Shanghai with KLM and air france

cuteusmaximus

One more thing. I bought two litres of Absolut at the Duty Free in Shanghai Airport (so it was in my hand baggage).

At Schipol Airport they wouldn't let the spirits on the connecting flight to Bristol because it wasn't in "approved packaging." Call me cynical but I just see it as their way of boosting their profits.

They were going to confiscate it but I just got out of the queue, walked to the exit out of the terminal area, and flagged down the first Dutch person I saw and handed it over. I reckon it made their day.

Despite this Schipol is my favourite airport - and CDG is the worst (I hate connecting through CDG!).

cathryn107

Air France are great to fly long-haul with IME - good cabin crew and entertainment, nice food, good selection of free wines (they even pop around offering aperitifs and digestifes!) and ice cream snacks, which are very welcome on long-haul flights. They really look after you well.

My only quibble is that their check-in at Heathrow is completely chaotic - when we used it last year so many people were queuing they started calling people out of the queue by flight time, to try and get people on to the right plane. I know other people who've had this experience with them, and when we passed through Rome airport three weeks ago, staff appeared to be expediting Air France passengers through security, as they'd been waiting so long to check in they were in danger of missing their plane.

Once you're on board, it's hard to fault them, but get there early for the sake of your blood pressure!

Voyager2002

cathryn107 wrote: »

Air France are great to fly long-haul with IME - good cabin crew and entertainment, nice food, good selection of free wines (they even pop around offering aperitifs and digestifes!) and ice cream snacks, which are very welcome on long-haul flights. They really look after you well.

My only quibble is that their check-in at Heathrow is completely chaotic - when we used it last year so many people were queuing they started calling people out of the queue by flight time, to try and get people on to the right plane. I know other people who've had this experience with them, and when we passed through Rome airport three weeks ago, staff appeared to be expediting Air France passengers through security, as they'd been waiting so long to check in they were in danger of missing their plane.

Once you're on board, it's hard to fault them, but get there early for the sake of your blood pressure!

I agree absolutely.

Air France do have check-in machines at Heathrow, which could save you quite a lot of time. However, you can only use them for China flights if their computer already holds full details of your passports, visa, date of birth, date the visa was issued... So if you have an opportunity to get this information into their system, it is worth doing so, even though that may involve a long telephone call to a horrible 0871 number.

Christal_2

Just being curious here why do you choose KLM/Air France as to BA/Virgin? BA/Virgin offers direct flight to SH/BJ in China and the fare is good, if you buy at the right time you will end up paying less than £400.....for return.

Tils

Well I've been to Beijing a few times now. the KLM flight that goes from Amsterdam has 2 and like someone said be aware 1 of them is a China Southern Airlines plane not a KLM plane. So you get the china service which basically isn't very good.

Also check the wait times of the Air France one. Connect times I know from Cardiff and Birmingham to Air France to Beijing are very long. So make sure you check this as I don't know from other airports.

I know I'm talking about Beijing also. But I believe to get to shanghai you go via Beijing in some flights.

JoseChungsDoomsday

Christal wrote: »

Just being curious here why do you choose KLM/Air France as to BA/Virgin? BA/Virgin offers direct flight to SH/BJ in China and the fare is good, if you buy at the right time you will end up paying less than £400.....for return.

KLM and air france are cheaper plus BA and virgin are booked up on the 12th october as the special olympics are ending (thats why they are going).

JoseChungsDoomsday

does anyone know if air france check if you have had yout injections before they let you board the plane?

Sam_Bee

JoseChungsDoomsday wrote: »

does anyone know if air france check if you have had yout injections before they let you board the plane?

Injections? Airlines? Check? Not unless Yellow Fever involved. They are really not interested in that.

Crabman

We recently took a short-haul Air France flight from Heathrow to CDG then another from CDG to a regional airport in france... never ever again. I am aware that our flights were operated by "Britair", though it's Air France who should ensure the service meets the expectation of their brand.

It looks like people have mixed experiences with Air France, I think their service is rubbish and wouldn't use them again, not even if the criteria in #7 are fulfilled :A

Sam_Bee

Crabman wrote: »

We recently took a short-haul Air France flight from Heathrow to CDG then another from CDG to a regional airport in france... never ever again. I am aware that our flights were operated by "Britair", though it's Air France who should ensure the service meets the expectation of their brand.

It looks like people have mixed experiences with Air France, I think their service is rubbish and wouldn't use them again, not even if the criteria in #7 are fulfilled :A

I'd also subscribe to this, i've had nothing but terrible experiences with them, and when I was a TA with clients who used them, some I can't repeat as they would border on libel (despite being true).

Along with Northwest, they are the only airline I wouldn't fly if they were free and naked. However I reckon naked air hostesses / hosts would be a fab marketing ploy for any other airline (are you reading Singapore Airlines ).