Rapid Travel Chai

I wrote earlier today about using an Air France voucher such as you may get for a delayed or canceled flight. Two lessons:

1. To use it online, use the website with the currency of the voucher. Mine is in euros so the US site cannot process it.
2. To use for less than the amount of the voucher you need to call ticketing.

Air France FlyingBlue has a poor reputation in this hobby for customer service issues and fraud prevention that has shut accounts for legitimate points transfers from credit card programs.

My only FlyingBlue experience was an attempt to get mileage credit for Air Mauritius flights. One of three posted, even the other on the same ticket did not. I had months of back and forth online and phone, never receiving the miles. Online went in a cycle of emails requesting reply with documentation, then the system always rejecting the email saying I had changed the formatting. Phone was various spurious claims such as that my middle name was on the ticket but not the account.

I even met a FlyingBlue executive at the Freddie’s that year who agreed to look into the case as a general customer service review exercise. Upon seeing all the materials he replied, “we really screwed with you.” He was never able to get the miles to post either. I let it drop and swore off FlyingBlue as a frequent flyer program, though enjoy flying the airline.

This voucher, however gave a ticketing number in France that I duly called. The agent could not have been more helpful with wonderfully French-accented English. She knew what to do without hassle, but then their system went down, even the website temporarily could not book. She apologized profusely, requesting I call back in ten minutes.

After a few minutes the website was back, I called again, and got another, similarly great agent. Her system was back as well, and in a matter of moments I had my ticket. Bravo!

Plus, since I used less than the full voucher amount, she immediately emailed a new voucher with the remainder valid from a year from this new date of issue. Superb!

Two excellent experiences like that are a small sample, yet in both I had minimal pesky phone menus, no wait, and great service. Unexpected impressive. I will pit them against any airline I have encountered, even where I have elite status. Maybe they can do a takeover of FlyingBlue’s phones?

Readers, what travel company call centers impress you?