Air France sucks

If you want to test an airline for customer friendliness, level of service, and flexibility, there is nothing better than to throw some kids at them. If you want to test them for basic humane treatment, try throwing a sick kid at them. The ultimate test is to throw a sick kid plus a sick mother, hard.

Czech Airlines is wonderful. They will take your child from you, they will cluster around you and the kid and a flight attendant will find an empty row and prepare a little bed for your child. When the kid finally sleeps and you sink back into your seat, the same flight attendant will come along and ask, "And now, what can I do for you, Ma'am? Do you want to eat now? Or would you like some coffee?"

Lufthansa, not exactly known for Germanic exuberance, will actually provide a wheel chair to get onboard, will place you carefully in your seat, and ask you multiple times if there is anything, anything they could do for you, are you quite sure?

United will give you extra crackers, and steal milk from First Class, and cast worried looks into your direction, until they find a seat with an empty one next to you, so that you and your below-2-year-old are comfortable.

Tarom will take the kid and you won't get it back from the gushing flight attendants until you land at your destination. They will unfold the stroller and help you with the kid, and are you really all right now?

Air France will take your stroller from you and insist on checking it in with the luggage. No, you cannot get the stroller at your layover in Paris. Absolutely not. You cannot walk with the sick child on your arm? Well, maybe we can get a wheel chair for you. We will see but do get on board and not on our nerves now. You want a meal for your child? But your child does not have a seat, pardon, we can't give you food for your baby, and no, we have no milk. And sorry about that pesticide we spray you with before take-off but that is actually in accordance with international regulations, and completely harmless to you, we are sure. Oh, the wheel chair person didn't show up in Paris? Quel malheur. Oh, this means you have to carry your sick child and your sick self from one terminal to the other, by foot, a twenty-minute walk? You have to stand in line for half an hour at the immigration, with two of eight counters open, and your kid struggling in your arms – and you can't put the kid down because he will run away, and remember, you don't have your stroller? That is too bad. Then you get to the check-in and you actually think of checking whether your luggage and the stroller have made in onboard because you remember past experience, and they say yes, madame, all is okay, all is accounted for. You sigh a breath of relief until you get to Frankfurt and the stroller is not there. You bring yourself and your child to the hospital, and hope for the best, only to hear that the Air France person rang the door bell at your parents at 11:30 at night to deliver the stroller. When nobody opened, they rang out the neighbors and dropped the stroller off there. Imagine your surprise when you find out that the stroller is – completely and irreparably trashed. (Which is, incidentally, the fourth stroller they managed to destroy in as many flights.) When you call the number they attached to the stroller, you get a list of things they want you to do, including an estimate of the stroller damage (when the wheel rim is ripped off the base and all sorts of spiky metal things threaten to slash everything in vicinity, I don't actually think you need a damage report). And when you say, this is the fourth time we get a stroller trashed, and I just had a miscarriage and don't feel up to finding a repair shop, they get all snippy at you. And when you say, "I don't feel treated very well by Air France" the answer is "We treat all passengers like that", really, what is there to say?

Nothing, really.

Or maybe this: Don't ever fly with Air France when you fly with kids, or even if you don't have kids with you. Just don't. The food is lousy, the service is arrogant and condescending, the baggage handling resembles torture techniques, and every single employee treats you like a pest. They suck worse than tsetse flies. And Charles de Gaulle, needless to say, is the worst airport in the world.

I am going to write several letters of complaint to Air France, and I'm going to assemble a web page filled with horror stories about Air France, because I feel it's necessary to warn parents about this incredibly horrible airline. If you have any similar experiences, please write to me. I will include all valid (i.e. real) stories. Yes, I'm pissed. Yes, I'm bitter. I have a right to it.

Comments

[Ange]

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems with Air France - I have never flown with them, so can't add anything on that front - but I can add to the list of 'kid-friendly' airlines.

KLM is amazing as well. I flew from Amsterdam to Montreal with them when my son was 5 monthes old - while I was sick beyond belief with a fever of 103F. The flight attendants cleared a row for me to lie down in, and took my child, only returning him to me when it was time to land. They entertained him, fed him, and kept him quiet and happy the entire flight. They let me sleep and brought me whatever I needed to make myself comfortable.

It was by far the best experience I've ever had on a flight.

[la femme]

Air France just for July got an enthusiastic write-up in Cookie for being one of the most excellently accommodating airlines to fly with children. Maybe that is a good place to start the waging of this campaign, with a letter to fancypants Cookie.

[Doug (not Muir)]

The line's not original to me, but it's clear that Air France has decided its strategic problem is that it has too many customers, and we can do our level best to help them solve that problem.

[Angelo]

I am not surprised one bit to hear about your problem. It is typical of Air France. We had out share of problems with Air France. Being the frequent flyers we are and given the number of issues we had with Air France, I would personally qualify Air France as the worst in business. From lost luggage, to being un accomodating with seating to rude employees to a very negative and not so helpful flight crew, you name it, we have seen it. They are our last choice and we do not advise anyone to use them. We had a seating problem with a jerk on the plane and reported it but they never even bothered to acknowledge receipt of our complaint. To return the favor, we are making sure that we share our stories with this horrible airline with everyone we know to discourage them from using Air France if at all possible.

[Angelo]

I am not surprised one bit to hear about your problem. It is typical of Air France. We had out share of problems with Air France. Being the frequent flyers we are and given the number of issues we had with Air France, I would personally qualify Air France as the worst in business. From lost luggage, to being un accomodating with seating to rude employees to a very negative and not so helpful flight crew, you name it, we have seen it. They are our last choice and we do not advise anyone to use them. We had a seating problem with a jerk on the plane and reported it but they never even bothered to acknowledge receipt of our complaint. To return the favor, we are making sure that we share our stories with this horrible airline with everyone we know to discourage them from using Air France if at all possible.

[Angelo]

I am not surprised one bit to hear about your problem. It is typical of Air France. We had out share of problems with Air France. Being the frequent flyers we are and given the number of issues we had with Air France, I would personally qualify Air France as the worst in business. From lost luggage, to being un accomodating with seating to rude employees to a very negative and not so helpful flight crew, you name it, we have seen it. They are our last choice and we do not advise anyone to use them. We had a seating problem with a jerk on the plane and reported it but they never even bothered to acknowledge receipt of our complaint. To return the favor, we are making sure that we share our stories with this horrible airline with everyone we know to discourage them from using Air France if at all possible.

[Angelo]

I am not surprised one bit to hear about your problem. It is typical of Air France. We had out share of problems with Air France. Being the frequent flyers we are and given the number of issues we had with Air France, I would personally qualify Air France as the worst in business. From lost luggage, to being un accomodating with seating to rude employees to a very negative and not so helpful flight crew, you name it, we have seen it. They are our last choice and we do not advise anyone to use them. We had a seating problem with a jerk on the plane and reported it but they never even bothered to acknowledge receipt of our complaint. To return the favor, we are making sure that we share our stories with this horrible airline with everyone we know to discourage them from using Air France if at all possible.

[Angelo]

I am not surprised one bit to hear about your problem. It is typical of Air France. We had out share of problems with Air France. Being the frequent flyers we are and given the number of issues we had with Air France, I would personally qualify Air France as the worst in business. From lost luggage, to being un accomodating with seating to rude employees to a very negative and not so helpful flight crew, you name it, we have seen it. They are our last choice and we do not advise anyone to use them. We had a seating problem with a jerk on the plane and reported it but they never even bothered to acknowledge receipt of our complaint. To return the favor, we are making sure that we share our stories with this horrible airline with everyone we know to discourage them from using Air France if at all possible.

[Derrick]

I hate Air France. I got to the airport 10 hours early in Paris to get back to America.. I am 6'6".. I requested an exit row seat, or at the least, an aisle seat, because being stuck in the middle is pure torture for me.
Because I was there so ridiculously early, I assumed this would not be a problem.. and I was assured it wasn't! The attendant graciously told me she gave me the best seat available.
Well - upon boarding the plane I saw she was playing a cruel joke. I had the middle seat in the last row.. a seat that didn't even recline. I couldn't even fit in the damn seat. It was ludicrous.
The flight attendants laughed at me and told me I should have requested an aisle seat on checkin. I told them I did.
The GRACIOUS woman next to me traded seats me with.. so I had an aisle seat for 1/2 the flight.. but I still couldn't recline and half my body stuck out into the aisle. The attendants kept yelling at me not to block the aisle. One of them even physically grabbed me and shoved me out of the aisle.
It was torture. I will never fly Air France again.

[Joe]

AIR FRANCE SUCKS...One of there flights was canceled becuase the plane broke down and they did not want to put me on an earlier flight that had availabilty without me paying an additional 500 swiss francs. I orginally paid about 600 swiss francs which was expensive as is to fly from Zurich to Brest, FR. It wouldn't have cost them a dollar more to put me on that flight but instead they would rather leave me in Zurich and miss my cousins wedding. They are REALLY unbelievable. This would not have happened with a different compnay or for that matter in the U.S. I will never fly air france again. I hope the company falls and files for bankruptcy. They opimally SUCK

[Sato]

The sheer smugness of people taking their screaming toddlers through international airspace, and expecting the world to be at their feet, is just breathtaking. To everyone else, you are an impossible nuisance. If you insist on flying instead of driving or getting a cabin on a bloody boat, you should all be put on special charter flights, where no one is force-fed your kids' tantrums and screams and vomit. The gleeful francophobia oozing from this post simply beggars belief. I LIKE Air France, and I'm glad they have their priorities right: no, they don't pander to shrieking demons and their neurotic parents. And yes, they offer you champagne in economy.

[claudia]

Ah. You are one of those.

Andre, my kids don't scream. They are extraordinarily well behaved children on board, and we do everything to keep them busy and our co-travelers happy. Every single time we fly, we have our seat neighbors comment on that.

It's a simple economic fact: You offer a service to someone, and then you treat them badly. They won't return.

How about this: If you have a problem with shrieking demons, either find an exorcist, a psychologist specializing in pedophobia, or simply don't fly anymore. We'd all be happier.

Because this is just it: You are not the customer they want. We are. We fly a lot, and we buy a lot more tickets. It's as simple as that.

[Amit]

I was flying back from my home in India from Delhi to Boston via Paris. At check-in, I got my boarding passes for Delhi-paris and paris-Boston flights but my luggage was checked in to Houston instead of Boston. I didn't notice it at that time since such a mistake is very unpredictable. I have no idea how the same person checked-in me for Boston but my baggage to Houston.

I noticed the mistake when I went and sat inside the airplane before take-off. I reported it to an airplane crew member. He then reported the matter to an Indian Air France staff member who was inside the airplane. He took the baggage receipt from me and said that he will take necessary steps. I asked him for the baggage receipt as it is needed to claim the baggage but he kept it with himself and said he will send a message to the aircraft in an hour or so and the cabin crew will assist you how to claim your baggage. He did send a message during the course of the flight. An airplane crew member came to me and told me that we got a message for you saying your baggage will reach Boston, so you don't need to worry. I asked them how will I claim my baggage since my receipt was taken by that Air France official. He told me to contact the Air France desk once the plane reaches Paris and they will assist me in claiming my baggage. I even asked him for a copy of the message that was sent to the aircraft regarding my baggage but he said that we cannot give it to anybody, it is for them to keep. When the flight reached Paris, I immediately contacted Air France desk, but the lady there told me that my baggage wasn't there in Delhi-Paris flight and that I checked in at Delhi without any baggage. She said its not possible to trace the baggage since my receipt was taken by that Indian Air France official. But she said that since the message was sent to the aircraft saying you will get your baggage at Boston, it will most probably reach Boston with you in your connecting flight.

At Boston I waited for my baggage, but as expected it didn't arrive. I filed a baggage claim but there isn't any success till now.

Besides this, the aircrew of Delhi-Paris flight was pathetic. I always prefer aisle seat and book it 24 hours before with telephone or online check-in. I was on an aisle seat when an air hostess came to me and requested me to shift to a center seat. I wasn't told what problem the man is having there, but I agreed and shifted to his seat, just to find out the great problem he was facing. Light, music, TV; nothing was working there. I complained to the air hostess, she said that she'll restart my seat, but nothing happened. So from now on, I'm not going to do even the slightest of sacrifice for any other passenger's comfort. And that was my first and last trip on Air France.

[DK]

I'm late coming in on this one but I need to second Joe's opinion. I'm no great friend of Air France myself (and I'm a platinum Flying Blue member btw), but I'm even less of a fan of co-passengers on any airline who feel the rest of us owe them some kind of special treatment - whether that be tolerating the screaming of their spawn, or understanding that they just "deserve" more attention because they are a: travelling with children b: travelling sick or c: travelling sick with children. I travel a lot. I buy a lot of tickets on any number of airlines. And I am tired, tired, tired of being subjected to the noise, filth and all-round general annoyance of being forced to travel with other people's children. You want special service? Demand "children's class" - segregate yourselves from the rest of the public and go play nanny with the flight attendants. Leave the rest of us in peace.

[Rich P]

I guess Im not alone I had the mispleasure of flying AF on 091307. After the 5 hour delay where we sat at the gate at Detroit with no water for the first two hours smelling the food that was served in First Class while we starved for info, food and (water for the first two hours.) Most calls to flight attendants required 3 pushes of the button to get an answer. We were not allowed to deplane and enjoy Detroits nice airport and eat at the airports restaurants ( which aren't half bad) After the 7PM flight which we boarded at 6PM took off at 1115pm we obviously were 4 hours late for our connecting flight. WE were then placed on a an Alitalia flight arriving in Rome without our luggage. WE were told by the Alitalia agent that they would take it to our hotel. When we arrived at our hotel Alitalia called and said that they cannot bring us our luggage they did not want to incur an expense for AIr France's problem. We could go to the airport and pick it up but it would have been 150 euro round trip cab ride. We waited until we rented our car 091607, and toughed it out with no luggage and few carryon clothes. As if that was not enough, they did not send Delta my frequent flier miles, that required 1 hour of pleading with a Delta agent who did get the job done . Never again Air France You are the worst airline Ive ever dealt with.

[mark adam]

Air France's employee rudeness is institutionalized. I had confirmed reservations on a trip with multiple legs. Air France suddenly moved one of those legs forward by 1 day, without adjusting the other legs, so I would show up at the connecting airport one day late.

I caught the error immediately - then had to spend 8 hours on the phone, either on hold (45 minutes average time to get through to their so-called Customer Service) or talking to incredibly rude, arrogant and downright hostile incompetents. Eventually got through to a somewhat polite supervisor, who directed me to go to a local airport Air France counter to get new tickets issued. When I got there - guess what?

1. They made me and my wife wait OUTSIDE their office (during posted office hours) because the supervisor was "training" an employee (in rudeness, no doubt).
2. Asked us to return in 10 minutes after she heard why we were there (standing outside, of course).
3. When we came back, the supervisor just hastily left.
4. The now-trained rude and hostile employee demonstrated here training on us, with a dazzling display of racist arrogance and hostility that would have left Inspecteur Clouseau speechless in addmiration.

This airline needs to fire its Customer Service Vice-President. The natural rudeness of the French is doing fine at showing off the quality of the airline without a highly-paid VP training them to do so.

75% of Air France staff I have had the misfortune to deal with so far, are hostile, rude, and utterly, totally clueless. This has GOT to be corporate policy, if it is not a national trait.

[Smaragda]

DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN FLY WITH AIR FRANCE!!!!

My 16-year old daughter missed her connecting flight because AF's arrival was late. Showing absolute disregard for EU-regulations, she was forced to sit at the airport for 10 hours waiting for the next AF flight to her destination, (EU-regulations stipulate that if an airline is responsible for a passenger's missing her connectig flight, that airline has to get her on the next available flight to that destination, no matter the airline and at no extra cost to the passenger). My daughter was treated with contempt by the AF staff and was not even offered a cup of coffee. A letter of complaint was sent. They only replied after 5 weeks. AF apologised (who knows what for) and blamed the travel agent for poor service. The travel agent has sent them a letter, detailing the arrangements made through their own offices and has demanded an apology. So, NOT ONLY DOES AIR FRANCE TREAT CHILDREN WITH CONTEMPT, THEY ALSO TRY TO MISLEAD THEIR OWN CLIENTS! How truly pathetic. THEY SUCK!!

[Ikela Mei]

I am sorry for how Air France abused you too. I had a similar experience with them.
I am an Assistant Professor in Tourism Marketing. I have flown Air France recently and had an experience that was against everything I teach my students in terms of customer service. I flew from Hong Kong to attend a conference in Spain; and I had connections in France in both arrival and return flights. On my return flight, from Madrid to Paris, my consumer rights were violated and I was insulted and humiliated grossly.

When I arrived in Paris (Charles de Gaul Airport), there was only an hour and 5 minutes to my Hong Kong flight. I had to transfer to another terminal for the Hong Kong flight. In a panic, I rushed to the transfer bus, where I and many other international passengers were kept waiting with no explanation. We reminded the gate keepers about our flight time so that they can hurry about bringing a bus but the answer we received was: “you just wait.” The bus arrived, passengers rushed to it but the bus waited another five minutes so that it was jam-packed before it took off. By the time we arrived at the security check point, there were only 30 minutes to my flight. There were two long lines in front of the security check point because only two lines were open with personnel attending the scanners. The security check was quite thorough and therefore slow, so some passengers including me were anxious about missing their flights. Again, we reminded the security personnel that we might miss our flights; the answer we received was: “not my problem.” After I came out of the security scan, one female personnel wanted to search me although there was no signal from the scanner. And I was trying to hurry by saying that my flight is about to leave; her response was: “not my fault.” By this time, there were 10 minutes to my flight, I rushed to the Gate, but it was the wrong gate, the gate number on my boarding pass was wrong, so I rushed to the correct one.

When I arrived to the right gate, there were five minutes to my flight. There were one male and four female (one of them Asian) gate agents. The Asian female agent approached to me, I showed her my passport and boarding pass, but she responded that it was “finished” with a sympathizing manner. I could see that the gateway to the plane was still up and connected; so, I replied: “I see the plane is still there and the gateway is up, why don’t you just let me go?” The male agent approached to me right away and said: “Madam it is not a train you know, we closed, you have to wait for the next flight, which is tonight at 11 o’clock.” That flight was 10 hours later. It did not make sense to me at all; I tried to explain to him that we had to wait for the bus and for the security check, but he did not listen, did not even look at me. The Asian agent was looking sorry; other female agents did not even hear the problem because they were counting boarding passes. Another passenger, an elderly Dutch gentleman, came in a hurry, the agent told him they were closed, by showing more empathy. Then, the male gate agent started talking with the other agents in French. I was really upset because they did not seem to care; so I said: “The plane is still waiting, why can’t we just go?” But they did not even seem to hear me. Then, he turned to us and asked us to follow him so that he can re-issue a ticket for us. On the way there, I saw another passenger (Asian) rushing to the gate; I knew he was also on that flight because he was talking to people on the security check line about missing the flight to Hong Kong. But the female gate agents must have let him in because I have not seen him again for the rest of that day or on the next flight.

When we were being taken to a re-ticketing agent, I kept expressing my disappointment. The Dutch gentleman was so shocked that he had to take a pill to calm himself down. We passed through the security check again and went to one of the re-ticketing agents; the gate agent started talking to a dark-skinned re-ticketing agent in French. The re-ticketing agent looked at me and smiled. They chatted in French for about two minutes; let alone showing understanding, they seemed to be having fun with the situation. The re-ticketing agent asked for my passport, when they saw my passport their attitude became even worse; they looked at each other, talked in French again, with a confirmed manner and the gate agent left.

Then, the re-ticketing agent told me that my situation was different from the gentleman’s situation because his flight was late but my flight was on time, and it was my fault that I missed the flight; he said it without checking anything on my flight. I could not believe what I was hearing. In fact, the Dutch gentleman was saying that he arrived an hour and half ago but still could not make it. Obviously, my being upset with the situation and expressing disappointment coupled with my national identity were good reasons for them to treat my case differently. I tried to tell him about the waiting, but he kept saying “it is you madam, most people make it, so it is your fault, Air France is not responsible for your situation because Air France is never late.” I was not arguing that Air France was late, but trying to tell him that we were kept waiting so they should show a little understanding but he did not even listen. He served the Dutch gentleman with a new ticket and a voucher for sandwich and drinks in an apologetic manner; and he gave me a new ticket with an attitude and turned his head without any further explanation.

During this process, other customers were around as well (most probably French), they heard all conversations and kept looking at me. The Dutch gentleman and I waited ten hours that day, for the next flight at night. The lack of common sense, empathy, customer care, friendliness, courtesy, namely, those qualities necessary for sensible customer service on the part of the personnel of Charles de Gaul Airport as well as the personnel of Air France cost us several hours of waiting and physical and emotional distress.

This is the most outrageous experience I have ever had. My rights were violated; I was discriminated and quite honestly abused, humiliated and insulted by the personnel of Air France. Therefore, I wrote a complain letter addressing to the CEO of Air France, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, and demanded apology from the responsible personnel as well as compensation. I faxed this letter to several offices of Air France, including its customer service office and headquarters; also e-mailed it to several related personnel. However, to this date, I did not receive any response. I am assuming that the CEO of a national flag carrier airline must have received the news from his personnel; otherwise, appropriate business, management and marketing would have been only joke terminologies for them.

I study consumer behavior. I know for a fact that consumers usually do not complain because they feel that it would not matter even if they did because they see no difference, no corrective action or apology from the wrongdoer; so the wrongdoer gets away with it most of the time. However, I also know for a fact that successful companies do take corrective action because they care about their consumer based brand equity. Turning such negative experiences into positive ones to contribute to their brand equity is in their hands. They can turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one with a positive word-of-mouth. ALL needed is CARE. But I guess Air France is not one of them; THEY JUST DON’T CARE!

I have never been insulted this badly before, so I am going to pursue this matter as long as it takes. In fact, I am turning this experience into a good case to use in all my classes as well as conferences I attend. To that end, I have created blogs to share experiences with other consumers online. Hope to hear from you too.

Sincerely,

[Wulfette Mendels]

I agree totally with you - I flew AF from Paris to Singapore with my 15 months old son in Business Class and felt that I was treated like shit! The crew quickly told me that my son was not supposed to be walking around the aisle at all even accompanied by me. I was like HELLO?? He's 15 months old!! What do you think he's gonna do during a 13 hours flight? Sleep all the way?? Good thing I speak fluent enough French to curse aloud so that they knew they are not dealing with they seemed to categorize as the 'non-french-speaking-therefore-not-important'. I HATE THEM!!

I have the same problem of not finding my stroller when I arrived in Singapore. But this was quite okay since my father met me half way in the airport.

Needless to say, on the way back to Paris, my son was sick and well, guess what? I arrived in messy Charles de Gaule - again without a stroller - with a sick son. The whole stupid airport was being redone so I had to climb up and down some stairs, and took a tram before arriving at the horrible queue of the immigration. Not one of the stewardess offered to help with my bag. My son started to scream and cry because he was sick, tired and shocked with so many people after 13 hours of flight. I ended up crying because I can't even get any officers to let me through the line.

Luckily, most french people still have a heart - they personally let me pass the queue even without the agreement of the officer. Of course, I ended up waiting for another 40 minutes in front of the belt for the stroller that they managed to finally delivered to the gates.
My poor son started to cry again and another officer offered to take me out so I can at least give him to my husband.

All that I can say is - I will never take AF ever again!!! Damn them to hell to ever made my son suffer. And remember - this is all happening to me who actually paid the price of a Business Class - dunno how they treat their Economy passagers!!!

[M.Vega]

I flew from Rome to Dubai in later September. I only experience two very annoying things about AF. The first was the gate change in Rome, Paris and Dubai, right after checking in , i arrived at the instructed gate to find out i was the only one there. I am an experience and aware traveler and always check the monitors, otherwise i would have missed every one of my flights. The most disturbing thing was the Pesticide sprayed on the Aircraft right after the doors were closed and the annoucecment that it was harmless. I do not believe that pesticides are harmless to humans. I am a healthy active person and i do not get sick very often. I have been ill ever since i returned from my trip early October. I have been on 5 different antibiotics ever since i returned from my trip and currently taking three more.....I believe that someone must find a way to make the air on Aircrafts suitable for HUMANS.....

[Jasion Hone]

Air France staff is so arrogant, we cannot excuse their insult and discrimination and arrogance when they did not help to fly us from Paris to another city although they knew the strike will take three days. We have lost all the vacation and got frustrated. They don't care about anyone.

[Roger]

Air Frace is either racist or just plane out rude to all their customers. I am a platinum member with American Airlines I fly about 100,000k miles a year. I took air france 4 years ago to fly to india. It was the biggest mistake of my life. The plane for some reason would not leave chicago ORD and there were no complications. When we asked the crew why the plane is not leaving they said they were just making sure everything was ok. Our layover in paris was only 1.5 hours. So we left 1 hour late from ORD for no reason. When we got to paris CDG. We only have 20 minutes before the flight left for new delhi. We had our bording passes from chicago as i was walking to to the plane which was only about 10 feet from me. some people from our flight manage to get on the plane but the lady stopped me from entering the plane. She said the plane is gone? I said no its not its right there and few people from our flight just got on. She refused to let about 10 of us get on the plane. We sat there in amazement as we saw our plane take off. They were super rude. I mean Air France lacks common sense and they dont know the basics of how to treat a human being. They continued to lie to us and told us we wont be able to fly out till the next day. Did not get our transit visas for 8 hours had to sit in the air port. We spoke to one of their employees and found out that they put passangers from the previous day on to the flight because a flight was canceled. They gave those peopel our seats and the flight was full. Now it all made sense why they left late from chicago on purpose. They knew all along that they would not let us get on the plane! They had already decided to give our seats to someoene else. Which means they knew they were going to do this 24 hours ahead of time. They could have called their customers 24 hours ahead to let them know but no they had TO LIE an then on top of that be so rude and i mean RUDE witha capital R. I swore I would not every fly with them.

SO my wife for the first time travels alone to new delhi on Nov 13th 2007. Her flight is with american airlines from chicago to paris CDG airport. There was a 1 hour 45 minute layover. The flight arrived litle late but still 1 hour and 20 minutes before the departure. My wife got there about an hour befor the flight due to the shuttle she had to take. The man asked her did you fly with air frace to here she said no american. And some kind of rude switch turned on. He is like well you are too late you cant get on the flight. She said what are you talking about my flight just arrived and There is 1 hour left. HE said you have to be here an hour earlier and he refused to give her a boarding pass!! she was crying in front of him and begging him please this is my first time ever in my life traveling alone. I can not be here alone for 24 hours please do soemthing for me. He was so rude he said go to American Airlines they will do something for you I can not do anything and he SHOUTED at her in front of other passangers in the line! How RUDE can you be? There were two other older couples on wheel chairs on the same flight from chicago to paris. They arrived 25 minutes after my wife did and since he saw AA staff helping them he di not say a word to them he allowed them to get on the plane!!!! ??? my wife asked they are on the same flight as me how come they get to go on and I cant??? he said they are going to madras which does not make sense cuz its the same plane as hers to new delhi and then they would have to get a connecting flight. anyways i spoke to the guy on the phone and asked him why are you not letting my wife get on the hplane. And he said the flight is full?? i told him how can the flight be full we have a paid ticket and it is not a standby ticket. He said you have to get there hour before the checkin to get a boarding pass. She was there an hour before. He just kept making up stories.

This happened twice with me both times same situation. I was so angry and upset. That they could not be nicer to a young woman who is crying in front of them and begging for them to let her get on a plane for which she PAID for.

AA took are of her they were so nice and they basically said we will do whatever makes you feel comfortable. So she few back to chicago and then got a direct flight from chicago to new delhi.

I am sure I am not the only one who has gone through this. There has to be a website dedicated to letting people know how RUDE and unprofessional these people are. They will lie to you and treat you like an animal. I have never seen a business run like this.

I called them yesterday morning i was on hold for 30 minutes listening to their BS music on the phone. That just proved to me how bad their service really is. And they should lose their license to be an airline. I had to put the phone down cuz i had a meetting to be at. I will do soemthing about this. I will not let this happen to another customer or a passanger. Just becauase they are a big airline does not give them a right to screw their customers especially when they are in a foreign country.

I own a web design firm. I will dedicated a website where all of us can share our experiences exclusively with Air France. I will talk to my lawyer and do it in a way where they can not take my domain name and have no grounds to take the domain name from us. The site will not make any $$ or generate profits. It will cost me much to run teh site since i own my own servers etc.

Lets hit these big guys where it really hurts, their bottom line. I am sure when people read others experiences they will stop flying with them because there are BETTER OPTIONS available.

THIS IS MY OPINION. Air France has the worst customer service in the world. Their staff are RUDE. If you want to experience this then fly with them. They will not accomodate you in anyway but to make you wait for about 24 hours for next day's flight.

[SC]

We flew to Paris over this past Thanksgiving weekend, and surprisingly had a great time in Paris. Upon arriving at CDG for our return flight is whent he idiocy began.

Traveling with my 6 month pregnant wife and two children (5&3), we had to pass a "security area" in order to get into the check-in area. Once in the check-in area, there is not a single person at any of the counters. there are plenty of automated check-in kiosks. Used the kiosk to check-in and print our boarding passes, but still I had one bag to check.

There was still 2 hours before our flight departed, so stood in front of one of the baggage drop off counters for 20 minutes before an Air France rep. came over to look at our boarding passes and direct us to the last counter on the other side of the terminal. But they wouldn't be open for another half hour or so... So, had my pregnant wife and kids sit down in a row of chairs about half way down the teminal and I went on to the correct counter to check my bag in.

About 15 minutes prior to the counter opening another Air France rep. arrives and looks at my boarding pass, 'You are in the correct line, but you will have to go to the end untill all of your party has arrived.' I had been the first one in line and by that time there were a good 30 people behind me. I pointed out to the rep. that everyone in my party was checked in and had their boarding passes and I was there just to drop off a bag. She did not want to hear any of it, 'No, no, you have to go to the end of the line...' All she was doing was queing people into the check-in or baggage drop off lines..., I tried to reason with her for a couple of minutes before I spouted something to the effect of 'What kind of country is this?' to which shouted back 'If you don't like it, then don't ever come back!'

I try and regain my composure and retrieve my wife and kids and end up in the back of the line. After another 20 ~ 30 minutes we reach the counter, I try to explain to this rep. of what had happened, she did not want to hear any of it, made a comment about 'We do not have any special lines for pregnant women'. At this point I demanded to speak to the manager. 'If you do not calm down we will call the police.' I had not raised my voice at all, just asked questions without receiving any answers. I demanded to see the manager. 'We do not have one normally working at this time, but I see one has just arrived.'

Explained to the manager what happened, but 'Since I was not here to see and hear, I can not do anything.' What about all these other witnesses, I asked. 'Oh, no, we can not bother these passengers with this type of situation.'

She gave me a complaint card and that was it.

So, what was the point if checking-in and printing out our boarding passes through the automated kiosk, if we all needed to be there to check in a bag? If you do not have any bags to check do you proceed to the gate (through another security area) or to the counter? If you can go straight to the gate, then why was it necessary to have my wife and family with me to drop a bag?

Oh, the Air France reps kept on saying "it is only logical" through out my conversations with them. I do not see the logic in any of this...

If we are still living in Europe the next time we decide to go to Paris, we'll just drive (I've seen the traffic and parking in Paris first hand), its gotta be easier than dealing with idiots like these.

[Chris]

I flew with Air France last August. I was shocked how lousy they treat you in business class. They are terrible. I will never flight with them again. The Charles de Gaulle Airport really is one of the worst Airports in the World. They lost two of our suite cases and we were without cloth for two day on our trip to Germany.
They SUCK! Don’t flight with them!

[Nelissa Albano]

My husband and I flew on Air France this past Memorial Day weekend and what a horrendous experience was it. First, we almost missed our connection in CDG to Athens due to an hour and half delay out of JFK. I felt discriminated upon when the cabin crew deliberately bypassed serving us our dinner. I had to ask for it. Upon arrival at CDG I approached the Air France ground staff and inquired how far the connecting gate was and was told it was less than a 10-minute walk. That 10 minutes was actually expressed in terms of you riding an airport cart but not walking as it took us a shuttle bus ride and another 15 minutes to get through security plus another 10 minutes to the gate. We were the last passengers to board the plane. On our return flight to New York, the flight was again delayed for 3 hours due to a missing passenger of which they had to offload his baggage because of security reasons and a defective engine which the pilot discovered when the plane was already taxiing. The low point of this experience was when one of the crew rudely pushed my seat button to get it upright because the poor old Frenchwoman behind me could not get to her seat since mine was reclined. Mind you I was asleep at that time. She did not even have the audacity to nudge me and asked me nicely. I wonder how she or that old Frenchwoman feel it they were in my shoes? It was just not that instance that got me so pissed but each time that passenger got up she kept tugging my seat without any consideration at all. I wonder why she didn't ask for an exit seat when she knew she wanted more legroom. I paid as much money as any passenger did to fly so I know I deserve the respect and courtesy from the crew. After all my being a customer is their "bread and butter." Without us, they would not have their jobs. I would NEVER FLY AIR FRANCE AGAIN EVEN IF THE TICKET WAS GRATIS. THEY SUCKED BIG TIME AND THEIR STAFF ARE NONCHALANT OF WHAT THEIR CUSTOMERS FEEL ABOUT THEM. NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY MOST PEOPLE HATE THE FRENCH! THEY ARE BLOODY RUDE!!!! I HAVE NOTHING BUT DISDAIN FOR THIS AIRLINE.