For the first long haul segment of my exotic journey to Bangkok via Paris, I flew Air Frances Boeing 787-9 business class on the 6hr25min flight from Montreal (YUL) to Paris (CDG).
Continue reading: Review: Air France Business Class Boeing 787 (YUL-CDG)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"She was from the Alsace region of France, so we communicated in German throughout the flight." For historical reasons @Ben, I would refrain from using the word "so" and making it a logical consequence 🙂
While I appreciate the inclusion of French liquor, did the list include any other whisky, gin or vodka selections?
Those cheese crackers you get with the first drink is the best part of flying AF…
off topic, but per JonNYC: "Another holiday, another Delta failure... 103 cancellations and counting... Another Happy Easter"
I flew CDG-YOW a while back - a route where AF has no direct competition- and while I enjoyed the overall experience, the food was distinctly sub-par for business class. Looking forward to trying them again.
I have never understood why Air France is so revered. I traveled on this exact same cabin from DEN-CDG-DEN last year. The only significant change being they have introduced mattress pads which look pretty good.
But the food and drinks were subpar. You can see how pathetic the scrambled eggs look. The worst eggs that have ever been served. When i traveled with Air France, i was coming for a UA transatlantic flight from a few days ago. And even UA's F&B choices were superior to Air France's. UA has some of the best quality wine in J class and it does not get credit for it. And it has more choices.
All these food and beverages were served by cabin crew which were behaving like they were doing us a favor by being there. In the past so many years cannot recall a worse experience that Air France.
And the seat was fine. The only kink being, the seat controls are located (you can see the picture of it above) where they end up getting more than a passing acquaintance to your left elbow and responding to that touch.
The only quirk is the seat controls. As seen in the picture above, they’re positioned in such a way that your left (or right depending on the seat) elbow ends up having quiet a few inadvertent trysts with them during the journey and the controls ever willing to respond kindly to that touch.
Unfortunately that ends up finding yourself randomly reclining when you rather be upright. You’ll need to keep that elbow on a tight leash.
I very much enjoy the Air France experience in both Business and Premium Economy. I do think the food though in Business is lackluster.
The French like their eggs barely warmed-through. In a cafe you learn ask for it well-done.
Imo Air France service is very average to even a bit rude in that European way, from my American perspective. Their lounges don't seem that great to me either.
They're carried by France's gourmet culture, so they do nail the onboard food. I do think their new seats on the A350 and 777s are excellent and the bulkheads are cutting edge. Starlink wifi will also be great.
If they had more 60k savers, I'd be using them so much more, but they don't.
You really need to go online and see the unbelievably negative reviews about AirFrance. I wish I had. We had a terrible experience booking and discovered by accident that the booking was cancelled. We were then told that we cancelled them which we had not. At one point we were told that these glitches happen sometimes but they kept trying to sell us more tickets with no proof of the refund we were promised. After two days of trying to work with the AirFrance representative, we disputed through our credit card and all was handled for our protection from this company. All I can say is take screenshots of EVERYTHING. It does not matter what the planes or services are like when the corporation chooses to operate in such a despicable fashion.
Completely agree with your take. In my experience, Air France consistently stands out for striking that balance between professionalism and genuine warmth. What makes the difference, in my experience, is exactly what you describe, crews who seem proud of what they do and who bring a natural, unforced friendliness to the service, regardless of cabin.
It’s also interesting how Air France manages to deliver a level of service that often exceeds the broader stereotype people may have about service culture in France. Once on board, there’s a clear sense of attention to detail, but also personality, something that can feel a bit more scripted on other European carriers.
And I bet the eggs are not even refrigerated when you go the reverse way from Paris to the excited states of America.
I flew Air France/klm to France from Perth
The whole experience was disgusting
No access to business class lounge pre flight
The food was abysmal and the staff surly
Never again
I totally don’t get the love affair with AF business class. My sense of the cabin crews is that they are professionals but want you to know that serving you is actually beneath them. A bit like deposed nobles of Ruritania. Food is okay- but I wouldn’t go to a restaurant to get it. Compare KLM - worse hard product 2-2-2 but genuinely friendly cabin crews. Interesting and tasty Dutch food. Even maligned Swiss does better than AF.
I booked my wife Sharon and I business class flights from SFO to Paris for June. I was appalled that after booking and paying for our flights Air France had the gall to charge for seat assignments. I’ve been calling them daily to find an agent that will waive the fee.
Unbelievable
"I had to remind myself that I wasn't on Lufthansa."
Oofthansa *wishes* that off-the-shelf reverse herringbone seats were their oldest J hard product. Heck, they probably wish it was their current J hard product at this point...
Have in the past enjoyed flying AF.. I recently booked flights with them but had to call them back in 1/2 hour to cancel.I got an email days later saying they were processing my refund..THat was 2 months ago so I had to go thru my credit card company.. I had to send and resend the information I had regarding the AF email saying they were processing ,,my email no less than 5 times to the CC company.... Finally I think I got the refund per the CC company tho it is my in any of my statements yet!!
On an Air France flight, and no cheese chosen to show for the review... really....
But if you look at the pic, its not scrambled the French way either. My pics showed it was just plain and uninteresting.
That's odd. Seems like you an issue with your credit card provider more than AF. I refunded a flex flight with AF last week, it was two clicks on the app and got the money on my card within 24hrs.
I rather appreciate how the AF crew sometimes display a delightfully understated sass towards the loud and overindulgent north Americans.
Much like Hermès, which does not grant access to its products to everyone, AF’s friendly service is something to be earned, not assumed. If you are fat or wear shorts, please indeed keep flying something else.
I am also beginning to believe that Ben is talking about a different Air France?!?! At least with respect to the crews. I am flying Air France since around 1996 in Economy and Business - and I can count on one hand when I had a naturally friendly and polite crew.
Completely different KLM = there I can count on one hand the number of times, when I had an unfriendly crew.
meat for breakfast, bearing in mind many of use do not eat pork products, excellent decision by AF
I flew CDG to LAX on AF. I left my purse with my money, CC's and jewelry in the small cabinet that holds your headphones. I called AF the next day, they sent a message to the LAX AF station at the airport and they called in less than an hour, asked for a FedEx shipping label (which I emailed them) and I got my purse the next day. I was impressed!