Air France is upping its lounge game in Paris, and I’m impressed.
In this post:
New Air France Business Lounge Paris CDG
Air France has today unveiled its brand new lounge in Terminal 2F at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), which is open to short and medium haul passengers, as the lounge is in the Schengen area.
The new lounge is located between the two boarding areas in the terminal, and is open daily from 5:30AM until 10PM. Access is free for SkyTeam business class passengers and SkyTeam Elite Plus customers, and access can be purchased for 35 Euros per person for passengers traveling in economy, subject to capacity controls.
The new two level Air France lounge is a staggering 3,000 square meters (32,000+ square feet), and has seating for 570 people.
As it’s described, the new lounge is “an invitation to celebrate the best of French-style travel,” and offers “a real moment suspended in time.” That might sound confusing or aspirational, but as I look at the pictures, I get where that’s coming from. The lounge is stunning, and almost reminds me of the TWA Hotel at JFK.
Air France’s signature colors — blue, white, and a hint of red — are highlighted throughout the lounge, along with the Air France brand symbol, which is a winged seahorse.
As some of the features of the lounge are described:
- There’s a giant sculpture at the entrance to the lounge, inspired by the wings of an aircraft, and it’s intended to symbolize flight, technology, and the avent-garde
- Past that there’s a runway view from huge curved windows, letting in a northern light that illuminates the lounge
- Both floors have dining areas, with catering varying throughout the day, ranging from mini sandwiches, to salads, to pancakes, to cheese, to dessert
- There’s a “detox” area, which offers a wide range of herbal teas
- Upstairs is a relaxation area, featuring comfortable loungers and recliner seats, along with subdued lighting
- There’s a Clarins treatment area, offering 20-minute beauty or radiance treatments
- There’s a wellness area with 10 shower suites
Here are some pictures of the new lounge:
Here’s a video of the new lounge, including how it was constructed:
Air France-KLM’s lounge game is strong
Air France’s new lounge looks gorgeous. It goes without saying that this isn’t Air France’s best lounge in Paris — that would be the spectacular La Premiere Lounge, which I rate as the best lounge in the world — but this looks exceptional for a lounge for short haul passengers.
I can’t speak to the soft product of the lounge, since I haven’t visited it. However, the “bones” and design of this lounge look incredible. You can’t beat the huge curved windows, along with the beautiful interior design.
In general I’ve been impressed by the ways in which Air France-KLM has been opening and redesigning lounges. Air France has some not-great older lounges (like the ones in Boston, Chicago, Houston, etc.), but the ones that have been refreshed or newly opened all look great.
Of the “big three” European mega-airlines, I’m most impressed by what Air France-KLM is doing with its lounges nowadays. KLM’s flagship lounge in Amsterdam is excellent, and the regional lounges in Amsterdam are solid as well. I’ve have pretty good experiences with Air France’s other lounges in Paris as well.
Bottom line
Air France passengers traveling in business class on regional flights are in for a treat, thanks to the new Air France Lounge in Terminal 2F at Paris CDG. Physically the lounge looks great, with huge windows, a lot of space, two levels, and very nice looking interior design. Even beyond that, I’ve found catering, including both food and drinks, to generally be quite good at Air France lounges.
What do you make of Air France’s new lounge at CDG?
Just boarded my flight at CDG to AMS. Arrived early and got in the lounge at 7:30AM for a 9:30AM flight. Was pleasantly surprised as I wasn’t tracking there was a new lounge and was just expecting to go to one of the lower level ones that we went to last in 2018.
Was amazed at how large the seating areas were and the size of the lounge in general. Lots of pastries and hot...
Just boarded my flight at CDG to AMS. Arrived early and got in the lounge at 7:30AM for a 9:30AM flight. Was pleasantly surprised as I wasn’t tracking there was a new lounge and was just expecting to go to one of the lower level ones that we went to last in 2018.
Was amazed at how large the seating areas were and the size of the lounge in general. Lots of pastries and hot meal options on the “Le Creuset” style Dutch ovens. Huge upgrade to what they had before, even when crowds started coming in at a higher rate around 8:30AM there was plenty of room and never felt over-crowded.
Can you utilise this lounge if flying in to 2F and out of 2E or do you need to use the 2E lounges?
Can we pay to use it ? How much for on hour ?
Can you get a special price with economy plus seats?
Economy plus get any advantage? Can I use miles to get entry?
yes - check the Air France website for details
https://www.airfrance.fr/FR/en/common/guidevoyageur/aeroport/salons-air-france.htm
I spent two hours with my family a few days ago. Gorgeous lounge, we happen to be there while they were shooting some of the promo shots with the models, really entertaining. Pro tip: the hot meal options are kind of hidden in the four containers/pots in each corner of the cold options bar. The design makes them hard to notice. My wife discovered it, tip of the hat to her! At 7:30 PM there...
I spent two hours with my family a few days ago. Gorgeous lounge, we happen to be there while they were shooting some of the promo shots with the models, really entertaining. Pro tip: the hot meal options are kind of hidden in the four containers/pots in each corner of the cold options bar. The design makes them hard to notice. My wife discovered it, tip of the hat to her! At 7:30 PM there was a scheduled refill of those and after it was done everyone in the lounge was all over the hot meals like vultures (albeit very classy ones) :)
I was there on 7 September, passing through. Very surprised that the lounge is open. The website still says all lounges are closed due to Covid restrictions. The lounge is large and very comfortable. At the moment only cold snacks. You can notice that everything is new, a lot of rubbish on the tables which is not cleared away fast enough. Otherwise it looks good.
Anyone tried paying for this lounge entry on the day of departure whilst flying economy?
I'll be checking the lounge out this weekend, exicted!
Typing from the lounge now it's gorgeous with plenty of space nice food and bev selection. Nap rooms as well and super nice shower rooms thank you Air France!
Are the shower rooms open then?
Thanks.
With COVID I’m sure there will be packaged food instead of a buffet. Please do your homework instead of parroting a press release.
Terminal 2E is at De Gaulle is internationally travelled three times per day at de faultless is in terms of being exact on departing 26R from de gaulle to nyc when the wind is less when you get 27L is rare given the winds of the aircraft you can land forty five minutes early.
What?
The old terminal 2F to go through the old issues of American and to go through the whole issue of a new business of the old photograph of the new idea of something of old furnishing in 25 minutes or less.
What does that mean ?
The old lounges in 2f were awful, overcrowded and awkwardly laid out and much worse than the lounges in the non-Schengen areas, so this is a huge improvement.
Well, I'd say their layout led to the crowding. The spiral staircase meant that downstairs remained a mystery to most guests, and, until COVID, there was a single entrance/exit, right by the main upstairs buffet. It was always crowded upstairs around the food. Downstairs, which had an identical spread, was usually pretty calm. The only times I saw the place stuffed was when there was weather.
Agreed about the downstairs sections always being much quieter in the old lounges in 2F. They were always my preferred sanctuary. Looking forward to trying the new lounge pretty soon to see how different it feels.
Looks nice but the AF and KLM lounges tend to get extremely busy. The KLM flagship lounge often has no place to sit and the buffet regularly runs out of food.
I was just there yesterday. I knew it was new, didn't know it may have been one of the first days. I only had about 30 minutes, so didn't get to explore it all or take a shower. But on an afternoon when 2F was fairly crowded the lounge felt spacious and I had no trouble finding a seat on a large comfortable sofa by the window on the main level. Food options were mostly...
I was just there yesterday. I knew it was new, didn't know it may have been one of the first days. I only had about 30 minutes, so didn't get to explore it all or take a shower. But on an afternoon when 2F was fairly crowded the lounge felt spacious and I had no trouble finding a seat on a large comfortable sofa by the window on the main level. Food options were mostly cold, except for some quiche (which was quite good) and maybe a soup. All well stocked. Self service bar area with liquor, a couple red wines, one white, and Laurent Perrier champagne. There is also a full service bar.
So, it's open now? They were announcing July 14 for quite a while. I was through there Sunday, and they weren't quite open. 2F has two lobes that look spectacular, but have the effect of cramming more departure gates into less floor space as you go in. The old lounges are in the tip of each lobe, below the boarding level (and with a downstairs section as well, which is apron-level).
The new lounge...
So, it's open now? They were announcing July 14 for quite a while. I was through there Sunday, and they weren't quite open. 2F has two lobes that look spectacular, but have the effect of cramming more departure gates into less floor space as you go in. The old lounges are in the tip of each lobe, below the boarding level (and with a downstairs section as well, which is apron-level).
The new lounge looks to be a polyp between the two lobes. So, this lounge replaces two old ones. The view will be of the ramp with a taxiway in the background. Another taxiway goes past a remote stand and leads off towards the 27s, but the runways themselves are hidden behind the buildings of the terminal 3/Roissypole area.
We'll see if they change much in the service. The big difference between the (old) Schengen and non lounges is the lack of open champagne bottles (in the Schengen lounge, they do come by with glasses of champagne around 1730-1800), and the non lounges might have a warm food option.
I believe the new (and enormous) Turkish Air lounge in Istanbul is around 5,000 square meters, so this is roughly 60% as large. This is really impressive for a short/medium-haul lounge, and even moreso given the quality and quantity of other AF longest at CDG.
Wow, the tall curved wall, the fact that it has two levels... this whole thing is simply amazing. And to put it into perspective, this lounge is about 400 square meters bigger than the United Polaris lounge at SFO, which also has two levels in it. This could even be a great long-haul business class lounge. Air France just does lounges right.