Friday April 10th 2015
AF007 JFK- CDG A-380 F-HPJH Gate 5B
Seat 64A Business Class Upper Deck
Scheduled Depart. Time: 7:10pm Act. Push-back Time: 7:25
T/O Time: 7:57 from Rwy 22R Flight time 6:30
Arr. Rwy 27R 8:27AM
Check in was fast and easy, "Sky Priority" security took 15 minutes, and the woman at the head of the line was saying this is nothing wait till July when the line wraps around to the back wall. Otherwise no issue at security,
Air France lounge in Terminal 1 is all the way down past gate 1, was very nice, upper level has a great view of the gates and Rwy 31. We entered the lounge around 4:30 and they were still changing over from the breakfast / lunch buffet, nice selection of drinks, but interestingly no bottled water, only a large jug with a spigot. Food selection was fairly sparse, finger sandwiches, a sad looking salad, a cheese platter and a couple of bowls of rice and what appared to be a beef stew. The best part of waiting in the lounge was the calmness of waiting there then at the gate.
Boarding is done via 4 lines, 2 for each deck, and was still a fiasco, the lines aren't clearly defined, took a while to sort out. Upon boarding the flight attendant at the door steered me left, though my seat was to the right, first row in-front of the door. Settled into my seat, the side storage bins we very useful. As soon as got to my seat a flight attendant checked my jacket. A few minutes later another came around with pre-flight drinks offering orange juice or water, he said there was no champagne because they couldn't open alcohol on the ground in NY, which is interesting, since my wife was in AF-17 45 min before mine and she had champagne??? On the seat was a pillow and blanket, and a bag containing slipper, socks and covers for the headphones. Also before departing we were given an amenity kit, with the standard eye shades, toothbrush and paste, shoe horn, lip balm, & hand cream.
Push back was 15 min late, then we had a long taxi to rwy 22R, around the back side of the airport, with a few stops on the way around. Take-off was nothing spectacular, and we were off the ground after a 34 sec. roll.
Air Frances old business class seat are exactly that, old and dated, the motor that controls the movement of the seat is loud, every time anyone near you adjusts their seat is sounds like the flaps are being lowered, the box where your feet go is small, I am a size 9 1/2 and my toes touched the top, it felt like I was wearing shoes a size to small. My tray table would not lock into place, so when it was fully unfolded, it hit the opposite armrest and would not lay flat.
IFE system was decent, standard moving maps, 3 cameras: nose, tail and down, only the tail camera was working.
Meal service started with pre-dinner drinks, and a small box of crackers, then followed my an amuse-bouche of smoke salmon with caviar. For dinner you were given a tray with all if dinner except the main course. the appetizer was dried beef, mushrooms with a scallop, and shrimp. for the main course I had the tournedos of beef, which came with mashed potatoes, and bathed in sauce. While not restaurant quality it was pretty good for reheated airline food.
There was also a small piece of cake and some cheese for dessert. The flight attendants came by 3 or 4 times to refill drinks, and offer extra bread.
After dinner was cleared away, they turned down the lights and turned the mood lighting to purple. I tried to watch a couple of movies and some old TV shows, dozed on and off so maybe got a total of an hours sleep. Lavatory in the front of the upper deck is one of the larger bathrooms I've seen on a plane, and it was stocked with nicer soaps etc. On the other side of the front staircase is the Air France gallery, which is basically 3 small screens mounted on a counter that rotate through different art. It seemed like they just didn't know what to do with the space.
Seat 64A on seatguru.com is a yellow seat and deservedly so, about 2 1/2 hours before landing, just as I was starting to doze off, came the constant sound of little tin doors opening and closing over and over as they prepared breakfast. Which is surprising it took so much preparation since all they served was a small fruit salad, a plain yogurt, and a choice of mini pastries.
After breakfast was cleared, preparation for landing was started, checked coats were returned. It was fairly overcast when we landed on rwy 27R at CDG, then taxied over to the L gates of terminal 2E. One of the first 10 off the upper deck to begin the trek to customs and baggage claim, first a long walk, then a train ride to the main terminal. the line for passport control took over 30 min and that was the priority line, watching people in the regular line, it didn't seem that the Sky Priority line saved any time at all. Problem was another A380 had arrived plus at least one 777-300. Once through passport control heading to baggage claim where my wife was waiting and had already gotten my bag.
Return flight review AF 006 in coach coming shortly
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