Lisbon-Paris in business class on Air France: no lounge and a crew from another era

While my last medium-haul flights on Air France showed clear progress compared with the not-so-distant past, this flight between Lisbon and Paris in business class saw the reawakening of old demons with behaviors we thought had disappeared. On the other hand, the quality of the catering is still of a very high standard.

At the bottom of the page you’ll find a summary of the articles about this trip to Lisbon.

Ground experience

After a rather complicated Uber ride from the city center, I finally arrived at the airport, not without difficulty. Inside the airport it’s no better, with long queues everywhere, even though it’s not even the weekend! The same goes for security checks!

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Fortunately, the priority queue will be almost empty and very fast.

I run through the duty free area to get to the lounge and extract myself from the crowd. Then, bad surprise.

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Construction work is normal, but I think the airline could have warned me so that I wouldn’t have to come so early. So I find myself with 1h30 to kill in a packed terminal that’s a veritable zoo.

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It’s hard to find somewhere to sit, hard to find a bottle of sparkling water, and even harder to find one that’s a bit cold… And I’m surprised to find that few of the many food outlets accept American Express, which is quite a feat for an airport.

In short, a rather catastrophic experience, whether in the terminal or even trying to buy myself a drink, and after walking desperately to find somewhere to settle down I ended up heading for the boarding gate.

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Time passes (slowly) and it’s time to board. Signage is well in place.

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Boarding

A glance outside tells me that it’s not going to be easy, as it’s a TAP parked at our gate, even though our aircraft landed 25 minutes ago.

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Moreover, TAP passengers are still disembarking.

As you may have guessed, I’m about to be confronted with a great Lisbon airport classic: boarding by bus!

Boarding begins 7 minutes early to compensate for the time spent on the bus. The agents struggle to enforce the queues, but in the end it doesn’t really matter: when boarding by bus, having priority usually means getting off last!

That’s exactly what will happen: the agents will do their best to put the Elite passengers first…and we’ll find ourselves at the back of the bus and last to board the aircraft.

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After a fairly short journey, we are dropped off at the foot of our A321.

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The cabin

It’s the usual Air France medium-haul cabin, which is also very attractive, with seats less worn than on other aircraft.

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The legroom is very good.

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There’s nothing wrong with this seat, which is more than adequate for a medium-haul business class flight, unless you make ITA your standard.

There will be 28 business class seats on this flight.

The flight

As soon as we’re settled in, we’re handed an excellent quality wipe.

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We were told that we would be leaving late because of luggage that had not yet been loaded. As far as I know, Air France doesn’t take connecting baggage in Lisbon, so it can only be baggage from this flight, and this only adds to the heavy baggage management liability at this airport!

After 20 minutes we’re told we’re ready to push back.

In the meantime, one announcement follows another to get our suitcases in order, then come the safety instructions…if you can call them announcements. For me, it’s more like barking, and I really don’t like the tone.

We end up leaving anyway.

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The service starts quickly, accompanied by a rather original bark: “Please do not leave your seats during the service”. She also puts her money where her mouth is, yelling at passengers who want to use the toilet. It’s true that simplifying service by making passengers bear the discomfort is very convenient.

After a few minutes the barky flight attendant comes up to me and asks if I’d like to have dinner. It’s 5 p.m. and the service isn’t dinner, but… yes, I’d like something to eat.

As for his scruffy-looking male colleague, he asks me “what can I get you to drink” in a very familiar tone. Nice, but familiar.

I’m also asked if I’d like a hot drink. I already don’t think it’s appropriate to serve it at the start of the meal, but if you add water and wine, there’s no place to put the cup. But obviously this crew has decided to do the minimum on this flight.

The tray is brought to me.

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Salmon steak with basil, sweet potato and ginger cream Venerated rice salad, Cantal AOP, Crottin de Chavignol AOP, lemon tartlet

The salmon is very good, well-cooked, and the sweet potato cream is very good, perfectly seasoned with ginger.

The tartlet is light and tasty.

And the tray is served at an ideal temperature, which was not the case on Air France in the not-too-distant past.

Throughout the service, I’ll be sure to take advantage of the exchanges between the barker and her colleagues, not always related to the service.

The barker returns to clear the table and there will be no second drinks service.

After skirting the Atlantic coast, we set course for Paris and the descent quickly begins.

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Arrival

We make a loop around Roissy to land facing west. It’s bad enough we weren’t ahead of schedule, but you can’t blame the pilot for the wind direction and the logical decisions made by air traffic control.

On final approach, the pilot performed a go-around and we climbed up without any violence. We weren’t too low, so the pilot didn’t have to make a sudden manoeuvre. In fact, he’ll tell us why: the aircraft ahead of us was too slow.

We finally land and park at 2E-L, as the aircraft will theoretically be leaving for Marrakech 30 minutes later. So it’s by bus that we reach 2F.

The service

The return of the Air France medium-haul service of the 2000-2020s, and the famous “Monique” who thinks we’re lucky to be able to accompany her on her journeys, and that it’s only a matter of time before we ask too much of her. How ungrateful passengers can be!

The good news is that my recent flights prove that these behaviors are disappearing.

Bottom line

Good flight, good meal, staff in the wrong era.

The articles about this trip to Lisbon

#TypeReview
1DiaryGenesis of the trip to Lisbon
2HotelMoxy CDG
3LoungeAir France lounge Roissy 2F (No review, already presented many times)
4FlightParis-Lisbon Air France Business Class – A220
5HotelMoxy Lisbon City Center
6RestaurantEpur Lisbon
7FlightLisbon-Paris Air France Business class – A321
8DiaryLisbon trip debrief
Bertrand Duperrin
Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com
Compulsive traveler, present in the French #avgeek community since the late 2000s and passionate about (long) travel since his youth, Bertrand Duperrin co-founded Travel Guys with Olivier Delestre in March 2015.
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