I am just...mad
I just went through 2E and said at the entrance of the SkyP zone that I was Ultimate to be directed to the dedicated agent, but I was answered that there is no more Ultimate dedicated agent and so no more escort through police departure control. I thought initially that it was just a one-off problem today but no this is definitive and in force since yesterday
They said the service still exists for arrival (I used it yesterday, the arrival hall was packed like hell up to a level I have rarely seen. Thanks to the escort, I went through in 1 min, otherwise it would have been 1 to 2 hrs). But one can question until when ?
The reason given is that there is no more need for this service thanks to the new Parafe gates. They obviously forgot that despite those, the immigration departure hall can still be horribly crowded at some times and that Parafe gates work 50% of time. My check-in agent kindly escorted me. I interacted with several agents at check-in and at the lounge and they were extremely embarrassed with this management decision and that Ultimate pax they saw since yesterday were all mad about this. They will report to management but they are also asking us to do the same. I will write to AF immediately and I strongly encourage all Ultimate members here to do the same quickly if we want them to understand the message. How on earth can they suppress the most important benefit of the programme, despite we repeatedly said to them it was very important.
I will never understand this ability they have sometimes to shoot themselves in the foot.
Grrrrrrrr