Tweeting at some airlines for customer support won't work anymore. They've stopped using Twitter amid Elon Musk's changes.

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  • Some airlines will no longer handle customer service requests over Twitter.

  • The decision came after Elon Musk began charging for access to Twitter's API and for verification.

  • So far, just Air France and KLM have halted the service on the platform.

A clever customer service hack for dealing with airlines is becoming harder to do thanks to Elon Musk's changes to Twitter.

Both Air France and its sister airline KLM will no longer field customer service requests over the social media platform, the companies announced over the past few weeks.

Both statements arrived in the wake of an overhaul to the platform. In an attempt to make the company more profitable, access to Twitter's application programming interface, or API, was placed behind a paywall. API allows developers to program automated or semi-automated accounts, and it also facilitates direct messaging services.

Mark Zablan, chief executive of customer-experience platform Emplifi, told The Wall Street Journal that costs for the API can add up to tens of thousands of dollars each month.

The paywalled API contributed to Air France's decision to suspend customer service through Twitter, the Journal reported.

Businesses now also have to pay more than $1,000 a month to receive a gold verification mark. In the past, businesses were able to receive verification for free.

While Air France does not have the gold verification badge associated with its account, a spokesperson told the Journal that the company would still continue to maintain its presence on Twitter. KLM, on the other hand, does have a gold verification badge.

Air France and KLM did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. Twitter responded with an automated poop emoji to Insider's request for comment.

"We no longer offer customer service by private message on this platform at the moment, but our commercial teams are still available via the usual channels, including other social networks," an Air France spokeswoman told the Journal.

A range of other major airlines, including Delta, British Airways, Lufthansa, and American Airlines, appear to have paid for verification.

Since Musk enacted his verification system, impersonations of both public figures and businesses have become more commonplace.

Singapore Airlines, which has not paid for gold badge verification, issued a warning about potential scams at the end of March. The airline is seemingly still fielding customer service requests over Twitter.

Singapore Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

For years, Twitter and other social media channels have been an avenue for airline customers to receive responses to issues that arise throughout the traveling process.

Most airlines will allow passengers to connect their social media profiles with their airline profiles, giving customer service representatives easier access to their flight details when communicating over a given social platform, per the Journal.

KLM, for example, has allowed customers to integrate their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles with their personal flights since 2012.

In 2015, Delta announced it would attempt to respond to user requests over Twitter within an hour, while American Airlines promised it would respond positively to any tweet, no matter how offensive, back in 2013.

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