My partner and I booked a holiday to Paris in August, partly for the World Athletics Champs, and partly because being from the other side of the world, we'd never been there before, so it seemed like a good opportunity to go.

We turned up for our 0815 Sunday morning flight at 0555. Clearly the 0815 flight was overbooked. We were asked if we wanted to take the 0645 flight, to help Air France out we agreed. We were rushed to the front of the queue, but the woman at the check in counter would not let us board, as it was too late. The supervisor (who had arranged this) told her to do it. Clearly this caused problems between them. She then told us that our checked luggage couldn't go. I said that we would wait for the 0815 flight then. Suddenly, it was OK, our bags could go (first warning sign). We ran to the boarding gate, and received a lecture from a very arrogant Air France woman, who told us not to be so late - I told her what I thought of her, in politer terms than the ones she had used, and gently reminded her that we were doing Air France a favour. We finally boarded the plane, and sat there, sat there a little longer (oh did I mention we were still sitting there an hour later). We then took off. We landed at CDG, and guess what, our bags weren't there. So, this woman behind the counter told us our bag would arrive at 1330, to which it would be delivered to our cheap hotel (second warning - don't make promises you simply cannot keep).

This review does not even enter into the stress that Air France caused us. Their actions (or inaction as the case may be) ruined our holiday. We will not have the opportunity to go back to Paris, as we have limited time in Europe and have other things we want to see as well. We did not get to see a lot of the things we wanted to see, as Air France would not telephone us - we had to constantly go back to the hotel and telephone them. I was also running around trying to buy clothes. I am a weird body shape - Kiwi girls have wide shoulders - so a lot of shirts simply did not fit. I have big hips and smaller waist. That is why I take my own clothes on holiday. You get 75 Euros a day, that is if they bother to reimburse you for your costs. Unfortunately, we are not made of money, so as I had to buy clothes we couldn't go and do some things. It was also our anniversary, that was ruined too. (Plus, try shopping on 75 Euros a day, and you will see how hard it is, especially in Paris).

Don't get me wrong, people told me that the French would be arrogant, but we only met one unhelpful person in Paris the whole time. However, conversely we only spoke to one truly helpful person at Air France. This opinion is not motivated by a dislike of French people, because I don't dislike them. However, I generally found the Air France staff to be unhelpful.

In summary, I can only comment on Air France flying to Charles de Gaulle. I have found numerous websites detailing the problems with Air France, CDG and baggage. One even called CDG a baggage black-hole. In our experience this certainly seems to be the case. Whilst I accept that other airlines lose baggage, or baggage is temporarily mislaid (I processed travel claims for a long time), I do not accept what has occurred here - we managed to fly from NZ, to LA, to London, without any mishap. My sister had a problem with Qantas, and they gave her with cash right away, apologised, and generally provided great customer service. My brother has twice had problems with Virgin Atlantic, but the reason he keeps flying with them? They dealt with his problem quickly and efficiently, in both cases apologising promptly, and giving him free trans-Atlantic flights with no fuss.

04 November 2003
Well, here's the update I promised. After about 3-4 weeks, Air France wrote, telling us that we needed to advise what items were purchased for what person, as they were treating us as two separate claims (given that my bag turned up much later than my partner's). They also confirmed that they would not compensate us for a ruined holiday, and that they would have their customer service team look into our complaint about the rudeness of their staff. That was at the end of September. I tried to call them in October, and was told that I needed to send the information through, but I have been slack and haven't done it. I will fax it to them though. They did confirm it will take another 10 days from the date of receipt.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice that they acknowledged part of our complaint, but to be honest, are we brave enough to put ourselves through an Air France experience again? Maybe you will see another opinion in a couple of months time!

Kez :)