Review: Air France Business Class Airbus A220 (CDG-VIE)

I must disagree with your assessment, Ben (and this is even coming from me as a FB Ultimate) - AF's intra-EU J on the A220 is definitely up there in Europe with the best, but in my experience Iberia has been (very surprisingly) better than AF on short-haul flights. Long-haul is a very different story though.

I like AF EU J meals but considering them best among European carriers? Doesn't sound right, considering that AF only does cold food with no meal choice, not to mention that all the meals follow the same concept, and so get repetitive quite early. Compare this to wonderful BA Club Europe catering with a choice of three mains, two of which are cold, or similar concept (but with even better meals) on Aegean. In fact, even LHG has better food than AF on most routes.

It’s funny you rave about AF’s short-haul catering as there are many on FT who seem to be convinced it’s the worst food that’s ever been served to anyone anywhere. (To be fair, some of their meals are definitely worse than this one.)

Air France is overhyped. Flew them many times in EU J (recently on Christmas Day). While the lounge is spacious, they are crowded and the food is comparable to any other European lounge. American Centurion Lounges beat AF lounges, any day.

The food looks nice but isn't anything special. Would so much rather fly Austrian into VIE, better catering. Don't see the hype for AF at all. Just my $0.02.

Swiss, to my surprise, last week informed me that they have a pre-selection of meals on my European J flight -- each way I tried a different option and they were quite good. On par with what I see on the photos here. For a short-haul flight a huge improvement compared to what it was before.

Whilst I am a fan of AF long haul Business Class I do not think their short haul product is that great - even by European standards.

Firstly - the CDG lounges. I have departed on AF flights providing lounge access six times in the past six months. On EVERY occasion the spa was either closed altogether or had no slots available. I honestly do not understand the point.

Onboard catering - Meh. I think it is a poor show to not have a choice of meal (even BA offers a choice on the 35min hop from Heathrow to Manchester) and their breakfast is truly appalling.

I was wondering if you could still access the La Première lounge after your 4 days stop over but I am guessing that based on your review that you could not access it
It is a shame that stopover are not considered as a connecting flight

"I think Air France has the best intra-Europe catering of any major European carrier"

Better than Austrian?

Also, did I miss something, or did Ford take a different route back to the US?

@ Aaron -- Austrian has great catering as well, though the difference is more noticeable on long haul flights than short haul flights. Maybe I just really liked the Air France snack since it was vegetarian, and it's rare to see that.

Ford flew home nonstop on American, as I find saver level award availability for him at the last minute. That way he could get home a day earlier.

@ petervonpije -- Yeah, sadly it would need to be a same day connection to get the La Premiere ground services.

Seat 2A on the Air France A220 has to be the best intra-Europe business class seat (excluding planes with dedicated seating, like Turkish), right? You're guaranteed a row to yourself, plus it has tons of extra leg room due to the positioning of the closet at the bulkhead.

Business class with economy seats that have 30″ of pitch do not deserve a four star and a half rating! Regardless of whether that's the European standard.

I really like how even short "domestic" hops in Europe can afford to present a tasteful and classy small meal for F. I guess we are unwilling to pay for that in the US. Or the airlines here just have to suck the profit out of everything.

I love those tablet holders in the seat backs. If you’re not going to have screens, it’s so nice to have a place to put a tablet without cluttering up the tray table and worrying about it falling over.

That meal looks quite nice, something I’d definitely try,

@Ben
Air France does not particularly focus on things most people can eat. They just happen suit your palate. A decent amount of people don't want fish or shellfish, particularly on planes but salmon and shrimp are very common ingredients for AF short haul, and people don't get a choice, nor can they preorder if they have an allergy.

I generally like what AF is serving, though the bread would probably be considered a crime if someone tried to sell in the streets of Paris.

Tarom, a Sky Team member, although seriously struggling, still flies a few 737s with proper 4 row 2x2 armchair style seats in J. Best time to use those is domestic flights in Romania, albeit short hops, where business class service is not available.

That’s a whopping amount of points. I assume you have an unlimited amount but I don’t know if i could ever justify that for such a short transatlantic flight and a short hop on an Economy seat. Especially for two! Or was it four??

If not travelling on points, Air France short haul Business prices are wild compared with the competition. If travelling on points, Air France dynamic pricing is wild compared with Avios. If travelling on points on that one flight with Flying Blue saver promo whatever, I guess enjoy it while the stars align. If you're wealthy enough to not care about price, then take a different Business class each time and you'll get menu/lounge variety. If you're wealthy enough to buy a plane, then it's time to give it all up and meditate in a cave.

“ this is a way above average regional lounge”
???
The AF Lounge in 2F is their flagship lounge for European/Schengen flights, so calling it a regional Lounge is very much misleading.
Furthermore, you frequently fail to mention that European Business Class often has one extra benefit in addition to the blocked middle seat and that is a greater pitch between rows. Sometimes this can be substantial with airlines like TP, A3 or LX (depending on Equipment) and sometimes it simply doesn’t exist as all rows are spaced equally such as with OS, LH, BA and AF….
And this actually makes AF (alongside with BA) one of the more uncomfortable options to choose for European Business class. Even without the extra spacing which OS doesn’t have in the front rows, their pitch is still better than AF’s.
AF and BA are amongst the worst.

I’m with you on this subject DK.
Being SE of England based, travelling inter Europe on anything other than BA, hardly makes any sense for me.
The one exception is LHR-IST. When I’m paying for my J ticket, I much prefer TK.
That said, I am looking forward to my next SIN trip on the new AF La Premiere when available.

I assume what Ben meant is that it's a lounge for regional flights (since 2F is intra-Schengen), not that CDG is a regional airport 🙂

Normal AF J fares within Europe are indeed ridiculous (AF doesn't really intend to sell them, the J is there for connecting pax). However, you can usually get an upgrade at check-in for 100€ per sector, which is fairly reasonable.