Rumour: French President looking to fire CEO of AIR FRANCE
Nov 3, 2009, 8:19 am
#16
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Whilst that is almost certainly all true Creber, in the example I gave above I actually gave Air France another chance. Why? Well, maybe its because we were all Plat Card holders, maybe because we were in Business class, mayeb because (for a small organisation) we spend a lot of cash on flights with the,. I don't know why, but despite all of those screw ups, they acted upon our complaints incredibly quickly, paid every Euro we claimed for (5 nights at the Marriott Rive Gauche ain't cheap, not for three of us anyway plus all my new clothes) within 2 or 3 weeks.
On top of that, looking at all the evidence, the wrong type of rain at Heathrow leads BA to similar chaos and a similar outcome. Just as an example.....and I doubt you would have got all that refunded...and certainly not in the time AF did it.
Now the point that it doesn;t seem to happen at LH (strikes that is) or even KL is a valid one however and would they react the same way now...who knows. It's all the devaluation of the miles that has led me elsewhere....
On top of that, looking at all the evidence, the wrong type of rain at Heathrow leads BA to similar chaos and a similar outcome. Just as an example.....and I doubt you would have got all that refunded...and certainly not in the time AF did it.
Now the point that it doesn;t seem to happen at LH (strikes that is) or even KL is a valid one however and would they react the same way now...who knows. It's all the devaluation of the miles that has led me elsewhere....
As to things that don't happen at LH: well, unfortunately they do happen as well. Strikes of cabin crew and pilots have happened in the past and may happen again. Also bad weather does from time to time affect LH's hubs, we shouldn't forget that MUC and ZRH lie at the edge of the Alps. I've seen snow in both Munich and Zurich in the past two weeks.
The difference is a different one I guess: when the strike happens, they don't seem to happen for whimsical things like they seem to happen at AF. And when they happen, they are better handled and managed in terms of pax impact. And the snow that I've seen in Munich and Zurich really was a mere thin couple of flakes, didn't stay on the ground for long. But it would have brought down Paris airport, and AF wouldn't know how to handle the effects of it. It's the handling of difficult situations which to me is part of whether or not a carrier is a full service carrier or not. AF is terrible at avoiding such situations, handling them when they happen, and tpyically they're also bad at dealing with customer complaints afterwards. LH/LX is phantastic at avoiding situations (their process planning philosophy is that of Mercedes when it comes to testing: it shouldn't break down at the first little unexpected difficulty; AF has more of the "ca ira" approach to things, a bit like Renault cars. Guess who leads the break-down statistics). LH/LX are also quite good handling irreg ops while it happens, and afterwards they at least treat their loyal customers well and generously.
And it's that inability to handle irregular ops, the negligence in planning and the so what response of far too many AF staff that should be sanctioned.
Last edited by San Gottardo; Nov 3, 2009 at 8:26 am
Nov 3, 2009, 9:25 am
#17
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Again, all valid points though all examples point to Swiss being able to manage better being down to scale of operation perhaps as well as better 'people skills' or customer service orientation? The example you provide of LH along with what we all know about BA's ability to handle chaos suggests (i.e hopeless) it could well be.
Nov 5, 2009, 10:21 am
#18
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Article, in French only though
In sum it says that the Elysée (=Presidency of the Republic, with usually a strong personal involvement of President Sarkozy on headline matters like these) thinks about replacing Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
In sum it says that the Elysée (=Presidency of the Republic, with usually a strong personal involvement of President Sarkozy on headline matters like these) thinks about replacing Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
Nov 5, 2009, 11:37 pm
#20
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Sort of... First of all, the state still holds a small stake (around 17%) in AF. Second, the state often gets involved in certain decisions in big companies in France. Simply when those companies are of "public importance". Thirdly, whilst this is no autocratic country where a ruler simply puts in place all his buddies all over the place, nepotism is more common in France than in some other countries like for instance the UK (I believe) or Switzerland (I am sure). I cannot comment much about other countries as I wouldn't be sufficiently familiar with them.
Nov 6, 2009, 1:48 am
#21
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