Most airlines that claim to offer the best service in the world offer a limousine transfer service in Business and First class from the client’s home or place of stay to the airport.

As our article on Turkish Airlines shows, this trend is evolving, especially with the democratization of chauffeur-driven car services around the world.

A service reserved for a very small number of ports of call

So why doesn’t Air France, which, according to its former CEO Alexandre de Juniac, intends to position itself “at the best level worldwide”, offer it?

Well, actually, it does… But only from certain ports of call, especially the Spanish ones!

All Air France tickets purchased on airfrance.es for flights in Business or First class departing from Madrid or Barcelona include a free transfer service from the point of departure to the airport of these two cities

Theairline’s website even states that Elite Pluspassengers (Gold, Platinum, Ultimate) can benefit from this service, without specifying their booking class, but I still doubt that any booking including Economy class for short trips is eligible for this service.

What about the rest?

For the rest… Well, nothing at all, at least not for free.

Air France has some partnerships through Driving Blue, which allows you to earn miles on journeys booked via the platform.

A partnership with Sixt exists for the La Première offer, which makes it possible to reserve a car from Paris, at a prohibitive rate of course (nearly €120 per transfer) with vehicles comparable to those used for transfers to and from the eponymous lounge.

This industry standard, set up by the Gulf companies in particular, makes a lot of sense. If, in our western countries, cab and Uber-like services are comfortable and reliable, this is not the case in all ports of call and the “last mile” service is often the most useful for the traveler… There is nothing more annoying than having flown 12 hours in great comfort and having to wait for a cab or pay Uber surcharges.

One more pettiness…

Is it so complicated and expensive to implement? According to our calculations, this is a cost of approximately 120 to 150 € per round tripto be included in the fare base of the ticket. They just have to do it, and above all to provide the logistics around it.

In Western cities, it seems easy to join one of the existing drivers and Taxi companies: Uber, G7, LeCab, Chauffeur Privé for example in Paris, Lyft or Uber in New York, Cabify or Hailo in Spain.

If inclusion in the fare base is complicated, then synchronization of services is always possible through digital tools, such as the associated booking of the driver on departure and arrival when booking on the website or at the time of OLCI. And of course, this impliesthe synchronous cancellation of services in case of IRROP for a seamless journey: this is what today’s Frequent Flyer expects, who is tired of spending his time juggling bookings.

Conclusion

In France, “we don’t have oil, but we have ideas” said Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. So let’s extract that brain juice to make something innovative and above all, that brings real value to the traveler. And this is where the innovations of the last few years have failed…