Air France A350-9 Business Class YYZ-CDG
This trip began the European carrier A350 tour. A350’s to be flown over this and two subsequent trips are; Air France, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and SAS. And what better way to begin than to tour the Airbus factory!
I spent some time in the Air France lounge which really isn’t worth mentioning. I find AF lounges to be rather sterile and only providing the basics, at least in the few I’ve been in US side. Next time I’ll try the Plaza lounge next door. The terminal had some nice places to eat and drink.
Usually this flight departed Toronto around 6:30PM. For whatever reason today it left at 9:15 which was perfect considering I flew in from Chicago.
Being the first in the J cabin after entering through door 2 allowed for some nice photos.
Boarding mood lighting in a light shade of blue contrasted beautifully with the business class seating pods.
While some airlines removed the center bins, AF did not. Based on the amount of storage space in the pod this was a wise decision.
Seat 4A would be my home for the next 8 hours or so. I’d find out that the pillow and blanket used for sleeping was not up to the rising business class standards offered by many other carriers.
This is an aisle pod, which is rather exposed.
See what I mean about lack of storage space.
Air France installed the nice electronic window shades, at least in business class.
The monitor can be viewed at all times as it’s attached to the backside of the pod in front.
Whereas United installed a small tray like opening to store things like a phone under the monitor, AF opted to just provide a usb port. Unforced error in my view.
Foot wells in straight facing forward or backward have more room versus reverse herringbone designs.
There isn’t any place to store your shoes.
Air France installed a small privacy screen which I guess is better than none.
The pod has almost no character. While United’s Polaris has beautiful finishes and trim, Air France’s pods are white seemingly plastic finishes. They just looked “cheap”.
The IFE control design is new and fantastic. Almost like a trackpad it’s easy to manipulate the monitor, however the touch screen monitor is so close, you really don’t need a controller.
Slippers and a minimal amenity kit were waiting at the seat. There wasn’t any bedding, other than a thin blanket and small pillow. The pod was very uncomfortable to sleep in.
Air France got the A350 camera and it was very cool to watch the de-icing process.
While the monitor was great with the shades closed, there was a little reflection with the window open but otherwise still a brilliant picture.
No pre-departure beverage was offered. Here is this evening’s menu.
I chose the Médoc, which is a nice wine for $30 a bottle.
Air France serves everything except the main on one tray to start. So the dual appetizers, small salad with balsamic/olive oil dressing, bread and butter, cheese and dessert.
The appetizers were good, not fantastic but edible. I do like that they attempt to give you creative dishes based on French cuisine in business class, even if the execution sometimes fails.
The salad however wasn’t overly creative, just some lettuce.
Cheese and no crackers.
Service was extremely slow. So while waiting for the main I had dessert. These 3 little desserts are fun.
I ordered the warm poultry pâté and foie gras. The only thing I could taste in this dish was spinach cooked in butter, which is not a bad thing. But the rest was like a chicken loaf without much taste. It could be I don’t understand the meaning of the dish from the name.
Mood lighting after dinner. You can see privacy is pretty good.
The self serve bar, I guess.
Breakfast was a carb fest.
At least it was plain yogurt.
You can probably tell that the breads had seen better times.
The descent into Paris.
Little did I realize at the time this would most likely be the last time seeing an Air France A380.
See YA
Redemption
This was another Promo from Air France, which are great if you can get one. Only 43,500 points and the taxes. But again, if you have any chance of not taking the flight you lose the points AND the taxes, so buyer beware.
Carrier: Air France
Date: December, 2019
Route: Toronto (YYZ) -Paris (CDG)
Flight #: 353
Aircraft: Airbus A350-9 (F-HTYA) Air France 1st A350
Configuration: C34/W24/Y266
Seat(s): 4A
On Time: Yes
Reward Flying Rating: 7.3 out of 10 ✈
Cabin: ✔︎ Air France chose the Optima seat created by Acumen and manufactured by Safran. These are the same as United’s Polaris business class seats. While the pad design was almost identical, the material used to make the pod was inferior. Most likely to save weight the material had a thin plastic feel to it. One small improvement over Polaris was a sliding privacy screen. It didn’t afford much of a privacy gain, but better than none. The biggest let down was no bedding which made for a very uncomfortable sleep.
Cabin/Seats Rating: 7 out of 10 ✈
Food/Amenities: ✔︎ The food was fair. I still don’t know what I had.
Amenity/Food rating: 6 out of 10 ✈
IFE/WiFi: ✔︎ The IFE system was quite good. Good size monitor, good content, tail cam and easy to use. I don’t think this aircraft had WiFi.
IFE rating: 7 out of 10 ✈
Flight Attendants: ✔︎ This was an average crew and the woman who was my FA spoke very little English. But then again, Canada to France, what’s the predominant language?
Flight Attendant rating: 6.5 out of 10 ✈
Aircraft: ✔︎Airbus A350. A 2 month old A350. Nuff said.
Aircraft rating: 10 out of 10 ✈
This Air France flight ranked towards the top of my international business class flights bolstered by the new A350, otherwise it was just average but I’d take it again, especially at the Promo price!
Air France Flight #353 ranking against other Reward Flying international business class flights.
