My husband and I flew today from Paris to Amsterdam on AF. The seats were booked three weeks ago by our travel agent. At the time of booking, we were forced to book Premium Economy, because Economy seats were all out. Our tickets were confirmed. At check-in, to our surprise, we saw AF staff stick a "Stand-by" badge on our luggage and we were told we were not on the waiting list for that flight!!!! Although we explained that our tickets were confirmed, they said they understood, but there was nothing they could do, because the flight was "overbooked"!!! What was even more infuriating was the staff’s attitude who all acted as though that was common in all airlines and could not be avoided.
Though we are frequent travelers, we never had to deal with a similar situation. We had to wait until all check-in was over, i, e, 30 minutes before the take-off, when they were able to offer us two seats on the flight. To make things worse, both my husband and I ended up not together, on two separate seats at the end of the plane. Ironically, there were numerous empty seats on board when the plane took off. So, watch out, every time you book a flight on AF, you could be in for some dumb argument with a staff who are not willing to do anything to help. Plus, you will probably be unable to benefit from what you were forced to pay for.