Trip Reports - Chicago/Barcelona on Air France - AF bats 1.000!!!

When I moved from Boston back to Chicago last year, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to maintain my airline preferences. Each of the three times I've flown trans-ocean this year, company travel policy has conspired to keep me off my how-many-VIPOWs-do-I-have-left??? AA because of other contract rates. So, this time I ended up on Air France, having only previously flown them within Europe. The actual in-flight was generally acceptable, but there were a few surprising twists.

AF#51 ORD-CDG, Sunday July 1, in Y

Saw Cirque du Soleil's matinee of Drailion during the afternoon, which was probably another contributor to being on AF -- couldn't catch any of the ~5 PM European departures. But I arrived at ORD-T5 very early for this flight, around 5:30. Check-in was empty, thankfully since I wasn't in J and have no line-jumping privileges. With all the extra time, I took the people-mover to T3 and hung out in the Admiral's Club, stopping for a cash advance from the company credit card. Returned to T5 a few minutes prior to boarding. I was in seat 41A. I don't recommend the "A" window seat as approximately 4" of your legroom is taken up by the personal video system stuff http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif . Took off to the west and very quickly turned NE.

In flight, menus were distributed even in Y. They showed pictures of the two choices -- a French menu and a Mexican menu. The first had beef with noodles, smoked salmon, cheese and apple cake. They noted that the beef was of US origin. The Mexican was cod ceviche, chicken with rice, and lemon cake. The red wine I had was Vin de pays de Gascogne, Maison Vigouroux. The service was efficient and the food acceptable. After dinner, I headed to the rear lav which was out of order. They have four other lavs at midship in Y, but a non-functioning lav on a trans-atlantic is pretty unacceptable, especially since this was an SBF -- Screaming Baby Flight -- lots of kids heading to Europe this summer.

We landed at CDG generally on time and parked on the tarmac, taking busses to 2F. My connecting flight was also in 2F, though I had to pass through passport control first (a topic we discussed to death at http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum11/HTML/005510.html ).

AF#1648 CDG-BCN, Monday July 2, in Y

The connecting flight to BCN, boarded about 15 minutes late. We were also delayed on push back; sounded to me from the noises below and the open hatch that they were having trouble loading the luggage. Hmmm. Flight was fine, though I was on the window next to two unaccompanied minors. Their table manners during the simple foodservice (turkey and some kind of rice mix) left a little to be desired, as I got spilled on and knocked around more than once. We landed with a nice view of Barcelona off the right side of the plane.

At BCN, my troubles began.

I stopped at an ATM to make a withdrawl in Pesetas and noticed that my corporate credit card was gone http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif ! In my mind, I frantically replayed my withdrawl at O'Hare...sure enough, I couldn't remember getting a receipt or taking my card. So it seems I did something mighty stupid - walked away from the ATM after the money popped out, not waiting to finish the transaction. I immediately got the GSM phone out and called Amex in the US -- times like these when it's handy that I easily memorize phone numbers. They indicated that there had been no further transactions on the card (phew) and that they would cancel it. They said they'd send me a new one to my billing address (office) in two days -- I asked if there was any way to get a replacement while in Barcelona? They said yes, I can go to their city office. I said I would call back when I decided what to do.
This was only problem 1.
Problem two was that my bag didn't make the flight. Bbinchi and others may recall discussion at the Flyertalk gathering in Chicago two weeks ago -- I said I had never had a bag lost or delayed, ever. Oops. Jinxed myself. So, went over to the AF baggage office and filed a claim. In the meantime, I tried to call my local contact, and every time I dialed her mobile number, I got a recorded message that "this number has not yet been activated" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif . I rang someone else from her office and he agreed to relay my call...turns out it was just that her mobile voicemail had not been activated, and I only got that message because she was using the phone.

Anyway, three strikes against me, I jumped in a taxi and headed into town.

In Barcelona, I stayed at the Hotel Expo, which is across the street from the Sants train station. The neighborhood is nothing special, and the hotel worse. Somehow they convinced someone to award them four stars, but not sure how or why.

The room: Very small. Two beds barely bigger than I, a small sitting piece (sofa-ish but too small to deserve that name), a desk and chair w/TV, and a huge walk-in closet (almost as big as the room!). Old and beat up for sure. The desk's middle drawer also had the nasty habit of dropping out of its slot and nearly onto my feet http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/eek.gif . The worst part -- no carpeting in the room or hallways...so it was like being in a college dorm, with the noise from the halls (or other rooms) travelling everywhere. Sleeping with earplugs wasn't enough -- especially the night my neighbors came in at 4:30 AM, talked until 5:30 AM, and somehow were actually gone out of their rooms when I left at 8 AM. What a night. Oh, other problems with the hotel -- sheets changed about every three days it appeared, water glasses in the lav about the same http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif . Lifts sometimes didn't work and they almost never stopped even with the floor. Telephones defaulted to pulse dialing even though the line was tone enabled (there was a P--T button on the phone you could use to change this, but you had to do so every time). At any rate, the Expo hotel is definitely not recommended, but there were 9000 people in BCN for the same trade show, so I couldn't find anyplace to switch to.

AF said my bag would be on the next flight, but that would be too late for my dinner plans. With AF's restrictive one-carryon-in-coach, I didn't have anything with me, so it was shopping time and I was off to El Corte Ingles. I guess I would have had that issue even if I flew AA across the pond -- somewhere (LHR or wherever) I would have had to connect with a European carrier and the one-bag-in-Y policy. Hmmm.

I also called Amex and asked to pick up the new card in town the next day. They said the office opens at 9:30 and the card would be ready by 10:30. I arrived at 10:40 and indeed it was http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif , plus they use my product to manage the workflow of replacement card issue http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif . The Amex folks were great and I now have a bi-lingual Amex card http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif .

The rest of the week in BCN was fine. We had some great dinners and a good conference. Found out my long-forgotten Spanish isn't quite as bad as I thought, and at any rate, it was a whole lot more than any of my colleagues could do. Gotta work on the verbs, though...verb tenses threw me off constantly.

My return trip on Saturday started at the train station -- I figured 350 pesetas was a better deal to get to the airport, as long as the train station was right around the corner from the hotel. But the queue for the ticket machine was long, and just as I got to the front, a guy from the next queue over stepped in front of me. He said, in English, that the other machine was out of change and he needed to catch his flight. I responded, in American, that we're all going to the same airport. By this time, though, the cheeky Brit was plopping coins in the machine and had bought his tickets http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif . Sure enough, though, we all made the next train and headed to the airport.

AF #1349 BCN-CDG, Saturday July 7, in Y

Again, I got to the airport plenty early so there was no queue at Air France. As I started to check in, some crazy lady stepped up next to me and started barking at the agent in Spanish. She was lost and needed help, but the AF agent responded that she was helping me and would help the woman in a minute. This had no effect on the woman and she kept barking. I said to the woman that I couldn't hear the agent and could she move. No effect. Finally one of the other agents helped her figure out where she was going. That agent also noticed my birthday on my passport and said she was born the day before me, same year. Of course, since they were looking at my US passport, they had switched to English on me. No mas practica for me.

The boarding pass said gate 34, boarding at 12:25. The monitors subsequently said gate 32, delay, boarding at 13:20. The AF plane pulled into Gate 33 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif . The flight delay was making me nervous -- I only had 1:05 layover at CDG by schedule, and I figured that every minute counted. The gate agent said we would only land five or ten minutes late and not to worry.

The flight was fine, I talked across the aisle with a nice family from Connecticut who had been on a two-week cruise. The wife said she didn't like the food in Barcelona because they served the shrimp/prawns/gambas with their heads on. I suggested she not visit Japan where stir-fried shrimp heads are a specialty http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif . The inflight meal was smoked salmon with some wimpy cheese and a cake.

As we approached CDG, we circled once and slowly landed. It was 15:20. The Connecticut folks had a 15:55 flight to JFK, my ORD at 16:00. Others had similar tight connections. This all was made worse by AF -- once again, we parked on the tarmac at CDG and had to take busses to the terminal. Some people were unclear on this concept and tried to push their way forward to get off the plane. Finally, we got onto the bus, which pulled into the terminal at 15:40. I had called my travel agent in the meantime and they said yes, the ORD flight was showing on-time, and no, there are no more ORD flights tonight http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif (which I already knew).

Now someone needs to teach the Parisians a thing about connecting flights in the same terminal. For flights in 2F, we were directed up an escalator -- and into the main check-in hall. That meant going back into the gate area through passport control and security. The queue for these services was from hell, and as it was now 15:55 I assumed I'd miss. But the flight was holding, maybe because they knew there were tight connections. I was not the last one on the plane.

AF#54 CDG-ORD, in Y

This flight I was in 45A, again with the lack-of-legroom. The lavs were all working on this flight, though one of them didn't have a toilet seat http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif . We pushed back at 16:20 and took off at 16:45. The flight attendants made their way through with drinks and a cold meal. I was surprised that they had no Sprite/7UP/Ginger Ale equivalent -- only alcohol, Pepsi, juices, and water. The meal was smoked salmon (again), some vegetables, and apple cake (again). The row behind me was two kids who seemed determined to gameboy their way across the Atlantic. Far from keeping them quiet, they decided to share their winning experiences with those seated in proximity. Earplugs were no help, but faitigue was. A snack was served prior to landing...a finger sandwich (literally the width of two fingers) with cheese, some yogurt, and two cookies. The service was friendly on this flight, surprisingly so to me since other AF trip reports always say that the service is lacking.

During the flight, I slept or read, but at one point, started watching the main screen movie. It was about two guys from the 12th century who are transported to modern-day Chicago. Anyone know the title? My seat didn't have the inflight entertainment guide.

We arrived in Chicago about 20 minutes late. Upon deplaning, a gate agent with a message board had my name on it. Yep, not surprising given the tight connection, my bag had not made it onto the ORD flight and was vacationing in CDG overnight. I thanked the agent and told her their batting average was 1.000 for this trip, for which she apologized but what else could she do?

I think the AF flight is one of the last inbound internationals of the day at ORD (along with a Mexicana around the same time) so there weren't enough immigration folks and the queue took about 15 minutes. Why they don't put a channel system in place where you get the next available officer is beyond me -- must have studied the poor crowd management over at UA's check-in. At least I knew I wouldn't have to wait for my bag http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif . The customs official asked, "Sir, do you have all your bags?" Well, no, actually, I don't -- and as such, passed right through.

The arriving MX flight reminded me -- when we left last week, there was a Mexicana 737 plane at ORD-5 with a very retro look. The tail had an Aztec sundial on it but the rest of the plane said something like Aerolineas de Estados Mexicanos or something like that. Hard to tell that it was Mexicana other than the very small Star Alliance logo towards the front of the plane.

So, between the hassle of connecting at CDG, and the 0-for-2 baggage handling, I'm not excited about AirFrance transatlantic. Is it worth writing a letter, or do I just vote with my (company's) dollars? I guess my feelings will also depend on whether my bag shows up today http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-08-2001).]

[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-08-2001).]

Sorry to hear about your bag experience on AF. But from some other trip reports I've read about Air France, it seems that they are EXTREMELY incompentent in finding anyone's bags. Good luck on it. Hope that you'd eventually get it back.
Terence

Three updates to my report:
1) The Mexicana plane was http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=170374

2) Air France has a section of their website just for tracking lost luggge. It looks like it links to SITA/IATA WorldTracer, whatever that is. Anyway, my status right now is "Pending. Please check back later." How useful.

3) Good thing I wasn't travelling today, as AF cancelled flight 54 CDG-ORD. Maybe to fix the toilets?

Wait at least one week before you give up on your bag. AF lost mine the last two times... since then, I refused to fly AF.
I will try again in October, with all the important stuff in my cabin luggage.

what an unfortunate experience! i hope your bags show up again soon

the name of your movie was probably "The visitors". Originally it was 2 guys travelling in time from MiddleAge period to modern France.Very funny, but you have to be somewhat used to french culture to get everything.It was a big success in France some years ago. I think they tried to make a remake for the US market with the same actors, but from what i heard it was not not really a hit over there. Too many differences in the sense of humor.

Worldtracer is a service offered by SITA (the company created by Airlines in 1949 to handle their IT).

It's very similar in it's use to the tracking system of Fed-Ex and DHL.

By using the bar-code sticker on a piece of luggage it's possible to know it's whereabouts.

The main problem an airline has regarding luggage is that the handling is very often handled by the airport and not airline employees.

Hope this helps.

ka9taw:

I enjoyed reading your reports and I am sorry to learn of your many frustrations and disappointments with AF and lost luggage, lost AMEX card, bad hotel in BCN, etc.

And I know what you mean about verb tenses! My ability; rather, my inability to conjugate French verbs has sometimes gotten me into some rather embarrassing situations in France and Quebec. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif

Can't help but comment on the queue at ORD immigration. Since I moved to Chicago seven years ago, I have noticed that very few places in this city seem to have a "channel system" in place to await one's turn for a cashier, teller, agent, etc. So often I have found indivudual queues behind each window rather than a channel that allows people to be served by the next available person. It's very frustrating at times when people don't know how to queue up.

As for your experiences with AF, I would be inclined to write a letter and vote with my company's dollars were I in your situation. By the way, did your bag show up yet?

yes, the bag showed up...Sunday at 7 PM, 25 hours after my original arrival. They did at least have the courtesy to call me and tell me it was on its way, so I didn't leave the house unattended.

I was at ORD on Monday when AF#54 landed, and they flew a 747 instead of the A340...presumably to pick up the slack from Sunday's cancellation.

Next report-worthy trip is to DUB and OSL in two weeks on EI/BA in J...should be a much better experience.

Frog Thanks for the tip. That makes sense since the credits were in French.