I have done a few AF medium haul flights in Y in the past few months and thought it might be a good time to give an update. This includes a range from very short (e.g. LHR, AMS, etc) to the longest "band 5" medium haul (TLV, IST, etc). It included both direct and connecting itineraries, to/from 2F and 2E (no 2G thank goodness!) as well as NCE base.

The good:

- I have a feeling the atmosphere at AF is slightly more upbeat than it was a few months ago. There was a point when I had the impression that crew seemed almost depressed, now they seem in better spirit. As always, they are also often excellent, more often than not pleasant, smiling, and on many occasions, making great efforts to speak to passengers in a variety of languages (Italian, German, Spanish, etc).

- I would have never thought it would matter so much to me as I am not a big drinker, but I really like the return of the aperitifs. Given the state of catering and poor wines, it does make a genuine difference to me to be able to order a 'real' drink on a Friday evening flight back home for a long awaited leisurely weekend! I think it is great that they reintroduced them.

- I still think that the LHR Skyteam lounge is excellent. Catering has gone down a bit compared to the lounge's beginnings, but I like the lounge feel and design, and I love it that staff tend to be very pro-active. For instance, the other day, the lady was not only welcoming but proceeded to tell me which parts of the lounge may be more quiet and what are the differences between the upstairs and downstairs buffets. While I knew all that because I'm used to the place, I thought it was excellent to volunteer that information. ^

- Also got a few very good experiences with CDG ground staff of late. Again, an example, had a flex ticket back to London, booked on the 19.05 but arrived early enough for the 18.15. I went to the Skypriority counter and asked to change. The young lady was very nice and while looking, she proceeded to explain that it might not be worth it for me to change as the 18.15 flight was late. She proceeded to check where the plane was coming from, when it was planned to arrive, where the plane I was currently on was coming from and that it was already there, etc. With both those elements we both concluded that I should not switch which indeed proved true as the 19.05 arrived slightly early with no sight of the 18.15 anywhere near LHR yet. Well done! ^

- I have said it before and will say it again, the NCE base crew are often quite exceptional. They really do take initiatives that are nowhere in the rule book and are there to make people's flights better. This is particularly true on longer flights like TLV and notably impressive to the extent that the base product is very bare in the first place. I have plenty of examples and I really do think that AF which keeps talking of empowerment, and staff who should 'dare' should learn from those people to ensure that those are not just empty words but an actual every day reality. I suspect this is largely do to a smaller team feel but also to good management and people being encouraged to take such initiative by local management ^


The in between

- CDG lounges. I think it is much nicer at lunch and dinner time, but the 'snack' times have insufficient catering options and last too long. Dinner options do not start till 19.00, meaning that if you have a two hours 19.30 flight you typically have to leave the lounge before any of it is brought and have to survive on fancy-named but ultimately extremely bare cooked ham or comte/cantal cheese or crisps and no food onboard but the ghastly sucre-sale. This is just not good enough. I think dinner should start at 18.00, catering for an international clientele which includes many people (American, British, Dutch, German, etc) for whom this is effectively dinner time and the many more who would like something to eat before they arrive at destination at 22.00 or 23.00. Also regarding the lounges, French newspapers selection is excellent, French magazine selection is good (less great than it used to be for my taste), but foreign language newspapers and magazines selection is very weak, probably the weakest of any major European airline. I think AF should beef this up seriously.

- Transfers at CDG. Still far from perfect but much much better than they were a few years ago. This is clearly going in the right direction.

- Delays. I would personally be favourable to AF introducing conformance from CDG as BA does from LHR as in my experience this has vastly reduced delays. From over-hearing what agents say at the gate, it is clear that when passengers are missing, they often have no clue whether they will show up or not and if they are elite or business pax, want to give them the benefit of the doubt even at a risk of delaying the flights. Conformance would say: if you are flying O/D from CDG, if your BP has not been scanned at security at (for example) t-30, you will be automatically cancelled (which could be mitigate by, say, deciding that you could still be put on the next one for free if you arrive before your flight time if AF want to be generous). Unfortunately, conformance cannot be implemented for transit passengers at least from Schengen origins, but at least AF would know if they have arrived early enough, while for O/D pax, if the passenger has OLCI'ed there is absolutely no way at this stage for AF to know whether they have shown up at the airport or not. I'm sure some people will say this is a scandalous proposal, people have flexible tickets and may arrive late, etc, etc but ultimately, flexibility entitles one to change a flight for free and easily, not to make a plane late, and of course, AF would always have the possibility to overrule the conformance system in specific cases (e.g. plane is delayed anyway, etc) but I think overall it would be a benefit for all. Indeed, several of my flights were delayed because of missing passengers. Still, I have put this on the 'mixed' list because baggage search seems to have become much faster overall.


What is still not good enough:

- Loading mistakes. Far too frequent. A whole 3 hour+ trip with no sparkling water loaded at all? Not acceptable (and I even had the same happening to me on 12 hour long haul flights in J!!), and I have heard horror stories from crew themselves (lunches loaded instead of breakfast on 6am flights, other missing drinks, etc. I don't care what people say, this simply does not seem to happen as much with BA or LH so I think that quality control is failing. What is worse, crew told me that in some of the horror stories above, they noticed the problem early during loading and mentioned it but nothing would be done to correct it, this is simply not good enough and a waste of excellent crew signals.

- Catering is still poor on the shorter flights in particular is still insufficient with the nasty sucre/sale. LH and LX are much better in catering on all European flights, BA is much better too, at least giving significant choice on the very short non-meal times and far more food (wraps, sandwiches, etc) on meal time very short flights as well as all flights above about 1h45. AF is really lacking in that department. On longer mid-haul, I did not get to try the new warm sandwich/slice element although it will still be inferior to what LH, BA, or LX offer on similar distances.

- Hand luggage. FAs don't sufficiently police people sat at row 29 leaving their bags at row 3 overhead, but mostly, not enough discipline and enforcement to ensure there is room for everyone's legitimate hand luggage through civic behaviour. Here again, I would support a BA "best practice" which is for agents to walk around the gate area and when they see people with more than the one big back, put a sticker saying "under seat only". Too often I have seen late boarders' hand luggage be forcibly checked in while some people occupied entire overhead lockers with their precious little handbag, bagpack, coat, duty free bag or whatever. This is simply not right and selfish and I think AF should police this the way BA does (at least when it works).

- Some of the non-AF part of the experience. Immigration at CDG is simply horrible. By my book the worst of any major French or European airport. EU passport lanes are not always open and Acces no1 does not have any, the other day I spent more time queuing at Acces no1 immigration behind 40 people as well as dozens of others who bypassed from the side for an infinite number of reasons. This is simply not acceptable. RER B is also still a subject of national shame especially when you cannot get the fast ones to CDG. They are dirty, overcrowded, slow, and frequently late (I'm not even talking of when they are altogether cancelled as in the recent strike!), directions inside CDG are still poor and I frequently see people lost, walking distances are long, and people still get confused by the K, L, and M get system and I frequently witness people queuing for the wrong part of the terminal before being sent to another. Something should be done about this.

- NEO: remember the whole stupid tale that NEO would only be for domestic flights, and then maybe very short European flights under 1h30. As we all knew, this was a bureaucratic fantasy that would never stand the test of time as aircraft swaps or capacity adjustment would ruin the entire concept, and of course, one regularly gets A318 (thus with NEO) to LIS for instance (over 3 hour flight). Ghastly.

All in all, I do think that the AF medium haul experience has certainly improved in Y at least in some areas. Catering remains a weakness and delays can be too although the biggest let down is unfortunately not under AF's direct control and has to do with the CDG/Paris arrival side of the experience which can ruin a good flight impression. AF's biggest asset remain their staff in my view, who are often excellent, and it is a shame that AF often goes for 'half measures' in its improvements instead of being bolder and getting full credit for their efforts. If improvements could continue, AF could become competitive again in that field.