Airfrance strike throughout May

[HoneySuckleDreams]

I just read in the Daily Wail (so I had to confirm it elsewhere) that the Airfrance unions have called for a strike throughout May, from the 3rd to the 30th...but only at peak times. Which means that they've lost me as a customer as I rely on the Paris-Lourdes link fairly regularly. I will be travelling EasyJet to Toulouse and taking the train, which is a pain when you only have a weekend at home.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616048/French-airline-pilots-threaten-month-long-strike-right-strike.html

 

http://www.air-journal.fr/2014-04-28-le-snpl-france-alpa-confirme-la-greve-du-3-au-30-mai-2014-5105095.html

 

Edit: take a moment to read the comments on the French air-journal site. It seems that a lot of travellers are championing les British - as they would get you to your destination. It's not just the rest of the world who think the French unions are culs

 

[idun]

So many times over the years have french friends and acquaintances patriotically booked Air France to find themselves in the middle of strike action, either not flying or being stuck somewhere. It's years since I have risked booking AF and do not even check their prices when I am booking.

Why they are doing this I do not know, it is so stupid.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

[quote user="idun"]Why they are doing this I do not know, it is so stupid.
[/quote]

For me, it's because these businesses are not run for the benefit of the customer, but for the employee. We happen to be superfluous.

I would love the French government to say stuff it, sell off their share of the business to the highest bidder (if they could get one), and watch AirFrance slowly sink. I think KLM may have a say in the matter and are probably pulling their hair out as we speak and crying into their Heineken/Grolsch/Amstel ... take your pick

[HoneySuckleDreams]

however, someone seems to be doing very well out of AirFrance

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10793257/Air-France-executive-and-wife-ran-2m-prostitution-ring-through-airline.html

 

[mint]

[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

[quote user="idun"]Why they are doing this I do not know, it is so stupid.

[/quote]

For me, it's because these businesses are not run for the benefit of the customer, but for the employee. We happen to be superfluous.

I would love the French government to say stuff it, sell off their share of the business to the highest bidder (if they could get one), and watch AirFrance slowly sink. I think KLM may have a say in the matter and are probably pulling their hair out as we speak and crying into their Heineken/Grolsch/Amstel ... take your pick

[/quote]

huh, a bit like the proposed London underground strike then?

Don't they sell Leffe?[:D]

[HoneySuckleDreams]

sweet

 

I think the conversation over croissants went like

Henri: allors Francoise...regarde..les rosbifs de l' underground vont greve

Francoise: pour combine des jours

Henri:  les 2

Francoise: pffft , nous pouvons show them a thing or deux ... tout le monde dehors pour un month

 

[YCCMB]

Bit of a diff., Sweets, betwixt not being able to get anywhere in London (although the buses, half the tubes and the DLR were working fine) and not being able to get anywhere in the country-slash-world...  Oh, and the cost of an AF ticket versus a tube ticket (which you can always use again on the next available tube.)

Fin, bref. I haven't flown AF for a hundred years. Thank goodness I don't need to.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

huh, a bit like the proposed London underground strike then?

Don't they sell Leffe?[:D]
[/quote]

Leffe...yuk. they give it away here

 

A strike on the underground may cause issues, but only local ones as there are alternatives. They just seem very big issues because it's London. Airfrance on the other hand...national and international travel and because there is feck all competition , there are no alternatives. I've just spent a couple of hours trying to find alternatives. The EasyJet website has melted, within an hour all the flights got booked. SNCF looks OK, and I have now booked travel home, overnight (which I don't really like), I just hope the SNCF unions don't come out in sympathy.

I get really fed up with the stress of travelling home, I never know if I'm going to make it because of one thing or another. This is what the unions want, to put pressure on the government, but in reality it is just alienating the customer. For most of the French population it means not a jot, most of our neighbours haven't travelled more than 20km from their homes in their life, but for the business people and tourists it's a right royal feckup

[mint]

[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

Leffe...yuk. they give it away here

 

A strike on the underground may cause issues, but only local ones as there are alternatives. They just seem very big issues because it's London. Airfrance on the other hand...national and international travel and because there is feck all competition , there are no alternatives. I've just spent a couple of hours trying to find alternatives. The EasyJet website has melted, within an hour all the flights got booked. SNCF looks OK, and I have now booked travel home, overnight (which I don't really like), I just hope the SNCF unions don't come out in sympathy.

I get really fed up with the stress of travelling home, I never know if I'm going to make it because of one thing or another. This is what the unions want, to put pressure on the government, but in reality it is just alienating the customer. For most of the French population it means not a jot, most of our neighbours haven't travelled more than 20km from their homes in their life, but for the business people and tourists it's a right royal feckup

[/quote]

I sympathise totally and, it's just as you have pointed out, it alienates the customer and hits at the tourist and business communities to further detriment of the French economy.

I think I have only used AF once and that was a connecting flight to somewhere else:  don't like their prices, their schedules, their planes or their service.

Nowadays we don't travel more than, say, a hundred km from our home either[:D]  But I don't expect to be permanently grounded[blink]

[betty]

Upsetting their customers yet again.

Employees are well paid with lucrative perks and yet they still want to strike.

AF is generally regarded pretty low by the professional airline industry.

http://www.pprune.org/passengers-slf-self-loading-freight/538628-would-you-fly-air-france.html

Won’t be long before they go bust I think.

[sid]

As I write this, sat in California (we may be here some time if the strike goes ahead!) I have to say that the AirFrance service on the outward flight was nothing short of first class (and we travelled economy!). Comfortable seats, on-time, great service from the cabin staff. We flew on the new A380 airbus and tickets booked last June were around the same as we would have paid from London or Manchester with Virgin. I wonder if the criticism is really fair?

The proposed strike is not AirFrance of course, but the French pilots' union. It comes at a really bad time for Air France who may otherwise have actually made a profit this year!

 

[nectarine]

[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

sweet

 

I think the conversation over croissants went like

Henri: allors Francoise...regarde..les rosbifs de l' underground vont greve

Francoise: pour combine des jours

Henri:  les 2

Francoise: pffft , nous pouvons show them a thing or deux ... tout le monde dehors pour un month

 

[/quote]

ha ha ha ha excellent! Made me splutter my coffee over my keyboard this morning!