Air France Complaint - AirFrance Billed Me 3X for 1 Flight - Round Trip Flight to Europe

Posted by Anonymous on 2011-03-31:

I would have waited and contact them via phone when they open up. I think you get quicker and better results by calling than email.

Posted by MRM on 2011-03-31:

You just need to hit the "submit" button one time to make a payment. While it appears slow to process the payment, it is encrypting the data over the internet.

Posted by Ben There on 2011-03-31:

Chances are those are just two authorizations and a real purchase - the two authorizations will go away in a few days when the money is not claimed.

If you enter in your credit card and put in something slightly wrong like the expiration date or zip code, your bank will still put a hold on the money. However, since the details are wrong the company charging the money can't take the funds.

That said, there is also a chance that everything was entered in correctly, but something was wrong with your flights, so they could not confirm the ticket and gave you an error message. If this happens with any website, don't try again unless you are using a proper credit card because websites can't use an old authorization code.

Posted by Anonymous on 2011-03-31:

Why don't you come back and let us know what happens when they receive your email, so they have a chance to fix the error. Calling or doing an online chat (if they have that option) will probably bring you faster results than sending an email.

Posted by Inat on 2011-03-31:

define "new york minute" :)

Posted by tnchuck100 on 2011-04-01:

How long is a New York minute?

I heard on a NYC trivia show that it is 27 seconds but I can't confirm it.

A New York minute is an informal term used to mean a very short period of time. The term refers to the common perception that the people in New York City are hurried and impatient. Johnny Carson once described a New York Minute as being the time it takes "From the (traffic) lights to turn green, till the guy behind you starts honking his horn"

The same as everywhere in the world.

A N.Y minute is the time it takes for you to snap your fingers.

Posted by Inat on 2011-04-01:

""From the (traffic) lights to turn green, till the guy behind you starts honking his horn" " -- CLASSIC!

Posted by Skye on 2011-04-01:

Yup Chuck, and we also say:

We don't have all second.

Posted by madflier on 2011-04-01:

They straightened it out and then some. I got no email response. So I called. At first the rep who answered said I'm responsible when I push the submit button, which is not true since the form was providing bad info saying my credit card info was invalid and then learning that Visa had approved 3 authorizations just before I called Visa. I had used the system properly and waited until I got the false response each time before trying again. I became angry and told the rep that I did not want to hear any argument and was not going to take the blame. She put her supervisor Maria on the line. Maria was an angel. She spent a full 1hr, 56 min with me on the phone tracking down the logs showing my itinerary was never validated. But once she figured everything out, she validated it even including the window seats I wanted plus a window seat on a fourth flight where I had no seat selected. The website back-end is at fault here. When you click submit, and you get a message saying your credit card info is invalid, for whatever strange reason, then it should not keep debiting your card when you pause for many minutes, check your info and try again. When I buy stuff from websites like Apple or BH Photo, I never have this problem. In any case, I applaud on-the-job people like supervisor Maria who go out of their way working hard to give their sometimes-blundering companies a good name. I got exactly what I paid for. I just wish the online transaction system worked reliably. I will probably fly with Air-France, Delta, KLM again in the future. They appear to be affiliated. My flight leaves on April 12 and Maria says the redundant Visa charges should drop within a few days at latest.