never again
Written: Nov 05 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: can't think of any
Cons: lousy food, awful customer service, attitude problems, total disregard for customers
The Bottom Line: If you're travelling to France (or elsewhere) avoid AF at all costs - it will give you only aggravations.
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| ccosma's Full Review: Air France |
I flew Air France in May from PHL to Marseille. Although I had flown Air France 2 years before and hadn't been happy about it, I decided to give in another try.
So here I am at the check-in counter in Philly, standing in a long line. Once we reach the agent we discovered that our original reserved seats were gone and we have been reseated. Now, I had gone to great lengths to reserve two aisle seats (me and my wife) and one window seat for our 7 year old daughter and that was the reason I had booked four months ahead, thus providing Air France extra revenue in advance. The new seats were - of course - in the middle of the plane. After my long protest they found a window and an aisle seat for my wife and my daughter, but now we had to travel separated. We had ordered a child meal for my daughter and, having experienced problems before, I made sure I asked and was confirmed at check-in that my daughter would receive, indeed, a child meal. Once the flight attendant reached my wife she informed her that there had been only 2 child meals available and both had been given out already. When we objected she told us to "prove" that we ordered that child meal. I looked at the tickets, but this sort of detail is not included. (Later I found out that crews typically have a manifest with passenger names and special meal requests - I should have asked for this instead of looking at my ticket). I couldn't help but notice that the 2 lucky children were speaking French, while we speak English. In the end I decided to let go since the food was of the worst kind anyways.
After surviving the CDG maze (many posts here deal with this subject) we boarded the Marseille flight. It left Paris about one hour late (no reason given - I understand and speak a little French, so language was not the problem). When the flight attendant came with some cold croissants on a tray for whatever reason she warned me that whatever I touch I need to take and eat.
On our way back, in Marseille, the seating assignment story repeated itself. All my protesting and threatening that I'd never use Air France again, in both English and French, were of no help. We were again, confined to crampy - center of the plane seats - from CDG to PHL. Although the plane left CDG on time it arrived 45 minutes late (how was that possible since no circling was done around Philly I cannot explain). One bright spot: we finally received a child meal (it was the fourth attempt - including the previous trip with Air France). There were two movies scheduled on this flight. The second one was the Harry Potter movie, which my daughter was very interested in. However, for unknown reasons there was a long delay between the movies so the Harry Potter was cut short about 20 minutes. My daughter (and probably all other kids) was clearly disappointed. The food again was terrible and the attitude of the entire crew was just sloppy, throughout the flight.
Finally when I arrived home I decided to write AF about their lousy service. What really bothered me was the fact that although I paid more and in advance for the very purpose of reserving certain seats I was reassigned. I felt like I was cheated and AF did not meet its obligations. I received an answer about one month later in which basically they were saying that it was my fault (I should have double-checked my seat reservations - but no mentioning as to when).
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
ccosma
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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