Has anyone treavelled with air france long haul

Tweenas

We are traveling air france long haul next month and we were wondering has anyone flown with them or had good or bad experiences.
Thanks

Gran Hermano

Tweenas wrote: »

We are traveling air france long haul next month and we were wondering has anyone flown with them or had good or bad experiences.
Thanks

I found them brutal on the Paris-Havana route but fine on European routes.

BuffyBot

Have you checked out http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/af.htm ?

Seem mostly positive.

Gran Hermano

BuffyBot wrote: »

Have you checked out http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/af.htm ?

Seem mostly positive.

Check the reviews for AF economy on same site:
http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/Yseat-AF.htm

steve-o

I like Air France. Most planes (except Boeing 747) have personal video. Food is above average. Downside: Paris CDG can be a bit difficult to navigate for the inexperienced (lots of buses) and the food options in the terminals are pretty limted.

Davidth88

Flown them 3-4 times long haul. ( down the back in cattle class )

Food is really very good for what it is.

CDG can be complicated , but there are now transit trains between terminals . The food at the airport is horrible and very very very expensive .

The comfort level is the same as any other airline , basically cr*p , but economy is economy whoevery you fly with right ?


I don't remember the IFE , but I do remember the 747 had only the old screens but that was about 3 years ago now

tweety76

Hi,

I had a terrible experience with them long haul from Dom. Rep. to CDG.

On the way home the condensation( which turned into dripping water) dripped on my head the whole way home( 8 hrs to CDG I think). I was sitting in a window seat.

I complained several times and asked to be moved but they told me there were no other available seats so I had to sit with a hood over my head the whole way home...seriously I am not exaggerating here.

I sent in a letter when I got home and they sent me an apologetic letter plus a 50 stg voucher. I threw it in the bin.
I will never fly them again. Just my tuppence worth!!!

niborm

Yes, and they are definitively the worst airline I have flown long haul with. Every facet of their operation was rubbish, including the incredibly rude cow at check in.
The flights only had the large drop down screens in the aisles for IFE. On the return flight they showed that cinematic classic, Bewitched. I still cry at the memory.

Zulu

WORST. AIRLINE. EVER.

I flew them from Mauritius. 12 hour flight. Terrible. Seats are the narrowest seats I've ever sat in. My GF, who's a size 10, fit "snugly" in between the arms. I, a 34' waist, just about fit - but I couldn't access the radio/tv remote controller in the side of the arm, and the ear phone jack was digging into me. Luckily we'd an exit seat, so I could stretch out me legs, but the people behind? Forget it. They had no space.

I'd never, ever fly them again. Ever. I'd pay extra. Honestly, I've had more space in short haul flights. Seriously - worst plane I've ever been in. Horrible experience.

Zulu

Oh, and all their movies were Matthew McConaughey movies. Christ, the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, utter shit.

Tabnabs

I flew Paris to Jo'burg with AF and it was a very pleasant experience. I am very surprised to hear all the negatives here? I found them about the same as BA & Emirates and better than KLM & AL. Would be happy to fly AF long haul again.

ncmc

This is going back a bit, but we flew with them to Cuba 6 years ago for our honeymoon. Our flight was delayed by 24 hours going out. And we were not told this until we got to CDG, even though it later transpired that we should have been told in Dublin before we checked in, so we could have gone home for the night. We were brought to a horrible hotel for the night with no luggage (we weren't allowed claim our luggage). The next day, our flight was exactly full (despite the fact that it had two days worth of passengers) I am convinced to this day that it was a case of them not wanting to send two planes half full so they combined the two flights. We were never given an alternative reason for the delay. In addition to missing a day of our honeymoon, we were also delayed on the way home and as a result just missed our connection in CDG. We had to wait an extra 6 hours in CDG which is the worlds most horrific airport!

On the plus side, when we complained on our return, they did give us two free flights which we used to go to Paris the next year. It sounds like you are already booked and I'm sure you don't want to be freaked out by horror stories. I'm sure every airline has people with horror stories, and people are always more vocal when they've had a bad experience!

That said, I don't think i'd fly with them again if I could help it.

shrapnel222

i've used them a good bit, and although not perfect, i wouldn't have any major complaints.

big b

Had no complaints at all on short flights with AF.

Long haul - used them going to Thailand last year.
We only had short transit times & the baggage was always transferred without a hitch, as were we.

747 on the way out had seat-back video & gaming, service & food were ok.
747 on the way back was a much older aircraft, with only drop down screens.

Their much-vaunted self-service for snacks & drinks at night? 10 minutes after it "opened", there were 2 1-litre cartons of OJ and one of Apple juice. The advertised sambos & snacks - "sorry, all gone"

Certainly the poorest of the long hauls I've done, but nothing so bad that I felt inclined to complain to them.

Iron Hide

As most people said, short haul their pretty good. Long Haul is piss-poor. Flew CDG to JoBurg a year or so ago. in flight entertainment consisted of two broken drop down screens(out of a total of four), can't even remember the film. Myself i cant complain about the seats, at 6'4" aeroplane seats are always uncomfortable. And the food was oh-so french and awful. The staff were not too bad though.

That said i'd pick them over Bollocks(British) Airways any day, worst service imaginable..

Rondolfus

I found them really good. I had to take a long haul flight from Pairs and wasn't happy with my seat so I went to the Air France desk and asked the girl if I could switch to a seat near an exit so I could have loads of leg room. At first she said no and asked to see my ticket. I handed her my ticket in my passport and she said ," oh you're Irish" smiled and said she'd sort it for me.

So I got a nice seat. Food was good for airplane standards and entertainment was fine. So yea, fly with them they're fine

finbarrk

I found them fine on a flight to Beijing last year. I would use them again. CDG is some hole though.

mickoneill30

Flew Dub - Paris - Bangkok earlier this year.

The terminal in Paris airport is huge and needs a free train to get between them but it was clearly signposted and easy to get to. Had to re-go through security in Paris though which is a pain in the hole. Security there is slooooow and require you to nearly take everything out of your bags.

The planes were fine. We chose seats down the back for the long flight. On whatever plane we were on it was 2 seats wide at the windows for the last 5 or 6 rows so that meant not having to annoy strangers or be annoyed by them during the flight. The seats were reasonably roomy. Food was fine (for a plane) and on flights to and from Bangkok we had TVs in the backs of the seats.

I found them pretty good. Seats are tiny, but I'm small so it wasn't a big problem. The lack of leg room was made up for with the super comfy padded seats. I managed to sleep for about 6 hours, and I normally can't sleep a wink on flights, so I can't fault the comfort level. The movies and so on were fairly average, but a good selection. They came round loads of times with drinks, the snack thingy was very well stocked with noodles, drinks and crisps. The staff did insist on speaking French to me, but I look French and I speak it so I didn't mind. All in all I had a really good experience with AF.

olaola

Woudn't fly with them long haul again. We did Bangkok - Paris. I'm only 5'5" but I couldn't even sit with my legs infront of me, the space was so tight.

carnsoreboxer

Christmas Eve, party of 4 adults, 1 teenager and 2 sets of golf clubs travel Dublin/Paris/Miami - nightmare.

None of our luggage arrived, we were advised to spend $100 dollars each to cover essentials. 26th 1 bag turns up! 28th we are assured that our bags are in Miami airport to drive down, 5 hr round trip - no bag, through complete luck we found 1 bag dumped in dumping area missing all bag tags! Finally after 8 days and much tearing out of hair we are reunited with our luggage and clubs.

First week of holiday miserable. Had to spend a forture as couldn't spend days and evenings in clothes that we travelled in. Had to cancel our Xmas day dinner as we had no smart/casual clothes - we do travel in comfort.

Altogether holiday cost a forture as Air France only allowed us €100 each on our return!

Return trip Miami/Paris/Dublin on checking in we told lady our story and asked that she made sure our luggage was priority all way home. Checked again in Paris, arrived in Dublin guess what - 3 pieces never made it!!!

Go long haul with them again - never, unless I could afford to have my luggage delivered ahead.

Holiday was a nightmare all because of Air France

Kotek Besar

Worst airline I've ever flown with.

We used them last year for Birmingham - Paris - Singapore and back.

List of problems:

• Plane from Birmingham to Paris delayed.
• Missed connection to Singapore, had to spend 24 hours in Paris.
• Air France staff rude and unsympathetic, not even an apology.
• Given incorrect directions to the bus which would take us to the hotel, had to get taxi (at my cost).
• Flight to Singapore (following day), no bassinet for our baby (although pre-booked and confirmed).
• No special diet meals (although pre-booked and confirmed).
• Return leg, back in Birmingham one bag lost, returned 24 hours later.
• Baby's pram damaged, had to sue for compensation (I won).

I will never fly AF again.

namenotavailablE

My wife and I flew with them a couple of times from Paris to Shanghai.

Overall, we couldn't complain and have cause to praise them for one occaion- once, our departure from Shanghai was seriously delayed due to a technical problem. We had a connecting flight to Dublin to catch and due to the delay it was going to be very tight as to whether or not we'd make it.
As we approached Paris, the senior flight attendant called myself and a few others all of whom they had identified as having 'catahable' connecting flights from Paris to the front of the plane. She explained how they were going to help us to catch the onward flights. We were basically given priority clearance through everything by a waiting Air France employee in Paris and managed to catch our flight home!

In terms of the flight comfort, it was basically fine- snacks edible/ legroom OK (although I had an aisle seat which helps)/ staff pleasant and efficient. We'd both fly with them again.