In all of the time I've been (compulsorily) frequenting AF with my business (around 3 years, as far as status goes one year making silver, one year making gold, one year making plat, all on short and medium haul) I have only had one occasion where I have been totally let down, and that was when I was bumped off a Sunday afternoon flight CDG-MXP (with no other Sunday flights available), when I had a client meeting in Milan at 09h00 the Monday morning. AF immediately paid compensation
I've only had one flight with a technical glitch, on an early morning CDG-LHR routing, but AF fixed that and the delay when we finally arrived at LHR was only 1,5h (I've had a lot worse than that and a lot more frequently than that on E*). AF made a free mileage award as a gesture of goodwill
Oh and CSA once lost my bags en route DUS-PRG. The flight was ticketed AF, and AF immediately agreed compensation (in fact, more in cash terms than I needed
) and they repatriated my bags
Finally, and outside the one flight to Milan, I've never had any serious delay in flying AF (note that's me flying on AF metal and I exclude codeshare) that has impacted on either i) me being able to do my business and/or ii) me getting home having done it. Considering that there are 200+ flight legs in there, personally I think that's a very good record. And my employer would rightly say that therefore that AF have done exactly what my employer pays them for, that is to get me to where I need to be safely and on time and then to get me home safely and on time and, also, at the price that my company deems to be acceptable for them to pay for AF to do that.
So with regards AF's reliablilty to get you there and get you home (on short and medium haul), my own perception is that you'll be hard pressed to find another carrier who will do that as well as AF on a consistent, repeatable, reliable way, day in and day out. Fair do's to them for that.
Yes there are plenty of gripe areas, the key ones we all air on here frequently, and they range from real and justifable shortcomings in service that AF needs to (and should but probably won't) address, to personal tastes, likes and dislikes. But if I were to say to my employer "I want to use another airline" I'd be hard pressed to complete the phrase by adding "because......" and coming up with a real justifiable reason. That's because, as far as my employer is concerned, "AF does exactly what they say on the can"....
Cheers
Sim
P.s. This glowing post isn't a sign that I have become an overnight AF convert. I find that the quirks of AF too often make flying AF a miserable if not désagréable experience that irritates the traveller and takes any pleasure out of using a service that with it's European route network, punctuality and reliability should be the example for others to follow...