Review: Air France HOP Business Class Frankfurt To Paris

All that taxi-ing reminds me of Heathrow to Schipol. 45 mins in the air 30 mins driving round airport either side!!

I've stopped using business class on short haul, I find the best thing is to book an emergency exit row for additional leg room. The cold snack is never worth the money business in my view.

I love flying the e190 jets but the most pointless business class in the world must be the ba ones departing LCY. No lounge, no blocked middle seat (as there is none), the service has been exceptional when I have done this, but it doesn't justify the cost for a 40 minute flight to Amsterdam for example.

I like the Delta/Compass setup. In first they have it as a 1-2 setup. At least the seats are bigger. I try to stay on mainline metal though, since the service is always better.

I didn't know there were airlines in Europe who don't block the seat next to you even in Business. I'm not such a frequent flier but I know Lufthansa's Business Class even on their regional planes with a 2-2 seat layout and they block the seat next to you so you essentially have a row for yourself.

By the way, it would be really interesting to read a review of Aegean Airlines. I hear they have one of the best intra-european soft product!

Hah! The new Peugeot 508 doesn't look that bad in black with the Air France logo!! How typically French - when did they change from their fleet of Citroen C6s...those were sublime to ride in

@jessepeng Had a 30-minute morning island hop on Aegean once and was impressed at decent breakfast service in economy. Juice, coffee/tea, croissants. It wasn't anything over the top but for a 30 minute flight full of leisure travelers in economy, I was expecting nothing. Maybe I'm too used to short-haul trips on North American carriers, or maybe I was enjoying my vacation so much that anything and everything was pleasing.

Nice review as usual Ben.
Thank you for that.

The cold cuts seem good for me. We know you do not eat pork: as there is no other choice, I guess you were more than happy to reserve yourself for the La Première lounge experience again then.
I cannot wait for that review. That's the next one!!!

"The coffee was served in a plastic Nescafe cup"
I believe you would have get a coffe cup on a AF metal plane in business class.
LH is the king on the CDG-FRA route obviously. AF lets HOP! Régional doing the job during the winter season.
The Nescafe cups are mainly used in economy. They came from more than 25 years ago on the domestic Air Inter services. Régional does not seem to bother to have a real coffe cup for the CDG routes in business.

That's a clever idea to offer yourself the first class ground services because the schengen services operated to/from CDG by HOP! or Cityjet on behalf of AF all arrive at terminal 2G.
The terminal is isolated from the other ones in CDG. There is the need of a bus shuttle to join the other terminals going to terminal 2F. Getting a car just close to the stairs of the aircraft is quicker.

Luda - I recently did LCY-AMS in business and for me it is sometimes worth. For start the difference between economy with bag and business was £30 and it gave me 40 TP towards my BA status. Also because I was using it as positioning flight for my ex AMS trip to Bangkok on QR I got extra luggage allowance.

Of course no lounge on LCY is a bit if a pain but this is an airport that gives so much in terms of speedy boarding that I can live without a lounge 😉

@jessepeng, neither did I. Aside from BA's 767, I just assumed that intra-Europe Business Class always had the adjacent seat blocked. On the ERJs I've flown in Business, I've always had the adjacent seat vacant, with a sign saying "reserved for your comfort" or something.

@rfrn, I've only flown Aegean in Business, and I have to say that from what I've seen, I'd be perfectly happy in Economy as well. With both cabins having snack service on the short domestic flights and full meals on longer flights, I sometimes wonder why they bother with Business Class at all.

I flew a short-hop business class from VIE to ZRH, as part of a round trip UA redemption. The seats are 3-3, with middle ones blocked. The carrier was OS. What stood out was the meal. At that time, I just landed at VIE from PEK, on Air China. The catering at this short hop Austrian flight was so much better than Air China business. If I recall, the breakfast was muesli, toasted egg-ham-cheese sandwich, cold cuts, croissant, fruit bowl, a glass of OJ and choice of tea or coffee. I've never had better airline breakfast, even on business cabin, with any airline.

KLM doesnt block the seat next to you on their F70 or embraers in Euro business, only on the 737.

BA doesnt block the seat next to you on the 767 twin AC / HJ block club europe configuration (only the middle block at DF)

Only one consistent is LH/LX/OS to block the seat in euro business even on avro/atr/embr/crj etc.

@ lucky is it possible: when booking award/paid longhaul F (BA/KL/LH group) to drop the shorthaul connector flight from C to Y --> like many have said Euro business sucks and better to save miles/money by doing the shorthaul in Y

The tight cabin gets more enjoyable if you imagine that you are flying in the Concorde 😉

But seriously, ridiculous to sell this as business class. They should just say it is an economy class-only flight.

Am I right in thinking this plane has a 2 x 1 configuration in domestic first-class on Delta?

@Nick Cruz--You are right, indeed they do.

Surely if you paid full business class fares for this, you'd feel completely ripped off. Economy class seating, no blocked seats, and economy quality food???

If you want really purposeful taxiing try flying Ryan Air. Company policy seems to be to set take off thrust for the taxi then use the brakes to slow down.