The Roaming BoomersOur Experience: Flying Air France Business Class
Photo courtesy of Air France
For the international luxury traveler, the airline flights are the bookends to the entire travel experience. And frankly, most international journeys are determined by price, and not necessarily the best experience available.
It is for this reason that we’ve decided to begin sharing our experiences with various airlines as we bop around the world on our varied journeys.
First up, we’ll share our experience flying with Air France on our recent trip to Paris and the Bordeaux wine region.
If you’re flying to, or connecting through Paris, and like us prefer to avoid coach seating, then we recommend that you take a peek at Air France’s A380 flights. They fly out of New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles; and coming soon, Atlanta.
Business Class View
The A380 is the world’s largest civilian aircraft, and with it’s double decker seating, offers the most business class and premium economy seating in the Air France fleet.
The Air France A380 offers 9 first class suites, 80 angle-flat business class seats, 38 premium economy seats, and 389 economy seats, with the business class and premium economy seating on the upper deck.
We flew business class to France, and because business class was sold out on our return trip, we flew premium economy on the way back.
We’ll focus on the business class experience in this article, but let me just say that Air France’s premium economy is nicer, in our opinion, than most domestic first class seating. Though the seats aren’t as wide as domestic first class, they do offer lots of goodies and a nice lay-back pitch to keep you comfortable and entertained on the journey.
Look below for special airfares we have available just for you!
The Air France Business Class Experience
At the Airport
Carol in her Air France Business Class Seat
As you might expect, with a business class ticket, there is no standing about in long lines. From the moment you walk in the airport, SkyPriority is your red carpet throughout the airport. The SkyPriority signs will offer you an exclusive check-in area, faster access through the security stations, and then off to enjoy the comfort of the business class lounges.
While we had no problems in Phoenix with crowds, it was very, very nice to skip past the crowds in JFK. And, oh my heavens, what a mob of people we faced coming back home in the Paris airport. The Tour de France had just finished, and the airport was absolutely insane! With our SkyPriority tickets, we breezed past the whole mess once we pushed our way in the front door.
Inside the Airplane
Once we arrived at our Air France business class seats, we could immediately tell that we were going to enjoy a comfortable and entertaining journey. Just take a look at the features available to us in our Air France business class seats:
- Most wonderfully, a lie-flat bed seat
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Our “well-being” kit.
A personal screen where we had over 500 hours of free movies, games, music, TV shows; and with the Air France Press app, we had access to many favorite newspapers and magazines at no extra charge
- A hypoallergenic feather pillow, with a soft blanket
- A “comfort and well-being” kit containing toiletries and Clarins skin treatment.
- Power outlet to plug in our gear
- A reading lamp in our seat that could be adjusted so as not to bother others
- Noise-cancelling headphones
- A personal telephone to make calls via satellite
- And ample storage space for our computers, iPad, and more.
Although I tend not to be able to sleep on long flights, I can attest that I was certainly far more rested with this flight than any I can recall. Very nice, indeed!
Dining in Air France Business Class
L’amuse-bouche
As you might expect from the French, dining in business class seating was a completely unexpected culinary experience.
We started off with a wonderful flute of chilled champagne accompanied by a box of tasty Apéricrepes filled with Comté cheese and walnuts. YUM!
As you might expect, we enjoyed a long list apéritifs that included single malt scotch, apéritif anisé (yum), 10 year-old port wines, beers, soft drinks, and of course French wines. And, after dinner there was another list of digestifs such as cognac, armagnac, and more.
As we approached our meal, we learned that our evening meal was especially designed by the world-famous Michelin-starred Chef Joël Robuchon. How cool is that! We’ve enjoyed a few meals at a few of his various locations around the world, and enjoyed them immensely.
Joël Robuchon Cuisine
As you can see pictured above, we started our culinary journey with an L’amuse-bouche: shrimp, guacamole, and pink grapefruit.
Next, we enjoyed a gourmet appetizer consisting of Maine lobster with wasabi mayonnaise, and mango salad. YUM!
After enjoying our appetizer, out came a fabulous green curry chicken with poppy seed rice. Green food never photographs well, so I haven’t shown you my photograph. BUT, it sure was tasty!
If all of that wasn’t enough, out next came cheeses, the mango-coconut and raspberry cake pictured above, chocolates, and a double shot of decaf espresso for yours truly.
Without a doubt, this was the most fabulous cuisine we’ve experienced on an airline flight. Magnifique!
To make our culinary experience even greater, about 90 minutes before landing in Paris, we enjoyed fresh fruits, yogurt, French breads, pastries, along with some great French roasted coffee. Wow! What an eye opener!
Well, as I think you can see, our experience flying Air France business class was a fabulous experience, and one that we look forward to enjoying again in the future.
Special fares for our readers from Virtuoso Air
As you might know, we have a travel agency that is a part of Virtuoso®, the world’s leading international luxury travel agency network.
Within our network, we can pass along bulk-rate purchase savings to our clients through Virtuoso Air. With the $12 billion buying power of our network, we’ve found that quite often we can save our clients quite a bit of money when purchasing first class, business class, or premium economy seats on most of the world’s major airlines.
If you would like to inquire about our bulk-rate airline fares for Air France, or nearly any other major airline, give us a call at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request form by clicking the red button below.
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7 Comments on “Our Experience: Flying Air France Business Class”
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It looks like you had a very enjoyable experience with Air France.
Being Platinum Elite I have quite a bit of experience with Air France and their Business Class flights. More recently I did upgrade to First Class and wow! What an experience!
You make a very valid point about Premium Economy. When it comes to domestic flights, particularly in the US, the term First Class is not worthy of the title. It is a premium price ticket for very little extra. As a European I find it extraordinary how in the US a First Class domestic ticket will not always guarantee me lounge access. (I’m glad I’m a European and experience our flight experiences as well as the US ones).
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your perspective. 🙂
My wife and I traveled on Air France to Paris from Atlanta over Christmas 2014. I would add a note to your review which we discovered first hand. We flew Premium Economy both ways on an Air France 777-200. I would encourage travelers to find out what TYPE of plane on which they are purchasing a ticket. The A380’s are AF’s newest addition to their fleet and therefore the seats have far less “wear and tear”. The two 777-200’s we flew on were quite old. While the Premium economy seats are well appointed (certainly much better than true economy!), the seats themselves were so old that we found ourselves folding the blanket we were given and sitting on it. What little padding the seats originally had long since been crushed to uselessness and the wire frame structure of the seat was easily discernible. I would certainly recommend Premium Economy over the “steerage” option (the true economy seats looked positively “sardine can” uncomfortable) but it could have been a MUCH better experience if we knew to fly on the much newer A380.
Very good points. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience. 🙂
My husband and I flew AF LAX to CDG to FCO in premium economy on the A380-800. From the time we entered the terminal at LAX it was an amazing experience. We used the priority line with no waiting to get checked in. We loved the upper deck, separate section for premium economy. The food and service was fantastic. Delicious champagne and a large variety of wines to choose from. The seats were comfortable and felt like a business class seat on American airlines. Would definitely fly on AF premium economy again. 🙂
YK, thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience w/ our readers. We agree. So far, it’s our favorite way to get across the pond. 😀
Thanks for the really nice review, I’m looking forward to flying Air France again, once we are allowed out of our homes. ?? I know that the lockdown is necessary and important to save lives, but I miss flying and I miss travelling.? 1st world problems!
I’ve flown Air France in Business a few times – I think it’s really underrated. I personally think that Air France has the best business class in Europe, although I think that Avios is a better program that Flying Blue. Flying Blue is really annoying as their miles expire after 2 years, and it’s not easy to get the miles extended. Miles and More have similar issues with expiry.
I really like the reverse herringbone seat on the Air France 787. I know that a lot of airlines have this seat, and its my favourite. I also like think that the quality of the French champagne is very good too. I love the Air France Lounges, they’ve been refurbished the lounges in Paris and they look really good. I think the Air France lounges are better than both British Airways and Lufthansa lounges.
Another thing that is really impressive about the Air France Business Class is the amenity kit. They have high quality products and the design of the bags are really nice. I always keep the bags for my wife, show loves them. I’ve given more information at https://soulfultravelguy.com/article/air-france-business-class-review-long-haul. One thing that I do find a little disappointing with Air France, is that the food doesn’t always live up to expectations. I’m a big fan of French food, and I don’t understand why I’ve never had a good coq au vin, duck or Boeuf Bourguignon in the sky. Overall I think that Air France Business Class is up there with the Middle East airlines, and I’m not sure that bloggers give it enough credit.