MinnesotaMel

Why Air France and other airlines deserve to go out of business

Being a frequent traveler- both internationally and domestically- gives me a perspective on which airlines are making the most of a poor situation and which ones are doing badly. This posting is just to get some of my common complants and positive comments off my chest.

Missing the chance to delight customers
Air France does not get it. I just completed a flight with them between Detroit and Paris. Myticket was a split ticket between 3 airlines, all partner airlines, Northwest, KLM and Air France. The concept of "partner airlines" is a good one, allowing more desitinations and supposedly less hasle. Air France does not seem to get that part- less hassle.

Prior to departure, I called Northwest Airlines, with whom I am a silver elite traveler. My goal was to upgrade using my frequent traveler miles. Northwest was able to upgrade me on some segments of my travel, but the agents explained that they are unable to do anything on the Air France segments because Air France does not let them. Odd...but there is nothing I can do about their partner agreement, so I accepted it as it was. I was never able to contact an Air France rep with my question- maybe that was my mistake.

When it came time for my return flight, I went online to check in and found that the I could choose a seat assignment on the Air France flights from the NWA web-site. That was an improvement, I thought. I could also see the business class section and see that there were plenty of seats available. I called to see if an upgrade was possible. The Air France agent said "So sorry, but you must make this request at least 3 days prior to travel." I was only 24 hours out (the time frame during which one can check in online) and so I was out of luck. I was told to check with the gate agent, and see if they could help me.

When I arrived at the gate in Detroit, the flight was already boarding (thanks to a tight connection from MSP). I asked the gate agent if I could upgrade. He said (despite the fact that there were three agents standing there), that the agent who could help me had not yet arrived for the flight, but that I could wait. I waited and waited while they boarded many of the passengers. Finally, with still no sign of this mythical agent, I boarded the plane. I walked through the completely empty rear business class section (NOT ONE SEAT HAD A PERSON IN IT!) and took my seat. Happily the flight was not full and I had two seats to myself. Comfortable, but still not the same as the lay flat seats in business class. I was about to ask one of the flight attendants about moving up to the empty business class section, when one of the other passengers approached her about this same thing. I overheard her saying that there was no way they could shift any of the coomy passengers into business class seats uness they had paid for them. The other passenger said he was willing to use his miles to upgrade, but she explained back that they had no way to process the request onboard. Thus, our flight took off...30 empty business class seats, 75% of the economy seats full and some unhappy passengers who are accustomed to airlines who upgrade as many people as possible in order to improve their happiness.

I don't understand how/why Air France would not just automatically move people into business class. There is a minor incremental cost (better food, drinks) but it would seem to me that the increase in customer happiness and perception of the airline would offset the very minor incremental costs. In addition, they could have simply moved us into the empty section and given us the same food and drinks as economy. Mainly we just wanted the extra legroom and comfort. I just don't understand it. Another mystery in airline travel...right up there with the various rate codes...

Airline Seats
I was listening to a radio program about new aircraft technology, and the guest speaker made a great point about the seats. Airline seats, perhaps the one piece of the aircraft that makes passengers happy, or not, have the oldest technology in an aircraft. The speaker commented on how many improvements have been made to vehicle seats, but none had been adopted by economy flight seats. A few of my own observations...

1- Women have hips. Obviously the designers of aircraft seats have ignored this fact. I am not a small person, and that is something I am working on, but I am also not unusually shaped for a woman, having wider hips than a man. Why do the seats ignore this reality?

2- Why are the controls in the seat handles? See item #1 about hips, and my frustration of having my hips change the controls of the various entertainment systems simply because of dumb placement.

3- The armrests not going all the way up. If a traveler can benefit from having empty seats on either side of him/her, it would be so much more comfortable if the armrest could be flush with the seat, giving more stretch out space.

Aircraft engineers...help us!

posted by MinnesotaMel @ 6:32 PM