[QUOTE=stimpy;23602702]Who was on holiday during this strike?QUOTE]
[QUOTE=stimpy;23602702]Who was on holiday during this strike? QUOTE]
Just about every retired person I know, plus as many people who can possibly avoid taking holidays in August as possible (why pay twice as much for an overcrowded experience spoiled by other people screaming children...).
However, we actually agree. Many more business travellers (AF's bread and butter) were impacted than tourists, however the impact on Business travellers is less and AF has apparently been good at minimising impact and regular travellers are much better equipped to deal with disruptions without it being the end of the world.
Unfortunately on the news however I have not seen one passenger interviewed who was carrying a briefcase. They were all infrequent flyers making for a vocal media impression, which in turn, amplifies the impact of this as being far worse than it really was and giving a negative impression to many people who in fact might not even have been flying during that period.
The damage here is that once again the clichés of French people, always on strike, AF unreliable, etc., etc. are back tenfold and that is what AF needs to address.
FWIW - this year I have already spent three nights at the Sheraton Frankfurt courtesy of Lufthansa (and I have *G status). AF, one way or the other has always got me were I need to be on the date I needed to be there... But will people ever think of LH as unreliable compared to AF, not likely....