I'm writing this complaint to let people know that the customer service is Air France is absolutely nonexistent. You are essentially dealing with operators that only care about take your order, not assisting you.
I purchase 2 tickets New York/Paris for May 2009. I need to change one to leave one week earlier and was told that it would cost me $250 penalty plus $300 for the fair increase. So far, nothing surprising, all company do the same. So I looked for a cheap way to leave earlier and found another Air France ticket for $400 (about a $200 saving for me). I intended on leaving using that new ticket to leave earlier, have a no show on the departure date of my initial ticket and still use the return date of my initial ticket. Everybody wins. I save myself $200, I get the dates I want and Air France collects an extra $400 (minus airport taxes of course).
When I called customer service to warn them of the no show on my initial departure date but still validate that my return date I was told that the entire ticket would be canceled. No matter what. I insisted on the fact that I was ready to spend an extra $400 with Air France, but that did not make any different to the operator nor his manager.
So to sum up: Air France would rather lose $400 and my business rather than try to accommodate my needs. Am I the only one absolutely stunt by their lack of business focus?

Air france lost my luggage on the trip from Paris to Miami. They left it behind. They say there was insufficient time between my original flight landing at Paris (from spain), and the departing flight to Miami. I dont know how long they wanted, but i felt that 5 hours was enough!
So i get to miami, no bags. I am flying with American airlines on to Honduras to join a ship. Not a cruise ship mind, an oil survey ship. I will be away for a number of weeks.
First Air france baggage in Miami say it would be best to talk to the baggage department at my destination! Whatever for! they have not lost it! I tell them to forward it when it gets here in Miami on the next flight. I am then told that despite three other air france flights departing paris for miami since i left, the luggage is STILL in Paris. Why i ask? because we are waiting for you to tell us where to send it, reply the baggage dept! To me it was blindingly obvious to put it on the next flight to Miami! So now they are going to forward it to roatan in Honduras, after it finally gets to Miami!
Three days later i am still waiting for my luggage in Roatan, Honduras. Air france lost luggage dept say they need 48 hours to transfer it to Roatan in Honduras. It only took me 4 hours to get there!
So i wait a little longer. Five days later i call air france luggage and get told it will take 48 hours to get there from miami. I explain that it has already been 112 hours since i was told it had arrived in Miami!
So now the ship i am on has sailed. I will not be able to get my luggage to the ship.
Seven days later, the luggage is still in Miami! Now i am told that i must collect it within five days or it disappears to a luggage claim facility god knows where!
It was a simple task to put it on the next plane out of paris. Then transfer it to American airlines the next day and forward it to Roatan.
The person i talked to at air france lost luggage was a moron. I kept asking for the location of my luggage! I was then told to phone Miami airport lost luggage. I phoned them and the automated service redirects me back to the same airfrance lost luggage dept where i started. I was then told by the same moronic lost baggage assistant, that it will take 48hrs to transfer it to Roatan!
At this point there is not a lot i can do. The luggage cannot get to me now. I will have to try and chase it when i get back to Spain.
I bet when i call airfrance, they will tell me it will be in Roatan in 48hrs!
These lost baggage morons at air france do not listen. They seem to have an automated script in front of them.
The good news is, that my not insubstantial company, are now going to send their numerous employees abroad via any other airline except Air France where possible.
So Air france, in these hard times you look to be having the amount of passengers flying with you reduced by about 300 flights a year!
If anyone sees a tan bag with Fugro on it lying around Miamia airport, adjacent to the airfrance lost luggage department, please say hi to it for me, because i doubt if i will ever see it again!

DO NOT FLY AIR FRANCE

I had booked an Air France flight from London Heathrow to Delhi (India) departing on 17 Dec 2008 and returning on 17 Jan 2009. On 17th December 2008, I was travelling by Air France from London to Delhi. The journey involved a change-over of flights in Paris.

The flight from London Heathrow to Paris CDG was AF 1981. It was scheduled to leave at 06.40 (London time), and arrive in Paris CDG at 09.00 (Paris time). From there I was supposed to catch the connecting flight AF 148, scheduled to leave Paris CDG at 10.25 (Paris time), and arrive in Delhi at 23.00 (Delhi time) on 17th December 2008 night. But the flight from London to Paris, AF 1981, was delayed and it arrived in Paris at 12.21 (Paris time). This led to my missing the connecting flight, AF 0148, to Delhi on 17th December 2008.

My flight from LHR to Paris CDG (AF 1981) was delayed by several hours. I was told that the flight crew did not have the stipulated rest as was supposed to as the reason for the delay. Due to the delayed departure from Heathrow my connecting flight from Paris CDG to Delhi (AF 148) was missed. The Air France staff at Heathrow made a public announcement promising that flight from Paris CDG to Delhi (AF 148) is being delayed for us; so that passengers will be able to catch onward flight AF 148 to Delhi.

Surprisingly, when we reached Paris, Air France staff informed us that flight AF 148 had already departed. And that at no point of time they had communicated to their counterparts in LHR that flight AF 148 is delayed; for us to be able to catch it. It is disappointing to know that such a reputed airline does not operate transparently and just for their own convenience they had put so many passengers into trouble. So if the airline staff was aware that the flight AF 148 is not being delayed – they should not have flown me to Paris. The flight was destined to a non-EU country and therefore it was highly unlikely that passengers like me will have the right to enter Paris without having a transit/ Schengen visa.

When I bought the ticket from Air France, I entered into a contract with Air France which included the airline getting me to Delhi on the 17th Dec itself. I had no intention of entering or staying in France, and for that reason I had not gone through the trouble of getting a Schegen visa. It was Air France’s fault that they had delayed the LHR to Paris CDG flight because of which I missed my connecting flight. The immigration (police) officials at Paris decided not to grant me a (like many other fellow passengers) transit visa to stay overnight in a hotel in Paris.

It is also surprising that Air France staff at Paris CDG had poor communication skills. Paris CDG, being an international airport, the Air France staff should have been well conversant in English – most of Air France ground staff lacked the basic language skills. They were unable to understand the passengers and could not communicate properly.

I had left my house 3.30am (UK time) to catch my flight from LHR to Paris CDG. I had not eaten anything in the morning and just got a croissant in the flight AF 1981. Till about 4pm CET, we were left stranded at Paris CDG airport with no one providing us any food or water. Air France staff did not even realize that the passengers are hungry and thirsty and it is their responsibility to provide them the necessities. These are basic human understandings. These should have been provided without even anyone asking for it. The passengers had to fight for even these basics. I believe that the staff behavior was highly inappropriate. At last, when the Air France staff did manage to get a few sandwiches, most of it was non-vegetarian. Most of the passengers on the other hand including myself were vegetarian. I could not even get a sandwich to eat as the staff ran out of vegetarian sandwiches. Until about 10pm CET I had to survive on few chocolates I had in my handbag. The dinner we were provided was also very inappropriate. There was just a vending machine at the terminal where we were stranded but I did not have any Euros to use it.

Under such circumstances it is also the airline’s responsibility to provide calling cards to passengers so that the passengers could at the least inform their family members of the situation. My friends, family members and relatives in the UK as well as Delhi were so worried about my well being. The airline had very few calling cards which they soon ran out off. I could not get hold of a calling card.

My troubles did not end here. On my return flight (AF 147 & AF 1080) on 17 Jan 2009 my checked-in baggage was torn.

Under the circumstances specified above, as per EU laws, it is also the legal responsibility of Air France to inform me of my rights and information about where to complain. No such information was provided by Air France to me at any point of time.

For choosing to fly Air France, after paying for it, I was harassed in all possible ways. Stranded for approximately 24 hours in an airport with no blanket, no proper seating arrangement, nothing to eat or drink causing so much mental and physical stress to me in addition to the worries of my friends and family members. Additionally, we were moved from terminal to terminal by the security staff because of which we could not even rest properly at night. This was not only my worst ever flying experience but my worst life experience – thanks to Air France.

I lodged a written complaint to Air France Customer Service. I am still awaiting response.

We flew from Rome to Paris and from Paris to Dubai on December 30th, 2008 with flight numbers AF2105 and AF530 to arrive in Dubai on December 31st, 2008, in order to celebrate New Year’s Eve in an exclusive Dubai location reserved just for the occasion (please do note that the flights were purchased exactly for the self-evident purpose of being able to be in Dubai for New Year’s Eve).

On such dates, both our flights were delayed for a full hour.

Notwithstanding the disappointment and anxiety caused by such delay (missing the flight to Dubai would have meant losing our reservation, being stuck in Paris overnight and, most of all, losing the chance to celebrate New Year’s Eve as planned) we thought Air France would do everything possible to minimize our discomfort.

We found out, instead, unbelievably and unforgivably, that no assistance is given to connecting passengers when a flight is delayed neither by Charles De Gaulle staff, nor by Air France staff.

We had to run our breath out trough Charles De Gaulle without any assistance whatsoever and no assurance that the second flight would wait for us even 10 minutes!

Notwithstanding our effort to rush to catch our second flight (and last hope to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the place we had already paid for) Charles De Gaulle staff purportedly held us at our second passport control of the day (notwithstanding the fact that we were coming from within the EU) and took an unjustified long amount of time to look at our passports with magnifying glasses, opening our belongings (already passed under x-ray) perusing trough our clothes and underwear, performing personal search on my partner (unusually performed by a male attendant and notwithstanding the fact that the metal detector hadn’t emitted one beep) all while check-in on our second flight was ending.

As a result, one of us suffered serious shortness of breath, tachycardia and dizziness almost to the point of fainting.

Moreover, due to the delays, one of the two suitcases containing all the clothes, get lost.

We were told the luggage would arrive only the following morning (i.e. after New Year’s Eve, the only reason why flight on Air France was bought)!

As a consequence, once in Dubai, instead of resting or enjoying our vacation, we were forced to wander among, shops trying to gather at least enough clothes to try celebrating New Year in at least an acceptable fashion.

Finally, when the suitcase came to the hotel, it was damaged so that it wouldn’t close properly.

Especially since this was not the first time we were mistreated by this despicable airline, we decided to claim damages, but obviously customer care is a complete stranger to these individuals. We are still hoping that something would come our way, but are hoping to reveal to the press these stories.

My husband and I bought three tickets thru Expedia for Paris in April 2008. My husband bought a Delta ticket, and I bought the other two on Air France. They share the same carrier so we would be on the same flight. Come the flight date I was extremely ill with a flu. I was told Air France would waive the penalty for reissuing a ticket if I had a doctors note, and that I would need to show it when I rebooked to AF. Both Expedia and Air France confirmed, we would have flight credit until April 2009. I called Expedia, Air France and Delta to confirm we would have flight credit until April 2009. Two weeks ago, I called AF and a booking rep confirmed we had flight credit in their database for two tickets, in my name and my sons. She was ready to book our flight and I asked to hold off while we considered more dates. On Saturday 11/29/08 I called AF to book our flights. This time I got a nervous rep who said she needed to read the rules on this ticket. In short, I had the pleasure of speaking with a supervisor who claimed, of their 8, 000 Customer Service representatives, he was the only person one could speak with and there was no one above him. Our problem was that now AF was refusing to honor our flight credit. This indifferent, smug Frenchman on the line, was reiterating the rules from his book that we had no flight credit. He refused to provide any address or name for me to discuss this problem. Two hours later, Expedia decided to give us a full refund. My husband has spent around a half million dollars with Expedia in the past six years, and they acknowledged their resonsibility in the communication of the--suddenly changed-- rules. While Air France decided to make big asses of themselves, Im happy to say Delta did not. Delta is honoring my husbands flight credit. Interestingly, Air France is also keeping their share of his flight credit for the same flight. So in all, Air France is keeping $1454.40 of our money for nothing. Suffice to say, we will NEVER FLY AIR FRANCE!! And we are not really interested in going to Paris anytime soon.