Travelogue: Why AirFrance Sucks

A couple of months ago, we took a trip to Paris and Barcelona. We were very fotunate to be able to fund our airline tickets with frequent flier miles. The only change we had to make in our trip in order to do this was come back 1 day earlier than we had intended. All in all, not a bad deal. However, we also had to fly AirFrance. Our frequent flier miles were through Continental, and AirFrance is a partner of theirs. We flew in and out of Newark Airport here in the States and Charles de Gaulle Airport. Overall, our trip was terrific and I loved France, Spain and everything we did. However, the airline experience left a lot to be desired.
The first problem occurred when we arrived at Newark to check in to our flight 2 1/2 hours prior to take-off. Weeks before, we called AirFrance and had seats assigned to us so that we new we would be sitting together and my wife had a window seat (she loves the window seats). We were even given a confirmation number. However, when we arrived at the airport, my wife had a seat assigned, but I did not - I needed to get a seat at the gate. And my wife's seat was not the one we were given on the phone. I could not believe our seats were given away, and then they decided to give one of us an assigned seat and not the other, almost insuring that we would not sit together on the 6+ hour flight. The check in lady tried to tell us that it was because a travel agent gave us our seats and not an AirFrance Representative. However after supplying her with the confirmation number she changed her tune. We were told that seat reservations were actually only a "suggestion of a seat" on AirFrance and not an actual reservation. Therefore, we could do nothing at this point. We were told that if we really wanted to sit together we should have checked in earlier (earlier than 2 1/2 hours) and it was our fault we couldn't sit next to each other. Luckily the nice attendant at the gate worked it out and we enjoyed our trip across the Atlantic.
Our second seating issue occured on our flight from Paris to Barcelona. We knew we couldn't get assigned seats from the get-go on this one (when we bought the tickets in the US) so we made sure we got there extra early after the fiasco in Newark. Of course, there were no seats together when we got there. We were seated as close as possible. The rows were as follows (there's a diagram of this to the right): 3 seats on each side with a center isle running through. My wife was given the center seat on the left and I was given the isle seat on the right. We were told to see if someone would switch with us. That was fine, because I couldn't imagine the person on the left isle seat not being willing to switch with me. After we were all seated, we asked the girl across the isle from me if she would be willing to switch. She was so happy to switch because the two people next to me (middle and window seat on the right) were her friends and they were all flying together. When they checked in they were told there were no seats together, and this was the best they could do. They were told to ask someone to switch. Now... if we were both told there weren't seats together when we checked in there had to be some mistake somewhere. Because whoever checked in first should have been able to keep their whole group together, allowing the next group to stay together as well. I think AirFrance just likes to mess with you. They do it on purpose.

NP: Mr. Crowley, Ozzy Osbourne