Believe it or not, I’ve never flown Air France in my life. That’s about to change.
No, it won’t be a glamorous longhaul in first class. In fact, it will not even be business class. But it will be a chance to experience Air France twice on intra-Europe flights…and try a new aircraft type I have never flown on before.
As my business trip in Italy winds down, I need to get to Paris for an important meeting then to Amsterdam.
Rather than buy two one-way tickets, I figured I’d try to save some money by just booking an Air France one-way ticket from Venice to Amsterdam with a forced long layover in Paris.
Indeed, this proved to be the most cost effective solution (other than an EasyJet / Transavia combo). Searching for space using the multi-city search on ITA, I assembled a route with a ~17 hour layover in Paris that priced through as one-way fare.
While the Air France website erred out while building this itinerary, I was able to book it via American Express. The dates above are not reflective of my actual travel dates.
I have never flown on an A318 before, so I look forward to flying on that “little fellow”.
CONCLUSION
While this is not my first Air France booking (sadly, that was a first class fare that was cancelled several days after booking), it seems like this will be my first actual flight on Air France. I say “seems” because my flight date falls upon a planned strike date…let’s see how that plays out.
image: Anna Zvereva / WikiMedia Commons
The A318 is referred to as the “cocktail sausage” by AF crews. When you board this aircraft, it is really striking how short it is from the inside when you are used to flying A320s and A321s!
Good luck to you. You’ll be tight. I last flew AF about 10 years ago from CDG to BUD and again from PRG to CDG. I recall almost no leg room, the seat in front being right in my face, and limited recline. IIRC this was an A321 that was pretty dated but crammed full. Makes today’s domestic seating seem generous.
Expect Y to be tight, though it’s not like you’re going to notice all that much on flights of that length. Otherwise, the service was perfectly decent last time I flew them in short-haul (October, 2015).
And ah, yes, the AF strike. That ended up postponing my La Premiere boondoggle by a week. On the bright side, I was able to switch to the 77W on the way over!
Sack Reis..
You won’t be impressed.
Hope they don’t have a strike that day and reroute you to your final destination
You will find the experience infinitely superior to Lufthansa.
Can’t wait for the trip report. Must be a short meeting!!!
AF isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Lots of meaningless delays, less than nice employees and the A318/320 isn’t bad but the A380 is where it’s at.
I think this flight leaves from that provincial little outer terminal, right? You feel like you’re in the country. I can’t can’t remember what it’s called, but I used to have to fly from Paris to Hannover (or Hanovre lol), and it seems like that’s where the little commuter flights depart from.
Sidebar: Paris is one of the cities where Blacklane is a better deal than Uber (around €60 one way). I love using the service there–the drivers I’ve had have all been great.