Those of you who didn’t bugger off to more entertaining weblogs months ago will remember that my recent journey to North Korea was marred by the failure of my luggage to join me on my trip. Naturally enough, I wrote a lengthy missive to Air France’s ‘customer-care’ department on my return, detailing my experience.
To whom it may concern,
I took an Air France flight (AF2271) to Hong Kong on October 1st. Due to a baggage handlers strike in Paris my bag never arrived at its destination, and while I appreciate that this kind of event is not under your direct control, my subsequent experiences dealing with your staff and agents in trying to recover my bag have been little short of woeful.
1. After making contact with ground-staff in Hong Kong, I was given a tracking code (HGGAF 17673) and told that my bag would be arriving the following evening – I was told to expect a call whether the bag arrived or not and stayed at my hotel to intercept this. It never came.
2. The following day I called Hong Kong airport again, to be told for the first time of the strike, and informed that my bag would now be arriving the following day. As I was travelling on to China, I gave your agents my hotel details in Beijing and was promised that the bag would be forwarded there.
3. I was based at my hotel in Beijing until 15th October (two weeks after my original flight), but neither my baggage nor any contact from Air France was forthcoming.
4. On leaving Beijing, I queried Air-France check-in staff on the matter to be told (with a grin) “don’t worry – we’re always losing bagsâ€.
5. On my return to London, I contacted Lost Luggage at Heathrow to be told that I should have been greeted by ground staff in Paris and reunited with my bag. Obviously, this did not happen. I was then told that my luggage would be arriving the following day, and gave my office details for delivery during the week.
6. When the bag did not arrive the following day, I called the number on your website (0870 850 1839), was told that no-one could confirm where my bag was, and asked to call back in fifteen minutes, giving them time to locate it. The subsequent call did not reveal this information.
7. Tues 18th – I called again, to be told that my bag had still not been located.
8. Wed 19th – called again to be told that my bag was now in Paris and would hopefully be delivered in “the next few daysâ€
9. Thursday 20th – told that my bag should have been sent to Paris on Oct 16th but wasn\’t, that you had “no idea†when it would reach London, and that Air France in Hong Kong did not have for contact details during my time away. This is completely untrue – my copy of the documentation I received in Hong Kong clearly shows these details, and I notified your staff of my forwarding details went I went on to China.
10. An attempt to deliver by bag was finally made on Saturday 22nd – to my office address, despite me making it absolutely clear to your staff that this address was only to be used during office hours, Monday-Friday. After speaking to the delivery company I finally received my bag at my home address at 11.45pm that evening.
The most frustrating aspects of this experience have been as follows:
Firstly, the information given to me by your staff, although generally relayed in a polite manner, has been almost universally inconsistent, ill-informed and misleading.
Secondly, I’ve had to spend a large amount of time originally earmarked for site-seeing replacing the items that never showed up. As one of the events I was attending was a formal affair, this included having to purchase shoes, shirt and trousers that I will, in all likelihood, never wear again. I also had to spend several hours in Beijing tracking down a charger for my camera.
The cost of this is largely irrelevant, but the effect it had on my overall experience was certainly not. This was meant to be a trip of a lifetime, but Air France’s continued ineptitude over the course of this matter has left an extremely nasty taste in my mouth, and impacted greatly on what otherwise would have been a fantastic trip.
Regards,
Fraser
A month passed. No response. I wrote again. This time, I was more direct.
To whom it may concern,
It has been a month since my last letter (attached).
While my previous experience with your ‘customer-care\’ representatives had led me to believe that any response was likely to slow in arriving, I am truly staggered that such a period has passed without an acknowledgement of my complaint being received.
Do you plan to string this misery out for much longer, or are you simply determined that my experience of your post-holiday service should be as woeful as that I received during my vacation?
Regards,
Fraser
And guess what? Still no response.
So bollocks to them. I’m off to New York. And this time I’m traveling with a much more reputable airline.
Fraser,
You say the money is not important, and if that is true then maybe you should get a little more involved. I would recommend you get a solicitor onto it. If they ignore a solicitors letter they are stupid and if they also ignore a Notice of Claim, you could perhaps get some decent compensation. And a happy ending to the tale.
You were far too polite with these people. I woud have raised some serious hell, then gotten busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest in my efforts to slay the dragon that is the airline industry.
Did you pay for this farce by credit card? If so, complain to your card company. Not only might you have some form of automatic cover for this sort of thing, but more importantly they can kick up a very efficient stink for you with Air France.
The problem may have been that you sent an email, and not a “courielle.” I doubt their systems could handle it.
I very much hope there will be a series of further emails of increasing frequency and escalating coprolalia. The bastards.
Actually I just wanted to see if I could use the word coprolalia in a sentence.
that bi-polar dude had it coming. don’t fuck with us air marshalls.
Air France are nobbers.
I flew to NY with them once, and I had to get a connection in Paris CDG. They missed the connection, which meant staying in a hotel near the airport overnight and missing a day of my trip. Do they reply to complaints? Do they bollocks.
Anyway, do you fancy writing me a complaints letter for South West trains who took 2 1/2 hours to get me from London to Windsor last night?
You know what you should do?
Send them those brown trousers and the pic of you wearing them. After all, they’re French, so the total lack of style that was forced upon you might traumatise them into action.
Air France lost my luggage so often that I can provide some statistics:
bag delivered late incidents: 3 (one of them AF handling for Alitalia)
minimum forwarding time to destination: 15 hours
maximum forwarding time to destination: 2 weeks
average response time to letters demanding compensation: 12 months
favourite destination for lost/late luggage: DAM (Damascus)
percentage of passenger on one AF plane not receiving their bags on the carousel in DAM: 60%
number of AF representatives to handle this incident: 0
time for the unfortunate lone Damascus Airport lost luggage handling agent to sort the paperwork out: 6 hours
I am one of the “unlucky” ones of Damascus. My baggage was lost and no one can provide any accurate information at the lost and found office. There are no AF staff for the most part in attendance. Their tracing system is only for decoration purposes as it does not provide any information when the file reference of the property irregularity report is entered. They assured me that the bag had been forwarded to Budapest in error and was arriving at 02:00AM. Spent 4 hours at the airport and the baggage never made it, although they mentioned that the chances for the baggage to arrive was 90%. How can they figure this out?? Maybe it was 90% that it did not make it. On my previous flight I left my electric shaver in the seat pouch. It was recovered by AF staff but when I went to pick it up it three days later it had “misterously dissapeared. Perhaps is time to change to a more reliable airline……………….
AirFrance is well known for loosing luggages especially in CDG Airport. They lost mine once (Delhi 2001). My friends’ countless time…
Hello
My sympathies.
I too was victimized by Air France. Due to KLM/Norhwest rerouting me through Paris on the way to Florence in early October, my bags for a bicycle trip arrived the day before my return. During the entire time, no one at Air France answered a telephone and we incurred several hundred dollars of telephone charges. When I finally retrieved my bags, one was mildewed and smelled of smoke, urine and jet fuel.The whole thing was outrageous.
all this just happened to me!! air france was delayed almost 2 hours causing me to miss my connecting flight. then claim no responsibility for compensation because they “got me to paris”. i had to purchase a new ticket if i wanted to get home before jan 5th (7 days after my flight) did you ever get a response back? my bag is still “missing”. how good are chances of getting your bags back?? WHAT SHOULD I DO??
It just happened to me too! I wished I had this information before I bought my mum’s Aif France ticket.
My Mother travelled to Africa on AF and only one of her luggage arrived. She was told to come back on second for her luggage. She went back and still, her luggage has not arrived, they told her that they will call her when it arrives. Only God knows when that call will come.
It’s been 3 days now and we are still waiting. The sad thing about it is that her medical kit is in the bag. I just hope they find it soon enough.
That will be the last time I will go on AF and I will also spread the words to other people about their misserable reputation about luggage handling.
Yep, Air France is awful. I don’t have the energy to detail my complaint the same way you did, but I’ve been on hold for half an hour and had some time to kill. Everyone I’ve met has had the same experience. We lost our luggage too, and I think that is pretty common with them. They don’t respond to “courrielle” either, or whatever the fuck the call it. Air France is the worst. Hopefully if I type “cheap tickets, international flights, Air France” someone who doesn’t know any better might stumble on this sight in a search.
I commiserate:
Two Air Grance Experiences: In the first, my child’s baby carriage arrived two weeks late to our travel destination. It was destroyed. We took pictures and submitted a request for funds to buy a new one. They refused as we had not gotten an estimate from a repairman for the cost to fix it. We don’t know any baby carriage repairmen where we vacation. The carriage was so broken we immediately trashed it because it was unusable. 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 claim services seems like a criminal enterprise…
Air Chance…
Air France lost my boss’s golf clubs yesterday as he was on way to ….. play in the European Open in Ireland! Does it get any better than that – they are rubbish and 24 hours later still have no idea where the clubs have gone. If a French Pro wins maybe we can sue them for sabotgage ha ha ha. Useless, totally useless!
My wife and I just got back form our honeymoon, 7 nights on a cruise on the Medateranian, 2 extra nights in Rome. Sounds great, but unfortunatly we flew Air France. Lost lost both of our bags and we didn’t get them back for the entire trip. In fact we still haven’t recieved one of the bags. Of course that was the worst of it, but to make things worse, how smug and worthless is their airport staff and flight attendents. F-ing A-. By far, the most frustrating situation I have ever been through. we are in the process of writing the letters and making the phone calls to try and get some sort of compensation. I will never fly Air France, Delta, or any of their affiliates.
Me too, me too! I’ve also been completely reemed, bent over the baggage turnstile and @#$%&# to oblivion by air france!
These people are unbelievable! They make me want to puke. AND I’m french!
I should have known from the first time I stepped into that impossibly confusingly ill layed out airport called CDG that I would end up in some insane nightmare of a situation associated with it.
Then dont even let me start on air france and their employees beyond smug, haughty attitude, which has obviously been developed into perfection over the duration of their miserable carreers. PRIDE in QUALITY, SERVICE, COMPASSION, and INTELLIGENT human interaction are all notions that they are completely unfamiliar with. They are Evil!
I arrived on the 31st, its the 8th and I’ve just been told once again on the phone that they have “no information” about my two missing check ins.
In this day and age, i ask, how is this possible?!
Todays surprisingly kind (but useless) british sounding employee said that they have 4000 bags sitting in CDG and the pile just keeps growing. He said this happens every year during Aug/Sept, but that its exceptionally bad this year… He used it as an excuse though, which I thought a bad move since
the French have been going on vacation during these two months for longer than “Air Chance” has existed. You’d think they’d have it figured out by now…
Maybe during these months the air france employees figure that they are on vacation too!
I cant even get into the ramifications and domino effect this has had on my life over the last 9 days. My health, my bussiness, my developing relationships, Irreplacable belongings etc. My blood is curdling!!!!
Air France lost my luggage on route to my honeymoon in europe, despite a 5hr layover in Huston that should have ensured that it got on the plane. F–ers. Found the bag a week later and then they lost in again trying to get it to us at one of our honeymoon stops. It’s now 2 1/2 weeks since they initially lost the bag and they said they would deliver it to me today.
Totally incompitent and their lost baggage call center is completely useless. All they do is read info off a screen and have no power to track down a bag or insure its delivery after its been found. I’m suing for costs incurred. I’m not even going to wait to request compinsation and be denied. I had to buy clothes to get me through 2 weeks of vacation, and they definitley put a blemish on my honeymoon, bastards.
We go to France from Boston every summer for 3 months. And we take our cat, Binky, on the plane with us. Air France is very pet friendly. But that is the only thing I can say positively about the airline. They are the worst. Surley, disinterested check in people, non-existent customer service (I use that term advisedly), lost luggage claim unanswered for 4 months, and emails unacknowledged and unanswered.
Binky is 17, and may die before our trip next summer. When he dies, Air France will never see me again.
I’m trying hard not to say “me too”, but, damn! This is endemic.
I really didn’t think any airline could get away with this kind of crap any more. I’ve been fortunate in some ways that I’ve dealt with my lost bags thru their US partner, Delta, who has some very decent lost baggage people. But AF? On my recent return from a trip to Europe they managed to screw up at every single opportunity — from delays, to misinformation, to deception, to smarmy, “well, what are you going to do about it?” looks when I explained that their f&*(-up was causing me and my family major grief (like, turning a simple return trip into a 36 hour ordeal — which, with two small kids is a major, major ordeal). They of course couldn’t care less.
Now, three weeks later, I’m still trying to track down the last of the bags that AF so gracelessly managed to lose at CDG — and reading thru the stuff above I’m realizing I have no chance in hell of ever accomplishing that. I don’t care if I have to go to Paris by way of a neighboring country: I am never flying with that god-awful outfit ever again.
Air France can go fuck themselves. They’ve lost my luggage at CDG and the bitches and assholes at the Air France luggage counter are among the most unprofessional and unhelpful people I’ve ever dealt with. They’re lazy, lie and make up stuff when they don’t have info (because they don’t even want to lift their little finger to do their job). I’ve put Air France on my blacklist (where Northwest/KLM reigned supreme). It’s been 3 days since they don’t have any info and everytime you call them, it’s a difference made up story. In the end, I had to call Delta in the US because Air France basically lost interest fixing their mistake. Delta people were super helpful dealing with this whole issue.
Fuck you Air France and your fucking CDG hell hole of an airport.
Avoid Air France. Use an American airline instead.
We left Birmingham UK with Air France on 14 December 2006 transferring in CDG and onwards to DXB. As if the chaotic and inhuman conditions of the security check points was not enough to endure, today, 20 Dec 2006 we are still without baggage. First needs payments? All we are worth is a paultry 100 Euros to buy essential items for the 16 days we are going to be in Dubai. This has to be refunded to us back in the UK!! There is a massive black hole of luggage in CDG and NOBODY from Air France is sorting this out. A backlog of bags are said to be being sent but NOBODY in Paris is even entering the bag tag numbers to the WorldTracer system so that passengers can at least be informed that the baggage has been found. However, this would mean that Air France then has to forward the baggage because they have admitted that it is there!! NEVER EVER again will we book with Air France and we will NEVER EVER recommend that anyone else does!! If anyone from Air France reads this. GET IT SORTED!!
My brother and I travelled on AF2271 on above date to connect to a flight in Charles de Gaulle for Johannesburg. The flight was delayed due to the actions of the airline (i.e. they allowed someone aboard with what appeared to be no boarding card). The cabin crew confirmed that the confusion over this lady\’s lack of a boarding card had delayed the flight.
We then were unable to reach our connecting flight. This delayed us for 24 hours. The knock on effect on our tour to Kilimanjaro was simply disastrous and could easily have been ameliorated by Air France changing our return date home. However, when we asked this we were shown great discourtesy by the supervisor (Mme. Fransoise Combeau of office CdG 2F1 Vente) and were told she would not help us because our etickets did not allow it. However, I have the details of other passengers who were allowed to do this due to the breach of contract by Air France, who also had etickets (we got their names too). We did check that Air France had the capacity to transport us back on these dates.
Despite the fact that Air Tanzania, our tour company and ourselves were desperately inconvenienced by the actions of Air France, the resulting SEVERE altitude sickness occasioned by the loss of the 24 hours acclimatization time on Kilimanjaro and the financial loss experienced by us on the tour, we have not been offered compensation, flight vouchers or even an upgrade.
Also on my return flight there was a delay in Johannesburg, we were given absolutely no explanation (everyone boarded on time) and this made me miss my connection home from Charles de Gaulle to Heathrow, missing an important meeting at work and putting my working day under a lot of pressure as a result. They put me on a flight which was two hours later (they would not give me the next flight out because of my baggage apparently) and this flight was also delayed, (we arrived in LHR about 9.40am) making me more than two hours late for work.
Another annoyed and frustrated Air Chance passenger here. Went to Dubai for Xmas leaving Dublin on the 22 Dec 06 and after a quick leggit through CDG only to find out I hadn’t been designated a seat number on the plane, finally got to Dubai… unfortunately my luggage was not so lucky and to this day (07 Jan) I still wonder where it is and if it is lonely and being kicked around by the smug air france employees. Number of telephone calls received from air france regarding matter = 0, no. made by me >>30. Number of times I will fly Air France again
Air France chaged 400 Euro for my over-weighted baggages…but I found out later that the weight limit Air France crew told to me was completely different from Air France web page. This person forgot give me a bagagge claim…Also, I asked a window sheet, but there was no window…In addition, cabin attendance said to me “there is no ice cream” but later, I found she ate ice cream with other cabin attendances in the airplane. Also, she dropped breads on the floor, but put them back and served them to other customers… Awful
Yesterday we arrived from Mumbai via CDG in Budapest. Guess what: Our luggage is still on travel. F… Air France.
Air France made my 16-year-old daughter un-pack her checked luggage at the check-in counter and stuffed her clothes into a plastic bag because the her luggage was too heavy. They also threatened to kick her off of the plane unless she paid them $100 to be an unaccompanied minor. The worst part was that she was traveling alone! Those jerks black-mailed her to pay them to get on the plane. Officially, Air France doesn’t even have un-accompanied minor service, but they co-chaired with Delta. The check-in people were extremely rude and abrasive, and my daughter arrived home, after her VACATION, extremely distressed because of this awful experience.
Recently went to Bamako (Mali) and Air France managed to misplace my luggage on the way out and the way back! The service in Bamako was truly appaling with airport and agents in town apparently unable to call each other.
Arrived back on a very cold day in London with no warm clothes, took a cab home under the circumstances and made a claim. A month later no acknowledgement… Truly useless company.
i just flew with air france from spain to londonand had my bags opened one hd camcorder latter less and guss who will pay not me i told air france that its marked with a tracker and i know where it is, so guss what i flew back to cdg and found the tracking tag in a bin so my question is who looks to see if something is tagged ? who is abel to scan bags i like a answer but it wont come the air france lady told me this happens all the time and that they work the ammount in the ticket price is this true
I have just arrived from Seoul back to the Czech Republic to find out that my baggage was lost somewhere on the way… I hope they will deliver it soon, though it does not seem likely. Anyway I am hoping for at least some compensation, which makes me a crazy-optimistic person…
So you had problems with Air France. Join the community!
Check out what the did to us at avoidairfrance.blogspot.com
Truly pathetic!
Air france lost my daughters luggag in Paris while in enroute to Barcelona. They are the most unconcerned, ill informed, useless group of people I have ever met. After reading this site I will have to write off the lost baggage, money spent to buy cloths for 10 days and the medical device that i had to replace. I will still try to get reimbusered for my expenses but will never fly this airline again. It would be more enjoyable to stay home. I ave dealt with Paris, Barcelona and the US baggage claim in Sunrise Florida where obviously they hire the mose moronic individauls. Does anyone know the physical address in Sunrise Florida as I would like to pay them a visit.
Air France lost our bag at CDG. Actually called and promised to deliver next day between 11Am and 6 PM. First full day in Paris waiting. No bag no call. 18 phone calls to them in the next 6 days. Each call involved a different story from each person. Many assurances of a return call with info. Yikes what a screwed up system (using the term loosely) Finally at 11:30 PM a guy shows up from the baggage service. Air France denied 2 of us access to a flight from Frankfurt to Paris despite being there 35 minutes before the flight officially closed. No line at security 25 feet away. Still loading at teh gate 40 feet away. Extorted another $350 to get back to CDG too late to make the connection to USA. Extorted another $200 (for one) reissued ticket 2 days later. Air France’s motto could easily be: “We cheat you and pass the savings on to the other guy” or “Arrogance taken to new heights” Is it possible that this is a publicly traded company?
Dear Airline,
On October 06, I called your reservation center in Montreal, after almost 45mns of waiting time, a reservations agent named REMI came on the line. After answering the call, he asked me how he can help me. I told him that I wanted to see if I can change my reservation.
Then, he asked if I have a reservation number of ticket number, questions to which I replied: No. But I told him that I have the flight number, date of travel, city pairs and last name of the passenger to give him. He said that he needed either the reservation number or ticket number and if I don\’t have those he could not help. I replied that he can retrieve my booking by other means such as the flight number, date of travel and last name than the PNR or ticket number.
He started being rude and having an inappropriate behavior telling me that for security reasons he could not proceed and retrieve my reservation, because he doesn’t see the person to whom he is speaking to. ? I told him then, that I wanted to speak to his supervisor.
He put me on hold for another 23mns and a person named JOE came on the line and I told the supervisor what happened, he did not apologized but was able to retrieve the my reservation by the flight number, date of travel and last name and first name that I gave him.
The reason why I wrote this complaint is that as a respectable airline, you must review how your employees behave with the customers and give a proper and adequate training.
Obviously, Remi lacks the proper training and JOE who is the supervisor also, doesn’t qualify enough for this task.
I believe an apology is always a good way to cool down a heated conversation after assessing the situation; and if your agents had the proper training situations like this can be avoided.
I am confident that you can resolve this, and I expecting the courtesy of a prompt reply.
I hope you will take this complaint in the helpful spirit in which it is meant.
Sincerely,
Penda T Diop
people…has anyone thought about flooding the head of the company with letters. i am going to send mine and would suggest you do as well. we have paid our money and demand that we get better service. my bag has been lost for the past two weeks…and i have four more months of traveling to do…
Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO/Chairman of the Board/Director
45 Rue De Paris
Roissy CDG Cedex, 95747
FR
Phone: 33141 568860
Fax: 3314141566849
I flew Air Farce to New Delhi earlier this year from Montreal.
The first screw up was that they had a vegetarian meal for me when I had not specified one …….has anyone tried eating a vegetarian meal in a plane…..Horrid stuff;the cheapies did not have an extra regular meal on board.
We reached Paris around 5.30 in the morning ;they bussed us to the next terminal….waited downstairs in a freezing corrider till 7.30 before they allowed us into the departure lounge.
On reaching Delhi found ONE out of two suitcases was missing .I waited till all the baggage had arrived and then someone from Airfrance showed up with a list of baggage left behind in Paris.( 2 hours at the baggage clearance) Since I was going to Chandigarh ( 4 hours away) they took my address and 2 days later delivered the baggage at MIDNIGHT. Next day when I opened the suitcase I found that half the contents missing.
Calling Delhi office was told to apply at Montreal for compensation.
When I returned to Montreal I wrote to the Air France office . They graciously offered to refund me the money for the stuff I had lost BUT only on production of receipts…..Ha HA …..They must be knowing that nobody but a moron would keep receipts for clothes and other things forever????
I am going back to India next year . I told my travel agent to book me on any other airline BUT Air France…….by far the worst airline that I have flown in my life.
Parmindar Aulakh
Montreal
I am one of the AirFrance employee, had recently quit from those bitches, they played their bag stealing trick at me itself.
You know airfrance dictionary:
airfrance – cheating airfuckers
CEO of airfrance – cheap mother fucker does not know whats management.
lady airfrance employees – rude sluts & money making bitches
men airfrance employees – fucking assholes
baggage handled by thieves & smugglers
Fuck you airfuckers… If I could have got proper power, I will sue & shutdown this fucking airlines & seal the CDG airport baggage handling system.. You know what.. AirFrance has a training division which trains the employees how to fuck the customers when they call over phone or talk directly.. and has the baggage handling (sorry its stealing division) division tied up with lot of other(thieves) third party stealing companies.. anywaz airfrance cant to do this crime for longtime…criminals will be punished one way or another…
Hey all,
I am really sorry to read about your baggage lost but belive me i had one of the worst expreinec of my life.
I was travelling from india along with my 2 month old son in Air France and the attendees behaviour was very much based on racisim.
I had a basinet seat which leaves very little space between the seat and the basinet seat and i could get up to lay down my baby in the basinet so asked a air purser for an help and he lift by poor little baby like a cat just 2 fingers below the shoulders ( that time my baby couldnt even hold his neck ) and put my baby in teh basinet, i felt real anger in my blood.
Later he served the food as i was holding my baby was difficult to eat so the trey fell down. The purser gathered the food and gave me the same food and on top of it scolded m efor dropping the food off.
I told him i dont want the fallen food and asked him to get me a new one.
And you know guys he turned up 5 min before the landing.
This AIR FRANCE shoud be sued and stopped complety for their arrogant behaviour Or atleast people shoudl travel whihc i guess will teach them to behave properly.
sorry for the typo mistake in my previous comments, people SHOULD NOT travel at all by AIr France
I go to Europe twice a year and I have had horrible experinces with Air France. Anyone have any “good” airlines to suggest? What about Lufthansa?
I just lost over $700. as Air France would not let me transfer a ticket to another date. At the date of purchase, I was told it was unrefundable, not untransferable….I have been put on 30 minute holds and no response to faxes to customer service. I also flew on Air France during the strike and we had no service for the 8 hours on board – just some cold snacks. Air France did nothing to compensate all of the travelers who were affected from the strike.
Does anyone know if I can complain to my credit card company and get a refund?
Keep spreading the word not to fly on Air France – they could care LESS about their customers.
Thanks,
my girlfriend came back from zurich on tuesday at the check in the twat at the AIR SHITE desk assured us the bag would reach london city when she did as there was a connection via CDG – did it fuck..i should have known as there was 40 mins between connections even though it was the same terminal.
been trying since tuesday they wont give us the no of the uk delivery company – who finally sent a text friday pm it woud be with her by 2300 friday . guess what no fucking sign .. they are the most useless people i have come across after those cunts at aeroflot but you expect it from those backward retards but air france – well you are right .. useless and typical of the whole malaise nick needs to sort out.. BA dont seem half as bad and as a brit i feel i can get some recourse..
I willingly (!) flew Air Farce from Paris to Bucharest. I did this after their having lost my bags once already, just 4 months ago, on a trip from Bucharest to Boston via CDG. Stupid me. But I thought, “this time it will be a DIRECT flight, what could happen?!” Last time, the bags turned up. But this time, they didn’t. Why? Because some mentally retarded and illiterate AF luggage employee who couldn’t read the luggage tag had put one of my bags on a flight to Algiers (!!!) instead of Bucharest. That was the last info I had on the bag, 5 days ago. Nothing since. It has either vanished into a black hole, or its contents has already been sold on some black market in Algiers by the friend of the luggage handler. Of course, Air Farce don’t know anything, nor do they fuckin care.
HOW IS THIS INCOMPETENT AIRLINE STILL IN BUSINESS, GIVEN THAT ITS LUGGAGE STAFF IS PATHOLOGICALLY IGNORANT AND THAT THE IQ OF SOME OF ITS WORKERS IS THE SAME AS MY SHOE SIZE (6)?
BOYCOTT AIR FARCE!
Luggage came. Or some of it, rather,as the other part (the expensive one of course) had been stolen, probably (or definitely) in Algiers. Fucking thieves. I am sure there is a network of luggage employees that pass along to each other the “appealing” luggage, which they then conveniently “misplace” so that they can have ample time to rummage through and steal whatever they find profitable from it. They even had time to look through my make-up bag and take only the big-brand items. I am sure my stuff is being sold as we speak on some African black market by some sleazy guy who keeps his merchandise in a dirty towel. May he rot soon. As about Air France – do they check if their employees have a police record before hiring them?!
Air France losses luggage – like many other companies – but what I regard as unacceptable is that, as a company policy, they do not even care to reply the letters claiming the loss, they do not compensate said loss and even they do not reimburse for a toothbrush, comb and toothpaste bought on account of their loss.
The only thing that we can do is to avoid and boicot that company.
Joan Miro
Barcelona
DON’T FLY AIR FRANCE!!!!!!!!!
My husband and I bought three tickets thru Expedia for Paris in April 2008. My husband bought a Delta ticket, and I bought the other two on Air France. They share the same carrier so we’d be on the same flight. Come the flight date I was extremely ill with a flu. I was told Air France would waive the penalty for reissuing a ticket if I had a doctor’s note, and that I would need to show it when I rebooked to AF. Both Expedia and Air France confirmed, we would have flight credit until April 2009. I called Expedia, Air France and Delta to confirm we would have flight credit until April 2009. Two weeks ago, I called AF and a booking rep confirmed we had flight credit in their database for two tickets, in my name and my son’s. She was ready to book our flight and I asked to hold off while we considered more dates. On Saturday 11/29 I called AF to book our flights. This time I got a nervous rep who said she needed to read the rules on this ticket. In short, I had the pleasure of speaking with a supervisor of CS who claimed, of their 8,000 Customer Service representatives, he was the only person one could speak with concerning a problem. Our problem was that now AF was refusing to honor our flight credit. This indifferent, smug Frenchman on the line, was reiterating the rules from his book that we had no flight credit. He refused to provide any address or name for me to discuss this problem. Two hours later, Expedia decided to give us a full refund. My husband has spent around a half million dollars with Expedia in the past six years, and they acknowledged their fault in the communication of “the rules.” While Air France decided to make big asses of themselves, I’m happy to say Delta did not. Delta is honoring my husband’s flight credit. Interestingly, Air France is also keeping their share of his “flight credit” for the same flight. So in all, Air France is keeping $1454.40 of our money for nothing. Suffice to say, we will NEVER FLY AIR FRANCE!! And we’re not really interested in going to Paris anytime soon.
NEVER FLY AIR FRANCE!!!!!!!!! It’s XMas day and I have been waiting for my suitcase for 4 days. Its at Charles De Gualle airport in Paris and I am only an hour away. No one has scanned it so it is sitting there but they can’t confirm it. They won’t let me in the suitcase area to find it either. THEY ARE THIEVES, LIARS AND THE WORST COMPANY THAT LOST MY BUSINESS FOREVER…I WILL REPEATEDLY TELL EVERYONE HOW AIR FRANCE RUINS PEOPLES TRIPS!!!!! I HATE AIR FRANCE!!!!
AIR FRANCE RIPPING OFF CUSTOMERS BY ENORMOUS EXCESS-BAGGAGE CHARGES !
it happened 2 times to me , i got charged an enourmous amount for excess weight ! this time for a baggage of 26 kgs i got charged 60 euros/aprox. 80$ extra !! at a ticket price of 92 euros !! no normal airline would charge overweight for 26 kgs, i can assure you ,as i fligh a lot . so i find myself in ‘strike’ again ,as already i was between 2002 – 2007 [not using AIR FRANCE], after trying to be charged by them for a 29 kgs baggage the amount of around 150 euros !!! than it was cheaper to throw the ticket ,and to fly with another airline [which didn’t care about the weight of my baggage !!]
NEVER AGAIN AIR FRANCE ,AS THEY ARE CROOKS AND THIEFS !!!
They stole everything except my clothes. One of my checked items was an Apple Mac Pro computer worth over 5k. When I arrived to JFK from CDG, they told me it would be on the next flight to be delivered to my home the next morning. The next morning they told me that the checked box had been “pilfered” and was found empty, in CDG. Later I spoke with another rep about filing a claim, I retold the story to her and she asked me who told me it had been “pilfered”. She was in disbelief that someone had given me that much information. Now I’m working on getting reimbursed for this huge loss, and I won’t be giving up. These people are absolute crooks. I’ll follow up here in a couple weeks ;)
I am very tall, so I had chosen a middle bulkhead seat on an air france flight from Paris to Los Angeles. A couple who spoke very little english asked me to move to the aisle seat so that they could sit together. I attempted to politely explain that I had been assigned the seat months ago, and needed the middle seat so that my legs would not stick out into the aisle. Being the troubleshooter and peacemaker that I am, I then went to the flight attendant to see if he could accommodate them elsewhere. Meanwhile the couple starting raising hell to a female flight attendant, and she was LAUGHING at me as I sat between these two extremely rude people. They were talking loudly over me on each side as if I didn’t exist. I had to sit in between to obnoxious selfish people, and the flight attendant thought it was amusing. The service on air france is horrible. I will not fly with them ever again.
I have flown Air Chance several times this year and have the following: do not eat the food as twice it has made me sick for over 24 hours; flights are rarely on time, 45 minutes to 7 hours late in my recent experience, so your connection will likely be missed, therefore be prepared to scramble; do not check a bag if you can avoid it, as you will never see it again; the flight attendants are typically impolite beyond reason (some exceptions of course) often ignoring the needs of passengers while chatting with each other in the back of the plane; mid flight the lavs are so filthy they are unfit for use, out of paper towels, and never cleaned up; compared to other international carriers their aircraft are dirty inside and the media devices work only sometimes. When I can I avoid this airline. Unbelievable a flag carrier can be run so poorly.
My nephew came all the way from Moscow to Montreal to the wedding of my daughter to find out that his suitcase is lost.Every day dissappointment of not having a positive result in searching his lost baggage (are they looking for it at all, I wonder?)makes my nephew frustrated. Air france! Wake up!Enough is enough!We will never fly with Air France and will never recommend our friends and relatives to fly by this irresponsible airline. So, we’ll place oficially though our solicitor a complaint with the demand to compensate everything, plus the moral damage which will be even bigger in numbers then the cost of the lost baggage. We promise that to you!Where are your good managers who fight for the “renome” of the airline?I would call your company: the airline without consiouness! Shame on you!
I recently purchased two full fare premium economy tickets on Air France leaving Seattle to Paris with a 3 day layover then on to Italy via Air France. Given the general strike in Paris and our expected arrival on October 21st (the day Parliament votes on the pension change), I called Air France to request moving out departure flight from Paris to Italy to the same day as our arrival in Paris, October 21st. Thus avoiding strikers and fuel lines in Paris. The ticket agent stated this change was in excess of $4,000 for the Paris/Italy segment change. I travel extensively internationaly and when paying full fare, ticket schedules are routinely changeable. Obviously Air France does not care about repeat business, rather into screwing their customers for all they can get at the outset.
send a letter here…
Jean-Cyril Spinetta, CEO/Chairman of the Board/Director
45 Rue De Paris
Roissy CDG Cedex, 95747
FR
Phone: 33141 568860
Fax: 3314141566849