Originally Posted by
Hartington
Many years ago I had to investigate a complaint from a travel agent. The agent had made a reservation for a couple, issued the ticket, job done. Then some friends wanted to join them so the details from the first reservation/ticket were passed on and a different agent went to make the new booking. They couldn't find the connecting flight (which may have been Chicago/Las Vegas). The original agent also looked and found the same thing but there was nothing in their reservation to indicate any change.
When I investigated it turned out that the airline had changed not only the time of the onward flight but also the flight number BUT they simply never sent notifications if the difference from the original flight was less than 10 minutes.
Schedule changes happen and the change of a minute or two could be said to be irrelevant (certainly the Chicago/Las Vegas airline thought so).
I would wait until the last day or two before you leave home then go the manage my booking area and print out your e-tickets. A ticket MUST show a 13 digit number and , in the case of Air France the first three will be 057 and there will be a second number for the second passenger. Even without the issue you've raised I always do that for a completely different reason - immigration. I've only once been asked to show my e-ticket receipt to prove I'm going to go home once, and it is unlikely, but if you don't have it the delay isn't worth risking.
I have the 'Electronic ticket' in front of me, it has two separate 13 digit ticket numbers for my wife and I. Along the lines you indicate, AF have changed timings for the two return legs of the flight by a matter of 10/15 minutes, they have sent us an email cancelling our original flights and advising us of the 'new' flights which have the same flight number as the original flights, what they have sent to us via email are new itineraries for our outward and return flights but not a new Electronic Ticket to reflect the changes.
For some reason when they tell us that they have cancelled a flight and give us the details of the new flight they also cancel our existing seat reservations and we have to make new ones. Of course this is not a problem now that we know to go and have a look - but maybe a bit surprising if it's the same flight, same type of plane but a few minutes one way or the other but I guess thats software for you!
We are not uptight about any of this as it's trivial in the overall picture. My original concern was simply that if they keep reducing the timings between arriving in CDG and departing CDG to LHR will we have enough time to get between the flights and the answer seems to be that as things currently stand it will all be alright.
I have logged in to the 'Manage my booking' part of the AF and there seems to be no facility or option to print out a new Electronic Ticket?