Quality service, despite a certain delay, with Air France in business class on this flight between Paris and Amsterdam, which tends to reconcile me with the airline after a series of disappointing flights.

In view of my recent flights, notably one to Gothenburg, and my experience of over 10 years with our airline’s medium-haul services, my expectations for this flight were not particularly high, to say the least. But as I always say, you have to give the product a chance, and I thought that the airline’s clear move upmarket in the long-haul sector in recent years would one day trickle down to the medium-haul sector, which I’ve always found disappointing, if not regressing.

For the record the air routing of this trip.

You’ll find a summary of articles about this trip to Porto at the bottom of the page.

Booking

A few weeks ago, I booked a return ticket to Porto, which I paid for with my miles: 61,000 miles + 90 euros. It’s quite expensive, especially as you’ll see later, compared to a long-haul ticket I bought myself for this summer, but given the prices in euros it was still the best solution.

Check-in and ground course

I check-in the day before using the Air France application.

I arrive early in the morning using the CDGVal from my hotel and walk to terminal 2F. Unpleasant surprise: the escalators are undergoing maintenance and I have to take the elevator.

At this point, a slightly older man arrives, overtakes everyone and enters the elevator. The other passengers and I look at each other in amazement and enter the elevator, whereupon the man in question, who’s wearing a mask, starts verbally abusing everyone, gesturing wildly that he won’t let us get on the elevator with him unless we wear masks too.

Given his aggressiveness, we’ll let him go up alone and take the next elevator.

For the record: I was unable to determine his nationality, but judging by the accent he wasn’t French (so much for our legendary friendliness).

Then I go to the security checkpoint: the priority lane is almost empty.

For once, I had very pleasant agents, and we chat and exchange a few jokes while I go through the controls, discussing the imminent arrival of more modern scanners, and as I’m putting my computer back in my bag, I see the gentleman from the elevator arrive.

He starts to raise his voice and speaks aggressively to one of the agents. Another agent approaches and the tone rises, but he ends up putting his things on the conveyor belt. I say to one of the agents “oh it’s this moron again….” and briefly recount what happened in the elevator.

As I’m leaving, I hear the agent I was talking to say “Sir, please come with us for a thorough baggage search”. The other replied “I’m in a hurry, boarding is about to start...”. The other one: “follow me and keep your voice down”.

I don’t know how it ended, but I couldn’t help thinking “well desserved“.

I then head for the Air France lounge, which for once won’t be crowded, allowing me to really enjoy the experience.

I leave it just a few minutes before boarding.

Boarding

I arrive at the gate just as boarding is about to begin. As always, it’s a bit messy, but I wouldn’t blame the airline for that: it’s simply the organization and architecture of the terminal that makes it so.

A few minutes later I’m in the cabin.

The Air France A220 business class cabin

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the first time I’ve flown the A220 with Air France, but the aircraft is destined to occupy a major place in the airline’s medium-haul fleet. Since up to now I’ve only flown this aircraft with Swiss, I’m curious to see the “Air France version”.

Unsurprisingly, we have a typical 2-3 configuration for this aircraft.

The seats are in blue leather and very attractive in appearance. Overall, I’m quite taken with the cabin design and color harmony.

Legroom is decent, but nothing more.

The seat is slim but comfortable, and – a rarity on today’s medium-haul routes – it reclines.

There are sockets for recharging your devices.

The table is a decent size, and the seat has a convenient tablet holder.

Isn’t there a curtain to separate business class from economy?

One last detail: I found the luggage compartments rather small, as the flight attendant confirmed.

In business class there is a blocked seat on blocks of two seats and the middle seat on blocks of 3.

All in all, a very attractive and comfortable cabin, and for those who think it’s always better elsewhere, the aircraft offers wifi, power sockets and a tablet holder, whereas Swiss offers none of these.

The flight

As we board, we are given a bottle of water and some very nice wipes.

Boarding is late and the doors close 10 minutes late. Some habits are hard to break….

14 of the 15 business class seats will be occupied.

A further 10 minutes must elapse before push back takes place.

Head for the north doublet for takeoff on 27L.

Service starts very quickly, which makes sense given the length of the flight.

Some passengers will be served by tray, others by trolley.

And here’s the tray I was served:

Visually, it’s not as bad as I expected.

Gnocchetti with salmon, zucchini and preserved lemon.

Very tasty and served at the right temperature (often at Air France I had the impression that it was coming out of the freezer) and even if I’m not a fan of salmon it’s a great success overall.

Cantal AOP, Crottin de Chavignol AOP.

Ok.

Apple tartlet.

Good and light.

Finally, a meal that won’t make me forget years of mediocrity on medium-haul flights, but gives me hope that things are improving. We’ll see on future flights.

But we’re already nearing the end of the flight and preparing for landing.

Arrival in Amsterdam

The approach to Amsterdam is always an opportunity to admire the polders.

We land shortly afterwards and are parked at the gate. A good thing, because with the delay a bus debarkation would have complicated my connection.

A 20-minute delay leaves me just 10 minutes before boarding my flight to Porto. Of course, it’s in a different part of the terminal, and if you know Schiphol you know it’s going to be a race.

The crew

Super friendly, considerate and smiling. You’d think they’d replaced a medium-haul crew with a long-haul one, where attitudes are usually radically different.

Bottom line

A good flight, well above what Air France had given me in medium-haul business class in the past. Is this a stroke of luck, or is Air France’s medium-haul finally following the same trajectory of progress as its long-haul? We’ll see on future flights.

The articles about this trip to Porto

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