Air France B777 international Business Class review
Honestly wasn’t planning much for this trip, but since my mom had preemptively transferred miles (groan) and they were about to expire, I couldn’t let it just go to waste 🙂
Posts from this Trip Report:
- Introduction: Christmas Markets 2 (with Spain on the side)
- My repositioning trip to Toronto (plus mini-panics)
- Air France B777 international Business Class review
- Air France A350 international Business Class "throne seat" review
Booking this trip
With the functionality to add stopovers on award tickets of up to 364 days, I wanted to actually try out the process and see how it works (for science). I would try to book a one-way ticket but build in a 24-hour layover in Paris to visit some Christmas markets there. Calling into Flying Blue was relatively straightforward. The very first agent understood exactly what I was trying to do and priced the itinerary correctly with no additional charges. Talk about customer service! A far cry from Turkish Airlines……
YYZ + Boarding
While Toronto separates out their international and domestic flights, there are no exit customs. It’s simply going through security and validating your boarding pass, and you’re off to the gate.
I did visit the Plaza Premium International Lounge on this trip, which I thought about doing a detailed review on. But honestly, it was not a very memorable visit, with the lightest beer and the worst tasting meatballs. So I’ll save some time and skip it completely. I’ve sure you can look up reviews of the lounge and see for yourselves. At the very least, here’s a picture of the food available at the buffet:
I thought that lining up with Southwest was a chaotic process. Air France’s boarding area was an absolute disaster. They set up 6 separate lines, one for each group and one for preboarding. Each line was completely full except for Zone 1 (which is where I was :))
Boarding started about 10 minutes late, which irritated some people. Most of the complainers were in Group 3-5, so not quite sure what the rush is there…
The Seat
This was the first time I’ve ever flown Air France’s business class product. At first glance, it looks a little dated and old. Waiting at each seat was a bottle of Evian, pair of noise-cancelling headphones (which were bolted into the seat so you couldn’t remove it), an amenity kit, and bedding.
Despite its dated appearance, I actually found the seat quite comfortable and functional. The footwell was deep and extremely comfortable. This 6’3″ human had no issues with legroom on this flight! The screens are tucked far away but popped out into the perfect position.
The tray tables themselves were out of the way so your knees wouldn’t bump into it when trying to sleep. That is my biggest complaint with the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats on airlines like Air Canada.
Each seat also has individual power outlets and USB plugs. These plugs accommodate both US and European outlets. Quite an amazing design!
Inside the amenity kit was a pair of socks, eyeshade, multiple creams, a set of earplugs, a toothbrush, and a pen.
Pre-Departure
Shortly after boarding we were offered the dinner menu for the flight.
Credit where credit’s due, the wine/alcohol list was quite extensive. The French definitely have their priorities right!
The crew then came around with a choice of champagne or water accompanied with boxes of Crepes Fourrees. I obviously selected champagne, which unfortunately wasn’t fantastic (Air France serves Tradition Premiere Cru de Saint-Gall).
If you’ve never had these Crepe Fourrees, I would highly recommend you to try some. They are heavenly!
We pushed back about 45 minutes late, but were set to make up some time in the air. Luckily for me, my connection wasn’t until the next day!
Dinner
The watermelon salad wasn’t super special and the scallop appetizer was fine, not the most flavorful or freshest I’ve had, but not bad by any imagination. Plus, the thought of having shellfish on a plane is a bit…interesting.
For my main, I selected the veal shoulder confit, which was quite tasty and filling. The sauce was actually better than I’ve had in many restaurants, so credit to the Air France catering department.
Since it was already getting very late, I skipped dessert and also opted to skip breakfast the next day.
I knocked out completely cold for the rest of the flight, waking up as we were starting our descent into Paris. The flight crew saw me wake up and offered a whole basket of croissants. This was an absolutely dangerous proposition…so I settled with just 3 🙂
Overall Thoughts
I really like the design of the seat on Air France and the overall experience. The flight crew was friendly but not overbearing, and the food was pretty darn good. Definitely go sober though, as the champagne and wine itself will be more than enough to put you to sleep!