Air France - lacking humanity

I was travelling with my two children (5yr old daughter and 2 month old son) from Delhi to Paris and then from Paris to Bristol. At the Delhi airport when I asked the ground staff of Air France to help me out we were informed that as a policy economy class are not provided any assistance. I therefore had to push the baby stroller and the trolley myself with the help of my 5 year old daughter.

Then at the check in counter we were informed that the baby stroller would be handed to us at Bristol directly and that I would have to travel with the hand baggage and the child in my arms from Terminal E to Terminal F. No assistance would be provided as we were travelling in the economy class. I had to plead to the staff to let me keep the stroller for I have severe back problems and wear a lumbar belt. No way would I be able to manage the baggage and the child in my arms for 4 hrs till the next plane to Bristol. The air crew finally agreed.

The service on the plane too was substandard. I would call for the air hostess for hot water for the baby bottle and at times they never showed up. It was kind of passengers travelling in the next seat to give me their baby's hot water.

At Paris, the lady at the boarding desk for the Bristol flight informed me that I would have to go down the flight of stairs to the bus by myself and as expected that they would not provide me with any assistance.

When the flight was finally cancelled, the ground staff paid no attention to me despite the fact that I was the only person travelling with children on the plane and they could see that my daughter was crying out of fear as the flight had been cancelled and my son was crying due to hunger. When I finally broke down due to frustration did they pay heed to me.

I was not prepared for an 8 hr delay in reaching Bristol. The ground staff took no initiative to make us comfortable. I had to ask for baby food and nappies. When I asked the staff for hot water for the baby, I was given water from a coffee vending machine. It is 2 weeks and my son is still suffering from a stomach infection.

Is this the humanity of the air france staff? I had registered a complaint on their web site No: 3258181001 and they have not even bothered to respond.

Comment On This

Air France as an organisation seems not to give its employees any power in decision making, not even supervisors. On my most recent flight with them, I spoke to a supervisor about this who told me no one that the public has access to can over rule company policy, to the extent that an employee may even be forced to violate French law or lose his job. All decisions are company policy, and from what I have seen I believe anyone taking any initiative whatsoever will be fired.