Unsurprisingly, this La Première cabin flight with Air France between Paris and Singapore was an excellent experience, with some significant improvements since my last trip on this route.

There is no need to introduce Air France’s La Première product once again, especially since the account of the outbound flight is fairly recent. But as we all know, airlines generally offer better overall service from their main hubs than from foreign airports, something I have verified several times in this travel class on Air France. However, this trip gave me the opportunity to see that efforts had been made to reduce this gap, with fairly conclusive results.

For the record the air routing of this trip.

You will find a summary of the articles on these holidays in Singapore and Bali at the bottom of the page.

Check-in and ground course

I checked in online the day before my departure and, as on the outbound flight, I was offered an upgrade to first class at an attractive price, which I accepted and paid for with miles (I originally had a business class ticket).

Taking advantage of a late check-out at my hotel, I arrive at the airport in the late afternoon, but it’s still too early for the check-in counters to be open.

But compared to my previous experiences, I have noticed one initial change: some airlines now have a check-in counter for passengers who arrive too early, located in Jewel, the shopping center adjacent to the airport. This is a very good idea, as most flights to Europe are very late and few passengers can keep their rooms even for the afternoon.

And for passengers who don’t have access to a lounge (and even for those who do), this allows them to stroll around the Jewel instead of going straight to the airside and having to kill time in the terminal, even though Singapore is a very pleasant airport.

After walking for a while, I arrive at the Air France counter.

In the absence of a clearly marked priority line, I wait in line and feel uncomfortable in front of the agent.

I hand her my passport, she scans it, and her expression changes. “Oh, you’re first class!” She rummages through her things to find some La Première pouches and tags, apologizing, “These aren’t the ones we use most often.” In any case, I seem to have made her smile, and we laugh about it.

She asks me if I want her to pick me up now to take me to the salon, but I prefer to hang out in the mall and come back later.

So here we go for a few hours visiting this place that I really like. Partly for its shops, but mainly for its famous vortex.

I’ll end up settling down at a terrace and having a few cold beers with an unobstructed view of the (also refreshing) spectacle of the vortex.

I end up returning to the counter to rejoin the lounge. The queue has grown even longer, but I approach the counter, making sure my red folder is clearly visible so that the agent who has replaced the previous one notices it. As soon as she looked up and saw it, she stopped checking in passengers and came over to me. I explained that I wanted to go to the lounge, and she took her phone to call her colleague to escort me.

So here we are, ready to go airside.

Immigration, which is completely biometric, will be cleared in no time.

As security checks are carried out at the gate in Singapore, you can walk directly to the lounge as it is quite close.

In the past, Air France used the infamous CIP lounge for its first-class passengers, but on my last trip, we were now in a reserved area of the Qantas business class lounge. This time, I will wait for my flight in the Australian airline’s first-class lounge.

Very good service and excellent dinner, even if it’s not the La Première lounge in Paris.

A few minutes before boarding begins, my hostess comes to get me and takes me to the boarding gate in a buggy. She arranges for a special line to be opened for me at security so I don’t have to wait in line.

And I can finally get on board.

The cabin

This is the familiar Air France La Première cabin (see the article on the outbound flight for a more detailed presentation).

The flight and the service

No sooner had I settled in than the captain came to introduce himself. He told me that we would be taking a slightly unusual route via Muscat, Abu Dhabi, and the Sinai, but that this would save us 20 minutes.

We take the time to chat and I tell him about my recent experience on the polar route… He lingers and is clearly enjoying talking to someone who knows a little about it and to whom he doesn’t have to explain the ETOPS rules.

The flight attendant and the purser come to introduce themselves. Again, we chat and laugh a little…the atmosphere is very relaxed, with that special relationship you always have with the crew when you’re in La Première.

They give me my comfort kit and pajamas and offer me an aperitif: I choose champagne and it will come with a warm oshibori.

I take the opportunity to ask her for a large bottle of sparkling water so I don’t have to ask her for a glass every 10 minutes.

In the end, there will only be two passengers in this cabin for the flight.

The menu is brought to me before takeoff.

Usually, a renowned chef signs the menu for the flight departing from Paris (here, Glenn Viel), but for the return flight, we have an “unsigned” menu. I notice that Air France had the excellent idea of asking a French chef in Singapore to design the menu for the return flight, which allows for dishes that are compatible with local ingredients.

The most avid aviation enthusiasts among you will notice that the beer comes from the Toga brewery. I wonder if that’s intentional…

We finally take off.

After a few minutes, someone comes to take my order. Given the late hour, no one wants to linger too long before going to bed. And since I’m hesitating over the wine, the flight attendant lets me taste several…

My table is quickly set…

There are less comfortable options for dining in flight.

We start with appetizers: caviar, prawns with tandoori mustard and mango sauce.

I forgot to take a photo, but let’s just say that the caviar was purely decorative, unlike on the way there. The prawns were fresh and very tasty, and the caviar was sparingly sprinkled over a scallop… Really very good, but if caviar is going to be served like that, they might as well not serve it at all.

Cauliflower cream, crème fraîche, paprika

Very tasty and delicious, thanks to the paprika.

Duck foie gras, roasted peaches and figs, truffle brioche

The brioche is a little dry and the truffle too subtle. The foie gras has a lot of flavor, which is rare in flight, but the peach and fig help a little.

Gambas “like a dumpling,” “Asian-style” sauce, wok-fried vegetables, and Shimeji mushrooms.

Of course, it is served under a cloche and the sauce is added afterwards.

A real treat, really delicate and full of flavor.

Then a salad prepared to order with my own selection of ingredients: green salad, smoked duck breast, radishes.

Forgot to take a photo of that too. It’s very late and I’m really tired. I’ll skip the cheese and finish with a sorbet, then tea and a whiskey.

I am really falling asleep and go to the bathroom to put on my pajamas. When I return, the flight attendant is preparing my bed.

It’s a new flight attendant replacing the other one who is taking a break, and she’s just as friendly.

I turn on my TV and remark that it must be at least 10 years since I last used screens on planes or TVs in hotels because I have everything I want to watch on my iPad, and she confirms that this is the case for more and more people. It’s crazy how much things have changed in twenty years: before, the first thing I would look at was the movies available on the flight or the TV channels available at the hotel.

Anyway, it’s time to go to bed.

I will sleep for nine hours straight and wake up shortly before breakfast.

We did indeed take a rather unusual route.

Breakfast service begins.

Tea, bread and pastries, cottage cheese, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes with black pepper.

Good, but the omelet could have been more runny. Not quite as good as the eggs I had on the outbound journey.

They bring me two warm oshiboris and it’s time to prepare the cabin for landing. I go to change and when I return, my seat is back to its normal configuration.

Arrival

We land at 5:30 a.m., a little ahead of schedule. As we drive to our parking spot, the chief cabin attendant comes over to greet me and asks if I had a good flight.

As we stop, I see two Porsche SUVs at the foot of the aircraft: logical, as there are two passengers in first class.

My chaperone leads me to the lounge where I will wait for my connection and, during the walk, explains all the improvements that have been made to the ground route for La Première passengers departing from Paris.

Crew

Very professional and couldn’t have been nicer. I really enjoyed my time with them, we had lots of interaction, chatted quite a bit, laughed a little, and they definitely contributed to the quality of the flight.

Bottom line

What else can be said about La Première other than that it is the quintessence of Air France, with constant improvements made to details that ultimately ma

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