Review: Air France HOP Business Class Embraer E190 (CDG-FRA)

For the next segment of my trip to Japan via Mongolia, I flew Air France HOP’s Embraer E190 business class on the one-hour flight from Paris to Frankfurt (after getting off my Air France A350 business class flight from New York to Paris). HOP is Air France’s regional subsidiary, operating a fleet of Embraer jets on short haul routes.

Intra-Europe business class isn’t much to get excited about, and in terms of seating, Europe is probably the weakest region in the world when it comes to the quality of short haul business class. So I had mixed feelings about the Air France HOP experience — while the food was tasty and service was friendly, there weren’t even blocked seats in business class.

How I booked my Air France HOP business class ticket

I booked my Air France HOP business class ticket using Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles. Specifically, I booked the following award in business class for 50,000 Flying Blue miles plus $226.70 in taxes and fees:

1/25 AF9 New York to Paris departing 11:30PM arriving 12:40PM (+1 day)
1/26 AF1318 Paris to Frankfurt departing 3:25PM arriving 4:45PM

Flying Blue miles are are easy to come by, as the program is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. On top of that, Flying Blue often sells miles at a discount.

Air France HOP business class lounge & boarding

I had a nearly three hour transit at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. My flight from New York arrived at Terminal 2E, while my flight to Frankfurt departed from Terminal 2G. As much as people complain about Charles de Gaulle, I actually found the terminal transfer process to be quite efficient. It required taking a bus, and I made the whole transfer within about 20 minutes.

Terminal 2G is easily the least impressive terminal at the airport, given that it’s exclusively used by Air France for regional flights. However, the terminal was better than I was expecting. For one, I’m happy that Air France has a terminal for regional flights, since it means you can board directly from a gate, rather than having to go from a remote stand (like at most hubs in Europe).

Furthermore, the Air France Lounge Terminal 2G is quite nice, with plenty of seating, and a good selection of food and drinks (I won’t be fully reviewing it this time around).

The terminal area with gates is super funky, especially with the lighting. My flight was departing from gate G24. There’s an elevated walkway, and then the gates are down a level, though there’s virtually no seating there, so they get very crowded.

My flight was scheduled to board at 2:55PM, 30 minutes before departure. In reality, boarding started at 3PM, with business class passengers being invited to board first.

It was nice not to have to get on a bus, but rather to be able to walk onto the apron and up a set of stairs to board the aircraft. My flight was operated by a 16-year-old Air France HOP Embraer E190 with the registration code F-HBLE.

While totally random, I should mention that Air France’s regional subsidiary is in the process of being rebranded somewhat. The airline used to be known as “Air France HOP!” but is now just known as “Air France HOP,” so the exclamation point has been dropped. As you can tell, not all aircraft have been repainted yet to reflect that.

Air France HOP E190 business class cabin & seats

Air France HOP Embraer E190s feature 100 seats, spread across 25 rows in a 2-2 configuration. As is standard on European airlines, there aren’t any “proper” business class seats, but rather there’s just some extra legroom in the first several rows of the cabin. As you can probably tell, business class has red headrests, while economy class has headrests with a red and white pattern.

The size of the business class cabin can change on each flight based on demand, and on this flight there were four rows of business class.

What’s rather frustrating about Air France HOP is that there’s no seat blocking in business class on all Embraer jets, so you don’t even get an empty adjacent seat. This contrasts to Air France’s mainline fleet, where you do get an empty seat next to you when in business class.

This is quite a competitive disadvantage, as all Lufthansa Group carriers offer blocked seats in business class, even on regional jets. On this flight, the cabin was 100% full, in both business class and economy.

On the plus side, legroom on Air France HOP’s Embraer E190s is quite good in the first several rows. Furthermore, Air France HOP still has the old style, “thick” seats, rather than the slimline seats you find on so many airlines nowadays, so that’s good for seat comfort. I assigned myself seat 4F, the window seat on the right side in the fourth row.

Each seat had a standard tray table, plus a literature pocket.

The overhead console had reading lights and individual air nozzles.

Also waiting at each seat upon boarding was a bottle of water and a refreshing towel.

Air France HOP aircraft don’t have any charging ports, Wi-Fi, or entertainment, so make sure you board with charged electronics and your own entertainment. Then again, Air France HOP mostly operates very short flights.

On balance, I’d say Air France HOP seats are a bit more comfortable than the seats you’ll find on other regional aircraft in Europe (due to the solid padding), with the major catch being that there are no blocked adjacent seats.

Air France HOP E190 departure from Paris

Throughout the boarding process, I couldn’t help but notice Air France HOP’s interesting boarding audio track. It’s essentially instructions about where to store your bags with clubby music in the background. Hah.

Boarding wrapped up around 3:25PM, at which point the captain made his welcome aboard announcement, informing us of our flight time of one hour. He also explained that bags were still being loaded, but we should be leaving soon. By the way, out the window you can see an Air France HOP Embraer E190 with the new branding (without the exclamation point). As you can see, the new livery emphasizes its affiliate with Air France a lot more, which I think makes sense.

Loading bags took quite some time, and it was fun to watch that process. It appeared to me that they were trying to load bags into the forward hold, but after some lengthy conversations, they drove those bags to the rear hold instead. I’m not sure if that was for weight and balance, or what.

We finally pushed back at 3:35PM, and then began our taxi at 3:40PM, during which time the manual safety demonstration was performed.

Within five minutes we made it to our departure runway, 26R, where we were immediately cleared for takeoff.

The views on departure were beautiful…

…especially as we took off into the west, and then made a sharp turn to fly into the east, so we had a great view of Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The seatbelt sign was turned off just five minutes after takeoff.

Air France HOP business class snack service

About 10 minutes after takeoff, the business class flight attendant started the inflight service, which involved rolling a cart down the aisle. The snack and drinks were served at once, unlike on some other airlines, which first bring out the food, and then bring out the drinks.

I have to say, this snack was exceptional for such a short flight (or maybe it was just really up my alley). The meal consisted of a main course of smoked salmon and pasta conchigliette with cauliflower cream and truffonade. Then there was a cheese plate on the side, as well as a pear tartlet.

The dish was phenomenal, and in a completely different league than anything I’ve been served on a comparable Lufthansa flight. The only thing that wasn’t great was the bread roll, which was kind of stale and room temperature (I assume Air France HOP planes don’t have ovens).

Drinks were also offered, and I ordered a glass of champagne and a cup of coffee.

I also appreciate how Air France HOP has a little menu card on the tray that tells you what you’re eating.

Air France HOP E190 business class lavatory

There’s a small lavatory at the front of the Air France HOP Embraer E190 cabin. It’s a very basic lavatory, and you’ll want to minimize your time in here, especially if you’re claustrophobic.

Air France HOP E190 arrival in Frankfurt

At around 4:15PM, 30 minutes after takeoff, the captain advised that the seatbelt sign would be turning on soon, and that we’d be landing in about 20 minutes. He also advised that it was a gusty afternoon in Frankfurt, so there would be some turbulence on approach. Sure enough, the seatbelt sign was turned on at 4:20PM, and sure enough, it was a bumpy approach.

Since we were landing into the east, we first had to fly past Frankfurt Airport, which made for some nice views.

We also had some lovely views of the Frankfurt skyline on our final approach.

We touched down in Frankfurt at 4:35PM.

We had a pretty long 10 minute taxi to our (remote) arrival stand.

I don’t totally mind a remote stand when arriving in Frankfurt and terminating there, since at least you’re dropped off near the exit. The plane views aren’t half bad either. 😉

After that journey, it was time to head to the Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport for the night, prior to flying MIAT Mongolian’s Boeing 787 business class to Ulaanbaatar the following day.

Bottom line

Intra-Europe business class tends to be pretty lackluster compared to premium cabins in other parts of the world. Air France HOP is Air France’s regional subsidiary, mostly operating very short flights. On the plus side, Air France HOP has very good food, as you’d hope from a French airline. Furthermore, seat padding is very good.

Unfortunately Air France HOP doesn’t block adjacent seats in business class on these aircraft, unlike some other airlines. Furthermore, don’t expect anything in the way of entertainment, charging ports, etc.

What’s your take on Air France HOP’s E190 business class?