FullFare

A definite downer situation. The Airbus 380 was all fueled up, loaded with pax, ready to go, when captain got on intercom and said the aircraft had some type of dent or scratch on the outside on one of the doors. (Scheduled departure 10:10)

The capt then had us waiting 2+hrs while they faxed photos of the outside of the plane to Toulouse Updates every half hr or so. During this time, many pax, myself included, sensing impending cancellation, and all of us who had no checked luggage, practically pegged to get let off the plane. I, and others, had called competing US carriers (DL,AA,UA) and had gotten positive responses that it was possible to get to the West Coast, even with connection by rebooking

Well, after 2.4 hrs from departure, the captain cancelled. We then waited 43 extra minutes to get let off the plane (I have a good chronograph). We got herded back through the arrival process to re-enter the country, spending another 35 extra minutes for passport re-entry. Many had to go to fetch luggage (wife and I did not check) and spend another 1/2 hr easily there.

Everyone had to go to Zone 10, and the lines went on for more hours. Wife and I finally gave up and, after some cajoling and forcing myself to swallow anger, we got boarding passes and hotel vouchers for the same flight Monday morning 3/27.

It's my first experience on a mega-cancellation (prob 500+ pax on the AF 380), although I have memories of UA doing this decades ago on fully loaded 747's.
I think AF's handling left something to be desired. There was no effort to help or organize signs while the pax were herded. Staff, while courteous, were not present in enough numbers. The worst was that many pax, like myself, had salvageable bookings made through our cell phones while detained on the plane and AF would not allow accommodation and boarding passes to be given, even though it was a fairly obvious move (a couple of squawking pax did get their passes issued).

Finally, for the 500+pax who didn't get out today, there were an equal number left holding at the gate at SFO who will not get out on the return leg. I'm guessing they're somehow interpolating another aircraft to fill in for the 1000 or so pax thrown off schedule (the outbound and the inbound).

Anyway, no high marks from me on how AF handled this. I don't expect them to fly a plane in questionable shape, but I can't sympathize with loading up the plane and then discovering a structural thing at the last second----and then not coming to grips with the highly likely cancellation---and at least letting some pax salvage a chance to get to their destination without losing another day.

A very tough day for a lot of pax. Has AF had other experiences with A380 cancellations, and if so,did they handle them better than this?

q

Don't know CDG-SFO well. EDT+2.4h is when they go into duty time limit (discretion)? Out of curiosity do you know when the incident happened, or when was it first noticed?

FullFare

What captain said indicated that they discovered the problem very close to departure, supposedly during the pilot walk-around to check the exterior structure and landing gear.

One pax thought he heard they new about it but were confident it wouldn't get blown out of proportion to possible cancellation. So maybe the thought that by sending some type of photos to Toulouse for a ruling on the structure was worth the gambit that they should load all the pax, fuel, and catering and play to be departing to SFO (even late) on that basis.

caliform

Sorry to hear about this - always a huge nuisance. It might have to do with SFO being such a far outstation for Air France, organizing these kind of situations is never easy and having to figure it all out on the fly (apparently) isn't either.

q

In fact I find it weird that Airbus would "possibly" release the A/C for service, based on some photos sent by email (or fax). But maybe I misunderstood.

kthpence

They also cancelled AF84 today, and added a new flight at 9:30AM (I was on the original one today). The new flight is AF4070, and it looks like it was a make-up flight of sorts for passengers from yesterday ... I think I got lucky to be able to get on that one instead of having to route somewhere w/ Delta.

Goldorak

indeed, cancelled because no available aircraft. Should be a big mess for SFO ops...

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danielonn

English translation
San Francisco:
- AF084 / 26mar CDG 08:10 SFO 19:30. Due to ground damage, this flight was postponed to 27mar and renumbered AF4070. New timetables: CDG 07h30 SFO 18h50. Customers are taken care of by the stopover.
- The return flight AF083 / 26mar SFO 22h10 CDG 08h50 is canceled. Customers are taken care of by ROC and reported on flight AF083 / 27mar.
- The flight AF084 / 27mar CDG 08:10 SFO 19:30 is canceled due to a floating voltage. ROC Treatment

BTW what is floating voltage? Who is ROC?

Goldorak

Thank you for the translation, but "tension flotte" doesn't mean "floating voltage"
Flotte means fleet and it just means here that the flight has been cancelled due to non-availability of the aircraft scheduled to operate the flight and no spare aircraft available.
ROC means "Rappel Opérationnel des Clients". It is the automated system & service who is informing pax of delays, cancellations and who is taking care of rebookings.

Weean

I wonder if this is why AF65 has been swapped for a 77W today. My lovely upper deck seat turned into a non-reclining super-narrow seat in the last row, grrrr (at least I've managed to swap it to an aisle with no middle passenger further up the cabin).