Air France
Reviews and Complaints

On May 27th, my daughter and were flying AirFrance from Barcelona to DTW with a layover in Paris. AirFrance did not allow much time between the transfer flights to DTW, once we got through customs we had to literally RUN to our next flight to make it to the flight to DTW. We made it with moments to spare! So you would think our luggage would have made it but AirFrance failed to get our luggage on the flight home. We get to Detroit and no luggage at all! Delta Airlines was the one handling it which was totally a mess. No one knew when it would be delivered and communication between Delta and AirFrance was non-existent!

We waited for 4 days without our luggage and FINALLY it delivered. When it did, my daughter's luggage had been rummaged through and her jewelry had been stolen out of her bag. There was over $1000 worth! I wish she wouldn't have put it in her check-in bag but we didn't think someone from the airline would steal from us! So I put in a claim which it had a Delta Claim # but they told us we had to contact AirFrance for any updates. The last update we received was on June 6th and nothing since! It's too late for me to make any claims through our insurance and there was jewelry witih sentimental value. It's almost impossible to call and talk to a person. I was able to get ahold of someone on June 25, 2022 and they said to check back in a week that they are very busy with claims. I have been trying to contact them and it keeps saying they are not open. It's now almost 2 months later. Worst experience and don't know what to do now! Will NEVER fly AirFrance ever again. they don't care about their customers. Delta Airlines is going to hear from me too!

I booked and paid for two tickets for my son and myself via Air France website to fly from Cape Town to Amsterdam. Our journey consisted of three 'legs':

18th June 2022, Cape Town to Johannesburg, FA 203, departure 14h45.

18th June 2022, Johannesburg to Paris, France, AF 995, departure 18h05.

19th June 2022, Paris to Amsterdam, AF 1240, departure 07h10.

I received electronic tickets after my booking confirming all three legs and confirmation of my payment. On 6th June 2022, I received a further email confirming the same booking and another copy of electronic tickets. I checked with the Air France on-line booking portal and all three legs were confirmed on this site.

However, when we arrived at Cape Town Airport to check-in for the first 'leg', which was with Fly SaFair, they told me that they had no record of our booking on the booked flight FA 203. None of the reference numbers provided on the Air France ticket confirmations could be used to find our booking. There was no Air France representative at Cape Town Airport, only telephone numbers, none of which were answered. The outcome was that I had to book to tickets to complete this 'leg', otherwise we would have missed out on-going connections. This was at a cost of R5404,58.

The whole incident at Cape Town Airport was extremely stressful for us both.

I expect to be fully reimbursed for this extra payment.

Further more, when we tried to check-in for our return flight on 11th July (Amsterdam to Cape Town direct, KL 597, departure 10h20) we were told that although we were listed as having a booking, no tickets could be generated, or boarding passes as the Air France on-lone booking system had not conveyed our booking to the KLM system. The whole booking had to be re-entered via telephone. This was also very stressful, bearing in mind our experience above. Fortunately, we did get on this flight at no extra cost.

My family was Traveling on Air France from Lungi Airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC. My name is Kenyatta Smith my contact information is in the reservation numbers as listed. Trip GWV2N5, was booked from 4/15/22 - 4/30/22. The other reservation numbers are MHJ54J and MKTK7L. My family was denied boarding on twice once on 4/30 and again on 5/3 and treated very poorly without care, professionalism or compassion by airport ticket agents, staff and supervisors on duty. We were not permitted to fly out until 5/4 2022 and did not arrive home until 5/5/2022. We also had an Irregular Operation issue involving a Mechanical issue with the plane that further delayed our flight for a few hours on 5/4/2022. This whole ordeal resulted in multiple rebooking of tickets and extra charges incurred by me to secure flights for my family. additional flight fees alone were over $1000. From this location (Freetown) flights do not leave every day, so there were days of waiting in between that we were forced to return to the hotel that we were staying in, which causing us to pay extensive hotel fees, meals and transportation expenses. My husband and I also missed additional days from work and my child missed school which caused a terrible hardship for my family.

The ticket agent that we encountered on 4/30/2022 in the Air France office between the hours of 3 and 7pm was one of the rudest people that I have ever met. He sits at the front desk in the Air France 2nd floor office space. I am not sure if his name is Oscar, but I saw that on his screen. I had previously completed the check in process online before arriving to Lungi airport early for our flight. Unfortunately, my family Me, Husband and my 8 year old son were the victims of luggage theft upon arrival in Sierra Leone for our business trip. Luckily we had all the needed supporting documentation, reports to support our claim, prove our identities and to be cleared to fly home. Once TSA and Homeland security verified and approved us to fly home we were told to get the ticket agent to print boarding passes. After going through that whole lengthy process, we were denied boarding by the Air France ticket agent flat out refused to print our tickets. Then he went on to yell at me telling me to do it myself. I did not have a connection on my phone and needed him to do his job and help complete the process so that my family could leave with our group that we traveled with. There was no urgency to help us get this issue resolved quickly by any of the staff. They just let us stand there waiting for hours to complete the process. If you watch the tapes from that day you will see what my family went through. It was awful and very inhumane to say the least. This Air France Ticket agent then told me that for him to print my tickets would cost me additional Leones/ cash/money. First he said the price was $120 USD each ticket. Then a few minutes later he said it would be $700 each ticket. Then he said that it would be $4500 for my family to fly out on the flight. I asked to speak to a manager because this was extortion and this agent very rudely closed down the office and walked away leaving me standing there alone and stranded with no tickets and no where to go. We don't have any family or friends in the country and everyone that we knew were leaving on that flight AF596. We were disrespected and stranded by the staff at Air France/Delta in Sierra Leone. They did not even offer to help us with finding temporary lodging until the next flight was scheduled even though I asked for help with this. I know that this is the policy for denied boarding incidents, so I am not sure why it was not followed by the staff. Flights do not leave daily traveling to our home location. I have seen that sometimes there were 3 days in between available flights. This creates an instant financial hardship for that traveler.

Dear Sir,

At 10.30 hrs on Saturday 30th April, my wife and I boarded AF165 in Bangkok on the first leg of our flight with Air France to Chile. I had nothing to drink until dinner was served when I had an aperitif and two glasses of white wine. After dinner I met an acquaintance in the Bar area for a chat lasting just over an hour. In that time I had two gin and Sprite (Air France seemingly does not carry tonic water). That was the totality of my alcohol consumption.

At 19.50hrs I ordered a drink from the Business Class steward, who refused to serve me, saying I had had too much to drink. I was amazed and asked him to tell me how much I had had to drink. He replied that he did not know but that someone had told him that this was the case.! HE THEN BLATANTLY LIED FOR A SECOND TIME BY SAYING THAT MY WIFE HAD SAID I HAD TOO MUCH TO DRINK. This statement was rejected to his face immediately by my wife. At no time during the flight had I ever raised my voice, acted in an unseemly manner, or given anyone cause to think that I was inebriated. I have simply no idea why this man should have told such amazing lies - if he should reveal his secret to you, I would be obliged to hear it.

I asked him for his name, knowing that I was going to file a complaint, but he refused to tell me. At this point we were joined by the Chief Purser who listened to the steward and then proceeded to rail at me in a hectoring, blustering manner. He would not allow me to say anything, but simply overrode anything I did try to say, in a very bullying manner. He too, refused to state his name. I consider his conduct to be completely unacceptable, whatever the facts of the matter were between the steward and myself, and a complete disgrace to the airline that employs him.

My onward flight with AF406 to Chile was uneventful, I am pleased to say. However, I can state with complete assurance that my return flight, Chile to Thailand, will certainly NOT be with Air France.

Regards,

R. A. M. Burr

Ex – [protected] Explorer

E-mail : [protected]@gmail.com

I purchase two tickets for a flight from Miami to Paris and later made a change of dates due to passport issues.

The booking clerk charged me the full price for the new dates instead of the difference in fare as stated by Air France ticket policy.

My request to refund the original tickets price was denied by Air France

I need a contact at Air France to discuss my issue

Regards

On an early morning flight JFK to Paris AF009, on 3/24/2022, I left my pillow on the seat. Flight attendants contacted upon entering the connection plane, seemed aggravated and refused to help me find out about my pillow. The pillow was never recovered. It was a very important object to me, my mother's pillow where she laid on her last moments. It has always been with me, and now, I do not understand how something as big as a pillow cannot be found. It is outrageous and completely unacceptable that flight attendants did not even try to help me.

Hi all ,

I have claim open since 4 dec 2021 and no action is taken each month they tell me payment is done and at dead line they say sorry and it is the forth time they did that till now

Claim [C-4598331]

I don’t believe that a big company like Air France is like that I will share this case in social media because for sure this is not acceptable from the racism from your employees in the airport , the money taken for a bag allowed as per recite I shared and you have it it is 10 K ! , the tickets that is closed and I wasn’t allowed to updated and finally the payment that should mentioned that will be done in Dec and till now not done .

My family and I travelled to Marrakech on Monday 21st Feb 2022 on flight AF1269 & AF1276. The check in at Manchester was a total

joke we arrived at the airport 2.5 hours prior to the flight. The check in took so long over 2 hours, 2 children (one of my own included) were sick and the entire line of people were really distressed. When we finally made it through check in we had to run through the airport where we were greeted by a lady who gave us a telling off for being late! By this point our children were beside themselves, they were hungry but there was no time for breakfast we were ushered into the flight - the captain did apologise.

Thankfully when we arrived in France we had some time to feed the children and the next flight was fine.

Our return leg of the journey was another disaster AF1277. It was so late that yet again with 2 small children we had to sprint through the airport. We boarded our final flight AF1268 - I have to say the staff on this flight the staff were lovely and helped us with the children, offered them early drinks etc as they could see they were tired and a bit fed up. Yet again this good service was over shadowed as 2 of our bags were missing (2made it onto the flight 2 didn’t) typically the ones storing all our essential items! They were finally delivered to our home today but one of our suitcases is completely smashed and a perfectly good case now unusable.

It’s a shame that the Air France flights got our short break off to a bad start and the poor service was prevalent throughout our entire travel itinerary, the final straw damaged late bags.

First, Air France canceled my flight without informing me. I found out about the flight cancelation on departure day, when I arrived at the airport with my luggage. A Delta attendant wondered why Air France did not inform me of the cancelation. After consulting Air France customer service, she booked me on a next-day Delta Flight to New York and on another flight to Lagos, Nigeria. My original ticket was for Atlanta, Paris, and Abuja, Nigeria.

While in Nigeria, I had a family emergency in Atlanta and had to return there as soon as possible. In order to reschedule my return flight, I had to call Air France’s customer service number +[protected]. To my amazement, I could not speak to a human since a recording that discouraged me from calling the number because of the long wait, placed me on hold for a total of at least, two hours. This is my second day listening to this recorded voice that often disconnected my calls to save me from long waits.

The recording even directed me to a website where I could reschedule my flight. Unfortunately, the site told me I could not reschedule the flight and that I should contact customer service! Meanwhile, I am unable to respond to my family emergency. The only change I need on this ticket is the travel date.

Is there any reason why I would want to fly Air France after this ordeal?

Gideon Shande

NRAAOK

My name is Meriland Dillard. My address is 129 Breton Highlands, Mcdonough, Ga. 30253.

On August 6, 2021, I travel non-rev on a medical mission to Sierra Leone from Atlanta, Georgia. I was booked on flight AF689 from Atlanta and connecting at Paris/CDG on August 7, 2021
AF0596 for final flight to Freetown, Sierra leone. I traveled with two bags and checked one of them in Atlanta. I was charged $65.00 in Atlanta for the extra bags of medical supplies. When I arrived in at Paris/CDG Air France Reps made me pay an additional $165.00 to ship the same bag to Freetown, Sierra Leone. As a non-rev passenger it was only appropriate to charge me once for the checked bag, however I believe non-rev passengers are allowed to check one bag free of charge. If non-rev passengers are permitted to travel free with one bag I would like to be reimbursed for the $65.00 I was charged in Atlanta and the $165.00 I was charged at Paris/CBD. If non-rev passengers are required to pay for a checked bag then I would like to be reimbursed for the $165.00 I was charged at Paris/CDG as I had already paid the $65.00 baggage fee for the bag when I started the trip in Atlanta.

My wife and I took a trip to Europe on Air France in July. We purchased extra leg room seats. Due to a flight cancellation and an equipment change we ended up in the probably most uncomfortable seats on the airplane instead of the ones we purchased. This is not the first time this has happened to us on Air France.

On Aug. 5, 2021, I filed a claim and was assigned a claim number. Air France responded with an email asking for address and bank account information, which I supplied. This was followed by another email asking for (blank) additional information. I responded by again sending the previously requested information.

I received another email with the same blank request and finally called Air Frances's customer service number and after a long hold was able to provide the information over the phone. I then received another email with the same blank request for additional information. I responded to that email, asking what additional information was required and was told that because our bank account bank is in the name of a trust, with both of us as trustees, I must send copies of my wife's and my passports along with a signed letter of permission to pay my wife the claim proceeds. I provided the requested information by return email. Since then I have received at least two additional emails asking for (blank) additional information, the latest today. There has been no response to my return email asking what specific information is needed.

I am very frustrated at this point. Attempts to determine the status of the claim by visiting (https://wwws.airfrance.fr/en/claim/track-a-claim) turn up a response that there is no such claim. A phone call to Air France's public phone number produced a response that they will ask their customer service department to look into it. They refused to give a phone number for that department.

Initially i book the flight ticket through google flights on 09/12/2021. The travel dates 12/12/2021 to 12/29/2021. I got the email saying the flight was cancelled. I called the air france agent, When i talk to agent he said the flight was cancelled and he booked alternate flight itenary 12/12/2021 to 01/01/2022. Then i explained him, I book the particular seat tickets and paid the money. He said he will refund the money and booking the other flight, I said yes. 11/04/021 I got email saying they cancel my flght and refunded the money. I dont know why airfrance was cancel the my flight ticket. I did not give authorization or permission to cancel my flight ticket. I dont know what happened. This is cheating the customer. Today when i call agent they ask me to rebook the ticket. Now I am looking flight ticket with same itenary the prices are very high in air france. I dont want people to suffer this kind of problem. Please take care of this matter and get back to me. Thanks for your help.

Bonjour,

We flew with Air France from Pau to Mumbai on 14th October. We travelled in business class. We are vegetarian so, we asked for special vegetarian meal when we were booking the flight. When we got the lunch in the plane, we got semolina with boiled vegetables. When we asked them to replace the main course meal with the option given in the menu, they said that they cannot do that. So in the end, we could not eat our lunch since the meal was really bad. We paid so much for the business class but, we did not get the experience that is associated with the business class. We were disappointed.

Merci,

Regards,
Tanya Bansal (OPPC9O)

I made a booking and paid with VISA but I do not receive a confirmation email or booking number. The payment went through. No error message. I am already half an hour on a waiting line trying to call the Belgium helpdesk to check what is happening. A very sad customer experience unfortunately for a person that travels a lot with air france through his company. Unbelievable sad and expensive phone call.

To
The Complaint Board
Dear Complaint Board
Regarding: Check-in refusal on the 22 April 2021 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi
Booking Reference: WKAY8O, KJKX46, SC4HJB, & SZTT22

I wish to bring to your notice the poor service meted out to us (me, my wife and two children) by the customer support service staff at the IGIA, Delhi on the night of 21 April 2021 to board the AF flight to Paris (CDG) and onward to Sint Maarten (SXM) on our back to Barbados and the harrowing experience that followed. We (me and my wife) were here in India for a brief visit to India to meet our parents and were returning home in Barbados.
I am ALOK KUMAR. I am an Indian national permanently resident of Barbados where I am employed by the University of the West Indies as Professor of Pediatrics and as Consultant Pediatrician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Barbados.
I was travelling with my wife who has reside and work status in Barbados and our two children (15 years and 11 years) were accompanying us to Barbados. We were on the airport by 930 PM and were on the check-in counter before 10:00 PM. There was this lady staff who I greeted and told her that we were travelling to Paris and then onward to Barbados. Her first response was a rudely asked question - ‘do you all have VISA for Barbados?' Of note, Barbados did not needed entry VISA for Indians at the time of our travel. I handed over our passports and my Barbados Immigrant Status card and my wife's Reside and Work permit card from the Government of Barbados. She called someone and was on phone for quite some time and then left the counter to consult some other male colleague and then someone else (not sure where). She returned in 15 minutes and asked me where the VISA is stamped in the passport. I showed her the page of the passport that had the Immigrant status (mine) and the work permit (for my wife) was stamped. She left the counter again and returned in another 10 minutes to ask if I had any email from my employer in Barbados or any ID card of Barbados. I handed her my Barbados National Registration Card (Barbados ID card). She left the counter to show the ID to the other male colleague she had consulted and they were discussing for almost 10 minutes. She then returned and took photos of my Immigration card and my wife's Work permit card and the passport and WhatsApped to someone. This can be corroborated with the customer service staff who she would have WhatsApped, I am sure there are enough honest people around. At this point I was very disturbed as I thought that was inappropriate to WhatsApp such personal information, and I asked her what was the issue and why was she sharing my personal information on social media? She asked me rudely without looking at me, ‘You want to travel or not?' I thought that was very unprofessional to say the least but I did not reply. Soon she left the counter and started to attend to another customer on another counter. My children were getting very restless and I was just made to wait on a check-in counter unattended for almost half an hour. After this she spoke with the same male customer service staff that she had been consulting with to come and assist (I presumed it was to assist!) us. He came to the counter and started to scrutinize our passport and VISA documents and started working on the computer. Then after few minutes he asked us to place the bags on the scale and checked them one by one. Then he suddenly left the counter to chat with the previous lady staff and returned after five minutes. He asked me to take the bags off the conveyer belt and that the lady who was attending to us initially will come and explain the situation to us. We waited at the counter for another 15 minutes, it was past 11 PM and the check in had closed when the lady after finishing her last customer came to us and said just one sentence. ‘Hang around here, I will explain to you everything when I come back after boarding the passengers." I was distressed at this and asked her why we are not being allowed to check in this flight. She walked away saying that we can't check-in now as the check-in has closed and she will try to get us checked the next day on a KLM flight. My wife and children were dead tired standing there at the check-in counter for over an hour. I was tired, very angry and in total darkness about the reason why I was not allowed to check-in. This was a horrible experience and the first for someone who has travelled so many times to so many places using many different airlines over the past 25 years.
But the worst was yet to come. We waited near the AIR FRANCE counters past midnight of the 22 April, 2021 waiting for ‘this lady customer's service staff who had promised to return to us to explain what was the issue'. When she did not turn up till 1215, past the departure time of our flight, we approached the Airport Information Desk to ask as to how to get in touch with the Air France check-in staff. They were very helpful and made several call to try and trace this Air France customer check-in staff without success. In fact the when the information desk person called the Air France boarding gate they were told that they have been calling us for boarding which we thought was strange. Once again this can be verified with the call records at the airport.
We were stranded at the airport till 130 PM in the morning waiting for this lady to get back to us. The worst thing was that the airport security staff would not let us out without being signed off by the Air France staff who refused us the check-in. At close to 2 in the morning we pleaded with the security staff at the exit citing the children's condition who were sitting sleepy on the few chairs in the very crowded waiting area and our own exposure to the crowd in COVID times. It was after this request that the security staff got hold of some Air France staff who signed us off (This too can be corroborated from the register at the airport). Then we all had to wait in que just outside of the Delhi Airport to get retested for COVID-19 in preparation for the flight next day.
What followed this horrid night is beyond my ability to describe. While we waited at the NOVOTEL Hotel close to the airport and rebooking our ticket for 24th April (Booking Reference SZTT22) and then trying to rebook again due to delay in the PCR re-test results, my wife fell ill with fever and sore throat. We had to leave the plan of travelling and return to Dehradun my in-laws place. A week later I too came down with fever and sore throat and both of us ended up having COVID -19 infection. While we both recovered after an unusually prolonged 4 weeks illness, we unfortunately gave to our parents and my Father-in-Law could not survive the severe onslaught of this COVID-19 illness.
I had to write to Air France about this ordeal to highlight the customer service matted out to the Air France customers at the IGIA Delhi, despite my current devastating situation for two main reasons. Firstly, I know that Air France does care for its customers and this information may help improve its customer service. . I thought the staff were unprofessional and incompetent to say the least. Secondly I must thank Air France as all (but) one of our numerous bookings that had to be cancelled have been refunded I hope it is just an isolated incidence meant to be just for our family.
Sincerely,

Your poor call center cost me over $1, 000 for a round-trip fare to Paris, POCL4W
I wanted to sort out my Flying Blue number before making the reservation. (My old FB card has [protected]). I tried multiples times to call but could not get through. Finally, on June 24, after waiting 37 minutes (at 16:58) I got through; the woman I spoke with transferred me to the Flying Blue desk, but I was disconnected. Again I tried without success on June 25, multiple times, each time with Air France not letting the call through. Finally, at 4:46, I got through but again had to wait--32 minutes. Because I had an appointment, I gave up. That evening a friend advised me that I could use my Delta Frequent Flyer card instead, but when I logged onto Air France, I found the fare had gone up by $1, 100. (In the afternoon it was $1, 583). Your inadequate call center has cost me a lot. I would appreciate it if you would reinstate the cheaper fare I found on the late afternoon of June 25. Thanks.
Joanna F. Handlin Smith

We arrived at the airport around 6:30 am, we were in the Air France line and dropped off our bags around 7:30 am we went to security, we went through passports control and we were stopped by Security and told that they had to go over some things with our passport and I will be able to contact the agency I purchased the ticket from to reschedule our flight. They purposely held us at the airport until after 8:10 when I am plane was departing... I am a marine combat veteran and I am trying to get home to my family that I haven't seen in about a year due to this pandemic. I had to save up my money for months in order to buy this flight please be Sympathetic when it comes to my situation because I am just trying to get home to my family the Air France staff at the airport were very rude to me and my wife pointing and continuing to laugh/joke about being held up at the airport. Due to to COVID-19 life has been difficult, a lot of people have been out of work and Unable to support their families I am one of those people and I just really want to be home with my family.

Because of Covid, I had to reschedule my March 15, 2020 flight. By August, I received an email stating that they had to cancel my November flight to France. So I asked for the refund option.
I called after the 90 days time frame they said it would take to get the refund. They still were processing the refund. Then I got an email stating they process it, but it might take 2 months for the money to be put back on my credit card.
Beware! Of AirFrance, not trustworthy, not a real business.

On 14 Dec 2019 I was waiting to board flight AF 688 to Atlanta, Georgia. My wife was ahead of me in line and I tried to catch up to her and one of your agents grabbed me by the arm and said I couldn' do that. I told I was just trying to be with my wife and asked to see my passport after I had already been verified by another agent but he insisted. He took my passport went to the desk and after a while he came back and said I need to go to the desk and then I was subjected to a search of me and my carry on. My complaint is your agent has no right to grab my arm and man handle me. I told this agent not to ever touch me again. Then when I was put through a search this was just a form of harassment by this agent! I'm considering getting an attorney on this matter against air france. The treatment of Americans by your air line is rude and uncalled for and I have spoken to others who feel the same about your air line! I qould like something done about this matter. The agent was an oriental man at the boarding gate!

We were flying from St.Maaten to Manchetser, we boraded on time and then sat on the tarmac for about 15 mins, we were then told that the plane was too heavy and we were been diverted to Guadalope for refulling which would take one hour, we landed at Guadalope and sat on the tarmac for one hour to be told we would have to go to a different gate to start refulling which would take another hour, we finally set off back towards Paris, becasue of the divert we missed our flight connection and so were diverted to Amsterdam and then Manchetser, the flight attendants on Air France were rude, very unhelpful and basically didnt care, they refused to speak english to us, we booked extra leg room seat and there was no difference what so ever.
On returning to UK i placed a complaint and an application for compensation, we were then blamianity lied to saying it was an advise weather condition, on checking the weather for the whole of the day and night in the North Atlantic ocean there was no diverse weather at all, Air France are lieing so they dont have to pay out