Mozart0815

You're probably right. La Crevette Air France

Interesting, in nearly 20 years flying with AF this is the first time I notice this part of the branding.

Fabo.sk

I think it's been essentially abandoned for some time, only resurfacing recently, and then only at a limited level.

matmatlr

The Hippo logo is branded almost everywhere in P for quite a while

San Gottardo

It's basically been on every AF plane since the inception of the company. As far as I know it comes from the days when they were flying long haul routes and planes replaced ships.

See here:

Mozart0815

I clearly should be doing more plane spotting...

Goldorak

it has never been abandoned. It is everywhere if you pay attention.

San Gottardo

Except that with all the plane spotting in the world you won't be seeing any of the above, except the one on the last picture, and even that one will have disappeared soon.

nldogbert

Indeed, and this is for me makes Air France, Air France - representing the company and the (expected) elegance of flying with Air France [sadly this is not alway the practice with the onboard service and offerings].

Alhought I suspect the majority of the public will not know this or even what it is known as.

Cheers!

johan rebel

I've been doing exactly that for years.

Johan

Macaron54

According to the Urban Dictionary:

HiPPo

Highest Paid Persons Opinion. Usually the person at the head of the corporate ladder whose opinion finally matters.

Macaron54

This is not completely clear, Goldorak. According to some KX/SCC people and pursers, the airline will bestow the Hippocampe status upon its top-revenue making customers (folks who are already Ultimates). Remember the comment of Frederic Kahane of a possible extension of the Ultimate status, whereby 1,800 UXPs would be the entry level, but an appreciably larger amount of UXPs would grant you additional benefits. If such were the case, and I am speculating here, then Hippocampe would be akin to Delta's 360 program, which is also by invitation only, at the discretion of the airline management. The alternative, equally probable, is that Hippocampe is reserved to top decision makers, who do not necessarily fly a lot with Air France, but have leverage on the choice of an airline for their collaborators and employees. This hypothesis is of course not mutually exclusive with the possibility of networking or fostering nepotism.

Goldorak

Bolding is mine. I would be very happy you being right, but that’s not what the memo taken in picture by matmatlr is saying. And I would take with a lot of caution what FA can say.

Macaron54

You are probably (quite sadly) correct about the flight attendants not being particularly knowledgeable about statuses and how Flying Blue operates. They will gladly inform you that today, it will cost you 63,000 miles to upgrade from the W to the J cabin on the ORD to CDG route, but have absolutely no grasp what that amount represents, let alone how many round trips in W you need to fly to cough it up. They will even look at you in total awe if you decline, not realizing it is a complete ripoff. The KX folks are not any better when it comes to the ins and outs of the Flying Blue program, and if they have a better feel of what is a good deal and what is a lousy one, insofar as dynamic pricing is concerned, they are completely ignorant of the mileage accrual scheme (and how much it sucks).

San Gottardo

yes. But to be fair, Air France does not call them hippos. The status’ abbreviation is HIPP. It is us in this thread who came up with HIPPO (could have been me, and if it was, it was unintentional). So we shouldn’t judge AF for the choice of the abbreviation when it fact they aren’t the ones who invented it.

Macaron54

Absolutely! I just found the connection between the cute nickname and the Urban Dictionary definition interesting, as Hippocampes are supposed to be, at least for some of them, decision makers and thought leaders. You are right though – HIPP is the official acronym used on the Air France staff iPad.