[Sara]

I am having a terrible time with Air France. We had confirmed seats on Flight AF2581 (we were flying from London to Brazil - with a connection in Paris) on 22/12/10 leaving at 18:00 hrs. On the 21st we received emails saying that our flight was cancelled - something we thought might happen due to the bad weather conditions. However the next day the Air France website said our flight was still scheduled so we phoned again. The reservations person we spoke to said that it was still on schedule but then asked for our booking reference. As soon as she looked us up she changed the story and said the flight was cancelled. On the 23rd we phoned again as we were a bit suspicious because the website said it had left Heathrow at 18:00 and arrived in Paris as scheduled. We again spoke to someone at Air France who said the flight left as scheduled and arrived in Paris. We are so angry and frustrated at the lack of communication from their "Customer Care Center”. I have written several emails and letters including one to Mr Pierre-Henri Gourgeon Air France's Chief Executive Officer but have had no response whatsoever! It has now been 23 days since our dream holiday was left in shatters - we incurred a lot of non refundable expenses, and to add salt to the wound, we received notification today that 3 of our tickets were finally being refunded less the £13 booking fee! That's £39 they have stolen from us, an insignificant amount but in the scheme of things and insult as it was their error and failing that led to us to not being on that flight to Brazil. I am fighting tooth and nail and will never give up but it seems like I am hitting my head against a brick wall. Incidentally their "Customer Care Center" does not have a telephone number - one can only contact them via letter or email through the Air France site!