply). AF has grounds to stand on with regards to DOT regulations so it’s not like suing would be a guaranteed win. And the fact that Matthew won’t answer questions about what happened with Swiss doesn’t seem like he was ‘victorinox’.
In the last 2.5 years, I have unfortunately had to claim against AFKL twice (admittedly for smaller amounts). I do have to admit that they didn’t do much at the letter before action stage. However, once the claim got in, they paid up quickly both times. In fact, there was also a third claim that I had been considering which I have postponed (and will likely write off) due to the pandemic. I don’t even fly them that often!
Not sure why DOT regulations would overrule the crystal clear 261/2004 provisions (rerouting obligation as per Article 8). However, I don’t have a clue about US law, so I cannot comment on that, or indeed on the cost of litigation there (the small claims process in England is super easy, the costs are negligible, and it covers cases up to the value of £10k).