Air France? Never again! (Air France in general)

Member Name: harkon

Product:	Air France in general
Date:	21/02/03 (278 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none I can think of

Disadvantages: terrible customer service, lousy communications, total ****ing incompetents

We arrived at Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on the Delta Airlines flight from Atlanta at approximately 10.30 on Saturday 4th January 2003, with the intention of taking the 13.20 flight AF 2258 from Charles De Gaulle to Manchester Airport. Our party consisted of myself (a diabetic), my wife, and our two small children aged five years and nine years respectively.
Shortly after our arrival at Charles De Gaulle it started snowing, with approximately one to two inches of snow falling, and about an hour and a half after our arrival an announcement was made that flights (including ours) would be delayed.
At approximately 16.00 flight AF 2258 was announced, and, after a considerable delay, we and the other passengers were transported to the aircraft by bus. In order to board the bus we had to make our way down an outside staircase where it was clear that no effort at all had been made by ground staff to clear the snow away. In my opinion this represented an unsafe situation from a health and safety viewpoint, and, had an accident occurred involving one of the passengers on this flight occurred, Air France would have been rendered liable in law for an absence of duty of care to the passengers on this flight.
We were transported across the airport to the aircraft, and were asked to board using a metal mobile staircase, which again had not been cleared of snow and represented a hazardous situation from the health and safety viewpoint. After the passengers boarded the captain made an announcement apologising for the delay, and advised the passengers that the flight would be departing in "about ten minutes". We actually sat aboard the aircraft for a period of some FOUR HOURS, during which time the only refreshments provided were a small glass of water per person to economy passengers, plus a small filled baguette. We had now been at Charles De Gaulle airport for some six hours, and had not had anything else to eat other than a light snack at about 12
.00.
During the period that we were sitting aboard the aircraft, a number of conflicting announcements were made by the captain regarding our departure time, variously stating that (1) the aircraft was waiting to be deiced - a statement that I find difficult to understand as the engines were running, and as I was sitting over the port wing, I could see through my window that the wing surfaces were in fact clear of ice - (2) that air traffic control were giving priority to incoming flights due to the weather conditions - a reasonable situation given the circumstances, but my eldest son and I could actually see aircraft taking off through our window, and during our four hour wait counted some 14 aircraft taking off. -(3) that we were waiting for clearance from air traffic control.

At approximately 20.00 hours the cabin crew announced that the flight had been cancelled, giving no explanation as to why this had happened, and advised that we had to return to the terminal, giving no other advice or instruction as to what we should do upon our return to the terminal. We were again required to leave the aircraft using an icy set of metal steps which had not been cleared, and were transported back to the terminal and were dumped there. No member of Air France staff was waiting for us to give any advice or assistance.
In the absence of any information as to what to do, we went to the Transfers desk, where we were told by a member of staff to report to the check-in desk at Gates 9 and 10. We asked what would happen to our luggage, to be assured that our luggage would be taken care of.
When we arrived at gates 9 and 10, staff there appeared to know nothing about what was going on, and redirected us back to the Transfers desk, where by now a very large queue of both short and long haul passengers had built up.
We joined the queue and waited for some three hours, it now being 23.00, before we were dealt with by a member of Air France staff, who issued t
ickets for the next available flight at 13.20 on Sunday. As we are a family with small children and one diabetic adult, we asked whether Air France would provide us with overnight accommodation, and vouchers for a hot meal. At this point it was now nearly 24 hours since our last hot meal, and without the complimentary baguette some 5 hours earlier, I would by now have gone into diabetic coma, and the children by now were extremely hungry. We carefully explained this to the member of staff that we spoke to who refused to supply any meal vouchers other than for breakfast the following morning, and who told us that Air France would be unable to provide any overnight accommodation.
We were able fortunately to pick up some snacks from one of the terminal shops which was on the point of closing, but, short on funds and simply abandoned by Air France, we had no option but to spend a very cold and uncomfortable night in the terminal.
After an early breakfast at 04.30 on Sunday morning we decided to return to the Transfers desk in order to check that we would still be flying out on the 13.20 flight, and to see whether there was any possibility of getting on an earlier flight which we understood to be leaving at 07.45.After again having queued for some time and having found that there were no seats available, we returned to gates 9 and 10 to check in for the 13.20 flight, and, hopefully, return to Manchester.

On the way back to the check in gate, passing the luggage carousels we were horrified to discover that our luggage and what appeared to be the rest of the luggage from Saturday's cancelled flight had simply been dumped by one of the carousels, leaving it wide open to theft and/or acts of terrorism. We were fortunate to be able to recover all of our luggage, and despite some minor damage to one of the cases, everything seemed to be in good order.
On our arrival at Checkin at gates 9 and 10, it now being about 07.00, we were met by scenes of nea
r riot. It appeared that tickets issued the previous day were not in fact valid, and that they had to be reissued, and that there was no guarantee that we would actually be able to board the flight.
Cutting a long story short, we finally boarded the 13.20 flight some at 17.00 hours, some 27 hours late, and finally made it back home.
What annoys me more than anything about this whole episode was Air France's complete breakdown in customer service for stranded passengers, and the fact that, but for the determination of my wife in keeping my blood sugar balances going, I could fairly easily have gone into diabetic coma during our enforced stay at CDG.
For the record, it may help readers to know that Air France do not treat long haul passengers having to make connections through CDG as long haul passengers if they are going on to European or British destinations - they are in fact considered as short haul passengers. It may also help readers of this review to bear in mind, that by a member of Air France's staff's own admission, in bad weather conditions short haul passengers don't have a hope in hell of getting out of CDG as they are actively discriminated against in favour of passengers on (more profitable) short haul flights!

Be warned!

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