Air France ??

[jmagla]

Hi All,
Just wondered if any of you have used Air France, we are thinking of flying to Miami with them next year, an idea of leg room/entertainment (any in English?), luggage allowance and general quality would be good. The price is good although it is one stop and to Miami, rather than Orlando, but it might be nice to have a stopover there for a few days at the beginning of the holiday. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[luke]

Is it definitely an Air France plane?
We flew 'Air France' to New York this summer and it was a code share with Delta

 

[wayneg]

Was just going to post exactly same as Luke, we booked twice with AirFrance, once this August which were Delta flights and other was last Oct which were NWA which have now been taken over by Delta.
Usually if you go via Paris they are AirFrance planes, via Amsterdam KLM, Via Detroit NWA and via Atlanta Delta. There are proabably exceptions to this but that is my experience with all these airlines in the Skyteam network.

 

[jmagla]

Yes, sorry they are code share with Delta and are from Manchester via Paris. The flights are for August and are less than £500 which is the best I have seen so far, although to be honest the route would not be my first choice. Is there entertainment in English i.e. movies etc.

 

[wayneg]

Its an airline I have never been on, only booked with them with codeshare. No idea what they offer, who you seen the flights with? direct with them?

 

[jmagla]

Hi Wayne, looking more closely they are both Delta flights, I think. Direct they are far more expensive (about 7 or £800 more), but through ebookers I can get 3 adults and a child at an average of £477 (with 1.6% quidco to come off on top of that).

Have you flown with Delta? are there any positives or negatives worth mentioning?, ignore my entertainment question, obviously the movies etc will be in English. Do you know if you only have to pay a deposit with ebookers (if yes do you know how much?) or the full amount.

I am tempted!

Cheers Michael

 

[wayneg]

Not coming up for my dates. What dates you looking at I will pull them up and have a look. Usually AirFrance via Paris.
As far as I know Ebookers are pay upfront but never used them for flights only hotel.

Delta this year was Buisiness class which was outstanding, highly recommend In economy they were pretty basic last time we flew with them no seat back TV and limited leg room but no problems with them got us there and back safetly.

 

[jmagla]

Hi Wayne, my dates are 12th Aug returning on 2nd Sep, three adults (one 17 year ols son) and a 7 year old. I dont like the possibilty of no seatback entertainment though!, is there anyway to find this out in advance? As I say the route is not my first choice and no seatback entertainment for the kids might be a deal breaker.

Cheers

 

[wayneg]

Definitely AirFrance planes. When you get the results for your search it gives you option to click "Show flight details and connection information" when expanded it tells you flights operated by AF.
I thought they would be via Paris.

 

[luke]

Thought they could well be Delta

Anyway when we flew MAN - JFK the plane was pretty good to be fair.
They had seatback TVs, touchscreen ones where you chose what you wanted to watch/play/listen to and when you wanted to, unlike Virgin where last time we flew them they were on a loop

 

[wayneg]

It says the transatlantic leg is a 747 so had a look at Seatguru, it says only 3 of the 13 747's in their fleet have personal TV's. No idea if you can find out more info, Obi is in Florida just now he seems to know his planes. Anyone else?

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Air_France/Air_France_Boeing_747-400.php

 

[jmagla]

My dates have now gone, sods law, too much deliberating, having said that I am not too fussed, will hold out for a flight from Man to Orlando, would still prefer Virgin, but their prices will have to drop!! Thanks for help.

 

[wayneg]

Something will turn up. I refused the AA deal into Miami for August from London. Too early to be taking anything thats not quite right. If it was only 2-3 month away I would look at other options but so far away I am holding out for something into MCO or TPA.

 

[jmagla]

Yes, I agree, it wasnt 100% right for us even though (certainly so far) the price was good. I will bide my time, as I said Man to Orlando or Tampa would be better for us, preferably direct.

 

[Bonnie151]

If you fly via CDG, make sure there's plenty time to get through security. I took my two children (7 & 4) to Boston over the October break and our layover was 90 minutes. 80 minutes later we were still nowhere near getting through security - I'd asked several times if we could scoot ahead because our flight connection was so tight to no avail. Finally at the 90 minute mark they let us go through the fast track - our flight was held for us but took off an hour late thanks to us! Horribly embarrassing boarding the plane knowing everyone was waiting for us!

Otherwise, Air France was very nice to fly with.

 

[disneyholic family]

i'm a bit late on this thread...

regarding air france - last time i flew them was last year (2008)....
in business class....the plane was behind the times - lousy seats, lousy entertainment system...
but that was in business.....the flight i was on was detroit to paris, i think...it's hard to remember, i've been on so many different flights with so many different airlines...but i do remember thinking air france was the worst of the bunch.....but again, that was in business - i didn't pay attention to whether there was entertainment or not when i went for a walk around the plane....i only walked around once......i actually got yelled at by a flight attendant when i walked through the area at the back of the plane....the flight attendants were just sitting there and yacking as i walked by but one of them actually yelled at me...i didn't do a thing to her....just quietly walked by....very slowly...gently...not loudly or boisterously....but it ticked her off and she yelled at me in none too refined french (in which i'm fluent).....i didn't respond, but went straight back to my seat.....

anyway...i haven't been back on air france since then....don't plan on ever returning...

as for NWA and Delta - they're both ok...though i'm not sure about the entertainment systems....the NWA planes (mostly airbus) do have seatback entertainment in econony....but i don't know about the delta planes...of course, delta owns NWA now, so i don't know if you can really tell which planes you're going to get or not...