Air France offers the world’s best first class ground service, in my opinion, and you can even buy access to this experience if not flying first class. However, the price for this has just been raised significantly, and more restrictions have been added on buying access. In this post I wanted to recap the current state of this opportunity.
In this post:
Why Air France’s La Premiere Lounge is great
Based on my rankings, Air France offers one of the world’s best first class experiences. Air France’s 777-300ER first class is the world’s second best first class product in my opinion, after Emirates’ new 777-300ER first class.
Not only that, but Air France offers the world’s best first class ground experience at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, with the spectacular La Premiere Lounge.
If you’re connecting in Paris, you’ll be picked up from your arriving flight and will be brought to the lounge. After relaxing (and not having to worry about anything, since the staff keep an eye on the time), you’ll then be driven to your connecting flight when it’s time.
The food in the Air France La Premiere Lounge is the best of any lounge I’ve experienced. There’s also a spa, where you can receive a complimentary treatment. Perhaps best of all, the entire experience is performed with such French confidence, which I can’t help but love.
The Air France first class ground experience is available to those traveling in Air France first class. As of now Air France exclusively has first class on select Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, though rumor has it that some future delivery Airbus A350-900s will have first class as well.
The good news is that there’s another cool way to get access to this lounge. Unfortunately it keeps getting more and more costly, with an increasing number of restrictions.
Air France sells access to the La Premiere First Class Lounge
Given the relatively small footprint of Air France’s first class, the good news is that you can buy access to the Air France La Premiere Lounge if you’re traveling in long haul business class. This has been possible going as far back as 2015, though unfortunately this has continued to get more expensive and also more restrictive.
There are two types of Air France La Premiere packages that you can buy:
- You can buy an arrivals service, where you will be picked up plane side and fast tracked through immigration
- You can buy a departure or connecting service, where you receive access to the La Premiere Lounge, as well as all transfers between flights
Ideally you’d want the departure or connecting service, since the arrivals service just gets you a fast track through immigration, and doesn’t get you access to the lounge.
Here’s how much these packages cost:
- 300 EUR for the La Premiere arrivals experience
- 650 EUR for the La Premiere departure or connecting experience
This price hike was implemented this year, and until recently the cost was as follows:
- 200 EUR for the La Premiere arrivals experience
- 500 EUR for the La Premiere departure or connecting experience
Going back a few years, the pricing was as follows:
- 150 EUR for the La Premiere arrivals experience
- 300 EUR for the La Premiere departure or connecting experience
As you can see, those are some pretty significant price increases. The price of the departure or connecting experience has increased 117% in the last few years.
Restrictions on buying La Premiere ground services
Even at this high price tag, there are some other conditions that have to be met in order to buy the Air France first class ground experience:
- You must be flying on a long haul Air France flight in business class
- The flight must be operated by a plane without a first class cabin
- The flight must be on a route that doesn’t ordinarily have first class (in other words, you couldn’t buy access on a flight between Paris and New York, since some frequencies have first class)
- You must have flown Air France La Premiere in the past 12 months
- Your ticket must be issued by Air France, regardless of whether it’s a revenue or award ticket
- There are capacity controls, so during periods of high demand it may not be possible to buy access to the lounge
Is buying the La Premiere ground experience worth it?
Back in the day virtually any long haul business class passenger could buy access to the Air France La Premiere Lounge for 300 EUR. There was no requirement to have flown La Premiere in the past 12 months, and the pricing was still easy enough to justify.
Sure, it would be a splurge for many, but when you consider the value of two private car rides to the plane, a spa treatment, and an amazing meal, it’s something that many people could see the value in for a special occasion.
Unfortunately times have changed:
- If you’re looking to justify the value of the price you’re paying, it’s probably harder for most to make the numbers work on paying 650 EUR for lounge access
- Then there are the other restrictions, including having to fly La Premiere in the past 12 months, and restrictions on which routes are even eligible
At this point I’d say the opportunity to buy the La Premiere ground experience is truly for those who would otherwise pay for first class if it were available on a route, rather than those just looking for a fun experience.
Bottom line
I consider the Air France La Premiere Lounge to be the best in the world, between the (aircraft) door-to-door service, amazing food, spa, and French service. Fortunately it’s possible to buy access to the experience even if you’re not flying first class, though there are an increasing number of restrictions.
I suppose I can’t blame Air France for wanting to maintain the exclusivity of the La Premiere experience, and encouraging people to pay for first class rather than just buy portions of the experience.
At the same time, with Air France’s first class footprint having been scaled back significantly due to the retirement of the A380, you’d think the airline would want to generate some additional revenue from operating the lounge. I can’t help but wonder if the current restrictions and pricing are really maximizing revenue (of course without diminishing the experience for first class passengers).
What do you make of the Air France La Premiere lounge access policies and pricing?
Do the have a arrival lounge?
If I am on a Delta flight in Delta One out of CDG (but ticketed by Air France) can one still purchase access (assuming the other criteria is met)?
Hello there,
Just to add a small precision :
I am just coming back from a flight to SIN in F and have to travel again next week in J on a flight without first : I am eligible to the lounge access.
I just booked it (departure service) : I paid in miles, the "price" was 97 500 miles
Have an upcoming J flight out of cdg on AF but no way would I pay this kinda surcharge. Seriously it’s an airport lounge at the end of the day.
I fly F as often as I can afford.
AF ground service for passengers flying F is absolutely amazing and unique.
Very French and really very good.
Onboard, to my experience, their service is far ahead airlines including SQ, LH, Swiss, BA between others.
Is the access to the F lounge at a fee for passengers flying C a teaser ? A way to catch new customers ?
I do not think....
I fly F as often as I can afford.
AF ground service for passengers flying F is absolutely amazing and unique.
Very French and really very good.
Onboard, to my experience, their service is far ahead airlines including SQ, LH, Swiss, BA between others.
Is the access to the F lounge at a fee for passengers flying C a teaser ? A way to catch new customers ?
I do not think. To me it sounds like the cherry without the cake.
Enjoying the F service on the ground and flying C must sound like a hard downgrading once boarding, even if the AF C product is pretty good.
The price hike of the access to the lounge will limit visitors and curious, which is a good thing.
Flying F is definitely different, the last step before flying private. Let’s keep it exclusive.
I clicked on this article expecting one type of offer by AF and read something entirely ludicrous. The offer is arrogant given the price and conditions. As others have suggested, it's a missed opportunity to promote an experience upgrade that could drive demand for AF First rather than turn people off it by making it all far too complicated. This, especially where these types of experience offers rely on spontaneity, not needing a law degree...
I clicked on this article expecting one type of offer by AF and read something entirely ludicrous. The offer is arrogant given the price and conditions. As others have suggested, it's a missed opportunity to promote an experience upgrade that could drive demand for AF First rather than turn people off it by making it all far too complicated. This, especially where these types of experience offers rely on spontaneity, not needing a law degree to determine whether you're eligible on not.
I like AF.....much and much better then than cheap ass sponsored by our government KLM.
I’ve used GRAFF Vip Arrival Service at CDG. They pick you up at the plane in a Mercedes, take you to their VIP lounge while you wait to clear passport control then drive you to your hotel in Paris. It was 390 euro. The VIP lounge wasn’t that big but had a nice meal while I waited for customs.
We were given access to the La Premiere lounge in SFO once. It was nice but not like the narrative for CDG lounge!!
The best part about Air France is everything is AF. La Premiere is luxurious AF. The website is wonky AF. Buying these services is getting expensive AF. It's all on-brand.
Given Delta's investment in AF/KLM I'd like to see Delta Diamond/360 exemption from some of the restrictions (like the 12 month requirement). Ultimately the experience is exclusive and should stay that way, so it's a balancing act of allowing non 1st class pax in to help justify the expense of operating the lounge and transfer services, but not allowing too many behind the curtain.
I give this a zero-to-1% chance of happening -- ever.
AF is highly protective of their La Premiere experience even among their own Flying Blue program elites and French nationals.
This is but another expression of the strong nationalism and pride in culture of the French -- and I LIKE it.
To think that AF would bend the rules for Delta high status frequent flyers because of an investment and the strengthening...
I give this a zero-to-1% chance of happening -- ever.
AF is highly protective of their La Premiere experience even among their own Flying Blue program elites and French nationals.
This is but another expression of the strong nationalism and pride in culture of the French -- and I LIKE it.
To think that AF would bend the rules for Delta high status frequent flyers because of an investment and the strengthening of an already existing alliance relationship is wishful in the extreme.
The problem with the “must have flown La Premiere” requirement is that some people may be regulars on routes that don’t have it. I suspect they are turning business away with this policy.
"French service"
Coming from someone who lives in France, lol. Service is not one of the first things that comes to mind when I think of this country.
French service is elegant and world class. Qu'ils mangent de la brioche
A wonderful experience but that’s quite a hefty surcharge - maybe a bid upgrade from J to P/F for EUR650 would be better value