Mission: Adding infant to award tickets for my upcoming Vietnam...

Mission: Adding infant to award tickets for my upcoming Vietnam trip. Not an easy job and definitely not for the faint hearted. 7 attempts & still not done. 🫠

Important 🧵 for New #ccgeek parents

Parties: Flying blue/Air France/Vietnam airlines. Miles from Axis Group B.

1/n

Itinerary overview:

Hyd to Da Nang with layover in Hanoi
Da Nang to Hanoi
Hanoi to Hyderabad

2 Adults booked through Air France (AF) app (super smooth). Assumed infant booking will happen via AF but did not confirm before booking since I was ready to experiment/find out.

2/n

Miles/cash spent on adult tickets (per person)

Hyd to Da Nang via Hanoi - 15500 miles + 6751 INR
Danang to Hanoi- 5000 miles + 2118 INR
Hanoi to Hyd- 11000 miles + 7452 INR

Total - 31500 miles + 32642 INR
Infant booking on AF app was showing same miles+ INR as adults.
3/n

Infant booking experience - I love Gmail 'help me write' hence I prefer email over calls.

1st attempt- Mail Vietnam air official helpline- they redirected to Vietnam airlines india🤦🏼‍♂️
2nd attempt- Call Vietnam airlines India who redirected to Air France 🥲
4/n

3rd attempt- Call Air France India- who asked for cancellation as amendment on miles tkt not allowed. 🫠 Told me I need to cancel and rebook a new ticket with infant. Charges 70 EUR per ticket😭
5/n

3rd attempt contd- Tried pushing the person for further clarity and she 'checked' and corrected herself. Addition not possible via Air France for award tickets for other carriers. I can book a separate ticket via Vietnam airlines and call AF for linking. 💀
6/n

3rd attempt contd- Asked AF person about approx charges and she mentioned 6000 INR per sector for AF own metal tickets. By now, I was readying myself to pay 24k INR for the 4 sectors based on my domestic experience of each sector requiring separate infant charges.
7/n

4th attempt- Back to Vietnam airlines Ind call centre- They reluctantly agreed they could add infant but I had to send an email to a different id. Asked them for charges but they mentioned ‘system will generate’
8/n

4th attempt contd- Shared a new email id not mentioned on website. Asked me to send email with passport of infant and flight details. I wasn’t sure if I will still need to call AF to link but that was for later. 🤖
9/n

5th attempt- sent email with 1 pnr to email id shared. They finally agreed to add and shared a random confirmation response w/o payment details. (See photo). Followed up asking for amount & next steps but no answer for 3 days.

10/n

5th attempt contd- Thankfully, I could now see infant added to my booking on Air France app so I knew it was working.
🎯

This also meant no need to call AF again. Phew. 😅

11/n

6th attempt- Call the Delhi number mentioned in response email for payment and other tickets. No one picked up the call. 😩

7th attempt- Call - this time they picked up & I asked for the executive who had replied to the email. He confirmed he will share payment details. 🫠
12/n

7th attempt contd- Asked him about approx charges. He was not sure and said ‘system will generate’ but responded the mail with this. Haven’t paid yet but will mostly do it.

Will continue sharing more details here. Follow more to find out.

13/n

@suritalreja for your Vietnam trip 😬 do tag other new #ccgeek parents you know