A few odd things

I flew back Friday evening to Hong Kong, from BOD, and during the CDG-HKG flight, there were a couple of oddities.

1. Announcements for the Chinese passengers were in Mandarin. No Cantonese. Big fat help.
2. The Chinese interpreter did not speak a single word of Cantonese — very useful on a plane full of Hongkongers.
3. The video to “help our arrival at Hong Kong International Airport” showed scenes from an anonymous, one-size-fits-all, airport (based on CDG). Big Fat Help.
4. The “Immigration & Customs” video was for Mainland China. The forms to fill out shown on the video were for Mainland China. Big Fat Help™…
5. The interpreter ended all her announcements (or rather her rendition in Chinese of other people’s) with “感谢(您的合作)”. 感谢 ganxie. Not 谢谢 xiexie.

Something that wasn’t odd on this flight — like all other Air France flights I’ve been on — is the rudeness of the staff and the dismal service. Lowering your expectations after flying with “normal” airlines like Cathay or Dragon Air is tough…