Bad Customer Service
Why Air France deserves its loss
It’s often small things that reveal the most about someone’s character and in business character is crucial. The point is beautifully made by an ancient Chinese proverb, which says, “Man without smiling face should not open shop.”
A bad experience I just had on Air France, while relatively small in itself, speaks volumes about the airline.
I was flying with my family from London to Genoa to join a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate my wife’s birthday and our wedding anniversary. I could have booked a flight direct with British Airways from Gatwick or with RyanAir from Stanstead for less money. Instead I chose Air France because we live near Heathrow; the flight time was civilized, the connection looked good and I had heard that the airline and its hub had improved recently.
What a mistake this turned out to be as we missed our connection in Paris. The miss was not caused by bad weather or something excusable; it was due entirely to the mindset of Air France.
We had arrived in Charles de Gaulle with 45 minutes to transit but it was not clear until after we got off the plane that 2G and 2E (where we disembarked from London) were totally different terminal buildings and the only connection between them was land side, via shuttle bus! Conscious of time, we ran through the corridors and were relieved to get to the bus which left with minimal delay.
When we arrived in the departure lounge at terminal 2G to board for Genoa, the information display said the flight had closed, even though there were a few minutes left before the advertised departure time.
I immediately went to the customer service desk and asked the staff to call ahead and alert the flight. They declined even though we were checked in and our luggage should have been on board the plane.
We all know that if a flight closes with luggage on board but not the passenger, the airline has to find and unpack the bags for security reasons, which can take a lot of time. As we were only a short walk from the gate, there would have been enough time to run us to the aircraft but the staff would not listen to that point. Instead, they made no effort to contact the flight and insisted that we waste five hours waiting for the next one.
The customer service representative said that all he would do was to offer us a drink and a sandwich whilst we waited for the flight that night. When I told him this was not good enough, he just offered me a complaints form. I had to make a scene before he would let us speak to someone with more authority to look after us better. Eventually, he introduced us to another person, who he said was his supervisor, who was actually right there at the same desk. That person did invite us to sit in its lounge but I had to make the suggestion.
I can reveal that my wife and I won’t forget that Air France ruined what should have been a romantic evening, having dinner overlooking the sea. However, what should be more interesting to investors is what is revealed by the experience about Air France.
We bought our ticket from Air France directly on the phone. We would have booked online but the website was a struggle. (Had there been a better website; Air France could have avoided the cost of handling a phone booking.) When we booked, there was no mention of the connection time in Charles de Gaulle being too tight or at least risky. Why not? Surely Air France knows likely transit times at its home airport?
Why did the ground staff not try harder to help get us on the connecting flight? Why was there an assumption that it was better to waste time finding and unpacking our bags than rushing us on board? Or had Air France actually not bothered to load the luggage on the assumption we would miss the connection?
When we finally did get on to the connecting flight, the steward came to ask how we were - as he had received a note that we were angry. So I told him why. He was amazed by the story. He said: “How can they do that to you with young children. This is awful; you must write and complain – and I will put this in my report”.
He also said: “Gone are the days when I had the power to make a gesture by offering you a glass of champagne.” He understands customers; the question to his bosses is: Why don’t they?
I did write and complain and to Air France’s credit, I received a prompt reply, including an apology and a £200 (US$331) voucher to use on a future booking, but the responses to the substance of my points were unconvincing.
This is not an isolated incident; in three bookings out of three, I have had one problem or another. When trying to check in online for my return journey, it was impossible to do so; the Air France system did not recognize the booking reference, e-ticket number or my frequent flyer number. When we arrived at the airport in Genoa, Air France checked us in for both the flight to Paris and the connection from Paris to London. The boarding card for the connection already showed the gate so after we changed terminal buildings (rushing because of our bad experience on the outbound leg) we ran straight to the gate at the far extremity of the building only to find that the flight there was not the one shown on our boarding card, to London, but instead to Moscow! Consequently, we had to run back to find the correct gate, which turned out to be at the furthest extremity of the terminal building in the opposite direction, probably the best part of a kilometer away. When we eventually boarded the flight (fortunately before the departure time) we were out of breath, dripping with sweat and again cursing Air France. To add insult to injury, the plane’s doors closed 10 minutes after the advertised departure time so the credibility of all the excuses we were given for closing the flight prematurely on the outbound leg was immediately destroyed.
Last year, I booked a return flight from LHR (Heathrow) to LAX (Los Angeles) in business class and then a few weeks later received a call from Air France cancelling the flight and re-routing me on a much longer journey via Paris. That was bad and the argument I had to have to get my money back so I could book a direct flight with another carrier was very unseemly.
When easyJet started, Stelios was conspicuous by his presence on his flights asking customers about their experience. I wonder when Air France’s top executive management last worked alongside their crew and in front of their customers. It would be a good question to put at the next shareholders meeting.
Air France has just reported an operating loss of €496 (US$694) million. There is no doubt that a large part of this is due to the economic crisis and the general riskiness of running an airline but the “doublespeak” used in the press release relating to usage of derivatives and fuel hedging suggests that senior management has been more preoccupied with financial speculation* than with managing a business that is all about efficient operations and good customer service.
*To quote, there was a loss of “97 million euros relating to derivative instruments not classified as hedges” and the “negative impact of the fair valuation of hedging instruments [was] down from 1.5 billion euros to 0.73 billion euros”. The first quote reveals a loss specifically due to speculation. The second quote is “doublespeak” because the point of a hedge is an insurance against unfavorable movements in currency or commodities such as oil and the cost of hedging should be factored into one’s business model. Therefore, if the value of the hedging instruments has fallen, that should also mean that the unfavorable price movements one was hedging against have also not happened – yet there was no acknowledgement of this. It all smacks of another un-credible excuse from Air France, trying to suggest that something that has gone wrong was out of its control when in fact it was entirely to blame.
The fact that you are reading this article indicates that Air France is all too willing to take the risk of bad publicity, the cost of that on future bookings and diminution of its reputation. Shareholders beware.
David Tarsh provides high-level strategy and communications advice to several companies in the travel industry. He may be reached via the email address: David@Tarsh.com
Comments
You are absolutely right, David. Air France is a terrible airline to fly. They are almost always delayed. I've never been on a flight leaving CDG that has not been delayed; NEVER! And you are correct about the staff. They are not helpful at all. They are not approachable and rude. I am another person who will not be flying Air France ever again.
The thing is that people need to be informed before making comments on things.
If they prove themselves to be informed on what they are talking about, then we can respect their opinions.
If they do not prove themselves to be informed, we can say "Your opinion is wrong because of X, Y, and Z" - They should accept and be at peace with the fact that their rants are incorrect and that they should rethink the subject.
This applies to many of the posts in this forum.
Anyone who makes flight reservations with a 45-minute connection is playing "rushin' roulette" :-)
Any experienced traveler should know that this short a connection time is extremely tight. With any sort of delay, regardless of who is at fault, you won't make it.
Although I don't have a lot of sympathy for what airlines are doing these days, I have less sympathy for complaining travelers who should know better.
Probably every frequent traveller has stories to tell about delays, missed connections, and this indeed happens daily with all airline. The question is whether this is more likely to happen with certain airlines / hubs than others.
I had similar disappointing experiences with Air France (AF). In my experience, this happens more often with AF than with other major airlines.
On a FRA-CDG-GENOA flight. Outbound, we had >2 hours transfer time in CDG (and managed successfully to be in time at Terminal 2G), but our luggage did not make it to Genoa until the next day. Return flight: We had 45 minutes in CDG (to get from 2G to 2D or E), which did not suffice. Waiting time at 2G for the shuttle bus between the terminals was 15 minutes. Since it was the last connection to FRA, we had to spend the night at CDG. Only after lengthy negotiations, AF staff agreed to offer us a free night at an IBIS hotel (the hotel was another horrible experience I will not detail here).
A similar incident happended to me during a JFK-CDG-Florence flight a couple of years ago, with the luggage being two days late.
While these individual experiences might not be representative for the overall average service level of Air France or CDG for transfer passenger, I find it notable that on the few occasions I fly with AF, always, something goes wrong. I am a frequent traveller on both Lufthansa (LH) and British Airways (BA) (in sum ~40-50 return flights per annum), and I have never experienced so many issues on connecting flights with them. In my experience LH and BA offer higher service levels/reliability at their respective hubs than AF at CDG.
In FRA, LH staff for examples personally picks up delayed transfer passengers upon arrival to escort them to their connecting flights.
I would like to also point out that Air France has always generously compensated all my claims for reimbursement of necessary cosmetics, clothes, etc, which I had to buy whenever my luggage did not arrive.
In summary, my recommendation is as follows:
1) AF should allow for at least 60 minutes transfer time for flights where transfer between Terminal 2G and other Terminals is required.
2) CDG, the airport operator should increase the frequency of shuttle services between Terminal 2G and other terminals.
3) Needless to say that whenever such a situation arises, passengers should stay cool and work constructively with airline staff to find a solution (rebooking, rerouting,...) and not put on airs + annoy everone else around.
4) If you have weak nerves or cannot deal with such situation flexibly, book a direct flight or alternatively ensure that you have more than sufficient time for transfer >2 hrs.
Isn't the underlying problem with Mr. Tarsh's connection at CDG the deception that 2E and 2G are the same terminal? If they were, and a walk connection (without passing through immigration etc.) had been possible, a 40 minute connection would have been do-able. As it would have been in CDG Terminal 1. The fault is that of Aeroports de Paris, who should make clear that the different buildings labelled ''Terminal 2'' are in fact separate terminals
Hi David,
Im not a travel agent but I would like to reply to your article because your experience with Air France is an excellent learning experience for future travellers.
First, its important to keep in mind that as the farepaying customer you and only you are responsible for any of the decisions you make. For intance, booking flights with only a 45 minute layover between connecting flights should have been a red flag to any experienced traveller such as yourself. Certainly the phone operator should have warned you about the tight time, but can you blame him for not stopping you if he needed to make the sale and you didnt care about the connecting time?
Second, regarding the terminals at CDG, I too was unsure if they were separate buildings or not. Fortunately, rather than assuming they were (since I had never been to CDG), I made sure to ask the flight attendant when I checked in. Again, she could have told me upfront, but it was my responsibility to clear any doubts and assumptions.
Thirdly, missing the connection does suck and Ive experienced it personally, and had to catch a later flight. Like you the plane hadnt left and I could have got on the plane if they had let me. Missing connections is no ones fault but this is where all airlines draw the line. We must all accept that no airline is going to open the door to a closed plane even if we kick and scream.
However I certainly commend you for getting the attention of the right people and even getting them to buy a sandwich. But remember, a) everything is the responsibility of the farepaying customer and b) it could be worse (have you tried flying Air Canada??)
Dear All
Many of you who are professional travel agents have written back to me to say: David, you should have booked with a travel agent and we’d have known better than to let you risk such a tight connection on Charles de Gaulle. However, if I had and if I had complained to you about the missed flight; I doubt you would enjoy the negative interaction and the wasted time that would inevitably follow.
To those of you reading this who are travel agents, please appreciate that Air France don’t leave you in a very good position on this issue either. Here’s why:
If you had made such a booking and not selected the tight connection (which is actually very appealing from the overall journey time perspective), a client could very likely search on the internet and ask why you did not give him a better connection when Air France says it is possible. You are then in a difficult situation having to argue that you know more about Air France’s operations in its home airport than they do – YUK!
If instead you decide to cave in to the internet-researching client and book the tight connection having given him all sorts of warnings and he makes it (which is actually more likely than not); he may well consider you overly cautious and may not trust your advice in future. Also, if you book the tighter connection and he then misses it; you don’t much want to say “told you so”, as that won’t make him happy either.
If, on the other hand, he takes your advice, waits for hours in Paris and spots that he could have got on the earlier connection; he also may not thank you for apparently wasting his time unnecessarily.
Overall, it seems to me that from your point of view as an agent, Air France’s lack of straight talking about the chances of missed connections in Paris has very serious pitfalls for you too; does it not?
Robin on August 19, 2009 - 8:48 MEZ
I was April 25th, 2009 on board of AF438 Paris - Mexico City (13:30 - 18:05). Final destination was Acapulco with Mexicana: MX 7539 (21:30 - 22:25).
The crew in Paris abandoned the plane, we were not informed for the reason, but as it was at the peak of the hysteria, caused by the new N1H1-virus, it might be easy to guess why.
After two hours, (and a free-drink), we were informed by an Air France responsible, that they have a aircraft captain now, which is absolutely willing to fly to Mexico-City.
After more or less three (3) hours, they finally had 'gathered' a crew, and we could board and take off. (Via e-Mail,April 27, 2009, with the sign FB : 001240690112 - Pro : 3849445036, Air France informed me (and I guess all other passengers together and impersonal), that they'll sent 2.000 points to the FlyBlue-Account.
The flight AF 438 arrived at Mexico City exactly at the the moment, when the boarding for MX 7539 officially was closed. As there where absolutely no prophylaxis at the airport concerning N1H1 and only precious few passangers, I ran from immigration to the gate of MX 7539. At the cost of a terrible cropper (which affected me for weeks), I made it, to get the Mexicana plane.
I will definitely will never forget that flight - and will never accept or book again air connections with non-allied companys.
Hi David,
You are absolutely right. I also had had a bitter experience with Air France in November 2007.
I took a flight AF 1275 from Oslo to CDG and then AF 148 to New Delhi on November 21, 2007 (Delhi arrival was on Nov 22). Flight on the first leg from Oslo to Paris was delayed by about one and half hours because of heavy morning fog.
I arrived just on time to board AF 148 flight to Delhi at CDG. I asked the AF officials all my luggages are in and they replied yes.
When I landed in Delhi airport, one of my big suitcases was missing. I waited for more than two hours after midnight in luggage counter, hoping that my bag would appear. In between I queried with the AF ground officials and they kept saying some more luggages are on the way. I waited patiently. But after more than two hours, an AF official (a Sikh man) came looking for me and said that my luggage was left in Paris. I asked home come the AF officials at Paris airport told me that all my luggage are in. He said they didn’t know.
The Sikh man asked me to fill up a form and wait until next flight. But I had a morning connecting flight to Kathmandu with another airline (because Air France doesn’t have a flight to Kathmandu). He said it’s okay and my luggage would be sent to Kathmandu in Jet Airways flight. I trusted what he told me and headed for departure lounge at around 4am to wait my next flight for Kathmandu at 10am.
I started inquiring through Jet Airways office in Kathmandu from November 24 and then lodged a complaint through Air France-KLM Agent in Kathmandu. After a few days, I was told that my luggage was still in Paris and few days an email came from Delhi Office of Air France saying that the luggage I’m looking for couldn’t be tracked. It went missing in between CDG and Delhi Airport. What an ironic and irresponsible answer?
I wrote to CDG Airport and AF head office in Paris. I even wrote to AF CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta. I kept calling Delhi Office (in fact AF Office in Delhi is in Gurgaon) and the customers service centre kept passing phone calls to other units, which were most of the time engaged. I inquired through my friends in Delhi and France. But all attempts were in vain.
My fiancé (now wife) even went to Air France Office in October last year, hoping that any lead to my missing bag could be found. But the officials at AF Headquarters told my fiancé not to wait for missing luggage instead of offering some sorts of compensation or comfort.
I’m really shocked that AF has neither offered any compensation nor any apology for my missing bag. But I’m still hopeful that Air France would give me a satisfactory reply in my case. The baggage consisted of many valuable things including some certificates, a laptop, many gift items from Italy, Norway and Sweden, clothes and so on.
Otherwise, I have been thinking to launch a campaign-- ‘Say No to Air France’. I’m sure the issues you have raised here are very genuine and thousands of Air France-KLM passengers face every other day. Let’s speak about such nasty behavior towards passengers loudly, openly and widely.
Indra
While I agree that Mr David Tarsh’s report was very personal, but what’s wrong with it? He shared an experience that many travelers have gone through before but often chose not to highlight it for various reasons. Could it be for the lack of serious complaints and highlights in the media that national airlines such as Air France and KLM have thrived for years despite their reputation for bad service?
Thankfully the emergence of low cost carriers over the past few years is offering a very viable alternative to travel than having to rely on these over-priced, overprotected and undeserving national airlines. It’s about time they are literally jolted off the skies. For years they have monopolized the industry with high prices just because travelers have no other choices of flying. While some low cost carriers have irritating policies, at least we’re getting what we paid for.
I’ve had awful experiences with KLM, with both their ground staff and cabin crew before. Their attitude was “we seriously couldn’t care less about our customers”. Cabin crews are cold, unfriendly and unwilling to go an extra mile to assist their passengers.
On one flight from Amsterdam, a steward had agreed to help load my bag as I was traveling with a shoulder injury. After waiting for a while, I asked a stewardess if she could please get the steward over to help store my luggage. Literally, she put her hands on her hips, glared, and shouted, “Why can’t you do it yourself?” Written complaints have not been acknowledged at all. Little wonder I will never fly with KLM again even if I have to transit several times!
And as for why Mr Tarsh did not book his flight through a travel agent, well, why should we? In today’s times where information is freely available, we should decide what we want to do instead of having to rely on agents. This is after all, the beauty of traveling today – having the freedom to decide. Air France’s lack of attention to details, such as having clear warnings on tight transit times, indicates that passengers are last on their priorities!
David,
You have just promoted our industry - that of the travel agent. I have to agree with many comments made here that had you gone to a Travel Agent, and paid the fee imposed by the Travel Agent for good service you would no doubt have experienced this misfortune. To quote another proverb, you chose the route of "penny wise - pound foolish".
You do not see any travel agent trying to fight a court matter by way of the internet? The correct route is taken - via a law firm. So the travel industry. Do the right thing.
Dear Rui,
You of all people being involved in the Tourism Industry should know better than try get your Angolan (Africa) friend to transit Paris (EU) without a Visa. I am sure he did not go to Russia without a visa, just as I am sure no one from Portugal goes to Mozambique withiut a visa. The airline cannot be held responsible for the work that is normally carried out by Travel Agents OR Visa Agencies. The airline has a job to transport passengers, who are correctly documented OR not allow them to board OR the carrier can and does get fined by the end destination country. Each one does his own job.
José
I travelled once with Air France. No-one travels twice, surely?
Point of info PC REICH - Important to know that mosquitoes (Anophelese) do spread malaria but do not cause AIDS. Wikipedia should be helpful on both subjects. Thanks.
My experiences with Air France have been repeatedly bad. I try to avoid them whenever possible.
This year I had to fly Air France from Mumbai to CDG. There were mosquitoes flying in the cabin for the entire trip. Mosquitoes carry malaria and AIDS. The crew sprayed once during the entire flight.
On the return to Mumbai from CDG, I was harassed by a supposed supervisor for Air France at CDG, who extorted over US $600 from me to send the same luggage I had taken on other legs of my travel to Mumbai. I was told that if I did not pay, I would miss the flight, though I was at CDG early for the flight. I was assured that my luggage would be on the flight. I gave my credit card under protest and so far have not been reimbursed by Air France.
When I got to Mumbai, I was told that my luggage had not arrived. Since I had less than 24 hours in Mumbai and would then be spending 2 days in Singapore, I asked that my luggage be delivered to my home address. It took weeks for that to happen. I have not been reimbursed for my expenses when I had no luggage in Singapore. I was on a business trip.
I have had other bad experiences with Air France, and in fact had to cancel a business trip to France last year. I spent two days at the airport in Tokyo while they tried to gouge me for extra money in every possible way - for changing my flight (I missed the flight - airport is over 2 hours from my home and I had transportation problem), for excess luggage (they "weighed" my luggage without a scale).
I incurred hotel and other expenses at the airport while trying to get to my meeting without being gouged. I finally went home and cancelled my trip.
If they are in such bad shape, let them declare bankruptcy, but not gouge and exploit customers.
These are two of the more recent experiences. I took 3 members of my family to Europe about 5 years ago and they spilled coffee on my elderly relative without even an apology.
There is more, but all I can say is that I will avoid Air France and KLM as much as possible. I travel often for business and they do not care about customers. I have other options and will exercise them when traveling from Asia to Europe.
Dear All
Thanks very much for all your messages.
I fully accept that 45 mins is tight and tight connections are risky and a travel agent would strongly advise against booking this and but that's not the real point.
The real point is that Air France could have said the connection timing was risky but it didn't.
It could have said the connection involved a change of terminal buildings but it didn't.
Its system could be programmed not to sell overly tight connections or to print warnings when the connections are dangerously close but it doesn't.
Despite the time being tight, we were not actually late for it; AF closed the flight before its own published deadline, with us in the departure lounge and checked in. In that situation, it knows full well it will upset us but it didn't seem to care. AF could have been much more sympathetic and could have proactively volunteered to look after us but it didn't.
These things don't require anything more than thoughtfulness - an essential quality in any service business. Thoughtfulness doesn't cost anything but it makes all the difference to one's reputation and ultimately one's profitability.
When senior management focuses its attention on playing with financial derivatives (as is apparent in its financial results press release) rather than being thoughtful about its customers' experience, it truly deserves to make a loss.
What do I want to achieve with this article?
Look at all the comments above and hardly anyone defends Air France.
I would like to see Air France focus on customers; improve its communications and manage expectations honestly.
Good communications means telling the truth so customers are properly informed and then complaints will be minimised. Bad communications hide the truth and the business has to spend disproportionately on fixing the problems caused.
I am an advocate for the travel industry and I am very concerned to see poor service and the general loss of glamour. Those are things that will put customers off and will damage all our businesses.
With this article, I want Air France's top management to realise that if they put their attention into customer service and good communication (rather than playing with financial derivatives) they will not only do the whole industry a huge service; they will also be more profitable.
I would even be willing to help them if they have the courage to call.
I think the points about AF customer service at CDG are valid and concur with my own experiences, precisely why I avoid travelling with what is otherwise an excellent airline. In the air their service is amongst the best, on the ground, only Iberia is worse.
CDG must be the worst by far of all the European hubs, bettered in every way by AMS, ZRH, VIE, even BRU or more arguably MAD.
As long as AF continue to timetable unrealistic Mininum Connecting Times through CDG, which they do in order to achieve better rankings in the GDS displays, they will lose customers.
The comments about the website are also valid, like a lot of French websites they try too hard to give it fancy bells and whistles and they can't get the basics to work.
I am sure not to fly Air France in the future....
My own personal experiences with AF have not been much better. What can you say about an airline where the crew hides form passengers most of the flight? Their hub, Charles de Gaulle, is not much better -- after a midnight arrival I found nobody was available to retrieve oversize luggage from the aircraft (no sh*t). There was simply a desk with three people shrugging at you like you were a fool.
Albeit Mr. Tarsh's experience was harrowing and annoying it is also the total misfortune and disregard for travelers today and the lack of customer service by many. I frequently travel on a multitude of international carriers and particularly on Air France about 6 times a year and have to say Air France compared to BA, AA, Continental and sometimes Delta happens to be regularly wonderful. But as with any company there are always a few bad seeds that destroy it for everyone...sadly that is what Mr. Tarsh encountered at Roissy CDG. I was happy to read that AF responded and at least tried to do at least something for his time
David, David, David;
You provide "high-level strategy & communications advice to several companies in the travel industry and wrote an article such as this ?
Though the "system" got you and your young children, the last time I checked AIR FRANCE did not own CDG / Charles De Gualle Airport.
CDG at the best is very complicated to navigate, and though you booked directly with AF via phone (because you deemed their website a challenge) you should have used a travel agent professional who would have noticed the "terminal change" and the close connection times. We are faced with these issues in multiple airports around the world and navigating airports with Groups or in company of the Elderly or children takes more time. An observant travel agent would have suggested a looser connection.
All Air-Road Warriors and Leisure travelers alike have horror stories (which most humans seem bent on repeating like some type of badge of honor), yet fail to remember the good service.
I just think that your article is not fair to AF (No I don't own stock or have any agenda with AF).
Furthermore, this just lowers the credibility of ETN by printing such stuff. You could have done the article from a much more "Strategic Industry point of view" as a professional versus the normal ranting and raving we hear many times from the demanding intolerant traveling public.
In the end (you don't mention it) I trust that your wife's birthday and her second best date (Your mutual Anniversary) went well and was memorable!
For better journalism
Wayne Lawhorn
Airlines are smug in their firm belief that without passengers, they wouldn't have any problems.
It is not only Air France, I had exactly the same experience with Lufthansa in Munich, coming from Italy, and traveling to Brussels. As Munich is a rather small airport I could see, from the counter where I had my argument with the staff, the passengers queing on the staircase at the airplane.
My plane landed at 50 mtrs from my connectionplane to Brussels, but as I was not allowed to cross the tarmac, I had to take the airportbus to the main building and check in again.
Charles de Gaulle is awful, but so is Heathrow, which after some bad experiences I call Theafthrow.
for someone who is supposed to be an experienced consultant in the travel industry, Mr Tarsh's comments are poorly written and surprisingly amateurish. His criticism of AF is weak.
While reading your article, I could not help but wonder why you do not use a travel agent? A travel agent could have pointed out the change of terminals prior to booking the flight, as it was such a close connection. As the saying goes, "Without a travel agent, you're on your own." Maybe use an agent next time?
I had a very similar experience with Air France. e were booked by our cruise line on Air France from Rome to LAX via the mess in terminal 2 with a 40 minute connection time. I called and asked for a better reservation since I've read thatyou need at least 75 Minutes to make a flight when there is a terminal change. I was assured it was the minimum legal connection time and I would not have to go through security, which turned out to be incorrect and of course we missed the flight.
We were also given a voucher for a sandwich and a drink. all the drinks on display were 500 ml. When I took one to the cashier with the voucher, it was switched with a 330ml drink that the cashier pulled out from behind the counter. How slimey is that??
to add insult to injury, the air miles were never credited to my Delta Sky Miles account even though my Sky Miles account number was written on the boarding pass! I wrote to AiR France and the reply was to blame Delta for my dissatisfaction. Now AF has taken over part of Alitalia. Alitalia just posted a profit. I think there is some financial wizardrey going on here.
From: "Jacqueline Pradel"
To:
Subject: Article on Air France
Date: Friday, August 14, 2009 8:42 AM
Hi David,
Kudos! I wish you could have this article in every newspaper's front page. I am a travel agent in Miami, Florida for the last 19 years and I can tell you I try very hard not to sell Air France though I am French. I agree with you 100% and it is not just Air France, and unfortunately there is a large portion of people who don't say a word, don't bother to complain and that is why the mistreatment continues.
Here in Miami at the hub of American Airlines, we have even worse problems and they will not accept any blame. I have written several letters to AA Customer Service; not only when I had problems but on behalf of my clients, they always find an excuse. Unfortunately, some of these big companies could not care less about the public, because once you book a flight you become part of a captive audience and supposedly because of rules, they do whatever they want. They have no idea of what quality control means anymore and have no work ethics whatsoever or pleasing their customer who gives them the business. It is very sad but the industry itself has gone down the drain, here in the U.S. it is even worse and no one take a stand for the passengers. I try to book my clients with Lufthansa which so far in my opinion is much better airline than any other going to Europe from Miami, where our choices is quite limited.
Thanks again, I am so happy to read this maybe you should forward the article to as many travel magazine you can find. Best regards,
Jacqueline Pradel
Atlantis Travel Services, Inc.
Changing planes in Paris at CDG is always a mess with lots of delays and missed flights.
You just don't do that!
If you have to change in Europe use Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Zurich. Many people have experienced the same problem at CDG. It's one of the worst airports for changing planes in Europe.
much ado about nothing here i fear. no one will ever make a 45 min connection in any major airport. you ought to know this from your flight itinerary and prior experience in any big airport eg LHR. i always allow 90 minutes to connect between flights. and next time fly direct and dont risk a missed connection. fly ryanair! cheers
WHY DID YOU BOOK DIRECT INSTEAD WITH A TRAVEL AGENT WE NOW THAT AIR FRANCE CONNECTION ARE TOO SHORT AND WOULD HAVE PLAN ANOTHER TIME FRAME,
THIS IS WHY WE ARE THERE TO THINK BUT NOT A COMPUTER AND NOT BY OHONE AIR FRANCE BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO GO BY THE RULE OF FIRT FLIGHT
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