QUESTION

How good is Air France's long haul business class, service, seats, and food ?

Answer

by Karl Renz - 7 September 2004

I just returned from a round trip CDG-ABJ-CDG on AF in business class. Yes the seats are the old ones and not as much room between the seat in front of you. Service and food was good. AF is a rip off from Washington to Abidjan. By asking American Express if I could change to United from AF for the portion IAD-CDG RT in conjunction with the CDG-ABJ-CDG portion. This saved me $1200. Looks like AF rips off the passengers. Africa has always been notorious for high fares especially when they are the only safe carrier to fly on.

Answer

by Louis Bischoff - 10 May 2004

I flew Air France's old business class last month between CDG and Montreal. It's maybe because I can speak French, but I loved the service: friendly, professional and fun as well... as someone said before, the trick is to "play" with them, make them your "friends" and you'll get a great service! As for the seats, new ones are coming soon. Howver, I would not compare the old ones to BA's premium economy seats!

Answer

by Jo Lebon

To be honest and to answer the above question i ask myself why people still fly Air France's long haul Business Class in the first place? As I travel every 2 weeks to the US on AF/DL/CO (Atlanta, Houston) in First/Business Class I can tell you many stories on AF. To start with the service I would say it is bad 95% of the times. FA are not very friendly and check in people should be much more motivated. Paris is specialized in losing luggage and / or taking very much time to load them off. Seats - bad - have flown on their B777, B747, A330 and A340 and again 95% of the times there is always something broken (is it not the light, it is the recline or whatever) Their maintenance is one of the worst I have ever seen... The seats are very outdated and look more like BA premium economy than Business. Food - very mediocre most of the time (only cheese and wines are fairly good)

Answer

by Florian Eberth

I agree with the other comments; I flew on Air France 747 Paris-Bangkok-Paris, Upper Deck, and the seats were not in best condition anymore, my electrical footrest didn't work and some rows in front of me, a part of the cabin ceiling was falling down. Food is not as good as one might expect from a French airline.

Answer

by F Peters

I just flew Air France from NRT to CDG and back in business class. In my opinion Air France needs a major overhaul. Seats are old, dirty and uncomfortable. Some of the functions didn't work. FA's are not too bad with non-French speaking passengers if you play them right. If you at least try to say a word or two in French they'll appreciate that (not that I find that good) and treat you relatively well. In any case I prefer to fly JAL or ANA to Europe. I would suggest these airlines if you were going to fly from Japan. The service is simply incomparable However, traveling from USA I would definitely go for AA or UA over AF for sure. KLM/NWA is not so bad either.

Answer

by A Leonard

For long-haul routes to/from Paris you would be better off connecting in London with British Airways. The Air France business class experience is not a pleasant one and the seating no where near as good as British Airways flat beds.

Answer

by Rohit Joy

The seats need upgrading (especially in terms of their pitch) although they are better than Lufthansa business class seats. The food is pretty good but the service is lousy if you don't speak French; the flight attendants blatantly discriminate against non-French passengers.