That’s because Air France told me Thursday night that my flight from Washington to Paris, scheduled for Sunday, was definitely not going to happen, and all flights from airports in the eastern U.S. to Europe for Saturday were booked solid. Their agent on their toll-free number, which connected with Paris, said they had exactly one free seat in Business class left for Friday, if I wanted that. I asked my brother if we could cancel all our meetings scheduled for Friday and Saturday, and we figured all the people we were going to see had probably left for their home states/districts anyway, so I said I’d take it if the rebooking wouldn't cost too much.
The Air France agent asked me to hold the line for a few seconds while she calculated. She came back and said it was bad news, and due to the heavy demand, and there being just one seat left, the rebooking would cost $4000. I said that was ridiculous, and reminded her that I was Platinum for Life with Air France, and it was THEIR recommendation that I rebook due to the near certain cancellation of my Sunday flight. She said I had a valid point, and would check with her supervisor. As it turned out, Air France had been working on the North America weather problem for hours, and the word came back to rebook me free of charge (Toto, I don’t think we’re dealing with American Airlines any more).
So, I made it out of Washington with no problem, got to Paris pretty much on time the next morning, and made the terminal transfer including EU immigration in less than an hour. i had to vegetate in Terminal 2G for nearly four hours, but the onward flight to Düsseldorf was just 50 minutes, and our neighbor was there to pick me up. The drive to the house was all of 16 minutes, since there was neither ice nor snow in the Rheinland on Saturday afternoon. Since I have to be in Belgium tomorrow, France on Wednesday and Berlin on Thursday, I guess my early departure was a blessing in disguise. I actually got some sleep for once!
= new reply since forum marked as read