Patty

hypatia,
Call AF and get your seat assignment 90 days prior to departure.

jlillberto

I flew AF to Copenhagen and DL back (from CDG)in business elite in October. I think the service was friendlier and warmer on DL. And I sure didn't think the food was any better on AF.

Due to a strike by baggage handlers, my one checked bag never made it to CPH and got home a week after I did. However, AF did not haggle about the $475US receipts I turned in. Their check arrived about three months after I wrote them here in the U.S.

tripgirl

So sorry for your troubles, but for its worth we had an excellent experience in AF caring for us just this May.

Leaving Naples we were delayed and thus of course our connection to IAD would have not happened. There were 18 of us( all my friends coming back from our AC trip) going to IAD on the Naples flight. When we got to Paris as soon as we landed and we were still on board, they announced that if you are part of the party going on to IAD, please identify yourselves to the agent outside on the jetway. We were ably escorted from one terminal to the next, they held the plane and all the luggage made it to IAD, except mine.

BUT... I use the Magellan Luggage Identifiers ( link enclosed) and when I got to baggage claim at IAD, I was paged immediately. There were a few other people on the plane ( just three) whose luggage did not come, but they were not paged. I was paged because they alerted me that my luggage was to come the next day and I did not have to fill out any paperwork. When I asked why I was paged so quickly and I did not have to fill out forms ( others did and they had to go to the counter and report the luggage missing), the agent told me that in Paris, the luggage handlers saw a bright yellow tag on my luggage that told them to remove the itinerary and then they immediately alerted AF personell who then got eventually got the message to me.

In any event, I was truly impressed with AF. Have flown AF many times and never any problems.

But again, deeply sorry for your troubles. Getting the Obudsman at Conde Nast is an excellent idea, try it, what do you have to lose!

Here is the link for the luggage identifier, had them for awhile, this time it came in handy!!!

http://www.magellans.com/store/Lugga...;page_number=1

Patty

jlillberto,
I prefer DL's service for the same reason. I find AF's food in business to be hit or miss.

as

I just returned from Paris on Air France.

The service was terrible and the food
was not edible.

And I flew business class!

They handed out surveys for us to fill out (if you wanted to) rateing the airline.
After my comments, it will be interesting to see if I hear from them.
Somehow I don't think they really care what we think.

NEVER AGAIN

Lori

Regarding seat assignments: Take a look at most airlines seat selection info disclaimers - you can request (and be assigned) a specific seat but there is no guarantee you will get it when you board. It's like "every effort will be made to give you your selected seat but it is not guaranteed". That goes for hotels too .. you can request a non-smoking room, or a king bed, whatever, but it is not guaranteed. 99% of the time it works out fine, but occasionally it does not.

rkkwan

Lori - There's a significance difference between how European airlines (not just Air France) and American ones look at seat assignments. While US airlines will not move you unless absolutely necessary, European ones generally have a much lower threshold of moving people. I was moved last time I had a seat assignment from Air France, my parents had their seats on KLM changed, etc. And I cannot remember a single time I've been moved on a US airline other than being upgraded.

L84SKY

Wow they lost your luggage between LAX and CDG? When I took that flight on AF it was non-stop! I could understand if they lost it on a connection somewhere. Hope you get reimbursed.

RufusTFirefly

After over 50 years of air travel for both pleasure and business, if I swore never to fly on every airline that ever screwed up royally I'd have to wait for new airlines to go into business before I could fly anywhere again.

francophile03

I'm sorry that the o.p. had such a bad experience with Air France. Luckily we haven't had the same bad experience concerning our luggage (and seat changes) yet. But I am hoping these things don't happen to us.

However, as to the food, I've only been in sardine class-never lucky nor can afford biz and first classes. I can't imagine biz class food to be worse than sardine class unless it depends on high expectations? While the food was certainly not the best in sardine/economy class it was edible and not that bad at all. Maybe I'm used to it, but it really was allright especially since they do feed you unlike the US airlines from what I read here.

WillTravel

There was a poster blithespirit who had a terrible experience with Air France, when it came to getting late to the airport, costing her thousands of dollars. It's similar to this story here:
http://tinyurl.com/eeclh

But - I have to admit this type of thing can happen on any airline if you have the type of ticket that allows no mercy.

laartista

Try to stay on them for reimbursment. My friend had her luggage taken by another passenger at CDG and the passenger didn't return it for 3 weeks. She spent like 200 dollars for stuff while in Paris. Called Air France every day and they finally sent her a check.

clevelandbrown

Its strange, but I recall the lengthy thread initiated by Blythespirit, and once she revealed most of the facts, I came to the conclusion that Air France had treated her very generously. It is true that she had to pay a substantial sum, but the situation that led to her dilemma was of her own creation (she had bought separate tickets for the legs of her flight, and her initial flight was delayed and she missed her connection to Air France) and Air France had waived some penalties and given her substantial credit for the tickets she had self-invalidated, if I recall correctly.

In a way, its a shame that thread has gone into obscurity. It gave a valuable lesson on the risks one takes when purchasing separate discount tickets for the legs of a single journey.

jody

Tripgirl....

Thanks for the Magellan link for the tags. I just ordered some!

Tere

Funny, I flew AF many times and never had a bad experience with them. My luggage never got lost, the food was good and the flights smooth.
In March I flew with them business class to Los Angeles and the food was amazing and their service the best!