Review: Air France Business Class Paris to Frankfurt

Had you flown in an A318 before? There aren't that many of them, and I think AF is the largest operator of the type. I'm sure the experience isn't any different from any other A320-series aircraft, but I've still always wanted to take one (especially the BA flight from LCY-JFK).

you would think that someday one european airline would step it up and offer a real business class seat intra europe... not sure why that is such a problem.

That exchange with the Mercedes driver must have been awkward. Wait, did the purser later tell you to take the bus or did the driver of the car?

@Lanteen- My intra-Europe TK flights have offered domestic first class style seats.

The meal pic is very intriguing. I think I can ID the dessert, and some kind of bread item. But the rest is very mysterious. Guess its just some gourmet French airplane delicacy that is unknown to my crude American taste. 😉 And what was the Fauchon? Some kind of amenity kit?

do you ever talk to people "outside" of a plane or a hotel??? Just wondering

I've noticed that AF pilots, and especially AZ pilots, are very aggressive. Earlier this year I had several AZ flights both trans-Atlantic and intra-Europe, and on the ground they act like they are driving Ferrari's. I've never been in a fully-loaded 777 that had such an aggressive take-off at LAX before.

Was seating just 6 roes behind you!!!

Interesting you flew on the A318, that has been on my bucket list for sometime (silly I know). Until recently it was fairly easy to catch one on F9 but Avianca, BA, and AF are all still possibilities.

* fruit salad
* cheese bread
* macaron and chocolate confectionery
* in the Fauchon bag: candy for later
* bottle of Thonon mineral water

For the life of me I can't identify the main course. The cup appears to contain some kind of potato salad? Some kind of chicken? Blanking on the last item.

@elteetrav: Fauchon is a French gourmet food company. It's a little too thin to contain even a mini spirit bottle. Unlikely to be tea, since there isn't an accompanying teacup. I suspect it contains some kind of candy.

Off-topic: Air France uses the Japanese term for hot towel (oshibori) on the US site.

@ Andrew B -- I've done British Airways Club World London City on the A318, but that's the only time I've flown it. Unique little plane indeed.

@ Joey -- It was the driver of the car that told me to take the bus. At that point I was off the plane so wasn't talking to the purser anymore.

TAP still offers "real" business class intra-Europe, even though on my last flight they said they were missing one person from the crew so there would be no meal service!

I don't recall TAP offering real Business Class on any of their European flights, only the blocked middle-seat version. Even on longer flights such as ARN-LIS which is 4,5 hours.

TK is the only airline to offer real Business Class intra-Europe.

@Lucky, did you send a complaint to AF regarding the van situation? I would've been pretty pissed off if I were in the same situation.

Air Serbia (formerly Jat Airways) has fixed Business class with wider, bigger seats and extended seat pitch on intra-Europe flights.

"Then in row two I had the window seat, and the other seats were all empty. Interestingly the business class partition was only behind row four, though business class only went through row two, meaning it was just the three of us."

But...isn't that a guy sitting on the left side of Row 3 in some of your pictures?

@ wwk5d -- Yep, but they only received economy service.

Gotta love how the European airlines do things lol

Those seats blow. Had to suffer through a 3.5 hr flight on Austrian in "business" class like that (A320). Found seats way better on a much shorter Swiss flight (Avro 100).

FWIW, S7 (Russian airline) has real business seats (at least, on a few intra-Russia routes my parents had traveled on). Usually book them using BA Avios in business. Interestingly, on one economy award flight, my dad somehow got bumped up to business even though he held no status.

Those seats blow. Had to suffer through a 3.5 hr flight on Austrian in “business” class like that (A320). Found seats way better on a much shorter Swiss flight (Avro 100).

FWIW, S7 (Russian airline) has real business seats (at least, on a few intra-Russia routes my parents had traveled on). Usually book them using BA Avios in business. Interestingly, on one economy award flight, my dad somehow got bumped up to business even though he held no status.

I'm doing a similar thing, except from FCO to CDG (business) then CDG to LAX (A380First) then to finish LAX to SEA (Delta first, doesn't matter). I can't wait to see what the service is like, I haven't flown air France before, but I hear glowing reviews. This helped a lot, thanks!