Dear Air France, to recap my great experience from today so far STR-CDG-BKK:

-An Agent from the Platinum Desk tried to change my booking yesterday, but besides the online check in my reservation for my flight today was als also cancelled, I realized and called again as I could not check-in online, but it was promised that all was ok, I also confirmed my seats assignments, 6 A long-haul in Premium
-Today at the check-in in Stuttgart I was told that my reservation is cancelled and that I am not supposed to fly. It took almost half an hour to sort it out, in the meantime I called the Platinum Desk as it was obvious that something went wrong
-As a result my blocked seats were gone, I am sitting now in the middle of a 4 seat row, thanks for that
-I wanted to meet the Station Manager, she did not show up, but she called me and told me that she called Paris, but due to Sunday not many people there and so on and that maybe some Supervisor will try to change my seat on Board (which is nonsense, will he kick of another passenger?) , Premium Eco and Business are full.
I advised her to book me via Amsterdam to KLM instead, as they have plenty of seats available in Business Class, but no response. The general comment was, I cannot do anything
- Your fabulous Platinum Desk send me a ........ email, that there is no guarantee for blocked seats, no apologize or attempt to recover for the cancellation of my booking and that they cannot do anything
- It gets better. After boarding was completed, the purser of the flight from Paris to Stuttgart approached the lady next to me on seat 5 A and moved her to the Business Class Cabin (Economy was not full), I contacted the station manager in STR via phone and asked her, why I get not moved at least as well for the drama. answer was: "I cannot control what happens on board and I tried my best to help, I cannot do anything"
- I posted this whole thing on Facebook, you guys replied, that you cannot do anything

So my question is, who in your amazing company can do something, instead queuing up and telling me what is not possible???

I always get this nonsense emails with "one of our most important customers" bla bla, today you have shown that you give nothing about a LT Platinum passenger booked in Premium Economy.

The most kind answer was the approach from your lounge team: The lady first apologized (she was the first one who took ownership and apologized in your name) and as she has no power at all, she recommended me to ask for compensation as there is nothing she can do.

Now, it is actually not about compensation, but it seems that a low rank staff has the highest IQ and EQ in regards of Customer Service.

On a side note, I was part of the Flyertalk DO in 2013, with your CEO that time, who hold a big speech whilst promising to become the market leader in product and service within two years. Frankly, your product is industry standard (in your upgraded planes only), and in regards of customer service it went further down. My ticket price was around 1700 Euros, you guys were unable to make simple things right and come up with an immediate service recovery. So far everybody pointed out that it was not his mistake and that they canīt do anything.

But after my Stuttgart-Paris flight I realized that for Air France staff the wellbeing of family and friends is more important as a paying client who holds a lifetime Elite Membership. So I better look to become friend with an Air France Purser so I get complimentary upgrades in the future. Also interesting that your Station Manager in Stuttgart does not care about that, seems your staff can do whatever they want and get covered up. There is a saying that the fish starts smelling from the head!

No wonder that you loosing market share to your competition, especially the Middle East Airlines; if their staff would process on board upgrades for friends they would get fired. And I am sure; they would have come up with a more creative solution and an immediate action jn a case like this instead "to call Paris" and push the responsibility from one point to another.

Conclusion: Air France is trying to be a big player, but in fact processes are often worse than in third world countries.

I am still waiting for the answer why your staff cancelled my booking and for an apologize and how you want to make up for it (not an REGRET), I am regretting that I have wasted my money and booked with Air France actually!