[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

Full refunds are only given when you pay full-fare coach ("Y" class,) or are traveling with most, but not all, business and first class tickets. Thus, with Air France, you're talking about a fare of around $8,000 to $10,000 round trip, per person, from the east coast to Paris, before you're in the running for a refund. The equivalent fares, on Continental Air, tend to be about $2,000 less.

For, perhaps, another $1,000, per person, you might have been able to get a coach fare (on Air France) that would have allowed you to make changes (but still not receive any refund) in return for payment (in addition to that $1,000) of $200 to $300 per person.

If you're traveling on anything resembling an emergency, or "short-notice" travel, NOT purchasing directly from the airline you will be traveling with is usually not worth any savings you might realize by going through Expedia, or any other on-line, or off-line, travel agency. Air France was, actually, doing you a favor by even talking to you. Most, if not all, US-based airlines would have told you to contact Expedia then hung-up on you if you asked any more questions--I'm not suggesting this is right. It's just the way major US-based airlines feel they can treat their customers.

One of the cheapest, regularly available, refundable trans-Atlantic fares can be had from Icelandic Air business class (one change of planes in Iceland) which has service to Glasgow, London (at $6700 round-trip, per person) and limited service to some cities on the Continent.