Originally Posted by LawFlyer

Umm...?



No, no, no. That's not the point. The point examined in the overall thread is that, in a direct comparison of AF and CO service, it's unfair to hold AF to a different standard than CO regarding language issues when both airlines market themselves to a global (and affluent, by the way) clientele.

And the inverse of your disingenous comment ("Flying in Business class -- on a flight to the USA -- speak French to recieve better service? SURE !!!!") is absolutely true: A French-speaker/French citizen flying to France on CO ex-USA will almost certainly get better treatment if the Francophone pax can speak English! With only 1 or 2 "designated foreign-language speakers" on CO's flights to CDG, the French-only pax are SOL -- even in BF -- until the "designated" French-speaking attendant can get around to them. OR, if the French-speaking pax also speaks some English, he/she is far more likely to have their request met by asking (in English) one of the 8 FAs available, rather than waiting for the ONE who can (possibly) understand the request.

So, on AF, the same type of proposition is only *occasionally* true, because far more of AF's attendants are fluent in English when heading to the USA than are CO's attendants fluent in French when heading to France. It's almost a recognized truism that French-only pax will have a much harder time on CO than will English-only pax on AF. Nevertheless, it still curries favor to know a bit of the destination country's language, including on the conveyance to the country.