Air France: Brussels Midi - CDG - Athens and back

[JCO]

I got a very good deal on a flight to Athens some weeks ago, it was almost have the price of the flight of Brussels Airlines, direct from Brussels, so I didn't mind that much about the extra hours spent.

Since I live at only 150 m from the train station in Mechelen, I took the train the Brussels South (Midi) station (no not Brussels South Airport, which is a stupid name for that airport anyway). The TGV took me to CDG Airport. The train was on time, the 1st class seats were fine and we were on time. The personal of the restaurant car were on strike (ahhh, yes, a French company).

We had a few hours to kill in CDG. After all the service at CDG was very good. Once on the plane I was pleasantly surprised about Air France. We left on time and arrived on time, very good information on the plane about departing and arriving hours. Especially my compliments for the cabin crew, very helpfull, good attention to my little daughter of 2,5 years old. The food was airplane food, but I have had much worse, so I certainly do not complain about it.

Going back from Athens to Paris, I have to say, the airport in Athens is very efficient. All went very nice, it should be verywhere like that (very un-Greek actually). The fligth was a copy of the flight to Athens. Left on time, arrived on time, good information and again a perfect cabin crew.

The way back by TGV was a disaster. On a trip of 1h12min we picked up 1 hour delay. Appaerantly, one train broke down, this caused a delay of 30 min. Then we had to pick up the passengers from the broken down train in Lille. This unexpeceted stop added another 35 min delay. I can understand that people should be helpfull to each other. But these stranded passengers could have been faster in Brussels with the normal international trains (stopover in Gent). Why add to the problems of the people on another train ? Most passengers will have calculated in a dealy of 30 min, over 1 hour mostly not. A lot of people had problems with connections in Brussels South.

Conclusion:

- Will I ever fly Air France Again: Definetely ! One of my best airplane trips ever (and that's from a real critic).

I will however ask for a refund over the delay to Brussels and write a letter to Air France about this. It is a pitty that the perfect service on the plane stands in the shadow of problems on the TGV. I understand that Air France can not do much to change this, maybe if they receive more letters like mine, they will put pressuere on the SNCF.

[Newfoundland]

Dear cousin,

The name "Charleroi Brussels South airport" may not sound very enjoyable to by heard by your flemish ears...
But it isn't so stupid... it works... More and more pax are coming to Charleroi Airport.
Speaking about stupid, what should we think about "Oostende-Brugge" airport...?
Once again - and my best friend comes from Kortrijk - some flemish persons, when ever even a tiny opportunity comes to their minds find it absolutely necessary to throw the first stone to the french speaking "belgians"...
On this very special day, I would like to say that we, french people of Bruxellles and Walonnie are really tired to hear, day after day, the criticals of mensen like you !
By the way, you flew AF, did the PNC unterstand your dialect ? I'm quite shure you spoke french !
I really - since my childhood - love aviation, but never would like to share this passion with you.

Antal.

[jan_olieslagers]

Antal, please don't start one more Belgian north/south argument. Brussels South is a stupid name for Charleroi Airport, but as you rightly pointed out Ostend/Brugge is just as ridiculous. Of course we all know both namings came from one and the same airline, there is really nothing political about it. Please don't fight phantoms that aren't there.

For myself I consider "Brussels North" for Antwerp airport the most ridiculous of all, but luckily it isn't used very much...

[[edit: see my tongue-in-cheek comments about Brussels North in a rather old thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38274&p=217980#p217980 ]]

[Comet]

I have had several flights on Air France and enjoyed all of them - the crews were generally pleasant and friendly and the prices were good. The only thing I don't like about flying on AF is CDG airport.

I have to agree about the differences in pricing with Brussels Airlines and other carriers. Last night I was looking up the prices of flights in December between MAN and BRU. A "budget friendly" (their words not mine!) trip with Brussels Airlines would cost me £203 - on the same dates I could get flights MAN-FRA-BRU and BRU-ZRH-MAN for £190.

How can Brussels Airlines claim that their prices are "budget friendly" when they are some of the most expensive for what is, after all, a low cost type of inflight service?

[Megaman]

I took Brussels Airlines, Athens to Brussels a week ago, and thought what a crap service.

The plane was one hour late. On board (a 737-400), we were all stuck with no leg room (I know what it feels to be a sardine now), when the guy in front of me moved his seat back, I had my nose on his scalp (it was an old person so I thought "poor guy" and didn't make a fuss (even though he spoke a different language than me )) and then, although the flight was one hour late, they were still selling drinks. I was once on a late united flight going from Washington to Portland, and they had the decency to offer a drink to compensate for the delay.

It was a ticket my company bought for over 200 EUR (b light at that price it's somewhat in contradiction with a somewhat heavy price) and I was thinking that this was the last time I was going to be milked.

Good thing for Bru Air however was that the flight was full.

the Avros are in my eyes much better fitted.

On the BRU to Athens route, I used Olympic. The plane interior looked a lot older and probably un clean, however, on board service (staff and freebies) and legroom was much better. I never thought I would say this but I think I prefer flying Olympic.

[JCO]

Dear cousin,

The name "Charleroi Brussels South airport" may not sound very enjoyable to by heard by your flemish ears...
But it isn't so stupid... it works... More and more pax are coming to Charleroi Airport.
Speaking about stupid, what should we think about "Oostende-Brugge" airport...?
Once again - and my best friend comes from Kortrijk - some flemish persons, when ever even a tiny opportunity comes to their minds find it absolutely necessary to throw the first stone to the french speaking "belgians"...
On this very special day, I would like to say that we, french people of Bruxellles and Walonnie are really tired to hear, day after day, the criticals of mensen like you !
By the way, you flew AF, did the PNC unterstand your dialect ? I'm quite shure you spoke french !
I really - since my childhood - love aviation, but never would like to share this passion with you.

Antal.

Where did I make just one remark about the political situation in Belgium ? You accuse me of something I didn't wrote and I think proper apologies are the least you can write.

Yes, I find Brussels South Airport a stupid name for the airport, not because it is located in Wallonia, but because it has nothing to do with Brussels, but that is my opinion

What do you know of my dialect ? Do you have a crystal ball ? Yes, I can speak a dialect but seldom use it, generally only with my direct family. As if in Wallonia they speak proper french, I dealt with about 1000 customers before all located in Wallonia and Brussels, so yes my French is ok. I can tell you that it was sometimes hard to understand their dialects.

In respect of the French people and because I like to practise I used French in CDG and on board, as I use English with Britisch Airways, Dutch with KLM, German with Lufthansa and Chinese with Hainan.

[regi]

Let us support JCO because he is 100% correct that he made not one direct or indrect remark about language in his report.
Maybe a direct note to the culprit "Newfoundland" from the webmaster could do some good ? ( to avoid off topic wars )

JCO: thank you for your report. Strange that you left by Air France and came back with Olympic.

Keep up the good work and don't let yourself be pushed in the corner by people who see hidden messages, UFO's, Roswell aliens and other modern fairytales.

[Desert Rat]

Dear cousin,

The name "Charleroi Brussels South airport" may not sound very enjoyable to by heard by your flemish ears...
But it isn't so stupid... it works... More and more pax are coming to Charleroi Airport.
Speaking about stupid, what should we think about "Oostende-Brugge" airport...?
Once again - and my best friend comes from Kortrijk - some flemish persons, when ever even a tiny opportunity comes to their minds find it absolutely necessary to throw the first stone to the french speaking "belgians"...
On this very special day, I would like to say that we, french people of Bruxellles and Walonnie are really tired to hear, day after day, the criticals of mensen like you !
By the way, you flew AF, did the PNC unterstand your dialect ? I'm quite shure you spoke french !
I really - since my childhood - love aviation, but never would like to share this passion with you.

Antal.

100% with you Newfoundland:

These remarks:
-no not Brussels South Airport, which is a stupid name for that airport anyway
-The personal of the restaurant car were on strike (ahhh, yes, a French company).
-(very un-Greek actually)

Show that although you are a real polyglot, you are full of prejudice against latin people's...

Now let's enjoy all the lions roaring...

[Super Baloo]

Good morning,

@ Desert Rat and Newfoundland

I think you see evil everywhere.

I'm French and I did not feel offended a single second by this trip report.
I don't agree with the fact that French companies are always on strike but I see this remark more as a cliché then a "racist" (word is too strong but can't find another one) attack against France. After all, who on earth is perfectly "prejudice-free". You never told a joke to your friends using people's cliché ?

After all, in the rest of his post, he throws flowers to Air France service, crew and flights. I don't think he would have taken the time to write it down if his post was simply over bashing latin people.

Anyway, JCO, I'm glad you had a great experience with Air France. My only one with them is more than 8 years old. I flew from Paris to Abidjan on some of their old 747. Plane was 4 hours late in Paris and they opened only 3 check-in desks (2 for economy class, 1 for business). Check in took a very long time. They gave us a 15€ ticket to get some food in the terminal (which was nice). I had to argue for more than 20 minutes to get a phone card to tell my family in Abidjan that our plane would be late. Plane had a really old fashion outfit but it was good enough for only 6,5 hours flight time. Flight crew was very friendly.
Return flight was 12 hours late as the inbound crew had to operate after crew rest due to sick outbound crew probably. The Air France station manager in Abidjan was awful and yelled at two poor Chinese passengers who were desperately trying to get some infos about their connections to Shanghai in Paris. They did not speak French which did not help their situation. Flight was ok but neither the purser nor the captain had the decency to say upon arrival "AF apologises for the inconvenience, especially to our connecting passengers". It was not their personal fault but it would have been appreciated.

So JCO, thank you very much for telling us that Air France has really improved its service. I hope I could be able to use them in the future to check it out by myself.

[regi]

I had once a bat flying terrified through the cabin for 1.5 hours , between Saigon and Bangkok on a old B747-200 of Air France.
Don't know what happended with the poor animal, guess it ended in the wok .