Amman - Paris CDG AF/ J, A320: The Shame on AF Flight, now.
Paris CDG - Basle AF / Y, ATR72, won't be published
That flight could be renamed Shame on Air France as everything that could have gone wrong with AF did so.
A bit of background though: we had coach tickets for around 600€ each. As I have lots of miles and at some point you don't know anymore how to spend them, there was un upgrade offer for 45'000 miles per passenger.
While it is a very high amount of miles, almost the same as an upgrade from Y to J to the USA, and knowing that the seats are almost the same as in coach, I decided to spend the miles. The seat pitch is better, the middle seat stays empty, the recline is better and the catering is very good.
So here we are at the end of another beautiful stay in Jordan in front of the business class counters. After a long 15 minutes wait we get our boarding passes, as the agent did not know how to do. It can happen, but I did my check in online so don't know where the problem was.
Once the BP's in hand, I ask about the lounge invitation. The answer will be: no invitations for upgrades. I told him we got a paid upgrades with miles and that anyway I am an Elite Plus member so there is no reason for not giving the invitations. The agent does not want to discuss and stays with his 'no'. I ask to speak with a supervisor who will begin his speech with no lounge access for upgrades …
I show him my Elite Plus card and then he says I should have begun with that … No comment ^^ With our invitations in hand we breeze through security.
Courteous welcome in the lounge, which is like a loft above the terminal. Very nice layout but a bit noisy.
That's the buffet, sorry it's from distance, but I wanted to take some pictures from closer an employee told me not to take pictures.
That's my evening selection, ok food:
The lounge:
At boarding time we head to our gate, this is the new terminal which looks bright and nice:
No Sky Priority boarding, and after a nice chaos, we are in our A320 to CDG.
That's the blocked middle seat and the cabin:
Boarding takes ages and passengers arrive one after the other. In all we will need more than 45 to complete boarding. During the whole time, the purser and a steward will stay in the galley, chatting… No welcome drink nor newspaper offering. After a good 20 minutes I stand up and ask if it is possible to get something to drink and to read. The answer will be:
- You got a bottle of water on your seat and the newspapers will be handed out after boarding.
Wow, that impresses me, so no more welcome drink? And that is called business class. And what is the point in handling out the press so late when the passengers are already seated and wait?
Fast forward to the take-off and the start of the first service. This is the aperitif:
As no menues have been handed out, a good minutes after the drink service, I ask the steward if we can have the light snack that was used to served after the take off, as I'd like to sleep. The answer is:
- You already got it.
The nuts are the now the light snack… Just to compare, last year, in coach, we had drinks and sandwiches after t/o. That means that the business class service is now at a lower level than coach…
The IFE was out of order, the lights are switched of and the cabin is now dark. As the recline pretty good is, I manage a good hour of sleep:
An hour before landing, lights are switched to full bright, and this thing is being handed out:
Again, no menues, as we are on a flight from Jordan, I assume the sausage is made with poultry. It was chewy and with almost no taste. The potatoes were half row, the fruits have a strong after taste. There was no bread ofering, only this milk bread that was just disgusting.
There was no meal choice, everyone got this tray.
I am not a difficult person, but this meal was by far the worst I got on a plane. I almost left everything on the tray as so did my mother.
When the steward took the tray back I told him the meal was disgusting. He told us that he knows.
We'll land a few minutes late, and head to the G terminal for our flight to MLH. Flight that will be uneventful.
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Verdict
Air France
2.1/10
Cabin6.0
Cabin crew1.0
Entertainment/wifi1.5
Meal/catering0.0
Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge
6.8/10
Comfort6.0
Meal/catering6.0
Entertainment/wifi7.5
Services7.5
Amman - AMM
9.5/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness10.0
Paris - CDG
8.5/10
Efficiency10.0
Access10.0
Services7.5
Cleanliness6.5
Conclusion
The cabin was quite comfortable, but the crew was in a don't care attitude that should not be. The meal was just good to be vomitted. No IFE, the newspapers were handed out too late. Bad, bad, bad.
I've sent a claim about this everything and the same evening I received a phone call where I explained all in detail with a friendly agent for almost half an hour. He offered to credit back my account with 2x 35 000 miles.
The incident has been very well handled by AF Customer service, but that could be avoided with just a regular J class service.
A few weeks before, a former French government member, Mr Lang, did complain about the AF product on a CMN - CDG flight, route that has exactly the same service as AMM -CDG and Mr De Juniac replied in person that the management is aware of it. Let's see this summer if this changed as we will go again to Jordan.
1 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Thanks for sharing your experience with this very disappointing flight. I can't believe that AF treats a CDG-AMM flight the same as to CMN.
Just horrible experience all around, from check-in with the refusal to grant you lounge invitations at the beginning despite your status to the comment by the purser that he knows the meal was bad with such nonchalant attitude at the end of your trip.
I don't expect great service from the crews as this sometimes is a lottery, but I am so surprised that there was no choices for your meal in J. Wow!
I don't blame AF so much for the bad quality of the meal as I blame the catering station from which this meal came from. Nevertheless, AF could have made this cabin much more premium with a few changes.
The attitude of the staff was just inexcusable. That was total apathy and disinterest on their part and I'm glad that you reported it. It's good that you were compensated properly for your waste of miles to upgrade.
Well I was going to say, what a waste of miles! But luckily you got back almost the entire amount. No way that this flight with this faux-J seat and poor service is worth 45 000 miles! Thanks for sharing this very disappointing flight with AF.
Thanks for sharing with us. The title says it all : Shame on Air France ( and i am far from an AF basher) I don't understand how Air france tolerates such unprofessional crews that are not able to serve drinks to business class passengers before the rules say they must do so.The lack of initiative and understanding of what passengers want is unbelievable. Same for the lounge access and the lack of IFE ! It's really a waste of miles and this service is not suitable for such a distance and the high rates full fare passengers pay for those segments. We are far from the best and beyond experience AF claims to provide now. Luckily you were credited almost the same amount of miles but yet it's not good adversing for Air France.
Wow. All I can say after reading this crappy experience is thank goodness you managed to get a (partial) refund of the miles you paid for the upgrades.
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5 Comments
Just horrible experience all around, from check-in with the refusal to grant you lounge invitations at the beginning despite your status to the comment by the purser that he knows the meal was bad with such nonchalant attitude at the end of your trip.
I don't expect great service from the crews as this sometimes is a lottery, but I am so surprised that there was no choices for your meal in J. Wow!
I don't blame AF so much for the bad quality of the meal as I blame the catering station from which this meal came from. Nevertheless, AF could have made this cabin much more premium with a few changes.
The attitude of the staff was just inexcusable. That was total apathy and disinterest on their part and I'm glad that you reported it. It's good that you were compensated properly for your waste of miles to upgrade.
I don't understand how Air france tolerates such unprofessional crews that are not able to serve drinks to business class passengers before the rules say they must do so.The lack of initiative and understanding of what passengers want is unbelievable. Same for the lounge access and the lack of IFE ! It's really a waste of miles and this service is not suitable for such a distance and the high rates full fare passengers pay for those segments. We are far from the best and beyond experience AF claims to provide now. Luckily you were credited almost the same amount of miles but yet it's not good adversing for Air France.
Thanks for sharing!
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