I recently returned from a whirlwind trip of Europe, flying first to France and then visiting Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, from where we flew back to New York. In this post I will review my flight with Air France from New York-JFK to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG), after having previously already posted my review of the VIP ONE Lounge at JFK Terminal 1, which I primarily used to get through security, and then I also reviewed my pleasant stay at the Air France Lounge at JFK’s Terminal 1.

Specifically, I will be reviewing flight AF7 from New York-JFK to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) departing at 10:30PM and arriving at 10:50AM the next day.

Overall, despite the fact that this was a fairly short, transatlantic red eye flight (and that means ‘expres’ service to maximize passenger rest), this was a very enjoyable flight. The seats are noticeably old and will be replaced by Air France’s new business class product within the next year or so, but they are still comfortable and generally thoughtfully designed. The food was tasty and flavorful, and I especially liked the jovial, generous and helpful service by the cabin crew. I’d be very happy to fly Air France business class again!

1. How I booked this flight
2. Checking in
3. Boarding procedure
4. Air France’s ‘old’ business class seat is a little tired, but still comfortable
5. Air France business class amenities
6. Entertainment and Wifi on board Air France’s Boeing 777-300ER
7. Departure from New York-JFK
8. Air France transatlantic red eye dinner service is ‘semi-full’
9. Air France business class lavatories
10. Sleeping in Air France business class
11. Air France business class pre-landing meal
12. Arrival at Paris Charles de Gaulle
13. Service on this Air France flight
14. Summary

How I booked this flight

I booked my flight through Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue loyalty program for 50.000 points and about 204.74 Euros in taxes and fees. I got these points by transferring them from Capital One. A while ago I got the Capital One Venture, which came withy a 75.000 point welcome bonus after spending $4000 in 3 months. I directly transferred the 50.000 points to Flying Blue, which otherwise also partners with Chase, Citibank, American Express, Bilt and Wells Fargo, so you can basically transfer points to Flying Blue from any major US bank and associated rewards program.

Checking in

Although I discussed the checkin experience in my review of the VIP ONE Lounge, I’ll discuss it here as well. I arrived at JFK by Airtrain. When you get to Terminal 1 proper, the Air France check-in desk will seem a little hidden. You’ll need to turn right and walk all the way to the end until you see the Air France sign:

Then, loop around the desks and you’ll see the signs for checkin. Flying in Premium Economy or Business Class will grant you access to the SkyPriority line. Note that first class (La Premiere) has it’s own special line just around the corner.

Check-in was smooth thanks to the expertise and efficiency of the check-in agent, who took my passport, confirmed my final destination and arranged for the checked luggage to go to my final destination, Lyon. Throughout, she was pleasant and made friendly small talk before sending me on my way, explaining how to get to TSA PreCheck (though I’d be using the VIP ONE Lounge to get through security) and then how to get to the Air France Lounge.

As I had explained in its own review, the VIP ONE Lounge must be the easiest and quickest way to get through security, at least at JFK’s Terminal 1. Afterwards I went to the Air France Lounge, which I reviewed previously. This was a pleasant experience, with a simple yet elegant design, great food and a good drink selection. I especially liked the desserts and wine options, and concluded my stay at the lounge with the an appointment for a facial at the Clarins spa, which was wonderfully refreshing

Boarding procedure

Following the Clarins facial, I was feeling slightly dazed from the head massage, but still refreshed and ready for the flight ahead. While my paper boarding pass listed a 9:45pm boarding time, I walked over to the gate at around 9:30pm, since the electronic boarding pass listed a 9:30pm boarding time. Intriguingly, when I got to the gate boarding was already well underway, with boarding ongoiung for Group 2 passengers – those in Premium Economy. I was in Group 1, which includes business class passengers and Flying Blue and SkyTeam elites.

Before processing to the Group 1 line, I did go over to the windows to snap a quick picture of the plane that would fly me to Paris tonight. Despite the reflections, outside the Boeing 777-300ER named ‘Papeete’ was silently waiting for me (and everybody else too, I suppose).

I hurried to the Group 1 line where an attendant immediately motioned for the Group 2 line to hold as she motioned me forward. There was a quick face scan at an electronic ID check gate, which was pretty cool. I’ve seen these gates over at JFK’s Terminal 4 as well, but rarely see them being used, so it’s cool to finally having seen how they work.

There was a bit of line in the jetway but when I finally made it onboard, I was invited to turn left into the forward business class cabin by one of the rather jovial flight attendants, who gave me a very warm and friendly welcome onboard. First impression of the cabin was that it was a little old-looking, but nevertheless looked comfortable.

I do apologize for the yellow tint on some photos. That’s mostly my phone’s cameras’s fault…

Air France’s ‘old’ business class seat is a little tired, but still comfortable

I had selected for myself seat 3A, the forward-most window seat on the left, right behind La Premiere:

As you can see, Air France has a reverse herringbone seat on its Boeing 777-300ER. The seat reclines into a flat bed, and has much of what you’d expect these days of a reverse herringbone business class seat. Given that it’s an older seat, it doesn’t have some of the more modern bells and whistles. I previously posted to the Points to Seats Instagram account with a short video, which gives a quick overview of the seat’s features and spatial ‘feel’:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Points to Seats (@pointstoseats)

Now, let’s get into it in a bit more detail. When I got to my seat, a number of items were waiting for me, including a pillow, a blanket, a pair of slippers, and a coast hanger. I like that this was provided up front, and gave the opportunity to hang my coat and then hand it off to the flight attendant, who stowed it in a wardrobe, right around the corner from my seat. Then, sitting down, I was struck by how spacious the foot well actually is. There is an ottoman with some space below it that’s more than big enough to store your shoes.

You probably noticed immediately that the screen is at somewhat of an awkward angle, and is kind of small. There’s a button to the lower right that unlatches the screen, allowing it to pop out and face you directly. The fact that the screen is a little small then becomes les of an issue, because it’s closer to your face. In fact, at this size, I think that if the screen were mounted in place and had been a little bit further away, as is standard on modern reverse herringbone seats (see my review of KLM’s business class, for example), it may have been difficult to see the details on this screen.

To the left of the seat is a console with a shelf, a storage compartment with a door, a wired controller with a small touchscreen, and the seat controls.

The storage compartment opens with a gentle push to unlatch the door. The compartment itself is quite large and should be more than big enough to hold all your personal items. There’s also a small mirror, and inside you’ll find the noise canceling headphones. I quite liked the bright red interior, one of Air France’s signature colors.

One thing that was nice was that there is a plug for the headphones inside the compartment. I thought this was quite an elegant solution for where to place the headphone jack, and I found that you can still close the door of the compartment despite the cable coming out. Then, the remote control is a pretty standard device. It’s ncie that while it was in its socket there were instructions on how to use it, but honestly most people will probably intuitively know what all the buttons do.

The seta controls are probably some of the most barebones I have seen, with just four buttons: one for the overhead lighting, one to put the seat into the upright position, one to put it the seat into full flat position, and one to move it forward or backward. Do note that holding upright or flat keys will take the seat through its cycle, so you can of course hold these buttons until you get to the position you want and just leave it there. But you can’t move various parts of the seat independently.

Besides the overhead light, there is also a small (but very bright) reading light just next to the seat. You can turn it on by pressing into the lower right part of it. It’s a fun design, because when you press it to turn it on, it also changes its angle to shine into your lap (as it should), rather than at your face.

There’s an additional storage compartment under the console and shelf. I was struck by just how large this space is. Upon boarding, the space mostly just held a bottle of water, but I thought this was an ideal place to store a laptop. Just don’t forget it when you disembark… Also here are a USB-A plug and a universal power outlet.

That said, that particularly compartment doesn’t look like it was made with laptops in mind, or anything like that. it seems like it’s more of a literature compartment, but I suppose you can put anything there that you want.

Finally, Air France does not have overhead air nozzles, so you’re kind of at the mercy of the cabin crew and the temperature settings they use for the cabin.

That about sums up the features of Air France’s older business class seat. As you can see, it’s looking a little tired, and it lacks some of the newer bells and whistles of modern seats, such as more extensive device charging solutions, bluetooth audio, a larger HD screen and doors. But, overall, I think it’s still a solid seat that’s really quite comfortable, and I definitely like how much storage there is.

Air France business class amenities

As I had mentioned earlier, a couple things were waiting at my seat as I got there. I already mentioned the hanger, which I used to hang up my coat and then gave that to the flight attendant to stow away in the wardrobe around the corner of my seat. Besdies that, there was. pair of slippers, which were a little bit thin and flimsy but I quite liked that there were slippers to begin with – I didn’t actually expect any. There were also a blanket and a pillow.

A blanket was similar to the one provided on KLM (not surprising, given it’s the same company), and was quite soft and pleasant. The pillow was thick and soft as well, but I found it a little bit on the small side.

Then, as I sat down and started looking around at the features of my seat, a flight attendant passed by and handed me the amenity kit. I have to say, I loved the design of the pouch, which I thought was very stylish and elegant. It also has Air France’s winged seahorse logo, which is nice – I like it when these items are branded to the airline. The contents of the kit was pretty good as well. It included some standard items, including a pen, a toothbrush and toothpaste, socks, an eye mask and ear plugs. On the more premium side of things, there were also some Clarins products…

…which, as you can see below, included Clarin’s ‘Beauty Flash Balm’, which is a facial moisturizer, as well as the ‘Hand and Nail Treatment Cream’, which is a hand moisturizing cream. I like that Air France extends the collaboration from the spa’s at the lounge to the amenity kits on board the aircraft.

Further, there is a pair of a noise canceling headphones waiting for you at the seat as well, in the storage compartment just left of the seat. These headphones were pretty good and did the trick for me. But if you’re sensitive to audio quality, perhaps you’d be better off bringing your own headphones.

Overall, the amenities you are provided with on Air France are all pretty standard. I don’t think there was anything that was particularly unexpected or new, compared to other carriers. That said, I did not expect slipper, so that was nice. While the slippers were admittedly a little flimsy and were a little small for my feet, all other amenities were pretty good and I particularly liked the amenity kit, which I thought had a stylish design and some nice Clarins beauty products.

Entertainment and Wifi on board Air France’s Boeing 777-300ER

While waiting for departure, I checked out the entertainment system. I had already highlighted that you need to press a button to the lower right of the monitor to pop it out, so you can view it at a right angle. it also brings the monitor closer to you, so that the relatively small size (compared to more modern seat products) is not as bad, and I had no trouble reading the menus and such. The monitor is a touch screen, so you don’t really need the controller, but even so, you can use it if that’s what you prefer. If you were to put the seta in a lounge mode, the recline would take you a little bit far from the screen, making the controller potentially a more convenient way to control the system. As such, I liked that the first thing you see when you use the controller is a guide on what the buttons do.

The home screen has a bunch of panels that are buttons that will bring you to the described category in the entertainment system. The interface looks nice, is modern, and easy to use, and the system, despite its age, was responsive.

Note that these panels are not the only buttons, as you can swipe and reveal more buttons. Though, I was a little but puzzled by the content that was chosen to display up top, since they generally don’t reflect what I would think most passengers would find interesting or helpful. WiFi and Moving map tend to be favorites, but I have a hard time imaging that passengers are looking for content on Wellness (it’s only a 6-hour flight), the Air France Channel, or the Destination Guide. Looking around the plane, it seems to me people go straight to movies or to the moving map.

If you tap the gear icon on the upper right, you get to a bunch of controls, including for the overhead light, to call the crew, volume and brightness controls, parental controls, language and accessibility settings.

Then if you click the ‘hamburger’ icon on the upper left, you get into the content menu of the system, allowing you to navigate between various categories. You’ll see all the standard categories, including a good selection of movies, TV, music, as well as more niche categories. I thought the content selection was good, but not amazing. That said, you should find yourself plenty entertained for the duration of the flight. And as a sidenote, you’ll notice the buttons on the home screen here are different, reflecting that you can swipe and reveal further content beyond what I depicted at first. These further buttons reflect new or popular content, including movies and TV shows.

It’s useful that there is a dedicated page to explain how you connect to the WiFi. See below. briefly, you connect to the inflight WiFi network, and if you don’t automatically get into the conneciton portal, you can scan the QR code to do so. From here, you select aWiFi pass, and you cna connect.

I have previously reviewed the passes available, since they are the same as on KLM. There are three of them, namely a free Messaging pass, a ~20 Euro surfing pass, and a ~38 Euro messaging pass. The former can be bought for the whole flight or for an hour, while the latter has the bought for the whole flight. The messaging pass, the only free option, won’t really let you do much besides message people on the plane or elsewhere. I find this pricing quite steep, and find that for the short duration of the flight, there isn’t much point to spending this money.

As a sidenote, but important to mention: I was never able to connect to the Wifi network on the plane, for reasons I’m not so sure. So, I wasn’t actually able to connect and check out how fast the system is. So, on the WiFi front, this flight was a bit of a bummer, but I enjoyed the movie I watched and thought the selectin was good, the system easy to use and responsive, and despite the smaller screen size, that didn’t actually bother me much.

Departure from New York-JFK

As we were getting ready to depart, the cabin crew came by with various items. At firsty they came to distribute the amenity kit, which I detailed before, and then they came to hand out welcome drinks, and a little later the menus. I’ll be honest: the welcome drink took me by surprise because they only had jucie or water and no champagne. I was sure that, of all airlines, surely Air France woulkd sure Champagne as a welcome drink? But that didn’t seem to be the case on this flight.

Now, I have a theory as to why there was no champagne welcome drink: I heard this before in reviews of Emirates business and first class, and in those reviews the reason was that Emirates needs to pay levies for pouring alcohol ‘while on US soil’, while, after takeoff, that is no longer the case. So, this is probably just a cost-cutting measure with little impact that Air France also partakes in. If that is true, I would guess that departing in France you will get a champagne welcome drink…

Also, the juice was delicious, by the way. It was kind of like a mocktail.

They also handed out the menus, which was nice to leaf through while sipping the welcome drink. However, I’ll get back to that when I go over the dinner service.

As I was getting settled, the cabin crew revealed itself to me as being particularly delightful. Since they were handing things out, I was approached by various flight attendants and two in particular seemed borderline excited to serve us on the flight. I’ve rarely seen such a happy crew, so kudos to them because it worked wonders to lift the mood of the passengers on board. One probably saw me tkaing pictures, so she actively approached me to ask if I wanted her to take some pictures of me, which of course I said yes to:

She mentioned that she’d be happy to take pictures during the meal, joking how it would look especially nice if I was sipping some champagne in the picture as well! Unfortunately, as I’m writing this I realize I completely forgot to ask her for a picture, but so be it…

flight attendants also came by to take orders for dinner from those that hadn’t pre-ordered. I personally wasn’t approached, which I thought was odd. They could have confirmed with me my order ahead of dinner service, but it seems this was not part of the service flow.

A little later we were all set to go and we actually pushed back 5 minutes ahead of schedule into the cold dark night at New York-JFK. It was cloudy and a little bit rainy.

As we started our taxi to the runway, the safety brief was screened, which took was essentially a parade of French culture, with all of what it’s known for and its stereotypes, featuring some very handsome cabin crew…

I managed to snap this picture of the Manhattan skyline for away, prominently featuring the Empire State Building and severla of the other midtown Manhattan skyscrapers. A fitting farewell until my return two weeks later.

Soon after we entered the runway and were cleared for takeoff, and we sped off into the night with lovely views of the Long Island coastline.

Air France transatlantic red eye dinner service is ‘semi-full’

About 10 minutes after takeoff the cabin crew sprung into action. They clsoed the curtains and started drinks service, ahead of dinner. They were quite efficient and probably came by about 20-30 minutes after takeoff with the drink cart. I ordered a glass of champagne, which was very pleasant, and this came with a box of cheese snacks. I’d normally not eat something cheesy like that, but felt that I should try it, given the occasion. Suffice it to say that it wasn’t really my thing, though I enjoyed the crispy dough that the cheese was wrapped in.

Now, I was quite curious what dinner would be like. If you remember, I was a little disappointed that at KLM, the entire meal came on a single tray, whereas with Scandinavian Airlines they offered the full three-course meal. Though, that may have been the effect of leaving at 5:30pm (SAS) rather than 9pm (KLM). Now, this Air France flight departed at 10:30pm, so even later than my prior KLM flight. So, what was dinner going to be like?

To my delight, on this flight Air France served a ‘semi’ three course meal. That is, for those that want to go to bed quickly, there is an express option that contains an appetizer, side salad and dessert, for a light meal. And then, for those that want a more extensive dinner, the empty appetizer plate is swapped out for the main course. This way, those that want a light dinner can have that, while those that don’t can get a more extensive experience. Does this equate to a full three course meal? No, I don’t think so – but it beats the ‘all at once’ approach at KLM.

In terms of the menu, I posted the two-page food menu below. However, you can pre-order your dinner online, through the website or the app, before departure. So, that’s what I did. There were a few additional options that were exclusive to the pre-order list. However, I had the boeuf bourguignon, which is also the first item on the dinner menu. Other options included chicken, trout and ravioli, so the menu does cater to a variety of preferences, with additional ones that you can order online or in the app.

And then below you can find the drinks menu. For Champagne, Air France is pouring Brut Reserve Telmont, which is retailing generally for about $45, and I thought it was a very nice Champagne. Then, there are two whites and two reds. I actually thought Air France would have a wider selection, though I had the Riesling and thought it was delicious. Further there are some beers, liquors, aperitifs and cold and hor drinks. Overall, my take on the drinks menu was that it’s not all that extensive but does seem to be good quality overall.

So, when the dinner service began I of course went for the full meal. And so, as I mentioned, what came first was a tray with the appetizer (burrata and fig), side salad and a raspberry cheesecake for dessert, plus some warm buns. I took this with a glass of Riesling and a glass of water. Riesling is already on the sweet side and therefor perhaps easier to drink than some other whites, but I thought this was a quality Riesling and I much enjoyed it. Again, I’m not much of a cheese person, so the burrata, again, wasn’t quite my thing. I still had it, and it wasn’t bad. The accompanying tomato salad and the side salad were all nice as well, with fresh ingredients.

Normally I’d have waited for the main dish to arrive before starting the dessert, but I was curious and tooka. bite and while, yet again, I’m not much of a cheesecake perosn, the raspberry on top was delicious. It was hard not to eat it so I had the dessert before the main dish… So be it.

When the main dish did arrive, Iw as presented with the below boeuf bourguignon. The plating was nice, and the dish delicious. The beef was tender and rich in taste, with the vegetables still surprisingly fresh in taste. I also very much enjoyed the sweet potato puree, which was delightful and smooth in texture.

Following the main dish, the entire tray was cleared, as was the white table cloth, and then I was offered a drink to conclude the meal. I chose a cup of tea, though coffee and various liquors were also an option.

With that, dinner service concluded. I aprpeciate that Air France gives you a bit of a choice by providing an ‘express’ dinner service without the main dish, or more of the full experience. The main dish was delicious and I really enjoyed the dessert and the various wines and Champagne. However, this meal did highlight a drawback for me personally: a heavy reliance on cheese in many dishes, which doesn’t suit my dietary needs very well. I do wish that there at least would have been a choice for the appetizer, to provide something that’s not ‘just’ cheese. if you like cheese, however, I’m sure you’ll love every part of the dinner service on Air France!

Air France business class lavatories

With the mela having come to ane end it was time to get some rest, but before doing so, I wanted to quickly visit the lavatory. I was curious what Air France may provide in terms of amenities. To my surprise, the lavatory was quite bland and empty. It’s your standard Boeing lavatory, not particularly big or anything, and I was surprised to see that around the sink there was nothing in terms of special amenities. On the back wall however, there was a little shelf with Clarins products, nicely presented on a white towel, with some cotton pads hanging to the right of it. The Clarins products included a facial moisturizer and a face mist, which was refreshing and a welcome amenity, but other than that there wasn’t much in terms of special amenities.

Sleeping in Air France business class

When I got back to my seat I fully reclined it and made up the seat for sleeping. Overall, the seat provides a fairly comfortable sleeping surface. I actually thought this made for a surprisingly spacious bed, definitely more so than I was expecting. This is in part because the console to the side doesn’t extend all the way, and the monitor pops out from the side, providing for some empty space of to the far left.

Unfortunately, as turns out to be common for me, I don’t actually sleep all that well on planes, doesn’t matter if I’m seated upright of lying flat. The best sleep I had was on the way back from Tokyo, when it occurred to me to ask for a mattress. That soft sleeping surface made a huge difference, even with th cabin being a little warm. Be that as it may, I thought the seat was perfectly comfy to sit on, but maybe a little too hard fro me to sleep well. Fortunately, it does turn out that somewhat soon Air France will partner with Sofitel to provide mattress pads on all long haul flights! That’s a major and exciting enhancement to onboard amenities, so whenever that rolls out I’ll make sure to fly this product again to see how sleeping is enhanced onboard Air France. All that said, I did fall asleep briefly, and woke up with 1:22 minutes still remaining until Paris.

Air France business class pre-landing meal

I woke up pretty much when the pre-landing meal was being served. The friendly flight attendant that was working my section appeared with a cart, and asked whjether I wanted just the continental breakfast or also the omelet. Now, omeletes do tend to have cheese on it, so I asked whether that was the case, but as is so often the case, unfortunately she didn’t know. She did do her utmost best to find out, asking her colleagues and trying to figure out the ingredients, but ultimately she conceded that she couldn’t be entiely sure. So, I took it simply, and I’d try. I also ordered a cup of tea and some orange juice, and from the bread basket I was able to get a warm brioche and a croissant. Though the flight attendant did joke that I’d be able to get better croissants in Paris, hah!

As it turned out, the omelet didn’t have cheese. Instead, it was a “Californian” omelet with avocado, mushroom, spinach, tomato and mushroom, and actually was quite delicious. I also enjoyed the fruit, brioche, and despite what the flight attendant said, the croissant was quite nice as well. I was also completely full, so this breakfast was honestly quite difficult to finish, and so I didn’t have the cornflakes. All in all, this was a nice breakfast.

Arrival at Paris Charles de Gaulle

After berakfast was cleared, we were only about 45 minutes out. Unfortunately there were nothing bot clouds at the window, so even though Air France has cameras mounted that you can watch from the entertainment screen (one down and one forward), there wasn’t much to see actually. But, this was a nice setup: using the controller to watch the map and the cameras to watch the outside world.

By this time it was also announced that transfer information would be available through the relevant section of the entertainment system. This was useful to me since I’d be transferring to a flight from Paris to Lyon, after a several-hour layover. However, the list of transfers did seem complete, with only a flight to Abuja listed?

Also useful was a map of CDG airport. Oddly this was presented as a short, 5-minute movie and wasn’t interactive. Still, given the complicated terminal setup, it was good to be able to look in advance to figure out where I was supposed to go.

Fortunately, as we got closer to Paris, the clouds disappeared almost entirely, providing lovely views of the French countryside,. and increasingly industrial terrain surrounding the airport, at lower and lower altitudes…

This was where watching the map with the forward camera was fun, as I was able to get a front views as we were closing in on the runway:

Finally we touched down and came to a rather quick stop following a hard braking maneuver. We exited the runway and taxied at quite high speed to the gate, despite the fact that we were 20 minutes ahead of schedule. As we taxied past terminal 1, we also passed Air France’s Concord, displayed on the CDG airport terrain. A truly remarkable plane!

Finally we arrived at the gate, over at concourse L, Terminal 2E. From here, after exiting and walked towards Terminal 2F, from where I’d be flying out to Lyon, I was able to snap a last shot of the Boeing 777-300ER that carrier me to Paris. From here, it was a… medium-length walk to customs, which was surprisingly quick as there was no line. I suppose this is an overlooked feature of flying business class: first off the plane means first at customs!

Service on this Air France flight

Before concluding this review I want to make special mention of the service on board this flight. I had flown Air France only once before, in economy all the way back in 2013, when Air France still had A380s flying for them! Now, overall I remember that flight as not super memorable, except for that fact that I was on the upper deck, where the seating arrangement was 2-3-2 (I think) and I had the two seats at the window to myself. I rarely had such a lovely experience in economy, though I thought the service was… allright. In that sense I’d rather have flown KLM, truth be told.

But, this business class flight gave me a totally different idea of service quality on board Air France. The flight attendants, a woman and a guy whose both names I don’t remember, were absolutely terrific. From the moment I got onto the plane they were good-natured, funny, helpful, and in a surprisingly good mood. Above all, they were eager to provide a good experience in a genuine, personable way like I’ve not so often seen. The service they provided, therefor, was really lovely and personal. Now, from my interactions with the rest of the crew, I figured that not all of the cabin crew was quite so well-tempered, but still, even those that were less ‘excited’, were perfectly nice.

I really enjoyed the cabin crew’s service and certainly hope that on future flights on Air France I’ll be able to get more of such wonderful service!

Summary

This flight was a very nice flight that I much enjoyed. The cabin crew was terrifically friendly and helpful, and provided wonderful service. The dinner was very nice – I much enjoyed the boeuf bourguignon, and the wines were good too (as you should expect from a French airline). I also liked that Air France offers the choice between an ‘express’ dinner service or a more normal service for those that want it, rather than providing everything on a single tray.

Clearly, the seat is aging, but I would say that in the face of newer and better products, both at competitors and at Air France itself, this older seat is still comfortable, well thought-out and I’d be happy to fly it again. The main thing that may bug you is the smaller size of the screen, though because it pops out, it’s actually close enough to your face that the smaller size probably won’t be an issue.

Unfortunately, these redeye transatlantic flights are too short to really experience business class in all its glory, with a shorter dinner service, a quick nap, and then breakfast. So, if you can only fly one leg in business, I’d definitely suggest flying from Paris back to the US.