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What is wrong with AF ops these days? Breakdown on all fronts...

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Old Aug 18, 2018, 2:22 pm
  #46  
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Originally Posted by q
I give a try: SBB-CFF-FFS ?
Ha ha ha! Well spotted, 1a for your humour ^^

Seriously, if I compare how much I like my most liked airline to how much I like SBB/CFF, I must admit that I like SBB/CFF. Except that they don't get me very far...
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Old Aug 18, 2018, 2:30 pm
  #47  
 
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Originally Posted by San Gottardo
And sometimes it really makes you wonder what it is that AF does differently.
  • For instance, yesterday at LAX, for AF 66. There was a Lufthansa A340-600 supposed to leave 5 minutes before the Air France flight on the neighbouring gate. When I passed by the LH gate which was right next to ours, there were *hordes* of people that hadn't boarded yet. At the AF gate, everybody had boarded, not a soul (I had requested late boarding and was escorted, so I was really the last pax, boarding about 25 minutes before scheduled departure). Guess what: the Lufthansa flight pushed back 20 minutes before us. A British Airways 747 to London, scheduled 15 minutes after AF, passing their gate they hadn't even started boarding yet - when we taxied I saw them taking off before us. I know there can be ATC that delays things on the ground, but no, in our case the doors only got shut 20 minutes after scheduled departure
  • In Montreal two weeks ago, incoming flight from Paris more or less on time, but already they had sent out messages to people saying that departure back to Paris would be 30 minutes delayed, which ended up being one hour. I watched from the lounge: the Air France plane landed. 10 minutes later, a Swiss flight landed. Still, the Swiss flight went out 1 hour before the Air France flight. Why can one airline turn around their plane on time, but AF can't?
  • .
    You echo my post of 1-2 weeks ago on this thread with a KL flight docking at CDG for a return to AMS after the scheduled departure time of my AF flight CDG-AMS, and which managed leaving earlier. One of my puzzles is that both planes must have been handled by AF ground crew! On outstations like Montreal or LAX you may have different handling companies, but like San Gottardo indicates things like this are too strange for words. I once had a KL flight MNL-AMS that was coming in really late. The KL crew was fully aware what knock-on effects this flight arriving late in AMS would have on further use of the aircraft, and did all they can to cut corners at all stages like the TPE stop, recovering 1-1.5 hours on the 3 hours delay on my MNL-AMS leg alone. That spirit seems to lack fully at AF.
    atflyer is offline  
    Old Aug 19, 2018, 2:27 am
      #48  
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    After more than 10 years after the KL/AF merger, I'd wonder why KLM would be served by another ground handling company at an outstation than Air France.
    From an economy of scale perspective it doesn't make any sense.
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    Old Aug 19, 2018, 2:55 am
      #49  
     
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    Originally Posted by warakorn
    After more than 10 years after the KL/AF merger, I'd wonder why KLM would be served by another ground handling company at an outstation than Air France.
    From an economy of scale perspective it doesn't make any sense.
    I mean that the slow departing AF flights in LAX and Montreal in principle could have a different handling agent as the quicker departing flights of LH or Swiss in the example of San Gottardo. But like San Gottardo, even if that were the case, I think it is an unlikely reason for the slow departures he witnessed
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    Old Aug 20, 2018, 1:34 am
      #50  
     
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    These two pictures were taken at CDG lounge 2F2 mid-may one weekday.
    The first shows the whole food offer at 13.15 (downstairs but upstairs it was similar) !!!
    The second, the aspect of the lounge (I did choose one angle, just took the ficture from my chair !).
    Just one guy trying to do his best but he had only 2 arms !

    Of course AF "service clients" "s'en lave les mains" : it's not what we want to offer blah blah blah....
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    Old Aug 20, 2018, 2:33 am
      #51  
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    One more thing I forgot to add in my summary further up thread: still no solution to enter trusted traveller members in bookings from and to the US. In the past calling DL did the trick, but no, this time not even that.

    Pathetic.

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    Old Aug 20, 2018, 2:35 pm
      #52  
     
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    Originally Posted by saraoutou



    These two pictures were taken at CDG lounge 2F2 mid-may one weekday.
    The first shows the whole food offer at 13.15 (downstairs but upstairs it was similar) !!!
    The second, the aspect of the lounge (I did choose one angle, just took the ficture from my chair !).
    Just one guy trying to do his best but he had only 2 arms !

    Of course AF "service clients" "s'en lave les mains" : it's not what we want to offer blah blah blah....
    An then in another thread I am being slashed for saying the AF lounges are just slightly better as the AMS KL lounge ;-) (admitted, there the discussion was about the E lounge in Paris, see KLM/AF business class London/Lima)
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    Old Aug 22, 2018, 3:52 pm
      #53  
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    Originally Posted by atflyer
    An then in another thread I am being slashed for saying the AF lounges are just slightly better as the AMS KL lounge ;-) (admitted, there the discussion was about the E lounge in Paris, see KLM/AF business class London/Lima)
    Let us be serious. I am not enamoured of the 2F lounges but let us not pretend that this is the typical offering of those lounges. Clearly, there must have been a major failure on that particular day but I do not think that anybody would attempt to present this as the typical offering of the 2F lounges.
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    Old Aug 22, 2018, 10:33 pm
      #54  
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    Originally Posted by NickB
    Let us be serious. I am not enamoured of the 2F lounges but let us not pretend that this is the typical offering of those lounges. Clearly, there must have been a major failure on that particular day but I do not think that anybody would attempt to present this as the typical offering of the 2F lounges.
    i agrée with you that the empty buffet is not the typical offering of the AF lounges, there must have been a major failure. In fact, precisely the topic of this thread. How this summer there is just a series of major operational failures.

    And whilst the empty buffet is not typical, It isn’t a one-time failure either. Have seen similar scenes on several occasions. And as for the tables that aren’t cleared, that’s in fact very “normal”
    San Gottardo is offline  
    Old Aug 22, 2018, 11:06 pm
      #55  
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    Originally Posted by San Gottardo
    ... In fact, precisely the topic of this thread. How this summer there is just a series of major operational failures ....
    Those photos were about the lounge one particular day in MAY. The above statement is a very slight exaggeration.
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    Old Aug 23, 2018, 2:13 am
      #56  
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    Originally Posted by San Gottardo


    i agrée with you that the empty buffet is not the typical offering of the AF lounges, there must have been a major failure. In fact, precisely the topic of this thread. How this summer there is just a series of major operational failures.
    My response was not to saraoutou's post but to atflyer's one.
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    Old Aug 23, 2018, 6:45 am
      #57  
     
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    Originally Posted by NickB
    Let us be serious. I am not enamoured of the 2F lounges but let us not pretend that this is the typical offering of those lounges. Clearly, there must have been a major failure on that particular day but I do not think that anybody would attempt to present this as the typical offering of the 2F lounges.


    I totally agree with NickB — it is a little bit disingenuous to suggest that the snapshots are representative of the lounge offer at terminal 2F. I have never been a big fan of the place, which I find a tad dysfunctional, but it is an unfair trial to the ground staff that tries to provide the best possible service to the AFKL customers. Something must have, indeed, gone wrong that day. Perhaps the high volume of PAXs returning from their summer vacations plundered the buffets.
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    Old Aug 23, 2018, 1:40 pm
      #58  
     
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    Originally Posted by Macaron54

    I totally agree with NickB — it is a little bit disingenuous to suggest that the snapshots are representative of the lounge offer at terminal 2F. I have never been a big fan of the place, which I find a tad dysfunctional, but it is an unfair trial to the ground staff that tries to provide the best possible service to the AFKL customers. Something must have, indeed, gone wrong that day. Perhaps the high volume of PAXs returning from their summer vacations plundered the buffets.
    Mid-may, no vacations, a tuesday, quite empty lounge (not so but considering how it may be crowded...) So I don't see any excuses. A misfunction can occure...What makes me angry is the AF's customers Care answer...
    I know it is only a short fly after this lounge but for me it was flight number 5 in less than 24 hours!
    saraoutou is offline  
    Old Aug 23, 2018, 9:23 pm
      #59  
     
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    Originally Posted by San Gottardo
    And as for the tables that aren’t cleared, that’s in fact very “normal”
    Not an everyday visitor to 2F lounges, but I passed through about 5 times since May, and dirty (and cluttered) tables are very much normal, at any hour of the day.
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    Old Aug 24, 2018, 8:53 am
      #60  
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    Originally Posted by San Gottardo
    One more thing I forgot to add in my summary further up thread: still no solution to enter trusted traveller members in bookings from and to the US. In the past calling DL did the trick, but no, this time not even that.

    Pathetic.

    I could have sworn this option was there when I made a booking a month or two ago, but I wasn't able to fill it out because it's on the page where you enter your name/passport info, and my passport only has my middle initial but the AF site requires 2 letters in that field, so ANY changes get rejected.
    But now I don't even see the trusted traveller field.

    Totally pathetic.
    ijgordon is online now  


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