I saw this comment on another question of mine somewhere else. It claims that "aller + infinitive" is used more than conjugated future forms. For example, je vais avoir vs. j'aurai (I am going to have vs I will have).
What is the current usage of these two forms? Does it vary by geological positions or cultural areas?
It is so much akin to conjugation that the French grammatical establishment nowadays calls that construction a tense, the futur proche.
There is no problem in using it : it's standard French and it dates of old; the current usage, the same as it ever was, corresponds to that of the English verbal form in the progressive "to be going to" followed by an infinive.
Example
Ils vont faire les choses comme il faut dorénavant.
From now on they are going to do things right.
the French hadn't so far realised they really had to contend with a new tense ; it's most probably their recent studies of English grammar that woke them up to this new way of thinking!
It must be said, however, that not everyone is agreed upon considering this form as constituting a real tense.
