Air France Reviews

Her grotesque attitude, coldness and making us wait to extort us to the last minute to pay a 10% fee was abusive. I recorded her on my cell phone. She refused to grant any help other than threats that she would not let us fly, when we were in the total right of doing so. Since the problem Air France had was with Orbitz, not with us customers who had asked 2 times and were informed 2 times to go to the airport with our infant and his passport proving he is 18 months old and that that would suffice ...

Mrs. ** yelled at my wife. My wife said, "You are extorting us ..." and this lady replied with more yells and tremendous coldness to us 4 even though our 1-year-old was crying. She did not take her battle with the very people who sells Air France tickets. She took it on a family of 4 at 11 pm that night. Once we gave in to paying what we considered an extortion and abuse but under the threat, we decided to pay since our vacation could be ruined. I asked Mrs. ** for a complaint number for Air France. She refused. She went inside her office. I had to ask 2 times for her to come back. Finally under pressure, she provided me a business card with nothing but her own office number. Then I asked her to please hurry since we had been arguing this matter for a while, we had paid what she wanted and to please finish the check in promptly.

To this she said, "I have another flight leaving now, I will finish you when I finish you..." Our kids kept crying; she asked us in French to get them away from the counter. I said again, "Please hurry, we already paid. I want to leave and our family is fed up of your arrogance..." She did not respond. She went back in her office again! Finally, she came back and the final check up was done. I asked her if she could at least provide my 1-year-old a seat. She said no, that he travels in my lap with a cold accent. Then we ran to the gate. We received no help as a family traveling with an infant. We were simply shocked to see this since all airlines have a priority to help families with infants. This was the treatment by this manager and her team, who some of them did say that we were right, absolutely right, when Mrs ** was absent. But this woman took an attitude and a dislike that no customer paying a fee should ever experience, specially when traveling with kids and an infant.

We are appalled by Air France and this manager. We tried in Paris, to complain. All we got was, "No, you cannot complain in Paris; you must complain in the US with Air France there..." Here in the US, their number never gets you anyone. I have left messages and no one ever calls. I have written and it's the same. Their webpage gives no number for customer service. They ask you to write - we did. Then when you write on their complaint section, 98% of the time, the webpage says that there is an error and you can't submit. I think this airline is trying so much to not let anyone in the US do a claim or complaint. They just bounce you to see if you get tired, but as you can see, we are so very offended by this treatment that we want to denounce Air France and Mrs. ** at JFK International, in the hope that we get our money back and that the US Customer Affairs do not allow them to treat families this way. It is simply un-American and if they operate in the US, they should not treat people that way, especially families with infants! Thank you.

We booked the fare and when we got to the Paris airport, they did not ask us for any documentation of our relationship. On our return in Marseille, they did ask us for proof of our relationship. The ticketing desk stated that we needed to have proof such as something showing the same address or an insurance card. When we told them that in Paris, they had let us through without documentation, the Air France representatives would not admit that a mistake was made in Paris. They told us Air France had given us a gift(?) by allowing us to fly from Paris to Marseille, but if we wanted to return, we would have to pay the difference in the fares (for a non-couple fare) of 340 euros.

We explained that it was Air France's mistake to let us through in Paris, and had they not, we would have gotten a refund for the fare and driven as originally planned. However, because of the mistake that Air France made, we not only had no other way to get back to Paris, but we had to pay an extra 340 euros to get on the flight. They would not make an exception for their mistake and no one took responsibility for the mistake. There was a manager (a man the representative we were speaking to called his leader?) who appeared not to speak any English, but seemed to have the authority to let us through. He did not speak one word to us except no, and the representative we spoke to did not seem to be translating everything we said, and insisted that the leader(?) understood what was going on. It also happened to be a holiday, and everyone at the ticketing desk told us there was no one else who could help us.

We also tried to explain that even an engaged couple may not have proof(?) of their relationship if they are not living together. The website does not give specific examples of what sort of documentation might be adequate and the Air France representatives had no answer for us as to what sort of documentation an unmarried couple might provide.

The actual condition of the fare (while ridiculous) is not what upset us. It was the fact that if they always require documentation of a relationship, it was clearly Air France's mistake to let us on the plane in Paris, and Air France did nothing to rectify the mistake. Not only did they not rectify the mistake, they would not even admit they made a mistake. The mistake Air France made cost us 340 euros. If they had prevented us from boarding in Paris, we would have understood. Once Air France made the mistake, however, we should have been allowed to travel on the return flight without further penalty.

To top everything off, the representatives we spoke to refused to give us their names and only the leader(?) would give us his name (which I am not actually able to make out well, the best I can make it out is JC **). They also could not give us a phone number to customer service but rather handed us an envelope. We are writing to Air France to request a refund of the 340 euros extra that we had to pay for the fare.

First, I had a flight to Egypt in October 2007 which - I discovered by coincidence - has not been added to the balance of my miles though it was shown in the e-ticket. Second, I received a very short notice regarding my miles expiry date, as I received your letter mid-February 09 telling me that I have only till April 09 to use my miles.

Third, after calling your customer service representatives to check the availability for the miles exchange in the month of March 09, I was wrongly informed that I have till the end of April 09 to do that. On April 13, 09, I called to make the necessary arrangements to exchange my miles. I was informed that I lost my miles on the 3rd of April as the company changed the regulations without prior notice! Also, since I was surprised by this action, the Flying Blue representative mentioned that I will find in the Flying Blue's general conditions, a condition stating that the company has the right to change the dates without any prior notice. Even though I found this statement not fair to the customer, the Flying Blue representative guided me via the web to the general conditions where we couldn't find this rule anywhere. He ended the conversation by saying, "Sir, it is here somewhere and I won't stay and argue with you."

Now, I need a quick curative action for my current situation as I am a loyal client for Air France and intend to be for the future unless Flying Blue doesn't really care about its clients and its reputation. Thanks for your prompt reply.

I am very upset with the service I have been receiving from the Baggage depart in HK. There has been absolutely no one helpful besides a girl name Selena, but there has been no solution nor clue with the whereabouts of my luggage. Everyone else from the department is very rude and avoids my questions of the whereabouts of my luggage. Everyones' attitude have been very nonchalant and no urgency have been shown at all. I am so dissapointed with Air France and the way they deal with a lost luggage.

There are very important business documents in there and also items for clients. I am so upset at my loss that this has cost my company and business that I am seeking further action with the imcompetence fo the staff and their procedures and non-urgency of the situation. I don't feel that AF has done their best nor found an effective solution for me AT ALL. I vow to not take AF and will inform my business associates of the bad service and carelessness of the AF.

Well I cannot even explain the losses they have cost my company, as we have some very important business items in my luggage and documents I needed for my business clients and associates in Europe. There were a few electronic products in there and the business suits I have in there that cannot be replaced.

I was surprised when they rejected the request to compensate for that loss based on the fact that I did not submit the request within 7 days which I did. I feel I may have been discriminated as this happened in Algiers airport. I would not trust Air France again. Loss of $1400 in gifts, personal items. Gifts to kids have no measurable value as nothing can replace the disappointment of a kid over a gift he was waiting for for several months....

On the 27th I got into the web-page of AF and tried to get indications as to how to go about resolving the problem. I called the customer care office and was told that I had 7 days to file a complaint and that due to my boarding in the Americas, I had to call the 800 CS number in Mexico. I called that number repeatedly and got no answer so I sent a fax to the Baggage Claims Office of KLM and AF. Since I got no answer I called several offices of AF and KLM. The passed the problem to the other company and would not even open an official complaint.

Finally I spoke to a lady supervisor at an office outside Milan and explained my problem to her. She told me she could not do anything, but gave me a number of another agent who might help me. I called him and he said that he knew about my case and recommended that I take my luggage to an official store and have it evaluated. The store states in a document that the luggage is no reparable and that to replace it would cost two hundred and fifteen euro.

Also, that upon my return in Costa Rica, I had 7 days to file the complaint. I did this and presented the originals that I had to the AF KLM office in San Jos. I asked them to stamped received? and they did. The told me that it would take between 1 and 3 months to get an answer. A week and a half ago I got an answer from a Mr. Maxime L. Encargado del Servicio de Atencin al Cliente. He tells me that despite the fact that the case filing time was over, they would recognize $150 for the damages and that an agent from the accounting department would get in touch with me.

This week I was contacted by Mr. M from AF and advised to go and pick up the check. I had already written to Mr. L, communicating that I was not in agreement with their decision since the estimated value was 215 euro. I resent the same mail to Mr. M. Air France KLM has shown negligence in treating the entrusted luggage. They have also shown a Customer Care apparatus that its almost purposely done in a confusing way, with agents that contradict what others instruct you to do and useless web sites and phone numbers. Finally they pretend to respond to the damage they have caused with a symbolic figure. They have shown an insulting arrogance and ever worse negligence.

They managed to ruin my first days of vacation and 215 euro.

On my last conversation I was told to resend the documents. When I told that I had sent the originals as asked by [them] then I was told that they only wanted duplicate copies. This is third time that I ve been asked to resend.Firstly I had sent fax then this post and now wondering is there any use of sending again and adding to the time and efforts that I am spending on this.

On reading experiences of other unfortunate passengers I strongly feel that there should be some sort of action taken in the direction of safegaurding the interest of consumers from the cynical business practices of so called BIG AIRLINES like Air France and make the existence of such forum fruitful.

And while I have been waiting for a response, I received a call from Air France yesterday (David) stating my ticketed and confirmed flight had a change and they need to put me on a different flight and time. As instructed, I called immediately and talked with a very abrupt agent (couldn't catch her name). She was rude, dismissive and didn't care if the new flight was convenient for me. When I mentioned that there have been a cummulative amount issues associated with this flight and that I'd like to speak with a manager, she said no one was available...and stated she had met all my needs with this confirmation, said good bye and promptly hung up on me. That is no way to run a customer service department or a company for that matter.

I immediately called Air France back and talked with Amanda who was understanding. I mentioned my issues, the fact I was just hung up on, and that Dale had yet to respond to my previous complaint. She also said management was busy and unavailable. She noted my letter had been received and it usually took Dale two weeks to respond. My next step is to contact corporate personnel and the CEO, repeatedly if needed. Following my upcoming trip to Mexico in January, I plan to cancel my Air France Flying Blue account, forfeit the remainder of my reward miles and never fly Air France again. The treatment of customers by Air France is deplorable.

Rude and unresponsive customer service at Air France.

Instead I was told I would need to fax my complaint to Dale D'orsay of which I did on August 6th. The following day I received another message from Air France like before, this time saying my flight had gone up again and was now $369.82. Still having received no reply from Dale D'orsay, I called again and spoke with an agent named Summer who said it was quite common for prices to change from the confirmed quoted price and could occur depending on when Air France finally issued the ticket and the fluctuation in taxes. That doesn't make sense to me. She did say she had not seen one jump in price as much as mine though. And she said it was common for ticketing agents to mis-calcucate miles needed for a trip, justifying the need to now deduct 30,000 miles instead of the quoted 25,000.

Summer also said management was not available and I would have to pay the price (another new figure) of $360.57 or lose the reservation I confirmed altogether. Given I had already made my hotel rsvp and arrangements to have my flight coincide with a friend, I didn't really have a choice in the matter. If I had been quoted this price when I confirmed my reservation or received word of Air France's mistake earlier than 2 weeks, I would have made other arrangements. I like to fly Air France and expect quality service. But to use Flying Blue miles or talk to management is another issue.

This action by Air France was unprofessional and dishonest. Summer assured me she would personally retrieve my fax and give it to Dale D'orsay. I still have yet to receive a call back or any acknowledgement from Dale D'orsay or anyone at Air France. Now that I was forced to pay this higher amount I doubt they care. I will try not to fly Air France in the future.

Required to pay higher ticket price and redeem more reward miles that originally quoted and confirmed through reservation.

2.One woman had no idea where Bucharest, Romania was.

3. When asked where I lived I told one woman, Argentina. She asked me in which country Argentina was located. I booked 3 award flights, 1 on Air France and 2 on KLM, an Air France partner. I was given a confirmation number and received a letter via email in French; no I don't read French. I went to the Air France office here in Buenos Aires and asking very nicely if I could get a cpoy of the flights, which I was able to get online. At first, the woman told me that it wasn't possible, but without my asking again, she changed her mind and gave it to me.

I called Flying Blue to make a change in one of the flights and was told that a seat was available and the there would be a $50.00 charge. I gave the woman my credit card information. They never gave me a confirmation and I never asked for one. Instead of flying to Paris from Bucharest, I would now be flying to Paris from Prague. I then cancelled a hotel reservation in Bucharest and booke a room in Prague. I also bought a plan ticket to go from Varna, Bulgaria to Prague.

All seemed perfect, until I got to the Prague Airport on the morning of July 11th, 2008. I was told by the air France agent that they had no record of my flying to Paris from Prague! Well, I was forced to buy a onw way business class ticket (apparently one way tickets are only sold in business class) for 17.993 Czech Crowns, which is about $1200.00. The woman that sold me the ticket seemed to be praying that my creditcard would be declined; it wasn't. i had no alternative, as there was no other flight on any airline that would get me to Paris in time to get my connecting flight to N.Y. No I never contacted Flying Blue.

The reason I am writing this letter is to possibly find out how many people are going through what I went through or even worse everyday. How can they book flight to Bucharest and Buenos Aires if they don't know where they are? Luckily, I was travelling alone; what if.... How can I go I go on record to tell people what had happened to me.

Passenger is stranded in Shanghai, with no resolution. Air France customer service doesn't exist and they refuse to comunicate with any supervisor to take a decision. Passenger now have to pay for a new one way ticker and afford hotel and additional expenses due to Air France incompetence.

Afterwards, I went to obtain another flight. I understood I would not be able to leave that day, so I asked to speak to a manager so I could discuss all of my options and get a contact just in case my boss had questions (I was going to miss a crucial meeting). They refused. I insisted on seeing her manager or at least get her contact information. She refused to give me either her contact information or her managers. I was astonished. Even in the most backwater hotel in Africa, management existed to ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction. But here, in CDG, their management hid, refused to disclose their names, and I even had the ticket person to tell me not to cause trouble or else they would ensure I would not get out the next day.

So their organization through threats, secrecy, and following a level of customer service that rivals my days in Soviet Russia, has succeeded in creating what my business fears most. An anti customer. I personally will never travel their airline again. Another enemy of Air France.

At the time of serving coffee which she was serving everybody she asked all for milk and sugar but I was singled out once again. I wonder why she did this as am sure I had not done anything to offend her sensibility. I felt like telling her all to her rude face but controlled. Gosh, hope no one else gets to face this.

My luggage arrived at my home on 14-Jun-08 by an unofficial personnel on an auto rickshaw in full lamination. Keeping in mind my last years experience i signed the delivery form unsuspectingly. But when I opened the lamination the small zipper locks were broken and held in place by a small plastic strip. Also the leather belts were cut. And on opening the bag i find that all valuable gifts are missing. I called Air france baggage services about 60-70 times ( each call gets matured with autmatic welcome message but no one comes to talk so it meant 60-70 calls get charged to me) before getting someone to answer my call. To pacify me I was told that airlines will take the responsibilty of what has happened and give compensation. I told them that i dont have any proof of purchases of the items to which i was told that its not required. was hard to believe but there no other option.

Then,as was asked by person on phone i sent a complaint email to AF with the list and approximate value of the missing items. These included a brand new cell phone, a used cell phone , perfumes with a total value of approx 250. I was told that I would be contacted in 3 days. 4th day, having not been contacted i again called AF baggage services in Delhi about the action taken.Again after about 40-50 calls i get a reply that they have not received any email from me.They gave me an alternate email address. This time the email reached them but instead of taking any action they forwarded me a claim reference number and told me that my case would be addressed by UK or France baggage services. So again left with no other option but to wait for 2 weeks after which i had to fly back to UK with a hope of better treatment and better customer service in UK than in India.

But the only improvement was that now the call is answered in 1st attempt but what follows is more horrible than what used to happen in India. The guy on the line is not so good in English and its hard to explain him what happened and hard to tell him the claim reference number. On my first call from UK I was told to fax them original copies of ticket , boarding pass , bag tag number , my bank details and invoices if any. Now after about 3 weeks of the incident and without being told how am i supposed to keep hold of the small piece of boarding pass. Also I had to throw the bag as it was rendered unusable and with that the bag tag had also gone. If all this was required I should have been told when i called AF on day of incident. The guy online still told me to make it written that I dont have some of the documents and still my complaint will be answered in 20days. I faxed all that i had along with the delayed baggage report on 3rd July.

With no response till 21 July i contacted AF UK again to which i am told that they have not received any fax and i need to send all documents to AF office in France. Plus this time the guy online clearly tells me that no Boarding pass means no compensation. On seeing change in my tone after this , the guy changed his mind and told me to send whatever i can and i would be contacted in 20 days. Now i am going to send my complaint to France with no hope and I think the story would continue as with many others on this forum.

Moreover the bag is left useless with its zipper locks broken and leather belts around it cut. At delhi I am asked to relax and send them an email and that would suffice to get me compensation and then slowly slowly they demand such things which I dont think anyone would keep safe like a small piece of boarding pass and baggage tags. Next they might ask me to show them the plate in which i had taken dinner in the flight. Boarding pass and baggage tag should be there in AF system. I have air ticket and i have delayed baggage report with me. Isnt that enough to prove that i have boarded AF flight and there has been some problem with my luggage. If some attorneys read this then please contact me as i would like not to stop here and take it up as much as possible and if somehow its brought to notice of general public and Higher officials at AF.

We have not clothes left for today to even go down for meals at our hotel. Because we were told when we arrvied on 18th that we would receive our luggage on Saturday evening, we did not buy extra clothes and accessories for today. I get the impression that this common with Air France as there is not sufficient transfer time for transfer. In this case Air France could be honest and tell passengers what to expect after arrival or even at the time of booking the holiday. I look forward to her from you. P.S. It is a shame that we had to spend our holdiay money buying clothes which we will not be reimbursed after the holdiay. We only came here with the limited spending money.

Air France failed to inform customers at the point of reservation/purchase that any changes to the flight schedule must be made before March 17th original departure date or else the ticket will be treated as forfeited. Trying to resolve the issue in an amicable manner, I tried to make compromises with Air France/Priceline during my call with them on 3/11/2008, 3/13/2008 and 3/17/2008 by complying with their restrictions and reschedule the flight to an alternative future departure date.

I requested to be rescheduled to ANY departure date that will cause minimal airfare difference between what I have already paid for vs what they will charge me for the new airfare. I was told by the reservation agent that ANY departure date they could reschedule me to will require me to pay $1,500 for the new ticket in addition to the $230 penalty fee for making changes to my flight. I was left with no choice but to either forfeit the entire $520 airfare Ive already paid for or else pay $1230 additional fee in order to use the supposedly $520 credit with them.

I do not consider Air France practices to be fair in anyway to consumers (its more of a bait and switch sales practice). I was forced to either paying $520 for nothing or pay $1500 (additional airfare fee) +$230(penalty)+$520= +$2200 fee for a whole lot more trouble.

again i showed the reciept and told him i bought them in punta cana while waiting for thier delayed flight. all he said was leave the bottles or he would call the police.then he said that the bag wasnt sealed to which i replied that they dont in punta cana.and again he issued another treat of the police.people were looking on at this stage and i felt like a criminal and very embaressed considering that i had broken no laws and was nt told by the staff in either punta cana nor paris that i had done anything wrong. i feel very agreaved and very hurt by the treatment i recieved and the gross impolitness and threats i got.

the bottles of drink i bought were only worth 40 dollars, that is not the piont, it was the feeling of embarassment and the igmoninity of being treated like a common criminal is just not going to go away. i feel very upst by all of this and dont wish to ever have to fly to or connect in paris again.

Because of this, he had to stay in Amman for 3 days instead of the original one day he had planned on as he was headed to Damascus. I have called Air France, emailed them a complaint and you can not speak to a person who seems to know anything. They said it could take up to 10 days to get an answer via email on the complaint. This is ridiculous. What a terrible, terrible airline!

My husband had to delay his trip 3 days in Amman as he is heading to Damascus to see his elderly father. There were numerous gifts and clothing in the luggage. He had to buy new clothes, toiletries, etd.

Each time that I contacted Flying Blue with their Non-friendly customer service and they were not able to search and find a ticket for me since they only search for 20 days availability and after that they kept hanging up on me after numerous times. The only thing that they were able to inform me was to call back later and to keep trying, I was trying to get in contact with their supervisor or manager and they kept denying me that right. Finally on Tuesday April 1st while I was in Seattle I was able to find a ticket and got the confirmation and gave them my Amex card for airport taxes, and finally they were able to confirm it after a couple of hours (Confirmation YAYMPZ). Few hours after the confirmation was complete they called me and informed me to go to Air France airport in Seattle to get the ticket since the ticket was a paper ticket; I had to drive 40-50 miles in order to get to the airport. Unfortunately it was the opposite of what they had confirmed with me earlier and there was no one in their Air France office and I was informed that their office is open when they have flights only and the other days they will not have anyone available.

The day after (April 2nd) I was in Los Angeles and I contacted them and again they asked me to go to LAX airport and since their office is open from 6am-9pm at the airport I was going to be able to get the ticket there. I went to the airport to the Air France counter and talked to Rima K. and her manager and they said that they dont issue flying blue tickets at Air France office at the airport. They asked me to go to North West to see if they would give me the ticket and once I went to the North West office and talked to Martin at KLM and he said that they have nothing to do with Flying Blue and Air France tickets. So once again for the second time I had to drive back home over 40 miles with empty hands and very unsatisfied.

On Thursday (April 3rd) I called Flying Blue and talked to Chelsea Mathew which she told me that she was going to overnight the ticket to me due to their wrong information for 2 times and making me drive so long every time to go to airport. Since the ticket was purchased for my (over 70 years old) father in law I gave her his address and full contact information as well in case. We never got the ticket on Friday and since the flying blue offices are closed on Saturday and Sunday I had to wait till Monday which is departure date. During the weekend I had contacted the Air France a few times to see if they can do anything about my on going problem but on fortunately when there is an issue they have nothing to do with other departments so they would not be able to help me with Flying Blue ticket but What I did was to reserve another ticket just in case for Tuesday morning with reservation number for $1700.00 and they informed me that this reservation is only valid till Tuesday (since the phone was on speaker phone I have 2 wideness).

On Monday morning I called flying Blue at 8am and talked to Christian about the ticket and he said that the ticket was never issued nor mailed but he advised me to have my father in law to go to Seattle Airport Air France or KLM office and they can issue the ticket. I asked him (numerous times) if he can call to make sure that everything is fine at the airport because I had bad previous experiences and he said that they werent able to make any outgoing calls and he said that everything was fine 100%, so I sent my old Father in Law to get the ticket and unfortunately when he got there at 9:30AM they were closed again so I called Flying Blue again and talked to Andrew and Bob and both of them said that they were 100% sure that the Air France members were going to be there at 10:05am on Monday April 7, 2008 so my father in Law stayed there waiting and still no one showed up so Bob (Flying Blue customer service on the phone) advised me to send him to KLM office and he said for sure they can issue the ticket there. The poor old man had to walk over 1 mile in order for him to get to the KLM office as Flying Blue customer service on the phone advised us.

So he ends up going there to the KLM counter and talks to Matt and he tried all his best to contact Flying Blue and Air France but they didnt let him issue the ticket and on the other side I called Flying Blue again while Matt was on the phone with Flying blue and they were denying his request so I talked to Irene and she told me that everything is fine and that we just needed to get the ticket at the KLM office and when I put her on conference call with matt she said that they cant issue the paper ticket since it has to come from Canada. My father in law lost his flight and I called Air France to get the other ticket that was reserved for Tuesday but unfortunately they had sold my reservation ticket and my seat and now they offered me a ticket for over 3-4,000.00 dollars. Now we spent over 2 weeks of our time, headaches, phone calls, fights, broken promises trying to resolve this issue. I am back on my seat searching for a ticket once again; it was such a Air France Air line and Flying Blue, plus all the nightmares I had honestly I cant even look at my wife and his dad anymore. I wish they would charge me for a ticket price instead of going through all this like I had asked them to do so and leaving me with shame.

i had to buy another ticket for more price from another airline. over 2 weeks of waisted time, all headaches and etc

80 euros loss+1000 rs loss in lodging the complaint

I'm out $2,703 dollars and stressed out. I will never fly Air France and will tell everybody.

The service on the plane too was substandard. I would call for the air hostess for hot water for the baby bottle, and at times they never showed up. It was kind of passengers traveling in the next seat to give me their baby's hot water. At Paris, the lady at the boarding desk for the Bristol flight informed me that I would have to go down the flight of stairs to the bus by myself, and as expected that they would not provide me with any assistance. When the flight was finally canceled, the ground staff paid no attention to me despite the fact that I was the only person traveling with children on the plane; and they could see that my children were hungry, tired and crying. Only when I finally broke down due to frustration, did they pay heed to me. I was not prepared for an 8 hr delay in reaching Bristol. The ground staff took no initiative to make us comfortable. I had to ask for baby food and nappies. When I asked the staff for hot water for the baby, I was given water from a coffee vending machine. It is 2 weeks and my son is still suffering from a stomach infection. I had registered a complaint on their web site No: 3258181001, and they have not even bothered to respond.

Emotional harassment that we went through, and we were tired lugging everything with no help from the staff.

Stranded passengers were even not offered a cab or sleeping facilities or any other service. WE EVEN WERE NOT WARNED AHEAD OF TIME THAT WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE 6 HOURS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE HOUR IN THE AIRPORT. There was no help whatsoever from their side, even not for stranded passengers with small children or old people who had to climb over luggage and other people who waited for hours to reach the check in. Nobody even knew WHERE to check in. OF COURSE this is the liability of Air France. WE ARE NOT THE CLIENTS OF THE AIRPORT. WE ARE THE CLIENTS OF AIR FRANCE. Their arrogance of denying this liability forces me to take LEGAL STEPS against their company. I formally demand: a free ticket for us both on 28th or 29th Feb, compensation for the sufferings we had in the airport, compensation for the costs we had to make to go back to Gurgaon to our office and arrange for the night. We lost one complete working day (were in India for business) already. I want an indemnification for the lost time caused by them, I expect them to treat us as clients and not as cattle!

By the way, they need to try to improve their services, especially connecting flight services, otherwise they may have problems in getting dedicated customers in future like me.

Our ordeal did not end. On our return journey we again sent a request to Air France that on the 24th of January we should be served Asian Veg Meals (AVML) which according to their website does not contain any egg, but to our horror we were again served food containing egg on both New York Paris sector and Paris to India sector. My mother and children had to go without food on the both the flights. Our repeated complaints and protest fell to deaf ears, the staff was unresponsive and rude. On reaching Delhi we were told that our baggage had been left behind in Paris and would be delivered to us the next day. On receiving the baggage after more than 30 hours we found that three bags were badly torn and mishandled and some of the articles from the bags were missing .We have since that day tried to call Air France customer service, but every time our calls are put on hold. Our repeated emails to them have got no response. The whole episode besides hurting our religious sentiments has caused us great mental agony and has put us to a big monetary loss. The attitude of Air France seems to be highly unprofessional, unethical and arrogant. I am at the end of my wits how to deal with the whole issue.

I did not know that I had to make a claim immediately. I was not told by the Air France employee and I do not have past experience with it. When I called next day the customer service center also did not advice me of the same. They had wrong timings of the Boston airport baggage center as well in their database. These factors resulted in me in visiting the airport twice and not having the ability to get in touch with anybody. The tons of calls left with the Boston airport Air France baggage center were not returned. Eventually I filed a claim on Thursday which was four days after my arrival. Now the reply from Air France is you made a late claim and we are not responsible for your loss.

The Turin flight did not get off the ground until about 07:50.

After landing, by the time that I had waited for a bus to arrive to take us to the terminal, then waited for a second one to arrive (as I was not able to board the first) and then waited in the security queue for the shuttle to take me to terminal E and then travelled twice round the houses on the bus to get to terminal E, I arrived at the gate to find that the staff would not let me board.

Though perhaps not as bad as the experience reported by Ikela of E. Lansing MI (10/21/07), with whom I sympathise, many of the elements of her experience were present in mine (bad mannered staff, total lack of real understanding, suggestion that I myself may have been to blame for the late arrival at the gate for the flight to the US, an almost marxist sense of the division of labour applied to responsibility, mostly taken by nobody).

Above all I am perplexed at the way the airline ignores, totally ignores, the possible inconvenience caused to the passenger.

Through dogged insistence (it was hard work) I managed to get myself on a flight to Cincinnati leaving just 90 minutes later than my original flight: but this nonetheless translated into a total trip time of 21 hours rather than the planned 14.

I was told that my luggage would not be with me when I arrived and that I would receive it the day after. I am writing on the 26th October, I am still in California and my luggage has not yet been forwarded to me.

The airline does of course taken upon itself to complete its original task: that is transfer the passenger and his/her luggage to the original destination. But I would question the meaning of this task.

I bought a ticket to fly to California in 14 hours (Turin-Paris-SF) and arrive with my baggage: I did NOT buy a ticket to fly to California in 21 hours and arrive without my baggage. Therefore in some way I have been failed, as have all customers who undergo similar inconvenience, and I would want the airline to recognise this.

The airline does not, in fact, recognise this.
This is a sistemic fault.
The busy and somewhat rude staff at Charles de Gaulle Airport can only find a new itinerary, they can do nothing else!
The attentive staff at the Air France luggage office in the US (somewhere on the east coast) are not able to do anything except relocate and eventually forward missing luggage!

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 dont 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 oclock. 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 cant 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 gentlemans 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 DONT CARE!

I waited until I started to see colors and hear echoes, and then pleaded with him again to call a doctor. He called, not a doctor, but a wheelchair attendant, who speeded me past the handbag control point, and onto the plane. I don't remember anything until I awoke somewhere over the Atlantic.

I contacted Air France, doing all they asked, and four months later was told that as a result of their investigation, they'd found that the attendant had asked me if I needed a doctor, and that I had refused help. Standing at the counter with me were several other passengers, who, seeing the attendant refuse my request for a doctor, had given me their business cards and said they'd testify if I needed them to. I offered the names of these passengers to Air France, but they refused to accept them.

I had to purchase tickets with a different airline on the spot at almost $10,000.

I had gone to Damascus to escort my elderly mother of 74 back home after her visit with her sister after an accidental fall. My mother does not get around so well; ever since her cancer, following various other mishaps, I've used special caution when traveling with her. Thus, I had requested a wheelchair when purchasing our airline tickets; however, it was to no avail. Upon our arrival at Charles De Gaulle airport, we were told that there was no wheelchair available and asked to wait at the gate for staff to locate one. After 20 minutes, I was told I had to leave the gate because it was closing, and directed towards the terminal's central authority.

Meanwhile, I and my mother, carrying all of our luggage, had to treck another 20 minutes, past some 20 odd gates to reach this destination without any help, concern, or apology. Finally, I received a wheelchair and proceeded to a bus to be transported to another terminal (literally another building), wherein I experienced severe harrassment and abuse by security officials, never having really entered Paris to begin with. I had already gone through this screening process in Damascus, and found a second one highly unneccessary; airport staff responded to my concerns and complaints with arrogance and attitude.

The more concern expressed by me for my mother's condition, the more harshly we were treated. After she broke down crying, and we almost missed our flight (the connecting time of which was two hours), we finally boarded the plane--just barely. Before boarding the plane to New York, at the gate, I attempted to resolve my complaint one final time. In response to my concerns, Air France management told me they should have charged me for a wheelchair because not everyone needs one. This insinuation implied that due to customer's needless demand for wheelchairs when they don't need them, one was not available. This was their apology. Needeless to say, I will never again fly Air France.

A month has passed, there was no letter so I called them again (maybe for the 10th time already). A guy on the phone told me that my claim hasn't been processed yet and assured me that he will take care of that, his name was Robert. Another month went bye and again no sign of life from Air France. I called them again (12/07/06), this time It was Sharonn who told me to call back in 2-3 days to make sure my claim would finnaly be handled. I called after 11 days (12/18/06), It was Virginia who told me that in order to get any reimbursment I should get another claim number with customer relation service.

It was the first time that any of the agents I spoke with mentioned something like that. After I insisted she generated this number for me and asked for two weeks to be processed, I generously accepted the offer. After 3 weeks (01/10/07) I called them again because there was still no letter with their offer for reimbursment in my mailbox. They told me that they need 3-4 weeks to process this and that I should be a little more patient. I don't mind the crib and 150 Euros and I understand that bags can be lost in long distance busy flights, what really bothers me is the attitude and arrogance of their personel.

I am getting inclined to the idea that this is a kind of official Air France policy towards their customers. I can't find any other explanation for such behaviour. I am missing the bag since September and they need 3-4 weeks to process the claim. I would like to know how this process is going on. Is there a special committee who meditate on my lost bag or they are trying to clone it, I have no idea. It must be a really delicate and demanding task.

È

We've been married for 18 years and have never left our children alone at home. Looking forward to our "honeymoon" and French experience we boarded Air France 0995 in JHB. From the start the reception was cold and even hostile, seats were extremely cramped (even less space than the internal BA flight from CT), and the food horrific! On arrival at CDG, the experience worsened ... after standing in a queue for more than an hour, we were duly informed that all connecting flights from CDG to Nice were full and that we had to find our way to Orly.

On arrival at Orly we once again experienced the "AF welcome"! To be expected, we arrived at Nice to be informed that our baggage have been delayed, and our "torture" continued with the interrogation by the baggage "(in)(con)sultant". Our stay in France was fantastic and we put our bad experiences with AF behind us. I can truly say that France, especially Provance and the VAR is an experience not to be missed. 12 days of bliss passed way too fast and it was time to return home on AF.

Being an optimist, I hoped for a better treatment by AF. This hope was dashed on book-in at Nice airport. We were overweight by 20kg (French food and wine is truly superb) and had to pay 30 Euro per kg. By the way the weight limit is exactly 20 kg per person (no leeway), and not 23kg's (BA, SAA, and other reputable airlines). The baggage allowance for business class is 30 kg's and I enquired about upgrading the 2 of us ... the price quoted for the upgrade ... R29880-00 per person! Remember this is one way to JHB PER PERSON!!! In addition we were told to book our bags all the way to Cape Town, and had to pay an additional 80 euro for the excess baggage for this leg on BA.

Anyway, we found our way to CDG from Nice, booked onto AF 0992 to JHB .... on a flight with more than 50 seats EMPTY. I understand the penalty for excess baggage, but take offence to being "ripped" for 680 Euros on an empty flight!!! On arrival at JHB we were told to collect our baggage ... the "promised book in to CT ... NOT TRUE!!! We paid the 80 euros .... FOR NOTHING!!!!! What a pleasure Booking into BA from JHB to CT. By the way ... no charge for the excess baggage! I wonder if BA will ever receive the 80 euro from AF?

Only one problem ...BA mislaid our baggage, and we were re-united with our prized and now very expensive pates and wine 2 days later. Be warned ... do not travel AF, and if you do, prepare yourself for a long and tiring trip, with no one to complain to!!! I'm not sure if I feel any better by having written and posted this note in cyberspace ... perhaps I need to try alternative therapy and open my bottle of Chablis now. By the way, should any AF employee ever read this, I'll be more than willing to recount our story with some added free advice to improve "service".

Due to reasons unknown to us his connecting flight from France to Johannesburg was cancelled and he was told he would fly on a later flight that night, as the evening grew hiewas then advised that he would be taken to a hotel and only be on a flight the next day. When he tried to get help and explain he had a funeral to attend his was told that he wasn’t the only passenger and just sit down and be quiet.

As a result of this my brother missed the funeral and was shown no compassion by your staff. Later that week when we were checking our return details we realised we had booked different flights which were within 1 hour of each other! So we phoned Air France in Santon to try change our flight in order to travel together. I first spoke to a young woman called Sinita who was extremely rude to me and said, No I won't change your ticket as it's nonchangeable yet in the small print of my ticket it states that for a fee my ticket is changeable.

My brother tried to explain the situation and asked if she could try to help us due to our situation and maybe have a bit of companion… Sinita asked my brother who had died. When he said my Aunt, she replied it’s only your Aunt who’s dead not your mother. He asked to speak to a manager but she refused telling him he could only speak to her and that she would not let him, he put the phone down. I called back and again this same women was rude and unreasonable, she told me that she would not let my brother speak to a manager and she would let me either. I asked her why and she replied with “Because I don’t want to”.

Fair enough if this is the way your agents deal with clients on the phone I can see in the future your company will fail.

Despite three letters and numerous phone calls, no progress was made. Next, my baggage was missing on arrival again!. After filling out all the necessary paperwork, I realized I would be late for my appointment. The service rep assured me that Air France would cover the cost of a taxi. I submitted the paperwork appropriately, but have been denied. I have sent three letters now. What is most infuriating is they never explain why they refuse my request. Their baggage services seem a criminal enterprise.

The baby carriage was worth about $200. The taxi was 23 euros. The first incident hampered my holidays tremendously. The letters and phone calls have taken hours of my personal time.

Finally they determined that my troubles were worth only $70, what I laid out to get by for 2 1/2 days. I think a lot differently and am considering litigation. If you accept their check, you waive rights to litigation. It's lying in my desk drawer.

We ended up having to pay for a hotel stay in Rome because our plans were to arrive in Rome then take a train to Florence where we had a hotel reserved (and paid). The flight delay ended up costing us a hotel stay in Rome and a loss of the preplanned stay in Florence.

If it's ok when your luggage is 2-5 days late, fly AirFrance. If you think that safety is guaranteed when a passenger is left ALONE with a SHOTGUN and about 100 rounds of amunition in CDG baggage-handling area, fly AirFrance. This is the experienve of one flight from BCN to MIA via CDG.