Rearviewmirror1

Hi all,

This is my first real "gripe" thread with regards to Air France, as I've never had anything but good service with them before. Yesterday I flew from CDG to IAD and we were delayed for around ~1hr 30 with very ill-defined "cargo loading" problems. We sat on stand for that whole time, with pretty weak updates every 20-30mins or so from the pilot where each time we were continually told 20-30 mins more multiple times. The pilot was less than apologetic, and it wasn't until an hour to our wait in that the cabin crew passed through the cabin to offer pax water. I wouldn't have had any issues, these things happen, if the pilot had been a bit more contrite and also communicative. Once in the air we had one update on ETA at the very beginning of the flight, and ~45mins from landing. There was no real apology for the delay (we were "thanked" for our patience), and the pilot didn't make any assertions of trying to make up time in the air, or even update us on ETA until the very end of the flight.

Perhaps Delta has given me unrealistic expectations, but in the past Delta pilots have always been really good at both continuous updates when sitting on the ground, and then trying to make up time in the air/communicate update ETA. I was just really disappointed with how little the captain seemed to care at what was a pretty hefty delay for what should have been ~8hr 50 flight.

I filled in the post-flight survey, but not sure the extent to which those get read by Air France (I know Delta often respond if you are disappointed in service), but based on that experience I would be heavily biased towards KLM flights in future.

Is this par for the course for AF delays, or was I unlucky with this pilot?

Often1

It can be hard to know how long a rolling delay will take. I prefer to know just the facts available to the Captain or other crew at the time. What may have looked like 20-30 minutes, apparently took longer.

Same problem with cabin service. Would not expect anything on a 20-30 minute delay because it then takes time to clear the cabin and do all the safety checks again. Problem on a rolling delay is roughly the same. If the Captain knew that it would be 90 minutes, I presume that the aircraft would not have been boarded at all.

Seeming apologies for the reality of safe commercial aviation are not necessarily what everyone wants.

irishguy28

It doesn't sound like an overly-long delay; neither does a 20-30 minute "delay" between updates sound excessive.

I appreciate that perhaps you are the type that likes constant updates, but when there is no new information, then constant updates are irritating rather than informative.

San Gottardo

You can get pretty accurate ETA anytime from the IFE. I prefer that to being disturbed by public announcements all the time.

And for “making up time”, there is only so much crews can do. ATC gives them a shortcut or it doesn’t. They can add a couple of knots sometimes, but the real difference comes from weather a (substantial) shortcuts.

wuzziduzziman

From the OP's perspective (frequent DL flyer) I can understand that he criticizes both frequency and content of the communication. From my experience, indeed Delta does a better job with respect to informing PAX on situations like the mentioned one. Also, Delta would apologize about a delay as short as 10min.

KLouis

Yep! The apologies being as serious as the question "how are you today?" of your teller at any US bank...

irishguy28

Not only that, but they will rebook you and break a perfectly valid connection!

I was boarding the first of two connected DL flights earlier this summer, when the captain decided something wasn't quite right and boarding was suspended and the denizens of the "First" cabin that had already boarded were booted off . In what turned out to be only a 10- or 15-minute delay, we had the captain out and talking on the intercom at the gate for a good portion of that time I landed at the connection point - on schedule - and went to the next gate [it was literally the next gate] only to find that my boarding pass was no longer valid, as I had been rebooked due to the "delay" that didn't really need to be acknowledged as such. Such a load of theatrics! (But apparently to meet Delta customer expectations). Worse, my seat had been given away and I would have to wait something like 6 hours.

Luckily someone else didn't show up and I was given a new boarding pass by an extremely competent and totally-not-attention-seeking gate agent.

(I prefer the European system! Concentrate on getting the issue fixed rather than having a heart-to-heart with the audience )

wuzziduzziman

Wow. Sounds like Dilbert was on duty that day.