Originally Posted by
pbarnette
I don't hate AF. But, if one is jumping CO because of high award fees, 100% bonus for top tier, and generous baggage allowances, then I'm not sure AF (or any other Euro carrier) is the way to go. They have CO beat on award fees, they match on the bonus, their non-TATL baggage allowance is 20kg in Y/30kg in J, and they limit (though enforcement is perhaps not there) carry-ons to 12 kg.
I definitely agree.
Originally Posted by pbarnette
As I clumsily alluded to later, if the question becomes that the devaluations at CO lead one to choose based more on hard product than on the FF program or elite benefits, then I would certainly recommend people consider AF and BA in all classes. In J or F, LH and LX (A340s only, until the A330 refit), also enter the mix. SK might even sneak in for Y+ or J. But I would continue to place the FF programs of all of those carriers behind CO, even after the recent cuts.
As for AF, I agree that the J seat is better than CO, DL, NW, or KL (haven't flown the others). But, I found the food on my recent flights to range from bad to mediocre. And the wines were nothing special.
I also experienced, first-hand, some of the notorious AF "service". It was an uneventful flight. I had just had the appetizer and went pretty much straight to bed and didn't really interact with the FA much. My wife had skipped food altogether and slept for almost the entire flight. At the end of the flight, the FA comes over to our seats, stands in front of my wife, who was seated in the aisle, and then leans in to thank me for flying with them. All the while acting as if my wife wasn't even there. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. I swear it was deliberate, but I can't imagine why. Definitely odd.
The wines, while nothing special, still beat CO's and NW's wines by a wide margin. DL tends to have wines on par with or slightly better than AF (for airplane wine, of course). I find the food to be nearly on par with CO BF, but I'm sure it is a YMMV issue.
Not sure what to say about your service experience. I find the service to be acceptable to good, depending on crew and airport. I find that interacting with them in French seems to result in better service, but moreso at European airports (especially at CDG) than onboard.