Air France or Lufthansa

[rollermonkey]

Anybody been on both and have opinions?

Any horror stories on either?

 

Thanks!

[Louise]

I've never flown Air France, but I have heard good things about it fairly recently. I have had the, umm, interesting experience flying with Lufthansa, albeit only once.

 

Around 2001 our BA flight was cancelled coming home from the US, and somehow we ended up on a Lufthansa plane. The staff were all smiles, but as soon as you asked for something or even hinted that you might not be slightly happy with something (eg my mum asking for a blanket because she was cold), it suddenly seemed like we were a major inconvenience to them, the smile was still there, but they didn't bother to hide the fact that it was forced, and the tone of voice and manner changed. On top of this, as I've already mentioned, the plane was FREEZING, everybody around us was asking for extra blankets and hot drinks, which the attendants were pretty unsympathetic too. I'm not sure whether the temperature of the cabin is something they can change, but they could have at least addressed the issue rather than tutting at us and being bad-tempered about the complaints. The food was poor, the seats uncomfortable, and complaints department rude and unhelpful. We're not really the type to make official complaints, so the fact that we did so as soon as we arrived home says quite a lot.

 

HOWEVER... This was one experience, four years ago, and funnily enough, I seem to remember somebody speaking very highly of Lufthansa quite recently (maybe on the UK board?). So, maybe we just caught them on an extremely poor day, or maybe they've changed in the years since. But that was my experience. You asked.

[Hattuchili]

I have flown with both a few times! But I prefer Lufthansa! I like the service at Lufthansa! IMO it is a bit better as the Air France service! I had never prolems with Lufthansa, everything is clean and the staff was very nice every time! At Air France I had 2 times a problem! One time my table was broken and everything was so dirty! The next time I asked a few times for something to drink but the women ignored me all the time!

 

--Sören

[Louise]

^ LOL!

 

Chris, I have a feeling this is how this thread is going to continue. I've almost given up on finding any airline other than Virgin Atlantic that I don't know somebody who will praise it to high heavens and another person who will curse it to all hell.

 

My advice: Go for whichever is least expensive and then cross everything.

[the sound]

if qantas is a choice, fly them, they are awesome!

[rollermonkey]

^I'm looking at flights from Japan to Europe. I'd rather not fly through Sydney!

[the sound]

fair enough

 

don't fly BA!!!

[Hattuchili]

I know there is a site, where you find some infos about each airline, but I forgot the name of it!

 

--Sören

[captain]

Hi Chris,

 

it`s always very hard to find the airline that fit your personal interests.

It depends if you like seat comfort, entertainment, food, nice service and so on.

Personally I´m flying really often and I had a lot of bad experiences with air france (very unfriendly, big delays).

Lufthansa is our german no. 1 carrier with good trained stuff and clean airplanes BUT no real good entertainment onboard and very expensive. I really like personal video screens.

In germany we`ve a big magazin for travellers called REISE-PREISE.

Every year they`re asking their customers with lot of travel experience to vote the best airlines.

 

This is the actual list, category: Overall Rating:

Rang Airline (Fernstrecke Economy) Note

1 Singapore Airlines 1,35

2 Malaysia Airlines 1,52

3 Emirates 1,53

4 Sri Lankan Airlines 1,55

5 Thai Airways 1,82

Cathay Pacific 1,82

6 Air New Zealand 1,86

7 China Airlines 1,87

South African Airways 1,87

8 Lauda Air 1,92

Qantas 1,92

9 SAS 2,08

10 Austrian Airlines 2,11

11 Air Seychelles 2,16

12 British Airways 2,18

13 Qatar Airways 2,19

Air Mauritius 2,19

14 United Airlines 2,20

15 Swiss 2,22

16 Royal Brunei Airlines 2,25

17 Finnair 2,27

18 KLM 2,29

19 Deutsche Lufthansa 2,41

20 American Airlines 2,42

21 Air Canada 2,49

22 LTU 2,51

Gulf Air 2,51

23 Condor 2,54

24 Martinair 2,56

25 Air China 2,59

26 Varig 2,63

27 Turkish Airlines 2,66

28 Air France 2,68

Delta Air Lines 2,68

29 Alitalia 2,71

30 Egypt Air 2,79

31 US Airways 2,89

32 TAP Air 3,15

33 Iberia 3,19

 

There are 8 more categories, but I think overall ranking is the most interesting.

 

For all german speaking people, this is the direct link:

http://www.reise-preise.de/airline-test/index3.html

 

By the way normally I try to fly with Emirates (best price with most comfort) but in April I`m flying with BA to Japan (good entertainment, good prices but seating is really bad and sometimes not the nicest stuff).

 

Greetinx

 

Andy

[Splash_Mountain]

www.carsurvey.org/air

 

In my personal opinon... Lufthansa.

[coasters 4 me]

fair enough

 

don't fly BA!!!

 

I love BA. Our flight to Orlando and back was brilliant in the summer, and also 2 Christmas's ago. They are very polite, great range of films, you get your own screen, as much drink as you want and comfortable. We flew in a 777. Although, I have to say that in the summer coming home from Orlando, getting into Gatwick and then getting our flight home to Dublin was some ride. The flight from Gatwick to Dublin was terrible. The plane was very shaky and it wasnt flying level, it was flying at an angle and the Air Hostess's were having trouble pulling the trolleys etc, up the plane. And it was really freaky, some people were really sick. I know it doesnt sound much when you have it written down on the internet put in real life, it is a different.

 

Although, apart from that flight, we have had no problems with them, they are great.

 

Although, I would really like to fly with Virgin to see what they are like.