[MRK66]

I have about 180,000 flying blue miles which were scheduled to expire in June 2011. In December 2010 I decided to take a trip to the UK from the US. I took a US airways flight from Philadelphia to Paris and then to avoid loosing my miles I decided to take an Air France flight from Paris to Birmingham - big mistake.
First of all I got stuck at CDG airport in a snow storm - some people had been their five days. The Air France ground staff were rude and unhelpful, there were often 8 hour queues for information with only one person serving. After about 12 hours we eventually got out of Paris on an Air France flight to Birmingham - we were the lucky ones.
Secondly, when we arrived in Birmingham both my baggage and my girlfriends baggage were lost. The day before we returned (10 days later) my baggage finally turned up - only after many unanswered phone calls to the baggage help lines and a visit to the Air France counter at Birmingham airport.
My girlfriends baggage eventually showed up in the UK after a couple of months and we had to Fedex it back. Air France did eventually compensate us fairly for the lost baggage.

Finally, when I got back, Air France did not credit the milage to my account, despite my frequent flier number being on the boarding pass. I tried to correct this by contacting them. They told me they could only do it if I sent the boarding pass to Flying Blue in France. I did this to no effect. The miles were not credited and as a result I then lost my 180,000 miles. When I phoned them in the US, they said they had not received the boarding pass and could do nothing about it and told me to phone Flying Blue in France.
I offered to give them the eticket number, seat number and copy of the correspondence with Air France over the settled baggage dispute for the flight, but they were not interested.
At this stage I do not have the miles for the flight and have still not had the 180,000 miles added back to my account. My plan was to use the miles this summer for a European vacation - it does not look like that will be happening.

Between the chaotic and rude Air France ground staff at CDG, their terrible baggage handling and the unbelievable frequent flier rewards program, I don't plan on using Air France again if at all possible.