Air France - Not Quite as Good as Lufthansa

I'm not a big fan of trans-Atlantic flights. I love short hops, but being stuck in a seat next to even the quietest of strangers for 9 hours annoys me to no end. Probably because I'm having nicotine fits the whole time. Unfortunately, the US Ports continue to call and beg for Lars' presence there so back and forth we go quite frequently. Air France is one of the carriers we have flown with on these excursions.

My first gripe is check-in. Now, I will qualify this gripe by saying that checking in with any airline is more dependant upon which airport you happen to be flying out of. The job pool is key here. Miami International (MIA) is the worst to fly out of for any international flight, if you ask me... and you obviously are. Having said that, though, I am still going to bang Air France in general for the unreasonably long, slow lines because Lufthansa is better from that same airport. Not perfect, but better as far as check in goes. The desk folks aren't mean and hateful or anything at Air France's counters, but they are tediously lackadaisical. They really don't care that there is a line full of people.

Boarding is somewhat better than check-in. I have to say that really, getting to your seat is on par with every other airline flying out of just about anywhere in the US. In other words, slightly annoying but about as orderly as is possible given one door to board everyone through. That can also fall into MIA's lap though. At Frankfort you can board Lufthansa flights via two entrances, which makes thing ever so better... The hub for Air France, CDG, has not done this either, in my experience. Like MIA, it's the cattle call through the one door.

Where Air France gets special kudos from me is with the in-seat TVs. Each seat has its own monitor built into the back of the seat in front of you. You can choose any movie they have available and watch it pretty much at any time. That is as opposed to Lufthansa, which has the TVs in the ceiling and everyone has to watch the same movie at the same time (they are changing over though to the individuals on some planes.)

Also, I like the headsets that Air France has you use better than Lufthansa. On Lufthansa, they are big and cannot be adjusted to fit me, so they are always falling down. Air France uses the small ear bud kind of headphones. The draw back to those is that after awhile your ear starts aching. At least they stay put a reasonable amount of time though. Hey, on a 9-hour or better flight, it is these small things that make a big difference, aiiight?

The seats on Air France are as comfortable as can be expected, which is to say quite comfy in the beginning but your butt begins to fall asleep about mid-flight. NO seat would remain comfortable that long though. The roominess quotient is tolerable for my 5'2" self, but Lars has a great deal of trouble if he isn't on an aisle seat. He's 6'6" though and has that problem on every airline. I must say though that Air France is not as quick to accommodate him with an aisle seat as Lufthansa is.

The Flight Attendants is probably where the biggest difference is right now. I hate to promote stereotypes, but the attendants on Air France from MIA are downright snooty. Really. It is that kind of nice which borders on hostile. You know what I'm talking about here. I speak what could be termed Tourist French and don't get much chance to brush up on it since my concentration at the moment is trying to get fluent in Swedish. So, I take the opportunity on Air France flights and at CDG to practice by ordering my in-flight meal and drinks in bad Francaise. This usually brings a snicker from the attendant. Look, I know I suck. But give me a little credit here for trying, ok? They knew what I was attempting to say because they did not make me repeat anything, and gave me what I wanted… but there have been more than one snicker from more than one attendant. That's annoying.

The food is better than I expected on Air France, though. Honestly, the meals on the flights have blurred together in my head and I cannot recall which meal I ate on which flight, but they were all the same quality. There have always been 2 meal choices, with one being a vegetarian item. One thing I do recall being specific to Air France though are the Sesame Goldfish. You know, those little crackers shaped like goldfish. They have them in Sesame flavor on Air France. I have been unable to find them in any store, damn it. I loved those things!

I should also mention that making your connection at CDG (Charles De Gaulle Airport) Air France's main home base is freaking tiresome. It is an unnecessary maze to get to the other terminal for your connection. There was no real line at customs/immigration, but the guy there does not speak English. This is ok by me, but you need to know that if you are flying in from the US. He pretty much shrugs at anything you say, even if you attempt to say it in French. I found that very odd. The good part of that is he apparently hasn't got the energy to give you any grief either. heh.

Price-wise, Air France is all over the board right now. You can get some hella deals if you have the patience to dig a bit on the Internet. Be warned, though, that you better keep your ticket and boarding stubs if you wish to get your KLM mileage points. You have to fight for them.

I'm going with 3 stars out of 5 for Air France. They don't totally suck, but they don't totally rule either. Quelques Bon, Quelques Mauvais. I prefer Lufthansa, personally, but won't completely cringe if Lars books us on Air France again.