All good things must come to an end and I had to leave Lisbon to return to Paris. The day flight will be on Air France in economy class.

On my way to the airport, I consulted the Air France application and realized that my flight was delayed by 15 minutes. For once I see Air France announce a delay so far in advance it’s a good point. However, a notification would have been a nice touch.

On the other hand, the mention “flight scheduled on time” when it is marked delayed …. I think we have neglected a little the quality tests on the application.

And I have my doubts that we’ll arrive on time too. Of my last four Air France flights in a month, only one left on time and it’s starting to get really annoying.

Ground experience and boarding

Arrived at the airport I go to the security controls. I am impressed by the crowd and the waiting line on the “fast track”…in addition to the people who are obviously not used to travel considering the scenes I witnessed when passing the controls.

As far as I’m concerned, it goes like clockwork and I cross the big duty free and the commercial area to get to the lounge.

Ah a Tumi store, my official supplier for my travel bags and suitcases now.

The lounge overlooks what is somewhat the “central square” of the terminal.

Nothing to add, everything is already in the review made of the ANA lounge. For once it was not filled to the brim, but the quality of the food on offer still left something to be desired.

Well, now not only the departure is late but also the arrival. It’s more logical, but it’s still ” expected on time “. Better to laugh than to cry about it.

I eventually made my way to the gate. It’s crowded, people are pushing and crowding each other, they’re not in the right lines. A joyful mess.

15h45…we should board in theory. But only in theory.

The aircraft is a Joon…well an Air France but in an aircraft that logically has not yet had time to repaint the fuselage after the death of its little sister.

Well we end up boarding in a certain disorder, many passengers being turned down from the priority line to which they did not have access.

Settling in on board

Given the number of passengers with children, the plane is already full when the priority passengers finally board.

The headrests have been redesigned in the Air France colors, but the curtain separating Business and Economy remains Joon blue.

Only children in the first rows, it is noisy as one could wish.

The seat is comfortable and the pitch very correct for a flight of a little more than 2 hours.

The tablet is a good size.

The unattached partition curtain hanging in front of the passengers in the first row of eco is not great. Apparently this makes my neighbor upset.

Boarding is slow. Next to us a Lufthansa is about to leave too.

Finally we push back to 16h27. That is 12 minutes more than the initial delay announced. I don’t think we’ll arrive it on time.

The flight and the service

Nothing to tell about the takeoff. Here is the video.

. After a few minutes the curtain of the business class is drawn. One day we will have to find a system to make it less intrusive for the passengers in the row just behind.

The service starts quickly. For me it will be a Perrier…and nothing else. The “dish of the day” is indeed a microscopic ice cream like the one already proposed on the outbound flight and on my recent flight from Manchester to Paris. As I said here once it’s nice, but 3 times in 15 days and moreover on a flight of more than 2 hours it’s making fun of the world!

On the other hand, let’s talk about trains arriving on time, the service was very pleasant and smiling, I was not used to it anymore on Air France.

The arrival

2 episodes of a series watched on my iPad later we begin our approach.

Superb view on Paris.

It shakes a little, the children scream. I can’t wait to arrive.

We land at 19:35 finally we shall have only 10 minutes of delay. But as on the outbound trip, I am still waiting for someone to take the microphone to apologize.

Bottom line

Another delayed flight, a bad habit at Air France these days and above all another unexcused delay.

A desolate catering, You will say that I am fixated on the frozen micro-ice creams that Air France served throughout the summer but the systematic nature of the thing this summer, the quantity and the lack of variety are a sign that some people forget to think about the customer.

And the flight doesn’t last long enough for the friendliness of the staff on this flight to make up for it.

For the record my routing :

• Paris-Lisbon : Air France, Economy
• Lisbon-Paris : Air France, Economy (here)

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