andre1970

Funny that according to "Le Figaro" the cost of a Boeing 777 increased 3 times in one day!

JOUY31

The pilots have apparently decided to continue the strike, as originally scheduled.

stimpy

As usual, there is a lot more to the strike that what is mentioned here or in the front page of the paper. http://www.lefigaro.fr/commentaires/...page=0#1048081 was a pretty interesting read I thought.

KLouis

Well, at the cost of sounding "weird", I had a good experience with the strike. Not only did the early flight to ATH leave on time, there were fewer than 35 pacs on board! This was my first Tempo trip in months, and I enjoyed having three seats (emergency exit!) at my disposal. Great, if one forgot the pre-departure psychological stress: will we fly or not?

San Gottardo

When I am sitting at some damp airport 8,000 kilomteres away from home, not able to tell my kid when daddy is coming home, just because the French pilots are the only ones in the entire world (!)to think that accepting an ICAO regulation is below their dignity, then a Gallic shrug doesn't get me anywhere (and the depending on where I am, the wine may be terrible or not be on offer at all). When then finally the crew graciously lowers itself to let me on board and fulfill their transportation contract in exchange for the thousands of EUR I have paid for my ticket, I suppose I must take it with a shrug as well that I am sitting in a non-functioning seat whilst AF employees (in uniform) laze in a functioning seat, that I have to crumble my coat into a dirty overhead bin only because the wardrobe is for their own stuff, that I have to wait until being served glorified toothpaste as "dinner" because they first are busy preparing a full hot dinner for themselves. Maybe I should even be thankful that they do anything at all for their paying customers, and not expect anything either, such as replying to letters sent to customer service.

I am all for relaxing and taking things with a shrug. But the widespread attitude at Air France where they make the customer feel that anything they do is an exceptional favour and not a service that can be expected is nothing that I am willing to put away with a shrug. That attitude is widespread in any customer-related job in France. One often gets a feeling that people feel that it's below themselves to provide service.

I agree with you that the quality of life in France is exceptional. (That's why I have my private base station here - but moved my work to other countries with a more sane economic environment). But I don't think that to have a great quality of life it takes lousy customer service, an "employee first" attitude and strikes by all those wimps for every little change in their working environment. May I point to a neigbouring country, Switzerland, where quality of life is at least as good (and arguably better), without diva-esque behaviour of FAs and other customer staff, childish reaction when it comes to recognize certain economic imperatives (I don't get what I want/you take something away from me, je fais la gueule) and an overall tendency towards favouring laziness over effort. There are strikes that are more justified than others, for instance because indeed there are situations where employeers exploit their position of strength in an unfair way. But this strike is (yet another French) example which is just about saving personal comfort irrespective of economic imperatives.

PS: and yes, again you are right, there are other countries that are bad, too. But again, by saying there are others you do not make my point less valid

San Gottardo

Le Figaro is (in)famous for its lack of expertise in anything airline-related. And then, "expertise" is a big word. They get wrong some very basic stuff that could be looked up on Wikipedia or airliners.net. What is worrying is that their wrong facts sometimes create stories that frigthen people off without any justification. Examples: their reporting of the Flash Airlines disaster, or a story about how "dangerous" Continental Airlines was because of fuel stops on 757-operated TATL flights, supposedly because CO's 757 didn't have winglets.

San Gottardo

The Anglo-Saxon way of doing this is to put the squeeze on passengers and on employees (i.e. no proper catering for either of them). The French way, where employee rights are sacred, is to cut service to pax, but to leave privileges for employees (i.e. pax get served plastic and employees are proper meal).

Only supports my point. Customers come second, employees' comfort first.

satprof

Some would indeed say that he is very trying ....

N830MH

Excellent! You will have a nice pleasant trip to AMS then continuing to VCE. You have been done it that you went to VCE for many times, am I correct? You will have a nice trip in C class. Do you know which equipment is that? Is that B744 or 777?

obscure2k

What truly distresses me is the lack of reporting by the U.S. media. Were it not for FT, I would have arrived at LAX on 11/17 prepared to check in for my flight. No doubt, there is utter chaos at all AF check-in counters all over the world. A big Shout Out to FT A reminder why this website is so useful. I feel very sorry for those pax checking in at AF counters, who were unaware of the strike. The lines had to have been miserable. I feel quite sorry for the desk agents. This has to be a horrible situation.

N830MH

Can you please clarify something for your flight out of LAX? I don't think you will not go to AF counter. Otherwise, that you need go to KL counter where you fly out from LAX at T2. What about you need checked your bags before you will walked out from KLM ticket counter. Does you know bags drop at AF or KL counter?

I think you should change the flight on DL out of LAX-ATL-AMS or whatever. Next time you should considered where you fly on DL is more conveniently for you. Instead, please don't bookable ticket online with AF for awhile. This is not good situations where you fly on AF is absolutely very horrible go through CDG.

obscure2k

Thanks for your concern, N830MH. Everything is under control.

N830MH

Not a problems at all. I knows my brother has flown on AF due to overbooked flight from ZRH-ATL from 10 years ago. He have fly from ZRH-CDG-ATL on operated 763 aircraft. That's why where he is flown on Swissair from ATL-ZRH-ATL. I remember where he told me that F/A is very rude but, he doesn't like it fly on AF at all. I remember when DL is former codeshare with SR from years ago. Now, DL has been already terminated the codeshare back in Aug. 2000.

nicolas75

I was this Saturday at CDG
I was a bit nervous to be in a total mess because of the strike
It was not.
Air France opened dedicated counters for cancelled flights, the staff was really attentive to the customers (even if some customers are really nervous and unpolite).

andre1970

My friend from Athens who arrived yesterday to visit me in Paris wouldn't say the same... She came in on an AF (ad-hoc) chartered ...Clickair plane . She told me that this Clickair (A320) plane made a terrible noise during taxiing on the runway, while the pitch wasn't exactly stellar...
True. I was the one to inform my seatmate that there was going to be a pilot strike last Thursday on our way to CDG. She had no clue . And it was her first time ever in France. She (thought that she) was leaving today. I advised her to enjoy Paris eat and drink well and escorted her to the RER station before heading to the Arrivals lounge. No, I didn't ask/take her phone number...
I was there on Friday and I fully agree with the above.