Now, I should state, in the interest of full disclosure, that when i travel for business i normally try to avoid flying NorthWest, Air France and KLM. In my opinion, still the worst airlines in terms of service, airplanes, cleanliness, amenities, technology, and just plain any sort of "Wow" factor while flying. They don't seem to have understood yet that passengers have a choice.
My advice to them: go take a couple of flights on BA, Thai air, Cathay Pacific, etc. If you can't tell the difference you're blind.
Anyway, i wanted to talk about our trip back from LA.
As our last day in LA was still a tourist day, viewing the sights of Hollywood, we wanted to check in early, to leave our bags. After getting completely frustrated trying to find out whether this was possible using AF's WEB page, and from Air France's hotline, we traveled to the airport. I stood in line there for 15 minutes only to find out that this was not possible. Again, thanks Air France.
When we then finally checked in that evening there was much debate about what we could take on board, and what not. To make a long story short, we finally had to check in 13 pieces of luggage... yes 13. Glad we were 7 people so no extra charge.
Seating arrangements were non-negotiable, so one person in our party sat on the other side of the plane. After check in, and sending us through the wrong security gate (yes, we had to go back completely the other way), we finally arrived at our terminal. As we had had so much stress at check-in, and it took ages, we were all hungry. Originally the plan was to check-in, find a restaurant for our final US meal, and then casually board the plane.
Well, the LA terminal for Air France has: Burger King, a restaurant/Bar where kids are not allowed, and another pizza place. That's it! Only the Bar served any alkohol....
So, BK it was, and another surprise: twice the price! Yep, the menus were twice the price of BK anywhere else. Even more than European prices!
Well we boarded the flight and noted a huge group of French kids that were apparently returning from a summer trip to the USA. These would keep us up most of the night, while our French flight attendants did basically nothing to calm them. Again, thanks Air France.
Due to a huge take off delay in LA we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport with about 1/2 hour between connecting flights, and had to change terminals. Departing the plane there was no one from Air France to give any guidance. So we ran to the next terminal, only to find out that another security check was required. As we exited this, we were stopped by attendants, casually telling us that the skimboard we had with us on carry-on would have to be checked. Note: we now had about 10 minutes before scheduled take-off of the next flight. As the Air France people in LA assured us that this wold be ok for carry-on, this is where i lost it. Not typical for me, but i began to accuse the agents of complete incompetence, complained that CDG airport is the only one in the world where customers always have problems, and finally slammed the board on the table and told the agent to have fun surfing with his new confiscated skimboard.
This behavior was apparently not appreciated, so i was pulled to the side and told that the police would be coming, action TBD. I told the kids and Petra to go on to the next flight so that at least they would make it home.
But, in the end, the police simply took my personals, and let me go. I ran to the terminal, where i saw Petra speaking to the agents, demanding the the flight is held up for me. I was the last person on the plane, which was now about 10 minutes late closing, due to me.
One final note, when we arrived at Frankfurt one of our checked pieces of luggage was lost.
So, in summary, this experience has convinced me that my policy of avoiding AF/NWA/KLM is absolutely still valid. The service is crap, the people are uninformed and unprofessional, the planes are not well maintained (cleanliness only), and the food is terrible too.
Thanks Air France .....NOT!!!
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