Just a short review to highlight that I do not love everything about Air France, including my regional HOP! flight from Paris to Basel-Mulhouse.
My wife’s parents live just over the German border from Basel, so flying into Basel is actually easier (for me) than flying into Zurich, a 45-minute drive. Air France operates domestic and many regional flights using its HOP! subsidiary and I was curious what kind of service I would receive in “business” class on a 45-minute flight.
At about 7:45PM, I was driven from the La Premiere First Class Lounge to the aircraft, which was parked at a remote stand. It was raining and I received some odd stares as the driver held an umbrella over me while leading me past the crowd queued up to board the aircraft.
Air France 1092
Paris (CDG) – Basel/Mulhouse (BSL)
Sunday, December 23
Depart: 8:15 PM
Arrive: 9:20 PM
Duration: 1hr, 05min
Aircraft: Embraer 190
Seat: 4F (“Business” Class)
Onboard, I saw that the business class seat in the first several rows was no different than the economy class seat behind it. All rows were 2-2. I do not have any pictures of the seat because the plane was already crowded by the time I stepped onboard. I assumed, like on most regional airlines within Europe, that the seat next to me would be blocked.
No picture of my car, either, since the rain obscured my view from the window.
Nope. Another passenger soon sat down next to me. The entire plane was full…every seat appeared taken. Perhaps legroom was a bit better in front of the curtain, but it was still tight as was elbow room.
We took off and I thought at least I might receive a small meal (not that I was hungry after my feast in the lounge) or a drink in a real glass. Again, nope.
I received a choice of beverage in a plastic cup and a packet of waffle cookies. That was it. The whole plane received the same thing.
We landed on-time in Basel-Mulhouse, an interesting airport that is partially on Swiss soil and partially on French soil.
CONCLUSION
I was certainly disappointed that Air France would label this flight “business” class. Perhaps, though, more hearty snacks in business class are served earlier in the day? Still, it was a 45-minute domestic flight and I survived just fine.
An escort was waiting to walk me to baggage claim.
> Read More: The Air France First Class Ground Experience
Basel is a pretty interesting airport, as you say partly in France and Switzerland, but also pretty close to Germany too.
I flew there once to visit a friend in Freiburg (Germany). I had never been to Switzerland, so exited past Swiss border control to use some Swiss francs to buy a coffee, before returning to the French side to catch my bus to Germany.
With regards to your flight, do you know if it even has a ‘business class’ normally? If not, it seems that Air France did a pretty good job in terms of driving to the plane and helping you collect your baggage.
Incidents like this show United never changed. If anything they have turned worse. I stopped taking United 2 years ago after they dragged a Dr out of the plane.
I hope you stopped your patronage to this airline
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Since my family situation is the same as yours seems to be, I always fly to Basel to visit them and I have to be honest: I hate the airport in Basel. It’s not the most comfortable airport, queues are not the shortest and the security personnel has always been rude to me and refused to speak any language other than french. I will still keep flying there as a 1 hour flight is more comfortable to me than a 7 hour train ride but there definitely are better airports.