1/1/2011 I have NEVER experienced the kind of customer service nightmare I am currently going through with Air France. We flew from San Francisco to Barcelona on Dec. 23 with a connection at Charles De Gaulle. Due to bad weather in Paris, our flight out of SF was delayed for 5 hours. When we reached Paris, 3 flights to Barcelona were cancelled, so our baggage was at CDG for over 5 hours. When we finally landed at Barcelona at about 11:30 pm, our luggage (and that of most others on the plane) was not there, even though they had 5 hours to transfer it from one plane to another at the same terminal. After literally dozens of phone calls to Spain, France and the US, and constant checking online, we still do not have our bags, after 7 days! They initially promised it within 24 hours, yet everyday their answer was the same: "sorry, no information". They consistently refused to answer whether the luggage had ever been scanned into CDG.

I am an insulin-dependent diabetic and did not have enough medication to last the entire trip in my small carry-on bag. I explained this to them immediately, and it was noted in the file, but they gave no extra consideration to this, even though it constituted a medical emergency for me.

This morning they supposedly found one of the three bags and it was supposedly out for delivery at 8:30 am, but it is now 11 p.m. and still no bag. They promised that would be delivered by private courier given the medication inside, but instead I have now been told it is on a huge truck, and they refuse to provide the name of the service so that I might avoid having to waste an entire day of my vacation waiting at my rental apartment to be sure I don't miss the driver.

I have received nothing but officious, rude service, and outright lies from nearly everyone I've dealt with at all levels of Air France -- no firm answers, no apologies, no accurate information -- just continuous delays and hours waiting on hold. NEVER AGAIN WILL I FLY THIS ROTTEN AIRLINE!

On October 18th 2010 I flew Air France Business Class from New York to Paris CDG, then from CDG to Johannesburg, South Africa, on flight AF990.
I was carryinga hunting rifle in a locked metal case for which I had the keys. While at CDG airport, about 45 minutes before boarding AF990, I was called aside by Air France officials along with another US citizen also carrying a hunting rifle. We were driven to what seemed the opposite end of the airport to a baggage area. We both opened our rifle cases and after enduring over 35 minutes of Air France officials arguing about whether we could carry our ammunition and bullets tips for reloading purposes (not live ammunition) they took all our ammunition and bullet tips with no explanation. These items had a combined value of over $450 yet I received no receipt or explanation. I asked what danger there was in carrying 20 rounds plus the bullet tips (pieces of lead) in a locked metal case for which I had the key; I got no answer.
During the flight to Johannesburg I received a handwritten baggage check and was told by the purser that my items would be delivered to the address I had given them. The address was for the farm to which I was travelling in Namibia, my final destination.
On arrival in Johannesburg I had to catch a connecting flight to Windhoek in Namibia. For the duration of my stay in Namibia I tried unsuccessfully to find out what had happened to my items. I have contacted Air France at least 6 times with no cooperation. I have been told that "the file is closed". No one can tell me where my items were delivered or who signed for the parcel.
This situation is unbelievable. Why would they take my ammunition and bullet tips out of a locked metal case that was checked all the way through to my destination, and put them in a plastic bag?
Wat if these items have ended up in the hands of criminals or terrorists? Are airlines not supposed to be doing everything possible to improve security?
After 10 phone calls (usually with a 30+ minute hold time) they can still give me no answer. I have faxed a letter with details of this case twice; no one has responded.
In addition to this, even though I was flying Business Class, on the leg from NYC to Paris, we had no hot water on the flight - no coffee, no hot water in the bathrooms. Unbelieveable. If anyone ever mentions Air France to me, I will give them all the details of the "service" I have received from Air France and advise them never to us that carrier. If anyone would like details of my file numbner please let me know and I'd be happy to respond.

It was most frustrated experience with Air France. Because we change the date of return over the phone with Air France. Before the departure we did call Orbitz to conform who to call in case we need to change.The Orbitz rep told us it would be Air France and even gave us the Air France number to call. Because the Air France rep who changed the return date with told us that we can pay the changing fee before the flight we did not pay the fee at the time we changed it. After wards, I spoke to five different Air France reps. Every one of Air France reps, told us that different way to pay the changing fee. We couldn't get tickets issued until we pay the fee!!! BUT none of Air France reps were helping us. instead, we had to hold on the phone almost one hour each of THREE TIMES calls with Air France. One of Air France rep told us that we had to go to the local air port or the local Air France office to pay the fee because we had to pay the fee before the original return date. At the local Air France office, a very cold woman told us that we had to pay the fee to Orbitz because Orbitz was the who we booked the flights originally. It was a MESS!!! We call Orbitz and ask to deal with Air France take the fee so we can GO HOME!!! which they did. This is how we had to spend the end of our vacation. I don't even want to imagine that what if we didn't book it with Orbizs and we had to deal with Air France alone!!! HATE Air France!!!

We were a group of three from India travelled to Phoenix USA for a technical conference through Paris CDG. we took a Air France flight from Bangalore to Paris on May 7th and had our connecting flight to Salt lake city at 11 AM. But there were some oil leakage found in the engine lead to the delay of 3 hrs boarded on the flight. They finally cancelled the flight and diverted us to Air France desk promising to accomodate other flights or next day flights with hotel accomodation. The line was very long queue of 150 odd passengers moving at a crawling pace. We stood in the line at 2 PM, by 4 PM we barely covered few feet, we saw AF officials start calling thier day and leave one after another from 8 to barely 2 or 3 left attending the rest of passengers. They were not adding officials to replace those left and had no intention to fasten the pace.

We finally had our turn around 6:30 PM, where the Air France official (Female) told us, it is just late to put us on to any US flights the same day as the last one starting in few mins to New york. She casually told us, she can't help it and putting us on next day flight 2PM to Detriot. She told us that she'll initiate a transit visa request to police and if rejected we'll have to stay in the airport. She said the visa process may take time and we'll have to wait until her collegue carrying the request to police return. we then waited for another 4 hours while we saw many of them granted visa (I'm sorry but I must note my observation that all of them are either US citizens or whites). Finally, we three along with few chinese and two arab left and they announced at 10:30 PM that all our visas were rejected and had to stay in the airport. I'm fine and must accept that any country reserve its right to grant visa with whatever policy they have, although we wish them treat everyone with equality.

Well, the wait is not yet over, as they took another hour to get our passport and take us to the terminal 2E gate 13. They provided us one buisness sleeping pack, one sandwitch and soft drink coupen where we actually need three course of meal till our next flight. They simply denied and said they could only offer this. They were so irresponsible for thier own flight problem which landed to this situation and didn't care to take care of thier passengers with even proper food/facilities. As it was already close to 12AM, most of the shops in that airport terminal were closed and we had to sleep starved. But no one seems to care or bother listening to our concerns. A simple answer we get was, we can't help it and this is what we can provide. Long live Air France! we were pleased with your service!

One another humiliation before we left the living hell in the world, when we tried the sandwitch coupen in one of the food outlet in 2E. A lady in that shop looked down at the coupen and instructed at us pointed to few selected sandwitch option are available to this coupen and asked us to look at other shops if we don't want these. They barely had the vegeterian option anyway. so we managed our rest of our stay with muffins and soft drink. Comes on next, another delay announced to our Detriot flight by 30 mins (reasons unknown) and it finally took off 1 hour late. It reached Detriot 2 hrs late (reasoned that they had to take longer route to avoid volcano ashes). so we missed our next connecting flight to Phoenix too! This time around, we were told at Delta counter that they have put us to next day flight 9AM and it has been directed by Air France not to provide any hotel accomodation to its connecting passengers (Delta claim to have providing accomodation to its own passengers) and asked us to approach the Air france desk in the airport. when we approached them, as usual to us by now they denied accomodation stating they can't provide accomodation because it was due to volcano. We tried our best to explain them that it was just not valcano, but the flight departed 1 hr late due to some issue. But they doesn't seem to listen or agree to take responsibility. we gave up and thanked them for their great service!

Atleast, this we were in US. we went out and took accomodation on our own. we finally reached our destination two days late with bundle of humiliating experience and fatigue. The only mistake we made on ourself was selecting the Air France and chose to flew through Paris.

I was actually planning for a vacation to Paris this december with my family. I cancelled it at once and atleast feel fortuante that my family is saved from such humiliations.

Dear Sir/Madam,

It is with great regret that I add up to the complaints against Air France services.

My husband and I have travelled from Brazil to the UK and Italy via France, on Air France flights on 01 Feb and 15 Feb, respectively. We had terrible problems on our way back, on AF 442, with a flight delay of almost three hours, that took off at 02 AM the day after, without much explanation.

Worst of all, while onboard for those long hours, without any food or amenities, even though sitting on "business class" (!), we were approached by ground staff twice, to ask how many pieces of lugagge we had, on which occasion our lugagge tag numbers etc. were provided. It was clear, of course, that our pieces of lugagge coming from Milan (with a stay of FIVE hours at CDG) were lost!! We tried to get further information from staff onboard and every time we have asked for their names, the answer was "my name is Air France", which I found a bit ridiculous, inappropriate and questionable, legally speaking! But that was just the start of our saga... Since our target was to find out whether we had our lugagge on board or not, we had to overcome the incident of not knowing who was treating us onboard (a person with NO name), and go on with our questions, until we were given the following explanation, from "Mr Air France" that I quote: "since your husband is a frequent flier, and posess a Flying Blue Platinum card, we are double-checking just to make sure your lugagge arrive safely in Rio de Janeiro". That was a LIE! We have arrived in Rio de Janeiro WITHOUT one of our piece of lugagge! Even worse, there was a lady at the lugagge belt with my name on it, but that we only found out ONE HOUR later as she would not care calling my name out loud. Moreover, we were told that Air France sent a message to the cabin crew relating the incident BEFORE the flight landed in Rio de Janeiro.

I sincerely find the event outrageous, unaceptable and bound to legal actions, which I might take, depending on your views of the problem, which in fact is manyfold, isn´t it? Lost lugagge, flight delay, unaswered questions, services provided by people without a tag name etc.

I thank you,