The specialist for French overseas territories
If you fly to French overseas territories often, you may have already booked a trip with the French airline Corsair.
Founded in 1981 by the Rossi family, the airline has gone through various name changes and ownership groups. After a period under the TUI Group, it has established itself as an independent carrier focused on overseas territories. Its primary routes serve the French West Indies and the Indian Ocean Islands (Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Mayotte).
Beyond these core regions, Corsair also operates flights to West Africa, Canada, and various French provincial cities, with service to and from Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Nantes.
New developments in the air
These regular long-haul flights are operated by one of the most modern and environmentally conscious fleets in the industry. Since 2021, Corsair has been renewing its fleet with aircraft that are more fuel-efficient, quieter both on the ground and in the cabin, and lower in carbon emissions.
These greener aircraft also provide better comfort thanks to redesigned, ergonomic cabins equipped with the latest technical innovations. This applies to all 4 classes offered by Corsair (Economy, Economy+, Premium, Business). The Business class remains the most premium experience, featuring large screens, free Wi-Fi, spacious and customizable cabins, and signature menus created by renowned chefs.
Prioritizing passenger care
To support its philosophy of attentive service, Corsair has implemented a series of e-services, including web check-in available 72 hours before departure, a mobile app, and options to purchase additional baggage at reduced rates.
Other perks include the TGV Air rail-and-fly offer, the Supershuttle service, and a 10 percent discount on car rentals through their partnership with Hertz.
Finally, the Corsair loyalty program offers reduced fares and special conditions, making it an attractive option for those looking for value. The airline was even voted the best airline at the 2023 Travel d'Or awards.
I am extremely dissatisfied with the customer service, which made one mistake after another and eventually changed the terms of our trip. I am extremely dissatisfied with CORSAIR, which puts out promotional offers that are not actually promotional. That is the summary of my claim. I will now lay out the sequence of the many calls I had to make between 02/06/26 and 02/07/26 to do what was initially just a return date change on my wife's ticket. Information: files in question: XCNRRW and XCHKFF. Tickets purchased at the end of September 2025.
1/ I call and get LUKA. I ask him to change the RETURN date on my wife's ticket, XCNRRW. Everything goes well. I receive the link and pay the 275.14 euro fee. Then I wait for the modified ticket. And there, NOTHING.
2/ I call back. I get another agent who tells me he will follow up with LUKA and that I will receive my wife's modified ticket. I hang up. I receive the ticket. I check it. I realize that the return was indeed changed BUT that the seat on the OUTBOUND flight was also changed! Going from 9C to 31B. However, I, her husband (file XCHKFF), am traveling in seat 9B on the outbound flight. So we are going to have to travel separated from each other.
3/ I call back. I am told it is a "system" problem. I ask them to put back seat 9C for my wife. BUT it has already been sold. I ask that the department contact the customer who took the seat and tell them there was a "system" error and that they could have 31B instead to make the switch. I am told it is not possible. I insist, arguing that the environmental comfort on the plane is not the same in row 9 as in row 31. I am then offered to change my seat (file XCHKFF) on the outbound flight to be next to my wife. Having no choice, I accept, but I ask for compensation. Indeed, I paid 200 euros for a service that ultimately changes the conditions of our trip on the OUTBOUND flight in a major way, which is something we never asked for. I am told that neither a partial refund of the fees nor an upgrade is possible. With that, I wait for my ticket since the seat was changed from 9B to a seat next to my wife's, which is 31B. I wait, but I do not receive the modified ticket for file XCHKFF in my email.
4/ I call back on 02/07/26. The agent checks file XCHKFF and announces that there is no seat reservation for the outbound flight. I am therefore at risk of no longer having the option to sit next to my wife. This is becoming absurd! The agent checks and finally finds two seats next to each other in 31J and 31H. I hang up. I still do not receive the ticket. I call back and am told it was sent to my wife's email. Another mistake, but fine, let us move on from that one.
5/ While I am filing this claim, I want to verify if seats 31H and 31J are actually next to each other. I call back and get LUKA! I calmly explained to him the mistakes he had made, which led to a series of other errors but above all stress, dissatisfaction, and finally disappointment. He explained to me that when he modified my wife's return, the outbound seat "dropped out" of the system and that he immediately chose an equivalent seat (31B). Except that he failed to warn me so that I could also change my seat to be next to my wife. He acknowledged an error on his part and a lack of professionalism.
To conclude...
My wife and I are finally traveling on the OUTBOUND flight in row 31, even though we had booked row 9 and never asked for this change.
I paid 200 euros in ticket change fees and received a degraded and unacceptable service in exchange.
So as not to make this claim too heavy, I have left out the other errors and misunderstandings that contributed to increasing the stress and distress. About ten calls in total were necessary to close this matter.
And finally.
I bought these two plane tickets at the end of September, taking advantage of a promotional offer from CORSAIR on the Reunion/Paris round trip. We wanted to go to Marseille, but the price was unaffordable for us. Given the prices at the time, I rushed to buy these tickets to Paris by choosing the cheapest dates and fares. HOWEVER, I realize that if I bought the tickets today with a departure one day earlier and a return one day later (which is not a problem for us and our employers), the plane ticket would cost me 486.81 euros! Instead of 740 euros on PROMO, which is what we paid! It is just incomprehensible to us, as we saved for over a year to pay for this trip. We thought we made the right choice by choosing CORSAIR and its promotional offer. And in the end, we feel like we were cheated, taken for fools, by CORSAIR the company, then by its Customer Service. An experience that no one would want to go through.
I will not hide the fact that it is not with pleasure that we will board your flight. This feeling of having been violated psychologically and financially will stay in our minds for a long time.
So, I already know that you will be sorry, that you will highlight your efforts to improve service, and blah and blah. But no matter what you do, it will never be enough to repair the damage we have suffered.
And even if you grant us financial compensation, we will of course accept it, but we already know it will not be enough. Because a quick calculation makes us realize that the amount of an acceptable compensation is far too high. Refund of modification fees: 200 € - Cancellation of our tickets and deferral to the dates of 04/09/26 and 05/09/2026: 270€ on file XCHKFF, and deferral of dates to 05/09/26 and 04/25/26: 295€ on file XCNRRW. That would be a total of 765€ in compensation! Yet that is exactly the amount we feel we paid for nothing, and it corresponds to HALF of what we paid for the plane tickets.
Furthermore, we initially wanted to go to Marseille. But it was too expensive in September. Today, I realize that the tickets for the same dates, off by one day, are also 200€ cheaper for file XCHKFF and 225 euros cheaper for ticket XCNRRW compared to what we paid up until today. More bad news for us!
To tell you the truth, we are bitter, discouraged, depressed, and angry. We no longer expect anything from you, not even a good trip. We consider that we have been stolen from! Your business practices are at the same level as your customer service. Incomprehensible and unacceptable.