brunos

I am opening this new thread with new title for the benefit of far-away pax who are infrequent readers of this forum.
The strike on 30 March is almost certain and has been mentioned on AF website; AF has been contacting some pax to reroute them.
It is obvious that pax planning to fly AF in the coming days/weeks should watch the situation carefully. Many of the french posters are used to strike uncertainty but my friends and colleagues in Asia are not.

rosensfole

AF0257 SIN-CDG on 31st cancelled due to the strike. I rang the VIP line and they've rebooked me to the 30th which oddly not affected.

Marambio

I posted this on the other strike thread, on the Fréquence Plus forum, but just in case someone is interested – AF’s CDG-EZE flight on the 30th is cancelled. I was rebooked on Alitalia on the same date thanks to a wonderful person at the KLM Whatsapp service. If it were for AF, I would probably still be waiting for a solution.

Travlur

I am getting nervous. My wife and I are heading on a 15th anniversary trip on AF (to France and Italy) starting on April 4th. We have to fly to Houston first, so keeping my fingers crossed that we are not stuck there. I have not kept up with all the strikes in the past, but I don't remember seeing so many in a row before. Obviously it affects everyone, but I spent a ton of money on it, and if it causes a problem it would seriously make me think about not using AF again.
And, we are scheduled for a Joon flight on the 5th that might get affected. But I would much rather be stuck in Paris than in Houston.

Duke787

How worried should I be about strikes later in the month?

Need to fly MAD - ARN. Would prefer to make it an all ST itinerary and do MAD - CDG - ARN on AF (and include it on the same ticket as my flights to/from the US) but concerned I'll get stuck along the way (and this is for work have to get to ARN)

brunos

Family was supposed to fly to HKG on 30 March and AF188 just got cancelled.
Glad that I had rebooked them on CX260 which is now full in Y. And the KL flight to HKG is already overbooked on 30 March.

I read in another thread " Stikes? Which strikes?". Happy to hear that there are no disruptions on some days. But when you book for longhaul holidays months ago or have to travel for business, these are serious disruptions.

rosensfole

Yep. I'm rethinking my airline preferences because of these strikes. All my miles are going to be burned come September so I'll be free to move to an ME airline most likely. Sad...

Zarmakuizz

Air France has enough partners for alternative flights in case of strikes. They are used to it.
I recognize it might sound scary, especially for people outside Europe.

The French regulations regarding strikes have recently changed in favor of the passengers: staff must announce strike at the very least 2 days before said strike movement. This leaves Air France a 48h timespan to rebook affected pax.
At the same time, Air France opens the rebooking options free of charge in case of strikes. Possible solutions are: taking a flight at another date (the day before or after), an alternative route with a partner airline, etc.

All in all, just check the strike status 2 days before, and reach AF/KLM (FB/Twitter/Call) if you are affected.
Another pax reached KLM by social media and got rebooked in a matter of minutes.

Marambio

I was yesterday doing some shopping in Rome’s Via del Corso and inside a store there was an Argentinian couple. While the lady was looking for shoes, the husband was asking her to “stop spending money at least until Air France confirms that we are not stuck in Italy for good!”.

I do think that the AF rebooking/re-routing process is very straightforward for us FlyerTalkers who are used to it, but for non-frequent-fliers, I guess it must be extremely stressful.

brunos

It might not be "scary", but it is certainly stressful and inconvenient even for frequent flyers.

When AF cancels a rather full 77W (as they did for Hong Kong on 23 and 30 March), they offer inconvenient one-stop alternatives with very different timing. For example the KL flight departs from HKG at noon rather than 11pm for the AF flight, meaning a lost day of work/holiday and/or an extra hotel night.
And having the free option to change a longhaul flight date is seldom an attractive options a few days before that date.
Sure, it is not the end of the world and some countries are used to strikes. But saying that it is just routine and that AF is used to reroute does not cut it for me; it is a major inconvenience for many pax, especially those choosing AF for its nonstop benefit.

AlicorporateUK

You make it sound like a walk in the park, just another strike, what's the issue, Twitter will sort you out... But [apart from the fact that we tend to forget that not everyone out there has a nickname and is a regular on FlyerTalk], nearly every single airline, these days, has enough partners for, as you put it, alternative flights hence I'm not entirely sure I get what you're trying to say there. That, together with a number of other factors, doesn't change the fact that those strikes, regardless of the way Air France handles disruptions to passengers as such or just because another pax reached KLM by social media and got rebooked in a matter of minutes, have an incredibly negative impact on the airline and I, like many others who regularly choose to fly AF, have simply had enough, full stop.

G

rosensfole

I'm a seasoned traveller who books long haul months in advance. I can handle the unexpected but I don't want to have to mess about while I'm thousands of miles away, I don't want to have to rearrange living arrangements. I found out about my cancellation while out shopping for gifts and it ruined the afternoon. I don't want that.

It wasn't scary or particularly stressful as I knew what to do, in 10 minutes I was rebooked to a day earlier and a quick call to my host about the situation everything was sorted.

OK - no harm done and it is a 1st world problem but it brasses me off.

I'm paying a lot of money to AF to get me about and I want it to be seamless. I don't have a beef with the strikers, my beef is with the corporation. Just sort it out or I'm off.

Right, I'm packed and off to Changi for my rearranged La Premiere champers...

Keith2004

This is getting ridiculous, when was last time strikes were this frequent?

I have a couple AF flights WAS-CDG-Asia and I am wondering about them....
....kinda regret booking them, certainly wont again, not worth the Will they/Wont they/they just did strike anxiety

I know many here are saying they are used to it, or say it is no big deal, but this does their brand no favors (Not that AF or its employees care, French Gov will ensure AF never fails completely)
With increasing competition from ME3 or even other European airlines with much less volatile labor environments.....more people may ask why book AF at all

Mcflyneo

Darn strike, all flights to CDG canceled but 1, and of course it's fully booked, and i'm not even flying on a strike-day!
I wonder if the flight is fully booked due to rebookings; i was not one of them.
Will get the points for the missing leg (believe it when i see it).. Odd thing though, the KL agent via their common tel. no. easliy rebooked me but when asking about the missing points all of a sudden his position was "nothing i can do about it"
Support is good in a very limited way. Up until this day, KL/Flying Blue can not manage to not shuttle you from pillar to post. Shame, really..

NumbThumb

For what it's worth, we were re-routed on the 23rd and I asked FB to credit our original itinerary and they did so within a day without any fuss.