This has absolutely nothing to do with Land Rovers, but I wanted to have a rant, and publicise the fact that Air France are the most totally useless, idiotic organisation I've ever come across (and I used to be an NTL customer, so that's saying something).
I was flying back from Paris yesterday and my flight was delayed. Rather inconvenient for me and a load of other passengers. As it happened, the previous flight was delayed as well, and was actually boarding as we were all waiting in the lounge.
So a couple of us hit on the bright idea of trying to get on the previous flight, as we had hand-baggage only. Some people were about to miss a connection to Canada, so it was quite important to them.
We spoke to the gate staff, who confirmed yes, they had plenty, in fact an abundance, of spare seats on the flight. So could we get on the earlier flight, which at that moment was sitting on the target loading passengers? Well, no. Apparently, the plane wouldn't have had enough meals on board.
Well, of course, nobody cared about that, the meals are lousy anyway, we just wanted to get on the flight.
But Air France customer service started to rear its ugly head. It's apparently a company policy that, even if the flight is totally empty and delayed passengers are bouncing off the walls, you can't get on the damn plane if there aren't enough meals. They stated that to us explicitly.
We asked the gate staff to call somebody in authority to get this sorted out, as it was so patently ridiculous. But the gate staff stated point blank that there was nobody in Charles de Gaulle airport that they could call who would be able to override this decision. (So do they *have* no senior management then? Either that or they don't give a toss.)
So, eventually we gave up in the face of total adversity, and waited an hour or so for our delayed flight. All for the sake of a poxy meal we didn't want anyway.
So, can you imagine my total amazement when I didn't GET a meal on the flight? Apparently, according to the stewardess, they don't serve flights on that route any more and haven't since April! So a whole bunch of passengers had been delayed an hour, on the basis of a meal which didn't exist. This may seem petty to you, but imagine if you'd just missed a transatlantic flight to Canada on the basis of this - wouldn't you feel a little piqued?
Given the choice of a full airplane and happy customers, or a half empty airplane and delayed, annoyed and frustrated customers, Air France inexplicably prefer the latter.
What pains me is that I'd bet a lot of money that somebody in Charles de Gaulle airport is having the same conversation with the same gate staff right now, and exactly the same thing is going to happen. Will they ever change this stupid, totally pointless rule? I doubt it.
So I rang Air France to complain. And was told they don't have ANY customer service agents who will talk to me on the phone. Instead, I'd have to write to them - yes, because I'm now an unhappy customer due to some ridiculous internal bureaucracy problem at Air France, I have to spend MY time putting it all in writing, getting the address, posting it to them etc. Now, why should I spend my time trying to help Air France sort out THEIR problem which has left me and a load of other passengers dissatisfied? Shouldn't it be up to THEM to take the problem on board and deal with it?
Anyway, the result is that I'll give Air France a wide berth in future, because quite frankly they are the most ridiculous, un-customer-orientated organisation I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. Hey, with NTL it's down to incompetence, but with Air France it seems to be a corporate policy.
So my advice: before you travel Air France, consider the above and whether you would be better off using BA instead.
Disgruntled of Bagshot