Originally Posted by
Bullspread
I am sad for you , especially after you took the option for a rerouting .
That been said we all know that AF has still several lie-flat J cabins which still operate randomly on various destinations (a list has been shared on these forums), notably on Asian destinations.
As largely discussed, there are regularly short term config changes and as a consequence we cannot rely on the exact configuration we’ll fly.
As long as all birds are not retro-fitted , it stills the Russian roulette.
With all my respect, PAX take their own risk flying on these destinations, well known for short term changes in favor of NEV4 configuration.
There are very good alternatives with TG and SQ (+ CX since 3 months) who offer great service and attractive prices .
Personally, even if I am quite loyal towards AF (I’m PFL ULTI), I nearly only use Asian carriers actually because of this J cabin problematic (+ astronomic prices for J and P cabin)
I partially agree with you. Problem in our case is that AF marketed those specific flights on their website during the booking with specific features (lie-flat, privacy door etc...) to end up with an inferior product. While equipment changes happen all the time on all airlines, the way they del with this differ depending on the airline. If I book a club suite flight on BA and they change the config, I can get a change free of charge. Same goes for QR with their QSuite as long as there is availability and you call in advance. I would not have been pissed if AF would have allowed me a date change free of charge for example. But they refused, like 5 times. You should have seen the fact of 75% of the passengers of the J cabin last night, with all 42 seats taken. There was a lot of music chairs going on during boarding. Most of them got to learn this cabin change only during check-in and I felt quite bad for the crew who had to deal with all those complaints. I had a long chat with a couple crew members and the purser (I could not really sleep) and I think they handled the situation well and did a great job during this flight but they admitted that they were quite tired of those old seats coming up randomly by surprise. I just don't get why AF keeps putting this crappy product on high-revenue, highly competitive routes where their competitors have most of the time a superior product on paper. They should keep those configurations for shorter flights like Middle East or West Africa, but not for 14 hours + flights... Anyway, I just sent my customer service complaint email, adding to this the fact the lounge in SIN is really below expectations (pretty dirty and could not find a seat pretty much, we exiled to the Plaza Premium instead), I will certainly choose oneworld out of SIN next time !