Air France's Service?
 

My huband are flying to Athens from Atlanta on Air France (business class)I have heard that the service is terrible, I hate to waste all those FF miles for an unpleasant flight. Anyone have a comment.

Go to the Airlines chat board and do a search under Air France. You'll see quite a few comments about their Biz Class service (including mine).

I had no complaints. My wife has special dietary needs and they easily accomodated her. Just a little cramped that's all.

We flew Air France from St. Maarten to Paris and everything was fine. We thought the meal service was great in comparison to American Airlines.<BR><BR>

Just flew Air France Business Class via Paris to Italy from NY -JFK. Outbound flight crew was not the nicest - no smiles, brusque, hardly any service at all actually. Return Flight from Paris last Saturday was absolutely great. More than one person (including me)commented and thanked the cabin crew profusely upon disembarking.

We had a great experience last year on Air France, from L.A. to Paris and return. We left on coach, which was adequate; and got bumped up to business coming back. HUGE difference! The food was great, the service great, and the large seats with footrests -- ahh! Even got a remote to change channels on the t.v.. It will be VERY hard to go back to economy after that!

IMPORTANT!Forgot to mention in my last post. Assuming you are flying through Paris (CDG)to Athens. Find out the terminals and the gates for the connecting flights. If time is tight, you may have a problem. At CDG you have to go through immigration AND security again which can be time consuming. Plus the trip between terminals can be a long one.

i just traveled on Air France in coach to Italy via Paris. I thought the service was fine. Our flight heading to Europe was on an old plane and the seats were like seating on the plastic stools at mc donalds, not too comfortable on the bottom. On the way home we were on a great 777 with individual tvs for each passenger in coach, good movies, games, etc. I thought the crew was friendly enough and the food was definitely better than on American, etc. However, I second the warning about flight times. They did not leave us enough time to transer in Paris and we missed our flight. Be sure to make sure you have at least 1.5 or 2 to catch your connection to Athens.

Trish,<BR><BR>I can't comment on Air France's business class, so this post may be silly, but we just got back from a roundtrip to Paris with Air France in economy class. Let me just say that we will never fly them again. Although we took a 777, it seemed as though they had crammed in several extra rows of seats. We were quite uncomfortable. Then, when we arrived in Paris, we were made to wait about half an hour on the plane while they unloaded us section by section into an airport bus. The air had been turned off, and we were dripping by the time we got to disembark. Hopefully, business class is much better than this, but I have no idea. Good luck!

My family (5 of us) flew Air France in 1999 from San Francisco to Paris which is nonstop. It was on an ancient 747 which was dirty and the overhead cabins made creaking sounds during flight. The food was inedible and we all had backaches afterwards as the seats had no back support. Maybe they are using newer planes now. The flight attendants were not very friendly. Unless they offer a good deal we will not fly Air France again.

Air France had the most comprehensive, comfortable, and attentive airline service I have ever experienced - really, I wish I could fly Air France in the US. My husband and I requested vegetarian meals and they were the first to come out, hot and fresh. After falling asleep in the middle of the flight I got disoriented and nauseous and the stewardess rushed to get me juice without me even requesting it. The seating was a bit cramped, but it was an 8 hour coach class ticket, not much you can do in the way of room on any airline. The crew really seemed to take their jobs seriously (as was the case all over France) which means customer service for them was something they just did with professionalism and without the attitude of a lot of American "customer service" representatives. I would definitely book the flight with Air France.

I recently fly Air France (Philadelphia-Paris) in coach.<BR><BR>Service was lovely and attentive; the planes (Boeing 777 on the way out and AirBus 330 on the way back) were clean and well-equipped. Food was adequate (this is airline food, after all), wine selection much better than on some other airlines.<BR><BR>Air France did everything appropriate to make sure our travelling went smoothly. <BR><BR>We have done the Phila-Paris flight three times in two years--once with United, second time with American, third with Air France. United was probably my favorite, with Air France a close second (don't even get me started on American!)<BR><BR> <BR>

As you can see, ALL comments regarding ALL airlines (food, service, comfort, etc.) are based on anectdote. Therefore, you are either the victim or the beneficiary of the circumstance of your particular flight. Take it or leave it. That's the way it is.

Unfortunately Delta changed it's partners 2 years ago and now they partner with Air France. This has caused us to have to use Air France for our FF miles flights. We did 3 trans-atlantic rt's last year in Air France Business Class... that made us HAVE to use CDG as transfer point!<BR><BR>A) The Air France cabin crew in Business Class was rude and surly.... on all 3 rt's!<BR><BR>B) CDG is a terrible airport with rude and unfriendly staffing (surprise, surprise, surprise... you're in Paris!) We have had delayed or cancelled flights on all three trips through there in the last year.<BR><BR>C) Air France has lost our luggage 3 times (once causing to be 4 days into a trip before the luggage caught up with us) and totally destroyed 2 suit cases!<BR><BR>D) Would I fly Business Class with them again? Only if that is the only way Delta can get me there! It doesn't come anywhere close to Delta Business Elite!

Hey Trish ... one more comment...<BR><BR>We live in Atlanta and my wife worked for Delta for 12 years... we KNOW to be as friendly as possible to cabin crews so that they will WANT to give us good service! That doesn't work with these folks!<BR><BR>We asked one flight attendant for a Grand Marnier after dinner 4 times and finally I got up and walked back to the galley to get it myself... she had acted as though we were speaking Swahili ... she couldn't understand our Atlanta accents! (not that hard!)<BR><BR>BUT ... don't miss a trip to Athens... we've learned that it is almost impossible to use FF miles and actually get on a real Delta flight if it is somewhere Air France goes... no matter how flexible you are with your dates!

I found the service no different from the American carriers, however, the actually plane I flew on was OLD!!! I suppose I feel more comfortable on newer planes. Very cramped.

Hi<BR><BR>You will be happy with AF business class, especially long haul.<BR><BR>I flew many times business class short hall.<BR><BR>My only long haul experience was Paris - Guadeloupe (economy), and it is the charter flight to the sun for the French. Not recommended , but USD 300 return so OK.<BR><BR>Peter<BR> <BR><BR>

We have flown AF from London twice and will never fly with them again. <BR><BR>They are also in a partnership with Continental, but the check-in attendants refused each time to acknowledge our Continental frequent flyer numbers, saying they were not Continental partners. <BR><BR>We tried to use Continental miles for one trip but were informed by Continental that it takes two weeks to even check availability on any AF flights!<BR><BR>The check-in desk at Heathrow has about 5 stations and it took us an hour and a half to check in both times. The staff has always been rude and abrupt.<BR><BR>We checked baggage on our last trip and, when we received our bags, the lock had been broken off and our bags had been searched. Fine, except half of our belongings were missing! We contacted AF and they denied that our bag had been opened and asserted that we had left our belongings at our hotel.<BR><BR>We will never fly Air France again.

I've flown Air France quite a few times and like them very much. Some of their planes are better than others, but I really like their Airbuses in comparison to 777s and some other planes other companies use (they may have some 777s also, I'm not sure, but I don't usually get them). The food is much better than average and they have nice touches (free French newspapers, amenties kit, frequently fill up water, etc.). My bags missed a flight once due to the plane being late in connection (not their fault) and they were extremely helpful and efficient in bring me my bag when it arrived some hours later, they drove it from Marseille to an inn out in the country outside Aix which wasn't that easy to find, and they did that within hours.<BR><BR>I sure wouldn't like it if my bag were rifled through, but they aren't partners with Continental any more (they were a while ago but no more) so maybe that's why they wouldn't accept a Continental FF number and said that.<BR><BR>They seem no worse than other airlines, and a lot better than some I've been on.

Flew LA-Paris round trip (economy class) on Air France this spring. Flight attendants and airport staff were all thoroughly professional and friendly. Service staff was available and attentive throughout the flight.<BR><BR>Plane leaving LA was an older 747 with seats that seemed unusually narrow. Return flight was a newer plane.<BR><BR>The food, even in economy class, was significantly better than anything I've had on an American airline (fresh baguettes, marmalade, camembert, salmon terrine).