[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-04-02 AT 01:32 PM (GMT)]Well, I’m just back from my holiday in SA (which was very nice actually). There was only one thing that could spoil it all : AIR FRANCE! Never fly with AIR FRANCE again, believe me.
1. WHERE’s the delecious french food? Wine?
The food was so disgusting, I almost had to throw up. I had the disadvantage of sitting next to the ‘kitchen’, the smell of it was just a torture.
2. Can the personnel be even more unfriendly? What a difference with Sabena, SAA, or even Swissair.
3. The 747’s are old, noisy and dirty. If there wouldn’t have been AIR FRANCE markings on the plane, I would suggest it was operated by Afghan Airlines.
4. Movies and music on board. OK, the French are chauvenistic, but I don’t wanna listen all night to Jaqcues Brel and Manau Chau. There wasn’t even a movie playing on the way back, just commercials.
5. Lack of organisation. After landing in Charles de Gaule, we had to wait 3 more hours on the Thalys (TGV) to bring us back to Brussels. Although the Thalys has been chartered by AF, you still have to carry your own luggage. The fun started ofcourse when the train had to stop an hour due to a malfunction.
6. The stewardesses are not those shown in the brochures, pity! In fact, it were all stewards. Next time, i’ll try to fly with SAS 🙂
7. They wake you up in the middle of the night to fasten your seatbelts. I would appreciate it that next time they would first warn me, instead of doing it themselves. Especially if they also touch … you know 🙁
8. They are so serious and hate it when you make fun. What else can you do on a 11-hour non-stop flight?
9. I tried to keep the floors a bit clean on the plane, so I always use one of those vomitbags as a trashcan. Then some irritating frog starts complaining about that. I know French still live in their own dirt, but I won’t!
10. Lousy wine, but compensated by Belgian Beer Stella!
11. You can’t keep the blanket you get. I wanted to give it to Armstrong (my brothers labrador), but it was not allowed. My other dog (that recently died) had a Sabena-blanket. I think it was cursed, because two months after Sabena’s demise, he was also gone.
By: Geforce - 20th April 2002 at 08:43
RE: My experience with Air France.
Yeah, sorry, the French don’t live in their own dirt. In fact, my grandmother is a “francaise”, so I won’t laugh with the French anymore. But AF was bad, at least my flight was. I could have happened with BA or KLM as well, but -coincidence or not- they offered a better service.
By: squasher - 17th April 2002 at 07:26
RE: My experience with Air France.
Pakistani, the joke in India is that PIA stands for Pain In the Ass. No Flame !!
Air India is equally pathetic, the air hostesses are more like air ghostess.
By: Hand87_5 - 16th April 2002 at 16:02
RE: My experience with Air France.
Yep ,
One think that I forgot : mileage program : a shame!!
You can NEVER get the flight you want because of embargo dates.
I have some other cards with UA , BA and KL : no problem.
By: Bhoy - 16th April 2002 at 15:53
RE: My experience with Air France.
I think those are fair points, except the programming.
Two years ago, when I flew them, I think there were 12 radio stations, each was just a 1 hour reel.
1 of them was Classical, 1 Pop (provided by NRJ), the rest were French music.
I listened to the NRJ one, but even there, every other track was a French one.
And, to be honest, the only decent track (and that debatable…) on that 1 hour reel was Tom Jones/Mousse T’s Sex Bomb. Now surely AF must have thought what would happen if they ever had a bored rugby team on board with only one song to sing out loud along to…
8 Times during teh whole flight.
Dunno About AA, never flown them. BA mainly play pop on various channels, it’s not french, but it’s chart stuff, and the UK chart stuff is generally what’s in the charts everywhere else in Europe, so it can be said to be catering to more than one market.
United, who I flew with Domestically from SFO to NY had a channel where you could listen to ATC. I listened to that with them, don’t have a clue what teh other channels were.
By: Hand87_5 - 16th April 2002 at 14:29
RE: My experience with Air France.
Well , Geforce , I guess you got a good one !
I’m french ( don’t live in my own sh ….) and since I have experienced AF for years , maybe I’ll try to add some information.
Food : as bad as any other airline on coach ( a matter of cost)
Crew : That’s a lottery : the point is that there is no excellence criteria on AF as they have on Singapour Airlines or Thai. Maybe this crew wasn’t AF ????
Lack of organization : typically french !!!
Wake up : Some AF speciality : I don’t know why ????
Chauvenistic : True!!! but I don’t remember of French only program on AF. Euhh by the way do you have french programs on BA or AA?
In order to be objective , I’d say that AF is middle of the road . Not good , not bad.
Except for one Thing : STRIKES !!!!!
i have been stuck so many time away from home on Friday night on business trip that I have decided to ban AF when possible.
By: Arabella-Cox - 15th April 2002 at 22:29
RE: My experience with Air France.
I expect bad service on an airline. That way I’m not suprised. What I am more worried about is close calls.
Once flying out of Dallas, still climbing about two minutes out I saw a streched DC9, MD80-88? wiz by real close and fast. So close that I think thats what kind of plane it was. I was so stunned I had to think for a few seconds if I just saw what I saw. I don’t think anyone else on the plane saw it but I would guess the controllers might have had a conversation about it.
I have watched engine oil bleed out on two different occasions on a starboard engine. Once it was a turbo prop and they shut it down. The other time an early 737. Maybe I am bad luck and I should sit on the left side.
I had a real thrill ride on an MD-88 in a very high cross wind landing. Hey, I’m not a pilot so what do I know? The guy had to go around 3 times. I was fairly confident he was going to dump the plane in either a spectacular or non-spectacular way. The plane was really being pushed.
This was only a week after landing at Cleveland airport looking out the window (right side again) and seeing an MD-88 (from the same airline) off in the grass with a busted nose wheel after (what I read later) making a bad landing in icy conditions.
elp
usa
By: Geforce - 15th April 2002 at 16:49
RE: My experience with Air France.
My mother flew with Iberia to JBG and she said it was an excellent service. Correct to the point, good food, friendly stewards. Next time, i’ll go for KLM. It’s a bit more expensive, but they have a very good reputation. So has AF, but not with me anymore.
By: Merlin3945 - 15th April 2002 at 16:48
RE: My experience with Air France.
I would say that my worst flight had to be with British Midland.
I have flown with Air2000 and both flights were ok and you get a movie with them.
I flew with BM and there was no movie on a 4 1/2 hour flight and you had to pay lots for everything from snacks to cans of coke apart from your meal of course.
And I have flown with the Greek Olympic airline which had to be the best flight attendants and aircrew that I have flown with. We all thought Greek airline will be as good as the locals are (meaning the Greeks are pretty laid back about things)
But the plane was very clean inside and out (I look at these things) The stewardess were very nice and the captain was always on the tannoy telling us where we were flying over and what to look out for etc etc and they were even giving out free cans of coke. On arrival at Rhodes we were told that there was heavy winds and turbulence so to sit tight and we would be down in 20 mins or so. We arrived at the airport and we told that we were the only plane to land that day and should really been diverted to Athens as every other plane was.
Now thats what I call a good pilot.
regards Merlin
By: KabirT - 15th April 2002 at 16:27
RE: My experience with Air France.
:)….. Pakistani i have heard some great tales of PIA.
By: Pakistani - 15th April 2002 at 12:24
RE: My experience with Air France.
Geforce and Seahawk
You both don’t know what real pain is! 🙂
Try PIA!!!!!
I am proud of my country, but no Pakistani on this planet can be proud of our excuse for an airline, the only service you get on a PIA flight is the self service kind!!!!!
By: seahawk - 15th April 2002 at 11:28
RE: My experience with Air France.
Try Iberia for suffering – nothing can beat them. (Although the stewardesses looked very nice) I had the honor once to fly with them to Spain from DUS, but that was not nice at all. The 737 made noises as if it was about to fall to pieces. The food was, well eaten once before. They were friendly nevertheless, but they only had newspapers in Spanish with them. (I did not get that much of it)
Since this time I prefare to go with Condor, as they are cheaper and their service is ok. A bit like Lufthansa, nothing special but correct to the point.
By: Bhoy - 15th April 2002 at 09:15
RE: My experience with Air France.
my flights CDG-YYZ-CDG with Air France two years ago certainly weren’t my best ever long haul flights, but we did have some decent looking stewardesses. Also, I was travelling with my Rugby Club, so lack of IFE was more than made up with our discussions. (and congregation round the complimentary bar at the back of the A340).
However, I feel I must complain about the lack of Alcohol on board… I mean, imagine running out over Greenland x(
Unfortunatley, we had to circle for half an hour before landing, and with the fasten seat belt signs on, and no IFE apart from the alltitude/outside temperature/distance flown info screen, some of the boys (I’m talking mid-20’s and 30’s here) resorted to pillow fights. Some of the pillows hit other passengers, but I was astounded that a) no one complained, and b) the cabin crew said nothing.
Ah well, at least they were relatively cheap.
By: Comet - 15th April 2002 at 08:23
RE: My experience with Air France.
My experience with Air France between Manchester and CDG was good, the cabin crew were friendly and I had a seat with good legroom. Admittedly, they are not as great as Sabena were and they don’t serve Maes and the French as a race are not as friendly and don’t have the same good humour as Belgians do. CDG is the worst European airport I’ve ever been in, not as good as Brussels (god I can’t wait to go back there in September). [www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sabenabelgianairlines]
By: shauny2k1 - 14th April 2002 at 21:28
RE: My experience with Air France.
On my Virgin Atlantic flight from LHR – LAX on 1st April. We were still at the gate at LHR and the co-pilot made an announcement, she said “please remain seated until the aircraft is at the gate and we are ready for you to dissembark” she must have forgotten that we hadn’t left LHR yet.
Shaun
By: T5 - 13th April 2002 at 21:41
RE: My experience with Air France.
Very interesting report. I like a bit of huomour in these things, it makes them incredibly interesting.
There are many things which these days are standard on commercial flights (wouldn’t you agree?) e.g. crap food, limited leg-room in economy and rude cabin crew. Of course, there are some exceptions, but if I don’t like something, I make it clear, even if I am only 16 years old.
If the cabin crew cannot cope with the unsociable hours in which their job entails, they should work in a shop where they can work 5 days a week from 0900-1800 or something and that should cheer them up!
By: Geforce - 13th April 2002 at 20:30
RE: My experience with Air France.
You’re right, Saab, although their English is quite decent. My cousin, who doesn’t know how to speak a word French was threated a lot worse because he only spoke English.
But airline food is always disgusting: normally I buy a sandwich and eat that one on board, but this time I forgot. I spend more time on the toilet than on my seat, especially when the toilet is more comfortable (exept in turbulence :x)
By: Arabella-Cox - 13th April 2002 at 20:22
RE: My experience with Air France.
Bad service on an airline. Shocking. }>
elp
usa
By: Saab 2000 - 13th April 2002 at 19:39
RE: My experience with Air France.
I travelled Heathrow-Paris CDG back in 1995 I think on a 737 and although I can’t remember a lot about the flight (to young)I remember that the food was horrible,like many young children I hated airline food though my parents agreed it was bad.The cabincrew were rather snooty and I found there english quite bad though it didn’t bother me as my parents did all the talking!After reading your story I presume AF are still like that today though compared to other airlines I really doubt that there that bad!Anyway hope you enjoyed your trip,South Africa seems like a lovely country.
By: squasher - 13th April 2002 at 19:31
RE: My experience with Air France.
Reminds me of an announcement on Alitalia:
” ladies and gentlemen please fasten your cigarettes and extinguish your seat belts.” :7
By: frankvw - 13th April 2002 at 19:31
RE: My experience with Air France.
This week, I’ve flown with Deutsche BA from Cologne to Berlin.
Nice (but short) flights. On the CGN-TXL flight, the pilot certainely tought he was sitting in a combat jet, as je leaved CGN. I never imagined the roll rate of a 737 was so high 🙂
And the trip back was uncomfortable on approach of CGN: some turbulences. A real nice rollercoaster!
But I’ll do it again as soon as possible!
(Hopefully also soon a flight with SN)
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April 13, 2002 at 12:53 pm