Air France

Purchased premium economy seats with my husband six months in advance of trip. Flight out was end of June 2015 SFO to Paris. We chose two seats together at time of booking in January. Upon check-in, we were told we were on standby, even though it was 3 hours before boarding. When we got to gate, we were told to wait until boarding for our seat assignment. We were seated separately. Flight crew allowed us to switch seats. Return trip: Checking in at Barcelona, we were told that we had seats on flight to Paris, but were on standby for Paris-San Francisco segment. Upon arrival at CDG, we spoke with Air France staff. We were behind a line of other passengers in same situation. Staff rude and dismissive, and said, "Make a complaint on our website." Again, we were given seats apart and had to bargain with passengers on board to be seated together. Many singletons were seated in the group of 2 seats (window-aisle) on left and right. However, we were seated in the middle of the plane, three rows apart. We booked our tickets through a travel agent, who booked us on Delta, operated by Air France. Turns out, when you book on Delta, Air France bumps you to the bottom in terms of seating priority. So much for Sky Team.

Flight was cancelled so never even boarded. Great customer service from AF at Orly so we took the train instead and afterwards made our claim for refund. Not only did they refund the ticket and reimburse us for the train tickets and hotel, but they gave us £250 flight vouchers as a gesture of goodwill. All of this in less than a week. Great airline on the other flights we did use them (SXB-LYS on a CRJ1000 and LYS-TLS on an A320). I would recommend them!

Business class, what a joke! Economy seats just leaving the middle seat vacant does not make it business class. The only good thing I can find to say is that it was on time and safe. Food was better left alone.

After 3 hours in the plane waiting for repairs the hostess announced that we needed to disembark, we wait another 3 hours at the gate without any clear info on what was happening. People started getting upset and complained and in exchange they got a 8 Euro coupon for a drink, many others did not realize this and did not get anything. Then they made an announcement saying that the flight was canceled and told us to go to the main departure check-in desk, in broken English that not very clear. They did not say which desk, whether or not we had to claim the luggage. At 8pm eventually we reach the departure gate, we were rerouted, got a poor motel and a 16 euro coupon for dinner, a total disaster. Got the luggage 36 hours later.

AF has started a new route from Vancouver to Paris CDG where we were supposed to take a connecting AF flight to Nice. Unfortunately, the AF connection was impossible to make despite four of us running all the way. No-one met us at the gate to get us to our flight. No-one knew where the connector flight left from although I had found that information by myself. We were told by a steward on the plane that you could walk to the next flight. You cannot - you have to take a train, clear border control then security again. We were told this would all take place in Nice - wrong again. The next flight to Nice was joyfully cancelled - no reason given. The third flight was one hour late so in all we spent seven hours in a sweltering CDG trying to make a one hour journey to Nice, after a nine-hour flight from Vancouver. Our daughter was exhausted after the flight and felt faint. We called the first aid medics in CDG who were great. The only response we got from Air France was when I took to Twitter to express my frustration. The flights themselves were ok - nothing more - but when basic standards of transportation aren't met it makes any other rating irrelevant.

BHX-ORD-CDG 27th June. No major concerns or upsets but certainly much room for improvement. The online check-in was very straightforward (I appreciated the e-mail confirming that check in had opened) and there were no issues there. The outward leg from BHX to CDG was fine, didn't expect to be served a snack but the croissant was practically inedible and thrown straight in the bin. The organisation at CDG was lacking. There was a delay of 45 minutes on the ground with no explanation from the staff, then the gate of departure was changed to a gate that was already boarding a separate flight to Dubai, with the new gate's screen not being updated to reflect this. This caused a large rush of people and a lot of anger and confusion, and although the staff did make an announcement confirming the Chicago-bound passengers were to board first, this didn't feel like enough as a lot of people remained confused and unsure of what was happening. We were then delayed for a further hour on the tarmac, although we were kept updated by the captain regarding this. Seats were okay, food was okay, a good selection of entertainment but the quality of the screens is poor and the sets only designed for the headsets handed out so sound quality was abysmal on normal headphones. There's a good selection of drinks (including complementary alcohol) and the flight staff were friendly and attentive. Not the best trans-atlantic flight I've ever had, but far from the worst. Return flight (BOS-CDG-BHX) was also Air France but was code shared with Delta and Flybe, so will be reviewing separately.

I booked my tickets for myself and my husband in August 2014 for a trip in June 2015. We always get to the AF check-in counter at Dulles International and discover that despite having booked our seats together, despite having the same last name, despite paying for the tickets with the same credit card, and despite paying full price we are not seated together. And I had called 3 times to confirm that had reserved seats together. Our record was separated and we were seated apart. By good fortune, the woman who had the seat that I was supposed to have was right behind me at the airport. She had booked her ticket 5 months after I did, through a travel agent. Further conversation revealed that she had AF Flying Blue status, although she's a US citizen. It appears from our chat, that AF allows its own customers to reserve seats in business class up to a few hours before departure and thus bump passengers like me and my husband, paying passengers, at will. This leaves the check-in staff at Dulles to flounder for explantions as to why we are separated. In addition, when the check-in staff reassigns us, the computer system is never updated timely enough for the gate agent to recognise the new seats. Confusion at the gate. Embarrassment.

Crew excellent – administration incompetent. We flew business class Hong Kong to Paris CDG, and contrary to the reviews the crew were excellent, they were happy, congenial, efficient and attentive. The food was also excellent. However the main reason we chose Air France was because of their new seats in business class. To be certain we phoned the Air France office before booking the flights and after 14 minutes double checking the Air France administrator assured us the seats on that flight were the new ones – wrong, they were NOT. The old seats were uncomfortable, noisy, and out of date. We wasted our money. Air France don’t even know what seats they have in their aircraft, think twice before you fly.

Recently flew Birmingham to Paris CDG. It is only a short flight which was good considering how uncomfortable the seats were. The seat was far too narrow. I'm not a particularly large guy, but this seat was way too narrow. We were served a sandwich and drink during the flight. The sandwich was revolting and served on bread. Ordinarily I like Air France but this service was poor.

Everything was fine. The flight attendants were friendly and helpful. I had a vegetarian meal and they served me first, which was nice. The food was okay, but not great. The seats were comfortable.