chrissxb

Frederic Babu told me that probably this summer, passengers in first will get a dedicated area and lounge in the E-Terminal. Individual Limousine service to aircraft.

I don't have any details so far - if this applies to connecting passengers or to passengers departing from CDG only, but as soon as I get more information, I let you know.

Threy

Throughout the last years, Air France became quite famous for simply copying Lufthansa in many ways of doing business, which, at least IMO, is quite smart.

Seems to me like another attempt to simply copy a successful strategy, which is however highly expensive and demands a lot of precise planning and execution and in the end your evaluation, if all the effort paid off may differ wildly.

Under the bottom line, a personal transfer at CDG would be a huge improvement, LH was smart enough to offer it to some special customers as well, which will be done by AF as well, if they are smart enough.

Premium revenue is decreasing and if companies need to get their employees to certain appointments, the danger to misconnect is greater than ever. Looking at the tailored offers of the private charter industry, more and more companies are willing to dish 10k more for the guarantee to have their employees getting to their destination in time, which is a huge danger for the legacy carriers, especially on routes which can be flown nonstop by the smaller corporate jets; i.e. the range up to 3500-4000 miles...

Falco Peregrinus

Beyond the improved comfort for passengers, what strikes me here is the art of dressing up the anticipated and partial reopening of an existing lounge as the launch of a so-called First Class ground service a la LH. I was in 2E landside the other day at 9 pm: Magnificent but quite depressing if you ask me. Almost totally desert, except a few soldiers patrolling with their sub-machine guns.

A perfect place for First Class passengers with all the room they deserve. The limousine service becomes more or less mandatory since 2E is quite far away from 2C from where 3 to 4 flights with a P cabin depart late in the evening.Peugeots by chance?

And why did they shut down P lounges at 2F and 2C in the first place? Couldn't they wait until the reopening of 2E's P lounge?

chrissxb

no, because they have a serious space problem. not enough lounge space for all passengeres and shutting down the F lounges gives more space to all biz passengers. from what I understand, they had to make a choice ...

bodory

I would love sitting in a new Citroen C6 before sitting in a P seat

Serpentos

I wont debate on who's the leader who's the follower... The collapse of the terminal E at CDG dramatically impacts AF strategy and still promises a couple of year (let's say 3) in darkness... BUT, despite these events, AF finally improves its offer to its more contributing pax. One (huge) dedicated lounge with a limousine service is now the standard and it's great to see this available at CDG.
Qatar airways pushed the standard even higher : one dedicated terminal in DOH !

chrissxb

for when the dedicated plane?

Serpentos

When the barrel will reach 150 dollars...

chrissxb

which will be this summer ? chrismas at last

f4free

If this summer in fact is the time for limousines etc, I will find out and keep you posted. I will likely have an AF F trip in July.

My hopes are not too high, however. At least I hope they perform better than on my last AF trip in F, when they misconnected me and even refused rebooking on the next non-AF flight - and even initially refused the Hotel. (I still think it's a shame I had to fight for my hotel, especially in F.)

chrissxb

summer could be august, too. I have a flight in F on july 28th, hopefully it'll be working. but you never know with scheduled events like that.

stimpy

I'm writing now from somewhere over the Atlantic in an LH F seat. Why LH? Because of the awesome service at the LH F terminal in FRA, and of course the WiFi Internet on-board. If AF gets one of the two right that will help a lot.

It was quite empty today at the FRA F terminal. I had my own personal security team to check my bags and body, my own personal immigration officer to check my passport, my own waitress to pour me Tattinger Rose, my own Duty Free shop to buy some Cuban cigars, etc. And of course I had a Porsche with driver to take me to my airplane. Unfortunately there were other people on the plane which kind of ruined the experience a bit.

Belgian in Paris

any news on this ?

By the way next week I will have a 50 min connection between flight from London (T 2F) and flight to HKG (T 2C) with a F ticket. How is the luggage transit in CDG for the moment ?

chrissxb

nothing

albireo

and, given the recent terminal changes, I would not be too optimistic about the allocation of part of 2E for first class pax in the near future...