Why We Are Unlikely to Fly Air France Again

The following is a feedback for Air France. Unless you're looking for an opinion about Air France service, you probably don't want to read this post.

I am writing to express our disappointment with our 15 December Air France flight from Bangkok to Dublin (flights AF 0165 and AF 1478, booking reference 62RR4P). For my wife and I, this was our first experience with Air France and things actually started off very promisingly. The check in procedure was friendly and easy; the plane was relatively comfortable; and the first meal that was served after take off (BKK to CDG) was quite good. After the initial meal, we were actually quite impressed with Air France but things seemed to go downhill from there.

The first disappointment came about 6 or 7 hours after the initial meal. As you might expect, we started to get a bit hungry so I asked a flight attendant if any more food would be served. Her response was that sandwiches and other food had been available on a "self serve" basis throughout the flight and that the announcement had been made earlier. I quickly flashed back to the announcements earlier that I could not actually hear due the noise of the plane. By the time I had asked about food, there was no more food available and that the next meal would be served in a couple of hours.

The next disappointment was shortly after this when my wife had finished reading her book and tried to use her entertainment system only to find that the sound from the player came through as a high pitched ringing. As it was two thirds of the way through the flight, we did not bother to contact any attendant about this.

Alleged "meal" on Air France / Photo from Flickr by twowaystairs

By the time the next meal was served, about nine hours had passed since our previous meal so we were naturally quite hungry. The "meal" that came out was more of a snack than a meal. There were three small slices of chicken with a small dollop of slimy coleslaw, an inedible bun that had not been properly defrosted and a piece of poorly-named "Tasty" cheese. So after waiting so long to eat, essentially, I had three small slices of chicken and a tasteless piece of cheese. Not providing properly portioned meals for a flight of over twelve hours is unacceptable.

Soaked Luggage / Photo from Flickr by twowaystairs

The next, and probably biggest disappointment was with regards to our luggage. As we were disembarking the transfer bus from the terminal to the plane at Charles de Gaulle, we could actually see one of our bags sitting on a stationary conveyor belt for over a minute (that we could see) in the pouring rain. When we collected our luggage in Dublin, it was soaking wet. Thankfully, we only had clothing in our checked luggage and did not have anything particularly susceptible to water damage. Also, luckily, we were visiting family in Ireland and had the capacity to clean and dry our wet clothes but this is absolutely an unacceptable practice for an airline that endeavours to provide a reasonable level of service. This procedure does not bode well for our return flight when we will have fuller luggage after Christmas. 

Wet Clothes / Photo from Flickr by twowaystairs

Two weeks ago, I used the Air France online feedback form to try to provide this feedback but I there were not enough characters available in the input box to adequately describe our disappointment. Worse yet, the expected response time is a dismal four weeks. We fly back to Bangkok tomorrow and, as I hadn't yet heard a response, I decided to call customer care. To be perfectly honest, it's a terribly uncomfortable thing to call to complain to someone. Typically, I would rather just take my business elsewhere but in this case, we're still tied to flights tomorrow that we're really not looking forward to so I thought I called to give Air France the opportunity to show some kind of gesture to make things better before we fly because after that flight, the likelihood of us wanting to book with them again is minimal.

The woman at customer care was friendly but, in this situation at least, fairly useless. I asked her what Air France could do to make this situation better before our flight tomorrow and she asked me what I had in mind. Not knowing of many other possibilities, I suggested that if there were upgraded seats available, that that would be appreciated. She said this wasn't possible so I asked her what was possible (as I am not an airline customer care expert). She repeatedly replied that an upgrade wasn't possible (which, to be fair, I understood the first time she had explained it) and that I should submit a complaint form because "Air France loves to hear feedback like this." I seriously doubt that Air France actually loves to hear this feedback but, regardless, it was very clear that any possible solution is still weeks away and will be long beyond the time in which Air France has the opportunity to make us feel better about flying with their company. Even if Air France refunds us some money, it would still be too late to improve our flying experience with them.

I have given Air France enough opportunities to make some show of good faith while we are still a captive audience but after our flights tomorrow, I'm afraid that it is unlikely that any gesture from Air France will be significant enough to persuade us book with them again in the future. Here's hoping that I'm wrong.