Air France has just debuted a new La Premiere first class product, which will be available exclusively on a subfleet of Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The first jet with this new product is in service as of today (and I’m on the inaugural flight, as a guest of Air France). This is an exciting development, as…
Continue reading: Air France 777s Get Tip-To-Tail Makeover, New Business Class
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Those Frenchies will do anything to lure us Brits away from LHR, onto the Eurostar, then into the Paris La Train Bleu restaurant for lunch, followed by a La Premiere class international flight.
I have to be honest and admit that I am looking forward to the prospect.
The 77Ws that are bound to be reconfigured will most likely be the 2009+ builds while the older frames are kept as is until they retire.
The 200ERs will probably not get retrofitted as they're 20+ years old and counting, so they'll easily be replaced by the A350.
It's also unfortunate that premium economy in the new configuration won't have their own toilet.
I fly Air France in business several times per year. I always walk around the plane once or twice in-flight to stretch my legs.
While first and business are excellent — though admittedly business-class is HUGE in terms of the number of seats — economy is tight. It looks miserable. I couldn’t imagine flying economy on the 777.
After walking through economy, I’m always glad to retreat back behind the curtain and enjoy the space and privacy of business-class.
And the number of lavatories per passenger seems crazy low.
Seems like these changes is to also include Economy Comfort - which I suspect would be the in the same cabin as PE.
Sadly, this indeed does make PE less exclusive with the lost of the lavaratory dedicated to it.
All B777-300ER with first class are being reconfigured.
Heard rumours that some of current 3 class B777-300ER might be updated with first class, growing first class equipped aircraft in the process.
By the looks of it, they also downsized the galley at door 2. It definitely looks tight-ish, but worth it for the new business class.
The saddest part of this for me, living in NYC, is the flight to CDG is too short to really enjoy it all. The food, the bed, the service.
Will these reconfigured planes also feature the incredible Business bulk-head seats?
Haha you're so cool for being better than those hundreds of economy peasants sitting in the back that you can't even imagine it.
I hope the Air France alcohol in the air is good enough for your taste buds unlike the swill they serve at 8am in an airport lounge!
For most, the purpose of air travel is not being there, but, getting there, yes?
Agreed, you should've seen FNT crying about the how "For the last year or so, Air France also been putting out inferior wine in the morning. For example, no champagne."
Are the 777-200s largely end of cycle and likely due to replaced soon? Makes sense to not largely invest in high-density 777-3s, but hopefully they do replace Premium Economy as the new hard product is much improved over previous gen seat.
Good news on the upgrade.
Now, can you get them to give their aircrafts a good wash.
Is anything known yet about the reconfiguration timeline? I have a CDG-LAX and LAX-CDG flight booked in AF business in November on a 4-class 777-300ER, so it would be awesome to have the newer biz seats by then …
Hmmmmm.... Losing a lav and no mention of any change in seat pitch ? Pity the poor unwashed relegated to the very back of the bus....
I question the timing of such an upgrade to premium seating at the onset of a potential worldwide downturn in the economy. The decision to limit lavatories for Premium Economy seating is also a bit of a head scratcher as other than bigger seats the main selling point of Premium Economy is access to washroom facilities. I think they may have misread the market on this one.
Air France’s decision to refurbish its four-cabin 777-300ERs is clearly an attempt to keep up with Delta as a JV partner. Considering Air France can’t compete with Delta on profitability, reliability, or service, it’s no surprise they’re scrambling to upgrade their cabins. By trying to mimic Delta’s premium product, Air France is hoping to appear consistent across the JV network, especially on key routes. Sure, the upgraded first and business class may look nice, but let’s be real—it won’t close the massive service gap with Delta. Nice try, though, Air France.
For me it seems like the first row business seats behind first class are utilised the space under the first class seats' armrest - in that way the cabin size stays the same while first class went from four to five windows.
From what I read on FlyerTalk, the already reconfigured plane that we see in the commercial is F-GZNQ apparently, meaning that it is one of the 12 planes already having been retrofitted with new business cabin.
Removing lavatory for their new may renamed Premium cabin (they changed the name and removed the economy) is very very disappointing, nothing “premium” about it knowing these tickets are very expensive departing from Paris !
I've been in 3 of the 4 cabins on the old configuration. I rather prefer economy, since business is so big, the FAs struggle to serve everyone. As these are the prestige routes, the economy tickets can often be dirt cheap. Although last time, they served me Nick Feuillette in economy (shudder). I mean, if you need to make mimosas for breakfast, can't find where the help put the keys to the cellar, and this is the only champagne for sale at the gas station down the street, it's perfectly acceptable. But when I'm paying $250 for a transatlantic flight, I expect better.
Is that you Tim, using a pseudonym ?
Delta, like any American carrier is poor . Typical fake American service and surprised they don't ask for tips.
Nothing in the US comes close to what La Premiere offers.
They are not trying to mimic anyone. France, like the rest of Europe, has thousands of years of culture. A history of design, culture and cuisine.
Delta Airlines is offering Shake Shack cheeseburgers to first-class customers. Seriously ? Whilst Air France partners with Michelin chefs including Jérôme Banctel and Olivier Perret
On the one hand I like the idea of having additional PE seats because on a short trans-Atlantic I find it better value than business by far points-wise, but losing the dedicated lavs does hurt. 5 lavs for 250~ people is not a lot.
AF passenger help request ….
It would appear to me that those Frenchies are missing a trick or two with their extremely small carry on luggage size allowance.
Today, I deliberately visited the AF check in desk at LHR. To my amazement I discovered that two of my smallest carry on pieces would not fit into the AF carryon size gauge.
My question is to those who have AF travel experience …. are the checkin staff insistent on checking every piece of carry on luggage using the gauge? I hope to try out a new La Premiere experience when available.
Thank you.
I have flown AF in J 10-15 times the last 4 years and never experienced checking carry ons dimensions or weight , that’s between my whole family good size and number of carry ons dimensions or. In fact , the only times I have experienced check on carry ons was when flying EVA in J , SEA-TPE and TPE-SGN ( different trips)
The downturn in economy parobably only impacts the cattle class passengers. Demand for premium seats in the sky is at an all-time high and still going up.
I don't think they give a f* for the cabins of their high-density metal, as these planes mostly fly to leisure destinations in the Caribbean.
Can't speak for the Economy experience, but travelling Business both domestic and long-haul, there's never been the slightest hint I should weigh either of my 2 cabin carry-ons.
And @Truth will be delighted to hear that they are unlikely to even see a scale in the unlikely event they will get to travel La Premiere.
Actually, those planes have been retroffited recently already so it makes sense they are not doing it again...
The increase in number of J and PE seats while giving more room to the F seats is impressive. I wonder what this means for Y? Did they just squeeze them in even more? It was bad enough to begin with, can only imagine how bad it would be now.
It’s a larger cabin allowance than most. AFKL allow upto 12 kgs plus an accessory in economy . For others it’s generally 7kgs. Must have been quite a trek to go to lhr just for that. I think you should only carry a bag that will fit under your seat. If you buy a light fare and don’t have priority boarding, they warn you that you may need to check it in when the flight is full
@Bubba. Pfft! 58 seats in business class means the AF FAs are stretched? You should fly the 777 BA versions with 76 Club Suites. Poor folk work their butts off for 11 hours!
Many thanks to those of you who have taken the trouble to respond to my enquiry.
My latest AF flight was last century (1982), on that quick little aircraft called Concorde. I was no more impressed with that flight than my previous BA trans Atlantic flight onboard their offering. At least BA was shorter and without a fuel stop.
When checking the AF La Premiere carryon case dimensions, they are less than generous. My name will be mud if my wife’s carryon case is banished to the hold.
Ben- Read your review on the bulk head seat a month back or so and booked the inside bulk head seat 10D and 10H! Can't wait to have the space since I am over 6 foot. Great reviews and appreciate the work you do. (I also found this flight availability on point.me for 60,000 April 28th.)
The new La Premiere seat seems only marginally better than AA's Flagship First. I don't get the hype at all.
So which lavs will PE pax use? I would be annoyed if I was flying in J and PE pax were using the lavs in J.
Not sure if this is accurate but I think I read somewhere that they were just reconfiguring 1 3 class 77W so they could maintain the current LP fleet.
I've had my very small carry on involuntarily checked twice (other than on flights where all rollaboards are checked). One was in February on air france. I was checking in in Bangalore and when I said I didn't have any checked bags the agent insisted that I put both of my bags on the scale together. I was flying on a full fare business class ticket... and was 2 kg overweight. The agent was almost gleeful in insisting that I check my bag. So, yes, it DOES happen on air france.
The other time was an Air Canada agent who picked me out of the crowd and told me to check mine while letting people ahead and behind get on with larger bags. More than one person said they thought they were going to have to check theirs and asked me if I'd had a disagreement with the agent. I said I had not even been at the desk or spoken to the agent before that.
I'm a delta MM and an AA Exec Platinum. I've flown the current La Premiere as well as AF, DL and AA business and the AA F that is basically gone and we'll throw in BA F and J and KLM J for good measure. For anyone to try to claim that any of those other services are as good as or better than AF LP is laughable. While I don't love the AF LP lounge in Paris as much as Ben does, AF LP but it's head and shoulders above all the rest with both hard and soft product.
Is this the most efficient 777 300ER layout seen yet? Would others copy their homework and follow suit? Like how they all copied Emirates to make economy 3-4-3?
There may be as many as seven more airframes in service by then (of the intended total of 20).
LAX-CDG is one of the more commonly "sold out" LP cabins among their U.S. gateways with LP service (JFK, IAD, MIA, LAX, SFO). At least in the LAX-CDG direction (I'm less familiar with westbound CDG-LAX flights, tbh.)
If I were Ben Smith, I'd assign a reconfig aircraft to that route as soon as they've got at least one, perhaps two flights per day on CDG-JFK.
Which could be as soon as a month or so from now.
But beware that with two LP-cabin flights per day to LAX, both may not be operated by reconfigured aircraft right away.
It may take very good luck or some clever maneuvering on your part to end up in the full new four-cabin layout.
But good luck!
SO im flying on the 777-300 but want to know if we have the upgraded PE seats(not the fixed shell). I'm on AF001 leaving from JFK to CDG on April 24th 2025. Can anyone tell me if we got the newer retrofitted PE seats. I sure hope so. Please advise and thanks in advance!
Thank you for clarifying the differences in business class seats, and which aircraft offers business class seats with doors.
I am specifically talking about JFK—CdG flights. My understanding has been that AIRBUS A350-900 offers business class seats with sliding doors. But I have not been clear about Boeing 777. So only the “777-300ER” would have business class seats with sliding doors, but not 777-300? If “777-300” is listed in the flight details on AIR FRANCE booking site, then it would have seats without doors?
They look bad. The AF Best&Beyond interiors are the best. Not "old" by any means. The old business is so much better. Who needs a useless gimmick door and wireless charging ?!
When are they going to refurbish those god-awful 777-200's? Not a comfortable seat for the long haul, but I do love AF service and crews.