This morning I was introduced to a new service at the 2F ULTI lounge, where they told me that they now have a waiter service and hot dishes for breakfast.

Quick reality check: a visibly intimidated and probably extremely poorly paid young gentleman is called to the lounge by one of the AF lounge hostesses, then offers tea or coffee and explains that they have hot dishes. “Hot dishes” is omelette, either plain or with mushrooms. He types the order in his little device, goes off to the buffet to get coffee/tea. About 15 minutes later he comes back, my order for a plain omelette has resulted in a heap of mushrooms and a big fatty sausage on an omelette that smells heavily of pepper and looks like having spent the night in a bath of oil. I still tuck in, and the pepper-with-an-aftertaste-of-egg is cold. Either they have just taken one of the omelettes which is on the display buffet in the main lounge room and plated it to be brought to the ULTI room, or they have prepared it and then left it standing out for too long; to judge by the material consistence and the likelihood of them having put lipstick on a pig I believe it’s the former.

Kudos for AF to have come up with something new for ULTIs, and I really appreciate not having to go out to the buffet and find out for myself what is left and what isn’t. I hope they offer this service for other times of the day as well. Also, the first mini-buffet in the ULTI lounge was fully stocked with all the other items found on the buffet in the main room. Giving a bit more choice than just omelets (maybe scrambled eggs, other eggs… let’s not go crazy and ask for Eggs Benedict) would be appreciated, but fair enough. The waiter was very friendly and helpful (e.g. when there were no plates on the mini-buffet in the ULTI room), but seemed somewhat overwhelmed. He wasn’t part of the AF staff, but of the catering company (and you can tell which one pays its staff better salaries, hires people that are well spoken and self-confident and look like they manage life; and which one picks up people at the lower end of CSP, pays them little, gives them little training, and leaves them feeling out of place in that world of lounges and frequent flyers in which they work). But this is a first for him, too, so no criticisms or complaints for that.

Let’s see how this develops. So far, it’s… well, Air France. Good idea, nice on the looks and form and protocol, but the actual product/service is a bit of a failure.