What happened
A passenger traveling on a roundtrip Air France-KLM ticket (JFK-AMS-JFK) was charged a €500 'out of sequence' fee upon checking in for his return flight in Paris. The airline's system indicated he had not taken the outbound JFK-AMS segment. The passenger insisted he had flown the outbound leg and submitted evidence, including timestamped photos with metadata and Verizon phone data showing connectivity near Schiphol Airport. Despite this proof, Air France initially reiterated that he was not on the flight and refused reimbursement. This illustrates a specific operational policy: if the airline's system does not record a passenger on the outbound segment, they may charge a fee for 'skipping' it, placing the burden of proof on the traveler to demonstrate they were on the plane