Air France Frequence Plus - First time on AF Paris-Dublin - questions

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I'll be flying Paris-Dublin on AF for the first time, actually I am traveling to Ireland for the first time ever. A couple of questions:

Where do the Dublin flights typically leave from? 2E main pier (K gates), or S3? Typically a bus gate or through the jetty?

On board, what will I get for breakfast in Business Class? One of those boxes or something more serious (this is a 2 hour flight after all)?

Finally, in Dublin, how long would it typically take me from landing to ground transportation? Is immigration very busy around 8.30am?

For the return flight, I assume I can check in on my mobile phone or print a BP. Will that be enough to use the fast lane and the lounge? What is the lounge like?

Thanks for any hints. I believe there are some insiders here in the forum.

I had the feeling that you already flew all routes on this small planet ;)
There are several DUB-very knowledgeable people on this forum, so I will just answer the questions I'm familiar with.
DUB flights depart normally from K gates, with a bus boarding in 99% of the cases.
Meals have been improved in C, but I don't know what they serve now for a 2hrs flight. Recently on a flight to ARN in C, I had a hot meal, but it's a 2.5 hrs flight.
Regarding DUB airport, it's one of the crappiest airport I know in Europe (on par with ZAG, or DBV domestic). Immigration in the morning could be very variable, depending if you have a flight arriving at the same time from the US by example. I would say, it should take you max 30 min to arrive to ground transportation.
For the return, yes, you should be able to check-in on your mobile. For the lounge, I never tried it but I remember many threads on this forum. It's an airport lounge (I think) and the reviews are...quite bad :o
Enjoy :)

For the lounge, I never tried it but I remember many threads on this forum. It's an airport lounge (I think) and the reviews are...quite bad :o
Enjoy :)
It's been quite some time since I last flew to Dublin (I was lucky enough to have a jetway, as I had always had a bus gate), but the Ana Livia Lounge is indeed quite subpar.

Thank you Goldorak and JOUY31! Even if this doesn't sound like a travel experience I'll be looking forward to...

I had the feeling that you already flew all routes on this small planet ;)

:D I've been indeed to some off-the-beaten-path airports (Kangerlussuaq, Longyearbyen, Los Roques, Port Williams, Labuan Bajo, Barra, Honningsvag...) but some of the more common destinations I've never been to (Dublin, Vancouver, Moscow, Delhi)

Hi,


Where do the Dublin flights typically leave from? 2E main pier (K gates), or S3? Typically a bus gate or through the jetty?

2E but from a bus gate at the lower level. You'll be flying a Cityjet RJ85 usually parked at terminal 2G (not always ; sometimes it is on a remote stand near 2A).

If you're flying on the last DUB -> CDG flight, mind you : the Ana Livia lounge (a bit crappy to my mind) closes well before the boarding time (30 min or so).

Hi,


2E but from a bus gate at the lower level. You'll be flying a Cityjet RJ85 usually parked at terminal 2G (not always ; sometimes it is on a remote stand near 2A).

For the breakfast, don't expect more than the classic breakfast box.

If you're flying on the last DUB -> CDG flight, mind you : the Ana Livia lounge (a bit crappy to my mind) closes well before the boarding time (30 min or so).

I was just looking, while not knowing your route it seems that CDG-DUB rtn is €1000 in C. Do you find that good value? I don't know anyone who pays AF EU C prices!

I don't know anyone who pays AF EU C prices!
The people I know are lawyers, bankers, insurers, strategy consultants ... They can switch airlines as well as flights, have several flexible tickets for which they have not flown the last segment (yet!) and can have three (direct routing) medium-haul segments in a day.

Thanks again to everybody. I know what to expect now and how to time my different elements of the trip.

I was just looking, while not knowing your route it seems that CDG-DUB rtn is €1000 in C. Do you find that good value? I don't know anyone who pays AF EU C prices!

Now you know one ;)

In all seriousness, micro-economics teaches us that one makes the choice that puts one on a higher indifference curve, without implying that the "happier" choice means that one is automatically "happy".

In other words: do I find EUR 1000 too much for a 2 hour return flight in a cramped plane with cheapest-of-cheap catering, uncomfortable seats (no pillows!), bus transfers and a lousy lounge? Yes. Would I be even more upset if I were squeezed in the back of the plane without any privacy or room to move my bones and/or do something productive? Yes. Hence the choice (and Btw, given that I only booked yesterday for a daytrip I probably would have paid something like EUR 500-600. That amount for the trip in the back would have been outrageously worse than the amount you state for front of the plane. My tipping point would be somewhere around the EUR 300 mark. Less than that, I'd go in Eco, and the happiness about the low price would have been greater than the unhappiness about spending four hours of my day in unpleasant travel conditions)

Fair enough, I see the logic! Indeed for last minute bookings it makes lots of sense, heck I've paid some crazy prices for last min trips. I was surprised its always 1k EUR never cheaper even including a Saturday night.

Given its AF there is always Premium Eco!

The downside is, paying these prices means AF thinks its working and pax will accept the poor catering, seat etc! If I was served a sufficient nice hot breakfast in comfortable surroundings where I could do some work then it would be a better deal.

Given its AF there is always Premium Eco!
The price difference between premium eco and premium affaires is quite small on many routes.

Its 400E on this one!

I took the flight this morning. Thanks to the posts here there were no surprises in terms of bus gate, immigration, etc.

<Rant on>

As expected I also still have back pain (12 hours later) because "we do not have pillows, the flight is too short" - right, so a flight with a shorter distance to London has pillows, but this 2 hour flight does not? That absurd explanation is adding insult to (back) injury.

I also - as expected - went without a proper breakfast. I still maintain that it is an absolute disgrace to "serve" that heap of plastic shhhhtt box as breakfast in Business Class. Don't they feel embarassed? There is nothing fresh (such as fruit), everything in the box is stale and tasteless, and all that plastic wrapping makes it really plain in your face that they don't care a bit about feeding you the cheapest industrial food they could find (leaves more budget to feed a complete tray to their crew). And please noone tell me "why don't you eat on the ground". Why is it up to me to first buy an expensive ticket (which I do to travel without wasting my time) and then still needing to take time to find the food that the airline refuses to give? What a complete failure.

This has nothing to do with short flights (I have had full hot meals on flights lasting less than an hour), class of service (this is full fare Business Class), or customers not wanting to eat (there was NOONE this morning who said he didn't want to eat, everybody had the box in front of him). It has to do with that airline which has more than others completely lost its plot of what customers want and what can be expected in return for an expensive fare. Their financial problems and painful restructuring is well deserved, this is the kind of thing that happens when you don't care about your customers in a market where there is competition. Thank God I changed my plans and I am not flying back with them.

:td::td::td:

<Rant over>

San Gottardo, I totally agree with you. This was what I meant when I referred to the price. Its such terrible value for money, but I appreciate that as a last minute booking its what happens.

Going to DUB I'd probably incovenience myself and fly LX but for a day trip its impossible. I have always felt LX EU biz generally represented good value for money.

I also - as expected - went without a proper breakfast. I still maintain that it is an absolute disgrace to "serve" that heap of plastic shhhhtt box as breakfast in Business Class. Don't they feel embarassed? There is nothing fresh (such as fruit), everything in the box is stale and tasteless, and all that plastic wrapping makes it really plain in your face that they don't care a bit about feeding you the cheapest industrial food they could find (leaves more budget to feed a complete tray to their crew).

Easy to say now, but you should have asked for one of the rolls they hand out in Y on the DUB-CDG route. I have flown this route at least 30 times and every time I was UG I always asked for one of the Y rolls as they were actually very nice in deed ^ This doesn't justify the poor offering served in C though :(

Next time fly EI. Rather cheaper so you can afford the approx €8 for a full Irish breakfast on board!

Next time fly EI. Rather cheaper so you can afford the approx €8 for a full Irish breakfast on board!

I looked into that but their schedule didn't match what I needed. Ill also need to figure out how it works re: fast track and having a free seat next to me, I guess it depends upon the fare paid. Just flew Aer Lingus Regional when leaving Dublin this Friday, next seat was free but the plane wasn't full anyhow and what got me into fast lane in DUB was my Swiss HON Card (despite EI boarding pass). I don't want to rely on such "tricks" to work at every time.

Btw, it was interesting to observe how my FB Plat Card did not get me into fast lane (contrary to my Miles&More card) because the list at the access to DUB's fast lane said "Sky Priority" or "Business" for AFKL, and obviously Plat cards do not say "Sky Priority" but only "Elite Plus" which then in turn gets you a Sky Priority sticker on your BP when you actually fly with them. No issues with that, I can't expect the skyteam airlines to brand their products in such a way as to allow me benefits when I am not flying with them

There is no way I am aware of on EI to get a free seat next to you. And security at DUB is normally more than fast enough without fast track.

There is no way I am aware of on EI to get a free seat next to you. And security at DUB is normally more than fast enough without fast track.

Some rows (I think rows 1-5) require extra payment to sit in unless you are top tier on EI or a partner airline (I usually manage to get them with my BA gold card), and extremely few people are willing to pay (and the are bloody right if you ask me) so I guess that if you did you would be quite likely to have empty seats next to you if the plane isn't full.