dg4255

I had a last minute trip VCE-CDG-EZE. I had about 2 1/2 hours to get a bag packed and get to Marco Polo airport. Booked and ticketed in C class there and back. Used the self check-in kiosk to print BPs. For the first time in I cannot recall, the staff made the announcement to stay seated until the row was called. First, Business Class and Skyteam Elite+, then Elite, then Tempo Challenge, then Tempo, etc etc etc.. So, I meandered over to the gate when they called Business Class. One of the AF supervisors was standing there and checked my BP to verify I was in Business Class. She saw my name and that I was a Platinum and noted that they had a list of all the Platinums from the area that frequently fly in/out of VCE and recalled my unusual non-Italian last name. She then noted that I had a 45 minute connection to the EZE flight and said she would telex ahead for special transfers. Our plane pulled into a remote stand wayyyyyy out by 2E, but the plane was only 1/2 full so loading the bus didn't take so long. As we pulled into 2F to get off the bus there were 2 AF employees in yellow fluorescent jackets and one had a sign with my name on it. They were both screaming my last name as loud as possible. Kinda funny.. It is a French last name so to hear them saying it in French was nice. They actually knew how to pronounce it, of course. That NEVER happens. I motioned to them that I was who they were looking for. I was whisked away in a Citroen car marked with AF on the side for a nice tour of CDG from the ground level. Somehow, I have no clue, we skipped passport control by going into a back door somewhere and popped out behind security in 2E near gate 44. Not only did I make the flight, but had a good 15 minutes before the door closed. I would have never ever ever booked a 45 minute connection, but it was the last flight of the day and I didn't have any advance notice. Good job AF..

On a side note, the long-haul flight CDG-EZE was brilliant. Excellent, wonderful, amazing service with excellent food and wine. Return long-haul EZE-CDG was good, but not excellent service, good food and wine.
There is one thing that really irks me though. Every single one of my long-haul flights in the past 2 years has always come into a different terminal than 2C. So, when I want to take advantage of the Arrivals lounge, I have to haul all my stuff alllllllllll the way over to 2C just to take a shower. I haven't had one single flight pull into 2C in 2 years. This includes arrivals from BKK, EZE (3 times), MEX, JNB (2 times), DEL, and NRT. This very much reduces the benefit to me. Who wants to drag everything for 30 minutes over to another terminal only to be sweatier and smellier than you already were!!??

Nuttae

quite impressive story!!

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

Great story. The worse the environments are in which airlines have to operate (Nigeria, CDG, etc.) the more opportunity they have to give special, differentiated service to their high-value customers.

Imagine how much better AF could be and how much "exception processing" costs they could avoid if CDG were an organised airport and the connections AF sell were actually feasible for the other 99% of those passengers flying them...

Malonda

You're kidding, right?

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I wish I were. At least you don't have to have the local police commissioner on the take to get through CDG safely, but the chaos, unreliability and employee indifference from Lagos is quite similar. Poor planning, poor layout, lousy or non-existent signage, Habi-trail walkways, impossible connections, special favors for the locals who know the secret handshakes ... CDG even has had its own brand new buildings collapsing on passengers. What better example is that?