Following is a blog post written by a friend of mine, Jay Shah. His experience not only highlights the high-handiness of airport staff but also brings to light the racist approach French people are notorious for. Please read below and do share your views and opinions:
To,
Mr ALEXANDRE
DE JUNIAC
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,
Air France-KLM
Dear Alexandre,
Can I call you Alexandre? I hope you don’t mind if I call you by your first
name, I understand only your close friends and family members would lovingly
call you Alexandre. I’m sure by the time we’re through this entire incident;
you’d feel like we’ve known each other for years. As was the flight delay time,
on one of your aircrafts I had the misfortune of flying.
You
know Alexandre, I seldom read and the only thing I've ever lamented online is
the proliferation of religious ideologies. I don't believe in throwing
brickbats on any passing subject but I do believe in the fact that writing
needs a sense of purpose, which I've rarely come across until now. So you should
feel special Alexandre, very special.
The thing is I’ve started dreaming about Air France, Alexandre. I can’t seem to
get over. It’s like we’ve been flirting for so long, I can’t take it anymore.
Everyday I wake up and I check my inbox to see if I’ve received an e-mail from
one of your Customer Relations Executive, I frantically search my mailbox to
see if there’s any post from Air France regarding the incident that’s probably
going to have lifelong implications on the goodwill of your Company. I can’t
take it anymore Alexandre, I can’t.
Please allow me to provide
specific details in a timeline format,
so that you can either pursue your professional dispensation and seek to
resolve these difficulties — or more likely (I suspect) you’ll probably
bury yourself
in the buckskin leather chair you have and pass this nonchalant piece of
information to your interns.
9th October 2013
5.45 pm (New York): I message my older sister good-bye and board Air France
flight AF 17 from JFK Airport, New York. More often than not, my trips abroad are marred
with unforeseen events so I was pleasantly surprised when I left New York to go
back home, and that nothing untoward occurred over the course of 4 weeks. But
then again, "impossible" isn't a French word Alexandre and I didn't
realize I was still far from home, which means, I had spoken too soon.
See, you’re getting to know so much about me already. Although, a lot of this
might come as a surprise to you, but life is full of surprises, no? Okay never
mind.
8.15 am (Paris): Everything seemed normal and I tried to sleep my way to Paris
with little luck. We landed in Paris around 7.00 am and proceeded to Terminal K
Gate 51 to board my connecting Air France Flight AF 218 to Bombay, which was to
depart at 10.50 am. I've had an eventful experience while passing through Paris
the last time and I wasn't feeling any better this time around either.
10.15 am: The information screen finally comes to life and announces that
Flight AF 218 scheduled to depart at 10.50 am for Bombay has been delayed and
rescheduled for 12.20 pm. You know the funny part Alexandre? I don’t see any of
your ground staff who should’ve shared this information with us. You guys have
taken digitalization to a whole new level.
12.00 pm: It’s been 5 hours now since we’ve been at the Airport. Once again Alexandre,
there is no word from Air France, it’s way past our Boarding time but I don’t
see any of those walking abortions, asking us to Board the Aircraft. I’m
worried Alexandre, will I ever get home? I couldn’t tell.
12.45 pm: As more and more passengers panic, voices grow louder; finally two of
your immaculately dressed French men come to the floor. The words they utter,
go through my chest like a glass splinter, only you could’ve helped stop the
pain. They say that the flight to Bombay has been cancelled indefinitely. No
clear reasons are given, just a plain, meaningless statement “the aircraft has
technical issues!’’ Do you feel the coldness Alexandre? It’s like your wife,
sending you an SMS saying your marriage can’t work. She doesn’t say why, she
doesn’t even tell you if there’s any possibility of it working out. She just
bails out on you Alexandre, harsh, isn’t it? I know, I can feel you.
I’ve been away from my family for a month; do you know how eager I am to get
home? You can’t! But as you will realize later in this letter, my eagerness to
get back home is nothing compared to, with good reason, the emergencies faced
by some of the other passengers.
1.30 pm: The French men have now completely lost it! They forget your
beautifully worded guide to solving customer issues and are completely clueless
about what’s going on. They stick their ears to their talking devices and
arrogantly refuse divulging any information to the stranded passengers. The
only thing they promise us is that we won’t be flying out of Paris until next
day. How comforting, feels just like your Buckskin leather chair, NOT!
Kindly note, we’re in Paris! It’s the hub of Air France. An alternate flight
could’ve been arranged?!
1.45 pm: After some verbal altercations with the passengers, your staff finally
decided it’s time for us to have lunch. They handed out meal vouchers which
could be redeemed at one of the two restaurants in the Terminal but directed us
towards Exki in particular since it was closer to the Gate and we had to
assemble at the Air France Office at the lower terminal for further
“instructions”.
2.15 pm: Passengers assemble at the office. After waiting for 45 minutes, we’re
told that we’ll be given accommodation and Meal Vouchers for the stay.
Passengers already holding a Schengen Visa are directed towards the Hotel
whereas the rest of us are asked to submit our passports to apply for a Transit
Visa. As of now about 5-6 people have a
Schengen Visa out of nearly 40 passengers in total.
Are you with me so far Alexandre? Don’t lose me now.
This is where things turn for the worse. This is where it get’s really serious!
Godforsaken company.
3.30 pm: Passengers with emergencies try to get themselves placed on an alternate
flight to India. Some are senior citizens, some are patients and some have
personal issues to tend to.
27-year-old Mr Subhransu Mishra, who is
consumed with emotions, tries to negotiate a seat on any other flight to India
but is flatly refused. I later realize that his father passed away in a car
accident two days ago and his family was waiting for him to perform the last
rites for his father in Bhubaneshwar. If that wasn’t enough, Bhubaneshwar was
bracing itself for the worst Cyclone to ever hit the country, Phailin, two days
later. I can’t imagine what’s going on in Subhransu’s mind. It’s just really
sad!
Suddenly none of my problems hold any value compared to Subhransu’s, I’m taken
aback with his helplessness and we try to persuade the Air France Officials to
give him a seat on an alternate flight or airline. At this point, I realize the
lack of courtesy, even on humanitarian grounds extended to him by the officials
as they arrogantly refuse him a seat, saying many people have emergencies and
they cannot afford to accommodate all of them. They immediately deny and say
there are no flights going to India without making any calls or checking any
monitors for alternate flights to India. Seems like this is the only
information they’re sure of even though they have no clue when our flight would
be departing the next day.
We are later told by one of the informed passengers that a woman flying
Business Class on our flight was accommodated on an Air India flight to India.
6.00 pm: The Staff finally arrives with our Passports after 3 hours. To my
utter disbelief, only 6-7 people are given the Transit Visa whereas the rest of
us are denied. There is no proof of rejection on the passport, nor does it
carry any form, that holds any evidence of rejection too. Most of us have
traveled to Europe before and considering we were flying originally from New
York, we also had US Visas apart from a number of other visas from countries
world over. On what grounds were our Visas rejected? We’d never know.
Ironically the 6-7 passengers who received the Visa are only Senior Citizens as
well as women with children. No one else and I mean NO ONE ELSE got the visa.
We’ve now been at the airport for nearly
12 hours and have just been informed that we can’t even travel outside the
airport to rest at one of the Hotels. Everyone is furious and we try to reason
the refusal of our Transit Visa. It made no sense logically or practically for
a stranded passenger to have been refused a Transit Visa. Although, it made a
lot of logical sense for the airline to have not applied for our visa at all
considering it would help save Visa Fees and money spent for our Accommodation.
How can you refuse a Transit Visa to a stranded Passenger? On what ground? This
question is directed both, towards the French Embassy as well as Air France,
whoever finally decided to refuse the Visa.
By now you’d feel that this is the worst your airline could’ve done in terms
of Customer Care but did I say I’m in Bombay yet, No! It get’s even worse
Alexandre. I’d be very worried if I were in your place, you see it’s not that
complicated, it’s rather quite simple. These things happen world over and I’m
sure you’ve faced them too someday. But think about it Alexandre, what would
you do if you were Subhransu, can’t imagine, can you? He’s a 27 year old boy
who hasn’t seen his father in months, the only reason he’s going to India is
because his father suddenly passed away and all he wants, rather all he can do,
is see his father, one last time! But by the grace of your ground staff and
officials, he probably won’t even get to do that! Do you feel his pain,
Alexandre? I don’t think so! I cannot curse your airline enough or the
imbeciles running it. What’s your raison d’être? Please tell us, so we can all
hear it.
Anyway, I digress.
We ask them for directions to their lounge. At first, they seem perplexed
and then comes another one of those cold, illogical and insensitive replies,
we’re told the Air France Lounge is only for Business Class passengers and they
can’t allow us to stay there. We are asked to take an airport shuttle to the
other terminal and fend for ourselves at the upper deck resting area.
Out of the 35 odd passengers, most of them are senior citizens and a lot of
them can barely speak English. They are scared and eager to get back home. They
cannot speak out for themselves. At 6.30pm we call for four wheel chairs for senior
citizens who can hardly walk let alone go to the other terminal, which needs a
train to reach. After waiting for over an hour and half, the ground staff
arrives with one wheel chair saying they couldn’t find more wheel chairs, so we
point out the 20 odd wheel chairs lying right across the hall in a section
which was closed and we hear something that baffles all of us, “those wheel
chairs are from another company and we cannot use them!” I recorded this on my
Camera.
The thing that lingers at the back of my mind more than anything else right now
is the gut wrenching fact that everyone you know who had traveled to France
earlier warned you about this, you knew you were being targeted because of your
race but you’re in denial thinking you’re being irrational. You wonder at this
point how could it all go, so wrong, but you’re left with insidious and
plausible deniability’s of the fact that you’re attacked for being from a
particular ethnicity. You’ve traveled across the world, it’s never happened to
you before, but you were warned and, it did.
A French gentleman probably my father’s age, flying Business Class
apologetically said, “I’ve been flying since the past 35 years and I’m sorry
but I’ve only seen this happen to certain people, I’m really sorry.” I made a
few friends there since we all were stranded together, one of my friend Jo who
is a Dutch National just e-mailed me saying she was offered a compensation
package from KLM. Meanwhile, we are yet to hear from either KLM or Air France. Surprising,
don’t you think? Considering we were the ones who were left to fend for
ourselves at the airport without an iota of assistance from Air France?
It’s an incoherent mess. There was absolutely no assistance, ever. Every time
we needed something, we would have to travel across Terminals, meet new Air
France Officials each time and have to request them for all of our basic needs.
There were really old, senior citizens, an old patient suffering from Asthma
and perhaps, just out of customer care, couldn’t there have been an Official
assigned to tend to our grievances personally?
7.45 pm: We get a Sandwich and a
Soft drink from the Air France Office, thank god! The first proper
morsel of food in over 12 hours. Although we could probably have been
sharing an Indian feast with our families back home, by now. Something
is better than nothing.
10.00 pm: Mr Subhransu Mishra, Ms Shruti Kore and I proceed towards the resting
area on the upper deck of the Terminal where we are asked to retire for the
night. We head to the Air France counter there and request for a Blanket and a
Bed Sheet, once again we’re asked to wait incessantly as they’ve run out of bed
sheets and blankets. After 45 minutes we get our “resting kit”. They also issue
us a new Boarding Pass for the Flight tomorrow and inform us that they’ve
arranged a completely new flight for us, which would be flying out at 10.50 am
just like our original departure time. We complete the formalities and go back
to the floor. We reunite with the rest of the Passengers. A few passengers
manage to occupy the sleeping chairs whereas everyone else has to sleep on the
floor. It is not surprising to notice that out of all the passengers in the
entire upper deck resting area, we barely spot anyone from a nationality other
than India.
12.00 am: Subhransu picks a corner to charge his laptop so that he could write
to his family and is still overwhelmed with emotions because he isn’t sure if
he’ll get to see his father one last time. By now, we’re all tired and
exhausted but still in shock about the treatment meted out to all of us. By
1.30 am, I call it a night and put on my headphones to try and catch some sleep
in bits and pieces.
10th October 2013
7.00 am: We head to Terminal K Gate 49 once again and go to Exki to redeem our
Breakfast Vouchers.
We’re allowed 1 Danish pastry and 1
hot/soft drink. I grab a bowl of soup only, which is half the price of the
voucher, since the pastry has eggs and I don’t drink tea/coffee or aerated
drinks. I head to the Cashier, explaining and requesting her to let me take the
bowl of soup instead of the two. She calls the Chef who is a young man not
older than 30-34 years and perhaps, with a missing cerebrum. He is infuriated
and with an overcompensating display of anger points out the only two things I
am supposed to have as per the voucher. He doesn’t ask me to buy the soup, he
doesn’t refuse politely but he raises his voice and tries to insult me in front
of every one else. I raise my voice louder than his and tell him why I got the
soup in the first place. The pastry has eggs, which I don’t eat, and they’ve
run out of vegetarian food. I also point out lividly that anyone who has this
voucher is someone who is stranded at the airport without a choice and showing
some courtesy to anyone holding the voucher wouldn’t harm him in any way. I
push aside the tray and move on. He’s completely startled; everyone around is
also surprised with his behavior and they put in a word.
8.30 am: We meet the rest of the passengers who had gone to the hotels for the
stay and wait for our flight.
That’s where I meet one elderly gentleman
who is going to Baroda. I’m amazed at what he has to say. His flight from
Newark to Paris on the 7th was delayed and therefore he missed his
connecting flight to Bombay from Paris, so they put him on our flight only for
that flight to have been cancelled too. I can’t believe it! He looks like he’s
preparing himself for the role of Mr Viktor Navrovski from the movie Terminal.
Imagine spending two whole nights at an airport you didn’t prepare yourself
for!
9.45 am: Once again, as if this is an endless joke, our flight is delayed.
We’ve lost all hope and I feel like I’m part of a stupid prank let alone a very
expensive one. They say the flight will leave at 1.50 pm. Sick of their
nonsensical replies and unrealistic reasons, I just want to get home but I’m
having trust issues with this company on monolithic proportions.
1.30 pm: We realize we’re being accommodated in an existing, scheduled flight
as against what was told to us, that a special flight was arranged only for us.
All the pieces of the ever so confusing puzzle finally fell into place. Air
France never organized a special aircraft for us, why would they when they
cancelled our flight due to under utilized capacity anyway? We were just being
accommodated on a scheduled flight. Two flights in one? You do the math!
2.25 pm: We’re finally heading to Bombay.
Now let me throw some facts and figures.
Air France Flight AF 218 is an Airbus A330-200 Aircraft. The average seating
capacity of this Aircraft is 209 passengers. The number of stranded passengers
in all was not more than 45. The final aircraft we boarded on the 10th
of October was on full capacity. Perhaps our original flight was cancelled due
to the high number of empty seats? Was it easier to cancel an empty aircraft
rather than fly one, resulting in huge savings? Also, it makes even more sense
to accommodate two flights in one. Maximum returns? We were not even given
accommodation or proper food. Could this be the reason?
My guess is as good as yours!
Getting back to you, Alexandre, I don’t think there’s much left to say.
I’m over and done with this debacle but not without spreading the word about
your service amongst my friends and family. There’s no doubt that your company
is not competent or professional enough to take passengers world over. You may
get defensive and say that this is a one-off incident but unfortunately, it
isn’t. Number of people have voiced a similar opinion about the treatment meted
out to them by your company. It is rather unsettling. Don’t know the effect
this letter might have on your customer service but rest assured, you can
thoroughly deduct an average of 5000$ from your annual profits if not more.
Although that might be just a whisker in your overall mess, it’ll be one which
was done with due diligence. We’ve had enough of your staff’s condescending
bullshit. We have encountered inadequacy of service, which I never knew was
possible for such a big company along with ignorance and stupidity of humungous
proportions.
Let me make it very clear, we don’t fly your airlines for free and more often
than not are the only people flying on this particular sector. You might try
and make some damage control but be completely sure, that we will never forget
the way we’ve been treated at the hands of your staff. You have failed
miserably in meeting the expectations of your customers based on the promises
you’ve made to them.
I will be circulating this letter amongst popular press and media along with a
court summons we’re in the process of filing. This is a true account of what
happened in Paris, Charles De Gaulle Airport.
Au revoir.
Your new best pal,
Jay Shah
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/consumers/protection_of_consumers/l24173_en.htm
Link to EU Law for flight cancellations.
Name: Shah Jay
Booking Reference Number: 4B7WMU
First Port of Boarding: John F. Kennedy Airport, USA
Connect Flight: AF 218
Flight cancelled at: Charles De Gaulle, Paris
Complaint Reference Number: 6741742001
 |
| Worried and extremely tired passengers in the night. |
 |
| Letter from Air France confirming the events as they occurred. |
 |
| Certificate of Cancellation |
YouTube link to AirFrance Official refusing to provide more than one wheelchair for three passengers
Verdict:
What Jay faced was shocking and something that you would not expect an international carrier to do. Today, brands are far more conscious about customer service and do realise the outcome of not providing the correct facilities can land them in a lot of trouble. An large European airport and one of the worlds largest airlines is not able to carry out an in-transit experience in a peaceful manner is indeed very shocking and rude.
Update 30/10/2013:
After days of venting out on social media, Air France has finally decided to take notice of the issue and revert to Jay. The saddest part is that the airline seemed to show little difference to the ordeal and instead tried to provide for monetary compensation. Acknowledging all their mistakes is probably the first thing to do and providing a reasonable excuse for the ordeal is the next thing that any customer expects. Air France reverted by to Jay with the following apology letter:
Dear Mr Shah,
We write in response to your letter to our Social Media Team dated 10
October 2013, from which we are sorry to learn of the difficulties you
experienced whilst travelling on our services. From the outset, we wish
to offer you our sincere apologies on behalf of Air France.
Our records show that flight AF218 was cancelled due to the discovery of a severe technical issues with the aircraft.
As an airline, we are aware of the inconvenience that cancellations can
cause to our passengers. As such, we seek to prevent and limit such
occurrences as much as possible.
It is true that there are occasions in which it is possible to foresee a
technical problem and undertake measures to prevent inconveniencing the
passengers and avoid cancellations. However, sometimes, as described by
the EC Regulation, these safety shortcomings are unexpected and
therefore subsequent flight cancellations become unavoidable (as was the
case on your flight).
Please be assured that Air France does its utmost to ensure that our
passengers' transfers proceed as smoothly and satisfactorily as
possible. On this occasion, we did regret to learn that the level of
assistance you received at Charles de Gaulle was below your expectations
and that due to border restrictions we were unable to offer you an
hotel accommodation for the night.
We do remain sympathetic towards your legitimate observations and we can
assure you that our station managers, when convening with the
aforementioned airport authorities, will take your comments into
consideration. Feedback from customers such as yourself is a valuable
source of incentive for improvement and development, which we are always
grateful to receive.
In closing, we will be happy to assess your case and we would be
grateful if you could forward us your bank details such as the name and
address of your bank as well as your account number.
We trust the above explanations will go some way towards restoring your
confidence in our Company and we look forward to welcoming you back to
our services in the near future.
Yours sincerely,
XXX
Customer Care Europe
