Review: New Air France Business Class 777-300ER (CDG-JFK)

Recently flew the new AF product on CDG-JFK and agree with you. The product is top notch and improves upon many aspects that made the previous cabin already quite good. Lufthansa's premium products are inconsistent, dated, and the new Allegris cabins dull.

@ben thanks for the review. in the past these AF business bulk head seats had a bassinet in the space where the ottoman now is. it looks like those are gone now but do you know if they moved the bassinets to another seat? thanks!

I was very unlucky and had booked this same flight to go on 2/24/23 and I am guessing due to the fire in JFK, the planes were shuffled. It showed the new seat map and seat assignments even after boarding, but they had moved us around and I got lucky that the mom and kid next to us had had the same thing. So we just switched to be with our kids. We ended up on a flight with the old old 2/3/2 configuration and couldn't even lay flat. I ended up really enjoying it and got 4.5 hours of good sleep on the flight, but was very disappointed that i wasn't able to check out the new seats. The seat entertainment was unusable it was so slow, but i never really use those anyhow. Hoping for better luck for an AA flight in June to Italy.

AF has really upped their game, haven’t they!

Now please make them bring back LP to JNB (which ends at the end of the month)!

And LH service is…LHish.

@Ben - What routes have/will have this updated business class product?

I am always fascinated by meal serving decisions on these flights...

This was a EU to NYC flight that started in the morning... Rather than a "brunch" served with another snack (which looked like a second breakfast) right before arrival... Wouldn't it be better to serve "breakfast" and then "lunch," with the second meal being the main meal instead of the first, an served maybe four to five ours after takeoff (instead of 90 minutes before landing)?

Great product, but the trade-off is that flights are disrupted a few days every month due to strikes...

Another fallacy

Air France has not had any significant industrial action for several years.

Air traffic control strikes have little impact on longhauls

I was surprised that the AF catering for J on the early flight did not feature more options and indeed meat options other than fish. I’ve done the BA117 LHR-JFK many times and the menu is always breakfast with 3 options then afternoon tea as the second meal service.

Not to mention that beast British Air.

I worry about safety with Air France, maybe irrationally. A few high profile incidents linger in my mind.

More frivolously, I’m on the fence about their J catering. This post is not representative as a morning flight, but for lunch/dinner flights they don’t offer as much choice as similar airlines (ex: no appetiser choice and one of the two on the plate is often foie gras, that I personally don’t like and many folks ethically object to; and trio of mini desserts with no choice - the additional sorbet is a nice touch though). But on the flip side, the quality of what they serve tends to be better than the likes of BA or Lufthansa.

Breakfast isn't as big of a thing in France (the AF lounge offer in that timeframe is also evidence of that) as in the Anglosphere.

The second meal is the standard one of late for a short WB TATL. I will say that it's the best egg salad sandwich I've ever had where none of my hens made contributions, but it's designed for after a quite filling multiple course lunch (since the flights it's on typically depart in the afternoon).

Airlines have a strong preference for doing the main meal first on "meal & snack" flights, though I'm not totally sure why (it can't be weight, for instance).

At this point there's only 3 planes flying with it (with 3 or 4 more being refit as I write, which means we're likely to see the last of the 2-3-2 angle flats by the end of the year). The early flight to JFK and the earliest evening departure from JFK are the firmest flights for this product on the schedule. It's also been used to Dakar and Rio regularly and it was used to Boston one random day in February.

Agreed with the safety part, they suck!! Ooooh Lalaaa perhaps on caviar and fromage and champagne and tart tartin, but as far as safety is concerned, stay away from this airline!!!

Is this the best J cabin in SkyTeam now? Looks amazing, surprised by the large footwells for a reverse herringbone.
And that PE cabin is also huge! double the size of the ones in their A359.

Must be tough to catch right now though, Still a lot of A359s and 787s TATL (which aren't bad, actually also good, IMO)

And the wine offering in LH is a disaster i.e. 7USD low cost wine for business class long haul and 45USD for the first class Champagne.

Here I'm not impressed much by the wine offered, as a French airlines I expected wine level to be close to the level of QR, this is not the case.

These seats will reportedly start being installed this year on the new delivery A359s and the 777s which already have reverse herringbone will gradually be refit with these seats (and with a new La Premiere as appropriate).

As this product enters service, I'd expect a lot of North American routes served by the 772 to start getting these 48J 77Ws.

Tomorrow we get the answer to the AF J vs. BA F question which is on everyone's mind...

(Ignoring that the quick write-ups during the trip may have given the answer already).

Unrelated, but worth noting: Flying Blue is a program where award bookings from an elite account inherit the status of the elite member (at least on flights operated by AFKL). So if a Gold/Plat member is on a cash ticket and books an award for a companion, the companion would inherit the right to choose the row 1/9 seats at booking.

Crazy about the new A359s not getting what they currently already have!

"Honestly, what a tasty, well presented brunch starter."

But it was all served on one tray...;)

I think airlines prefer to do the main meal first because of the nature of airplane food. It's all cooked on the ground, loaded, and then heated up in the air. So serving the main meal closer to takeoff means that it's "fresher" when they serve it.

Thanks for that great review, looking forward to trying it! I'm wondering why they chose to deploy the new cabin to JFK on the early morning flight (which is the worst of all worlds since you have to wake up so early in Paris, and you arrive really early in NYC and have to stay up all day), which is also the first flight out of NYC leaving in the afternoon - not the best flight to catch some sleep. I'll try the new seat when it expands to a more palatable schedule 🙂 .

CDG Terminal 2E opened in 2003 ... I wouldn't exactly call that "retro". Or am I getting older than I realize?

" It’s great to see that Air France has 60W USB-A chargers,..."

" It’s great to see that Air France has 60W USB-A chargers,..."
You meant 60W USB-C, right? Do not think A can deliver 60W
(sorry, hit send too soon)

Perhaps the idea was to give people a reason to choose that less-optimal schedule?

It's also not implausible that the WB flight is already a fairly high yielding flight since it's at least plausible that one could have meetings etc. in NY that day.

I appreciate the above concerns as someone who is a little unsure as to flying Air France having been advised that the training of pilots for AF is not as rigorous as for other airlines. Does anyone have any evidence to support this fear?

It looks like AF is repurposing uneaten breakfast food into its second meal. Brilliant!

Very good points! I did wonder about that, if they did that for people to choose the not great schedule flights. But I would say that most people wouldn't even be aware that there is a new business class seat, let alone on which flights they are (it's not really indicated when you book a ticket).

Looks nice but the monitor for a business class seat was VERY small and looked disproportionate to the rest of the seat. Glad you liked it but somewhat underwhelmed.

I'm bummed Delta has replaced AF on the SEA - CDG route. I flew DL when they were NW and it was fine, but AF is something I really wish to try in La Premiere.

I've flown the new seat out of Dulles several times including the inaugural flight out of IAD. The seat is hard and desperately needs as mattress pad. I'm a little older than you, @Ben, but I'd find that my hips would hurt after an hour or so and would have to roll over. Having one more thing wake me up during a short transatlantic flight is not helpful.

Otherwise, the service is hit or miss -- some crews are great and some, not so much.

Strongly disagree with you. The bed does not lie flat, is short and is very uncomfortable (I am a small female). Had the same “breakfast” and it was awful. The brioche was inedible and stale. The bathrooms are very outdated. Had to board on the tarmac- took a PACKED bus, waited forever and then climbed uncovered steps carrying a bag and backpack while I was wearing a walking cast (very unsafe). No free Wi-Fi for business class. Just an awful experience.

He's stating that it's Rows 1 and 9 that are bulkhead seats but Row 1 on this plane is La Premier. I think he means rows 3 and 9, or rather the first and last rows in business class--Yes?

Name a business-class product that offers free WiFi.

@ben

Any idea if they'll retrofit the 4 config plane routes? Specifically LAX to CDG?

Looks amazing! I am flying CDG-IAD tomorrow, very much looking forward to it!

Hi Lucky,

Can you confirm if the bulkhead seats with additional space are all seats in row 1 and 9, or just the window seats?

@ Nic -- All seats in those rows have the extra space, including the center seats.

@ Shawn -- Unfortunately there are no immediate plans to reconfigure the four cabin 777s.

@ Anon -- This is the 777 that doesn't have La Premiere first class. If you're on a plane with La Premiere, you can expect Air France's "old" business class.

Singapore offer freee wifi to Bsuniess Class passengers. I'm sure there are others

Question: do the two interior bulkhead seats in business class have the same ottoman as the window seats? I am flying back from Paris to LAX next June on the 777 and would like to sit next to my wife if they do, but she is ok with the window seats if they don’t. Thanks!