Four groups of passengers have contacted me to report that Air France KLM has cancelled their ticketed and confirmed travel — despite AF KLM receiving payment (in points or money) and sending emails saying tickets were valid.  In one instance the cancellation occurred after check-in.  In two instances the cancellation occurred on the day of travel.

I recently filed a formal DOT complaint about one of these problems.  For two more, I am in correspondence with Air France KLM attorneys, and I expect to file DOT complaints if attorney correspondence does not bring the matters to a satisfactory resolution.

By all indications airlines are using some form of automation — dare they call it AI? — to decide which tickets to cancel.  But any process can make mistakes, AI even more so.  Airlines should have processes in place to receive passenger protests, to right the error, and to pay the resulting damages when, as here, their systems get it wrong.  In shooting first and asking questions later, airlines are playing a dangerous game — cancel a ticket that was booked with a small number of points, and passengers might have to pay a huge amount of cash to rebook at the last minute, exposing an airline to large damages.  From everything I’ve seen, Air France KLM’s approach is not just wrong, but also imprudent.

Compare Virgin Atlantic’s remarks last year, as part of resolution of a different complaint in which I represented passengers — there committing to improve their tools, and offer a new process for customer complaints and appeals.  Air France could learn a lot from Virgin Atlantic’s approach.

Update (August 3, 2026): Air France Answer.

Update (August 10, 2026): Motion to strike Air France’s putative answer