Never again
Written: Jan 09 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: None
Cons: Discomfort, unreliability, professionalism, rudeness, contempt
The Bottom Line: Avoid it like the plague unless you like old, dirty airplanes, indifferent food, uncomfortable seats, rude staff and lost luggage.
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| utter-bastard's Full Review: Air France |
My wife and I travelled from London to Saigon (via Paris) just before Christmas 2002 and returned from Saigon to Paris en route to London on the 6th January 2003. We arrived in Paris at about 6.30 a.m. and were asked to leave the aircraft first to ensure making the connection to the 7.30 a.m. flight, and then ushered through to the departure gate. So far so good.
At about 6.45 a.m. as we queued to get on the 'plane we were told that that the 7.30 a.m. flight had been cancelled. This information came from another passenger, not from any member of Air France. The only official sign was the sudden absence of the flight from the departure boards.
Seeking further information from the departure desk staff who were checking in passengers for the 7.00 a.m. flight to London we encountered for the first time (but not for the last) the attitude of Air France staff for their passengers, an attitude I can best describe as one of profound and unqualified contempt. They evidenced this by ignoring the passenger standing at the desk for as long as possible, refusing to meet his (or her) eye and initiating small tasks (short telephone calls etc.) to give a semblance of activity. This is so pointed that it goes beyond express rudeness.
I asked if there were any spaces on the 7.00 a.m. flight: I was told that there were, but that my wife and I could not take advantage of those spaces because we had baggage checked through from Vietnam. This, we were told, was because it was strictly forbidden for checked luggage to travel separately from its owner. This was the first (but again not the last) lie of the day from Air France groundstaff. (I discovered this in retrospect when I discovered that my baggage had not travelled with me to London in the ‘plane I eventually took.)
We were then told that there were no seats on the 8 a.m. flight, the 9 a.m. flight was also cancelled, and there were no seats on the 10 a.m. flight. This was all blamed on the weather, a sprinkling of snow. I pointed out that I have travelled from Russia and Romania (both much poorer countries than France) when the snow is metres thick and the 'planes still take off and land. This was met with a Gallic shrug.
We were offered seats on the 12 noon flight and were issued a boarding-pass.
We then went down to the Air France business-class lounge and asked if, bearing in mind that we were being delayed for four-and-a-half hours by Air France, Air France would do us the courtesy of allowing us the use of its facilities. This was denied (not the last time Air France was careful to avoid anything which might be mistaken for a courtesy). I asked if my wife and I could leave our hand-luggage in the lounge while we took breakfast and again was refused, ostensibly on security grounds (I have left hand-luggage in the business-class lounge when travelling business-class which means Air France thinks that terrorists only ever travel economy-class, a naive and perhaps worrying assumption).
We were told we should check in for the noon flight at 11.15 a.m.. We duly appeared at the gate and were told we would board at 11.30 a.m.. At 11.25 a.m. I asked the Air France lady behind the counter if the ‘plane was on time. After studiously ignoring me for two requests she finally conceded that the flight was on time and we would be boarding at 11.30 a.m.. She checked this by telephone. When I queried the likelihood of this in the clear absence of a 'plane, she frostily assured me that the 'plane was there and we would board momentarily.
One and a half minutes later, the departure-board changed, announcing that the flight was delayed and we would now be boarding at 1 p.m..
Different explanations were given to different people (who compared notes): some were told the ‘plane had not arrived. Some were told that the ‘plane was being towed from another part of the airport. Others were told that the ‘plane was at a nearby airport. Other people confirmed that they had been told a variety of different stories the day before: the delays were caused by a strike, Heathrow was closed etc. None of these stories bore much (if any) scrutiny.
At 1 p.m. boarding was put back to 1.40 p.m., but - yes, you've guessed it - we didn’t board then either. This was apparently because nobody had thought to order a ‘bus. That this information did not emanate from any Air France personnel gave it credence.
We duly boarded the ‘plane a little after 2 p.m.. It was then announced that we had a take off slot at 4.26 p.m., so we sat in the ‘plane on the tarmac unmoving for a further two hours
We finally landed at London Heathrow only to find that the majority - certainly a large proportion - of the passengers did not have their luggage. We were asked to fill in forms and given a telephone number to call.
I called this number several times today. It tells me that all the operators are busy but I should rest assured that all efforts are being made to reunite me with my missing bags. It is precisely because I was not resting assured that I dialed the number. Since I was not given the option to hold for one of the "busy" operators you will forgive me, gentle reader, for resting assured only that this was yet another lie.
No-one at Air France would talk to me. I eventually got some numbers for the baggage department, but they ring engaged the entire time, or else ring unanswered. The web-page is a joke. Four days later I am still waiting for my luggage.
I called the general manager of Air France in London (M. Herzog). I told him would like to know (his answers appear in brackets):
- where is my luggage? (We don't know. It's all the fault of the weather.)
- why, if there is a flight which leaves at 7 a.m. and a flight which leaves at 8 a.m., my 7.30 a.m. flight is cancelled due to bad weather? The weather did not worsen after 7 a.m. only to improve for 8 a.m. ("Er . . . it was all the fault of the weather").
- why, if you do cancel a 7.30 a.m. flight, you do not simply put the people booked on that flight onto the 8 a.m. ‘plane and then put the 8 a.m. people onto the 10 a.m. flight and so on. That way everyone gets delayed by a short amount of time rather than one group getting delayed for hours on end. If you do have to cancel flights altogether then they get cancelled at the end of the day and you can call the passengers well in advance and advise them of the possibility of cancellation before they leave home. ("That is what we do do.") Another lie, perhaps?
- why my baggage could not be checked onto the noon flight when we checked in for that flight nine hours before it left? Most airlines ask for short-haul check-in only one hour before departure. ("It's all the fault of the weather.")
- why Paris Charles de Gaulle airport seems unable to deal with snow? France is not a third-world country. ("It's all the fault of the weather.")
- If ‘planes cannot take off safely, how can they land safely? We landed fine in the flight from Saigon. ("It's all the fault of the weather.")
- Why are your ground-staff so rude to your customers? ("I note what you say")
In twenty years of travelling in many different countries and some highly marginal airlines, I have never been treated so badly. Every single passenger I spoke to said one thing “I will never travel with Air France again”. I got an e-mail this morning from another friend who (quite coincidentally) had passed through Paris CDG at the weekend. This is what she said:
“ We travelled with Air France and they beat our British Rail for excuses and beat the rest of the world in arrogance and indifference. We landed in Paris in a minor snow storm which AF maintains required total closure of the airport. They lied to London bound travellers - saying Heathrow was closed due to snow and to other travellers saying planes had been diverted (including the one we landed on). Some five hours later we were sent off to bed down in an airport hotel - in t-shirts, jeans and luckily fleeces. It was SO cold - brrhh. Others were less fortunate and spent the night on the airport floor with only a thin AF blanket. We finally got home today - without baggage. Our driver said AF are notoriously unreliable. We have vowed never to travel with them again and intend to tell everyone we know to avoid AF at all costs.”
At a conservative estimate I would say that Air France haemorrhaged at least a thousand customers over the weekend, multiplied to take account of negative publicity through word-of-mouth and e-mails those people will send to friends and colleagues. Can Air France really afford to lose that many customers or potential customers in one day? People do not forgive that sort of bad treatment: I am still very, very angry, and my wife and I seem to have had it better than many.
I do think that as a national carrier Air France owes its customers better, a lot better, than what we received at its hands over the weekend.
Incidentally, even when you do get into the air, the 'planes are really really old: I last got in a 'plane as old as the Air France one I took when I flew Air Philippines in 1991 on which the cabin crew were nicer and certainly more smiley.
I would never travel on Air France again, not even for ready money.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
utter-bastard
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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