Review: Air France Business Class Boeing 777-200

I agree with your review. AF is definitely the best TATL experience at the moment in the air, maybe tied with VS. KL unfortunately has 2-2-2 seating on too many of its planes. The oneworld fanboys who are flying AA/BA/IB across the water boggle my mind.

Did a very similar trip in September
I flew out of EWR with Lufthansa first
And back with Air France I got some solid sleep on Air France very comfortable

What, you didn’t pay for AF F lounge access? I thought this trip was all about splashing out…

:p

Anyways, this “OW Fanboy” is enjoying the AA nonstop SEA-LHR. Wide open J award availability. It’s even pretty accessible using transferring points with CX Asiamiles- cheaper than FB unless they’re running a promo.

Yeah their F&B isn’t great (it’s about what you had on your Greek trip this summer, Ben, perfectly fine just not amazing), but it is guaranteed lie-flat… and with the current AMEX transfer promo you’re getting lie flat for 51k AMEX each way. Very hard to beat that.

Just did KLM JFK to AMS Biz class Beds not great and the food needed work but staff were very nice. AND I got a house this time! NOt sure how I missed it on the last 2 KLM Biz flights!!

I'll be flying Air France from MIA to MXP in December, after reading your experience I look forward to hoping my flight is as good.

Was lounge access available when using flying blue miles for your ticket? I have noticed that AF award tickets have been excluding lounge access and seat assignments lately.

I find Air France J indeed is the best way to cross the pond using award miles. I used to fly a lot of BA F but these days, they keep increasing surcharge plus there are barely any F award tickets available (not to mention no more VAT refund). At some point, flying AF’s J is the easiest, comfortable, cheapest way to cross the Atlantic. If I can snag Lufthansa’s F award tix a year out, I would def do that. Sadly not possible so AF is the best way for me to cross the pond these days and likely option I choose going forward.

I know you don't like it, but I'd be bummed if I flew Air France in J and a foie gras terrine was not offered as an appetizer.

We recently flew AF JFK-CDG RT and thought it was great, certainly compared to AA or DL. The seat was at least as good and the food and service were much better.

Great report. You always get good value for points. Not a fan of cuveè but the champagne looks nice.

Yes I think a lot would agree that AF is the best of the lot. I also like KL, but as you say, their 2-2-2 format and lack of privacy are downsides, but I would consider it over the likes of LH, BA or IB.

Herringbone, not "reverse herringbone"?

Air France is indeed a reliable and safe choice for TATL. I flew CDG-JFK in J countless times, and I actually find that the service has also become more reliably friendly over the years. That used to be very hit or miss but now i have a great crew 90% of the time. Can't wait for the A350 to take over though.

Meant to post this as a general comment, not a response to JetSetGo :).

AF is the best in J these days, maybe also Swiss / Austrian for J.

VS just restarted normal multicourse catering with starter choices nice to see and also in the top tier again.

Superior wines on AF though, and the multicourse service makes a big difference. in fact what they're doing today is better than even 5 or 10 years ago when the cheese was presented upfront and less elaborate starters.

BA J was good for a couple years before COVID with the Do&Co catering, but they're still playing nonsense 'fewer touchpoints' games. if they resumed proper catering they'd be a winner with their new J seats.

Alitalia was a winner - sounds like the new airline is sitll in COVID mode meal wise so that's a no go.

"The crew quickly sprung into action after takeoff"

You mean "sprang".

I'd agree AF has the best business class product of the big 3 European based airline groups (when including BA, LH). La Premiere is in a class by itself and one of the best in the world. LX has a great business class too that's probably close to AF in quality.

Thanks for this review! I enjoyed the entire Paris trip series!

It sounds like a great flight! We flew Air France business in early August, though we were in a 777-300 headed to DC rather than a 777-200. I thought the food was terrific, well beyond what I was expecting. (PresRDC: We were offered foie gras for a starter on my flight. I personally do not eat it, but my husband appreciated it.) My main course at lunch was especially delicious, "Conchiglie pasta, swiss chard and lemon coulis, creamy, lightly smoked ash-coated goat's cheese, toasted pumpkin seeds." We pre-ordered a vegan meal for my daughter and they did great by her as well.

I too found the seats very comfortable and got in a solid couple hours nap in recline after lunch. I love waking up and discovering we're more than halfway home!

We are considering taking a vacation to Spain next and are highly considering going on Air France again because it was such a pleasant experience.

Looks awesome. But God give you strenghth if you are ever stuck in Y on the AF 777.

I believe they don't allow you to pay for F lounge access anymore unless you've actually paid for F in the past.

love to do this but for my dates next year the AF/KLM Flying Blue price is over 200,000 per passenger. Make DL look like a bargain!

Poultry with smoked black tea! What an interesting flavor combination

Just flew Lufthansa business class Frankfurt to Vancouver. Hard uncomfortable seat, though it had a coat hook! No place to hang jackets. Very nice, genuine crew. Terrible catering. Worst ever. Poor menu options, did not reflect any recognizable menu theme, over salted main course. Clearly, money was being saved. Espresso came with a spoon. No cookie or chocolate. Two tiny indifferent chocolates from Latvia did come with dinner. Again, selection seemed random, when a German airline serves chocolates from far away!

Lucky, you lucked out getting Air France seats!

Agree AF and KL biz is the way to go. Flown LH biz on the a380 and 747 this year and while the upstairs cabin is novel the food was terrible on the 747. I was lucky not to have a seat mate but had there been someone next to me there would've been no storage. Also flown SAS a350 biz but prefer the AF/KL herringbone seat to the vantage on SAS. Sleeping position is much lower and no good lounge position because the footrest and well are so low compared to the KLM seat.

Why are commenters have gold and Platnium by their names

The AF food looks very good. Too bad that the swap was made from the A350. Hoping you will review it sometime soon. Excellent review.

Flew AF ATL-CDG in C last week. Great flight, service and food.

3 issues: WiFi didn’t work and FAs couldn’t get it going.

FAs shut off front lav for last 4 hours of flight, apparently to avoid interrupting their club up there. So 40 business class passengers lined up for the one lav that quickly looked very used.

At least a third of the C passengers ignored mask rules and I saw no attempts/announcements to encourage use.

Long time AF TATL flyer. I flew LAX-CDG earlier this month on a 777-300, same layout as the 200, and the menu was the same as on Ben's flight. However, I was disappointed with the food, both meals were not up to the usual standard IMO, and as noted by a previous poster, usually there is foie gras on the menu on flights leaving from Paris, but not this time. Clearly a 1st world problem, but AF has me spoiled.

I’ll take Emirates or Singapore over the others TATL.

Air France Food is the best airlines Food worldwide . The service is excellent and first class is The best product.

We flew AF from SJO CDG CAI last April on Business. Window seat 5 A. We love window seat for the view and not feeling claustrophobic. Food was nice, the service was good, we appreciate the starched tablecloth. Cutlery by Christofle. The presentation of our food trays was fine, and the bread was warm. Sleeping on the flat bed was comfortable. Note: boarding in SJO was hectic just one outside staircase in the open air for all the passengers and no priority for Business class!

I took AF in business from IAD to BoM. While the seats were nice iad to cdg, they were abysmal cdg to Bom. CDG -Bom had 2-2-2 businsss with semi reclining seats which is unacceptable by present standards. Food and service were okay but somewhat underwhelming when comparing with other carriers. I probably just did not have the best crew but I do not understand the buzz for AF based in my experience.

I would definitely prefer Etihad, emirates or Qatar for iad- Bom.

As far as food, Turkish (prepandemic) had the best in skies.

Air France has stopped serving champagne in its Paris lounge until AFTER most of Delta’s morning flights depart. I confirmed this with a lounge manager when I was there last week.

They are serving other booze, just not champagne. I found that very interesting. Perhaps they don’t want to waste the good stuff on Delta’s passengers.

"all the window shades were closed"

Why do airlines (and passengers) insist on closing the shades on these daytime eastbound flights? If anyone is interested in reducing fatigue and jet lag, isn't it better to keep the place as light as possible and to try and avoid sleeping?

Whilst good , catering is almost always superior from the hub ie CDG. Foie Gras sales have been banned in California since 2012

It's a newly implemented feature that was a secondary priority of the updated site rollout. If I understand correctly, "status" is determined by the number of "helpful upvotes" you accrue. Gold is entry level, then Platinum, then Diamond.

Sorry but photos are very disappointing. I love the idea of AF FIRST but this is very "meh".
A means to an end, I guess. Happy it was a safe flight.

Nature is healing, Lucky is complaining about air nozzles again (or lack thereof) 😉

Thanks for the detailed review! With AA cutting all service to Italy for December (and all service to FCO until March), I am in need of a different way to visit my family for the holidays. MIA-CDG/AMS-FCO seems like the best option. BA/IB have terrible departure times out of FCO to connect in MAD/LHR onto AA metal.

Oh, and btw, the hangar upon boarding is such a simple yet nice touch! Years ago AA would offer to hang my blazer on every flight, even in domestic F. It's been forever since an AA FA has offered to hang my coat for me. Guess that's maybe a "COVID" cut?

Could not agree more.
AF used to have poor Business Class seats with marginal food - now I find AF to have consistent best in class seats with consistently good and sometimes outstanding food - they have multiple types of mustard available as well as hot sauce which I think is great.
I also find that AF has more little nice, creative touches than either IAG or LH airlines. Also I now think the AF lounges in CDG are better than those at either FRA, MUC or LHR - better food and booze.
Well done AF.
While CDG is not a great airport to connect in, it is starting to grow on me.
Shame about the loyalty program either FlyingBlue or SkyMiles.

Great review. The 777s seem to be showing their age here and there, but still overall a pretty high end product. How do the seats compare with the A350?

Great review. The 777s seem to be showing their age here and there, but still overall a pretty high end product. How do the seats compare with the A350? Or the 787 for that matter?

Wanted to add- I agree that AF/KLM has some good transatlantic availabilities, a 350$ fee to redeem miles is very high- it's almost the cost of an additional one way economy class ticket much of the year.

Silly, but that’s life. The only time I flew Biz on AF was when I was 23…many many years ago. It was a 767 SFO-CDG, back when they had domestic style Biz, and a bean bag foot rest.

I had never flown Biz class. They served dinner with a big chunk of butter, and I thought it was cheese, so I at the whole thing in one swallow. It was butter! The lady next to me was appalled….so embarrassing…but a memory that was hilarious.

Now I fly oneworld First, and look back on the AF experience with a smile.

Ben has. Wrote a report about it.

Maybe the only thing that matched it…

I flew BA First quite a lot, and still do. Fond 747 memories.

The FA guys in BA F were very “fresh”. Sexual gestures and letters in my arrival docs with phone numbers.

I’m no longer young, so that probs won’t happen again.

Entirely unprofessional, but flattering.

Woes me?

I agree. The European leg of Air France is great.
However there is discrimination on the Nigerian route (Paris-Abuja-Lagos)
Business Class HAD ONLY ONE RESTROOM FOR 40 PASSENGERS!!
Such an obvious in your face discriminatory attitude.
The Planes are OLDER, TOO and you can see broken panels.

Any and all American Airlines are cutting corners in business class. I will not fly them again.

I much prefer the AF 777 to their 787 and A350. I recently flew to India and both the 787 and A350 have only 2 toilets in the business class cabin and AF has started blocking off one of them for the crew. So it's only one toilet for the whole J cabin.

Air France served the most disgusting food that I have ever had on an aircraft while seated in business class. That pretty much summed up my experience in AF biz. I actually disagree with you. I avoid AF-KLM and IAG as I would the plague.

Agree-AF/KLM food has gone way down hill. It's disgusting mainly. Deserts are decent but the 'quality' is on par with US empire carriers.

No mask rules were enforced?? Well, thank you. That makes my decision so much clearer and easier.

I remember that happening even in World Traveller. Though surprising (you can’t shock a 23-year-old), it left me with great memories of flying BA in the nineties. The current line-up no longer cuts the mustard.

Did you like the mini cabin seats and where you were specifically in row 12? Seems like there is a lot of privacy and behind you was a partisan and curtain to separate premium economy. Would you choose this mini cabin over the bigger one?

I just flew this route both over and back, Air France has a poor business class check-in experience at Paris CDG. I wanted to check a small bag containing food that I could not take through security. I was carrying my backpack onboard. Air France’s agents refused to check my bag because it was "too small". It seems like they make-up convenient rules in the moment. of course, my bag of food that was well protected in multiple bags was taken by security due to its liquids (mustards). This is the sort of service I expect a leading airline to tend to - finding a solution to delight the customer?

After the indifference of business check-in, there was no priority security service offered. You walk back out and into the mass line early in the morning. I later watched as they loaded my 2 checked bag weight allotment with pallets of DHL cargo that I am sure they can increase if fewer passenger check bags.

The Air France Business lounge in 2E is very old and gets crowded. Going to San Francisco, Terminal 2E will not allow you to use their new lounge. Many roped-off seats reserved for their important repeat passengers. No Clarins free facial service available because of an “exceptional” closure. Food rather limited for breakfast. Very poor showers with no ventilation that leaves you sweating.

The boarding process was poorly managed and a complete mess as they collect their Covid “attestation” forms that MUST be submitted in paper. They combine economy plus with business class in one line in an area that does not have enough room for all these passengers. Of course, people were cutting the line from all directions. We then had to wait standing on the bridge another 20 minutes after entering until they allowed use to actually enter the plane.

Food was disappointing. They like to serve various "mushes" that plate nicely. They tase good, but there were no taels with sauces - just a couple veal cubes in mush. They are much less generous on the snacks in the galley. Did not meet my expectations. The FA kept the curtain tightly closed throughout, and I had to practically crawl under it to get to the lavatory. She was working in a little office area and I guess did not want to be disturbed.

I flew this same heavily worn 777-300 from SFO to CDG and it was delayed 3 hours due to electrical problems. We backed out at SFO and eventually had to return to the stand. There were some brief “electrical problems” on this return flight at CDG on the same aircraft. Both flights were completely full - including first class. On this flight from CDG to SFO, business class on this airline is just not worth the significant extra cost.

Hallo.. wir sind jetzt das 2te mal AF buisiness class geflogen und es war gigantisch.. ein super Preis Leistungsverhältnis.. wir hatten ein sehr sicheres Gefühl vom einchecken bis zum Ziel.. klasse Leistung..sehr nettes Personal was auch Mut viel Geduld behilflich war.( Übersetzungen vom französischen ins deutsche)
Alles ein dickes Minus.. es gibt im Entertainment keine games.. was ich sehr schade finde.. daran sollte AF arbeiten. Sonst können wir AF nur empfehlen

Hello, first time here. I totally agree with Peter on one point: boarding is and remains chaotic whether it is in CDG, LAX, or CAI. After I complained bitterly to the D.G., Ms. Anne Rigail, there was dramatic improvement in CAI where we were treated like royalty but the situation in CDG and LAX remains terrible. Biz class passengers should be boarded separately particularly now because of Covid instead of being trampled, shoved, and pushed (LAX last April). We are flying to LAX and HNL next week, and CAI at the end of Dec. and I will report on those flights. Cheers.

The pushing and shoving of business class is a frequent occurrence in the US whilst flying AF. Total chaos and a mess. What’s going on?! Minor improvements but still the pushing shoveling trampling of J class people. Not right