Originally Posted by
orbitmic
I agree the personal touch can make a hell of a lot of difference, but the alternative explanation is that the impression one gets from a flight is largely tainted by (1) novelty and (2) cost/value for money. Your sister may have expected some rather dismal treatment on a cheap ticket and be impressed by what she got. I bought a few LGW-NCE with Aer Lingus for £27 return including all taxes and fees. I loved the flights because I was expecting 'Ryanair' but got comfy seats, early flights, and could get 3 seats for myself each time. Great. For her significantly more expensive LH/LX flight, she might have expected something significantly better and realised that for such a hefty price, LX C class is really mediocre. I'll admit I have usually felt more frustrated when something went wrong with my AF 'K' class tickets than with my cheap 'N' class ones!
I think your hypothesis is normally a good one except she didn't pay a thing on the LX/LH award ticket since it was my miles, not hers. The ticket was totally free for her. The AF ticket was a paid ticket, the cheapest fare available out of her own pocket and AF only gave her 25% mileage on FB for her flights. Even then, she has become a big fan of Flying Blue, subscribing to e-rewards just so that she can earn those mini-points on FB and after the AF 447 crash, I asked if she was scared to fly AF and her reply was no, definitely not scared and she was admant AF is a very safe and good airline. The only explanation I can come up with is that AF is French speaking, so does she. I am curious as to how non-French customers feel about service on AF because on other forums, there were some claims that Japanese carriers treated non-Japanese pax not so well compared to Japanese customers. Who knows? The OP is Greek, so that my guess is that plays into the way OP rates AF. On the other hand, not many people would want to set foot on Olympic Airways, but again YMMV.