Crossing the Channel on the A380 - Air France Affaires (pics)

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Introduction

A couple of months ago it was announced by Air France that they would be utilising their A380 aircraft on selected flights between Paris and London over the summer of 2010. Airbus have brought forward the delivery date for Air France's fourth A380, and cabin crew needed to be trained faster than anticipated, hence the need for these short flights.

As an almost exclusively oneworld flyer, I was somewhat apprehensive trying out a new carrier, but the £160 price for business class (Affaires) on the A380 was rather attractive, and so I booked a month or so in advance, praying that AF didn't change the aircraft due to 'operational reasons', which luckily they didn't. The booking process was relatively straightforward, although I couldn't seem to select or change my seat until a couple of days after I had booked, and even then it was a rather convoluted process and the seating diagram was not particularly clear. I eventually chose 61A, the second row in the forward Affaires cabin on the upper deck. I would return to LHR the same evening, with BA in Club Europe (business class). I initially booked Euro Traveller (economy) for around EUR90, but took the EUR100 MMB upgrade, mainly for the tier points.

For this trip report, I have decided to only provide one teaser image, and the rest are linked above (as Moomba does). Inserting pictures into FT is somewhat complex and time-consuming, especially when you have 120 of them, and with the relatively new picture limit, it breaks up the report too much. I'm interested to hear whether this new format of presenting my trip reports appeals to you, the reader.

Pre-Departure

Online check-in for Air France flights somewhat bizarrely opens 30 hours before departure, and so I was online at this time to confirm my seat, although I didn't print my boarding pass as I wanted to try out the SkyTeam premium check-in facility at LHR.

I had decided to book a night at the Hilton Heathrow, as this is the most convenient hotel for T4 as it is connected directly to the terminal by a covered walkway. I went straight from work via a bus to Paddington, the Heathrow Express (HEx) to Heathrow Terminals 1 and 3 and the Heathrow Connect to Heathrow Terminal 4. Thanks to the seemingly never-ending Amex First Class upgrade promotional code, I enjoyed a significantly more private ride than most of the rest of the HEx passengers, as the train was pretty full.

Arriving at the Hilton, there was no queue at reception, and so I walked up to the nearest desk and was checked in by a pleasant staff member, given my room (501, on the Executive Floor) and directions to the Executive Lounge (which has been relocated to the ground floor, to the right of the hotel entrance). Whilst I have stayed at this hotel before, I have not stayed in an Executive Room, and was pleasantly surprised with the modern decor of the room. The little details of the five star Sofitel T5 were not present, and on closer inspection some of the furniture was a little the worse for wear, but overall the room was clean and comfortable - the bathroom was certainly an improvement over its non-Executive counterpart. The positioning of an informational banner across the mini-bar was a little tacky, and the projected light image above the bed was, well, pointlessly in the way, but if they are my only gripes, then there was nothing significantly wrong with the room.

I went downstairs to the Executive Lounge for some canapes and snacks, as I couldn't be bothered traipsing over to the terminal for my evening meal, and the hotel prices were even more expensive than I had expected from my last visit. The Executive Lounge, rather strangely, doesn't have free wifi, but as I have a BT OpenZone connection, this didn't concern me too much. I couldn't, however, for the life of me get my iPad to connect. The evening selection in the lounge was pretty good, and more than I had been expecting, with hot tarts and pies, salad, nuts, crisps and a cheeseboard.

Time was getting on, and so I retreated to my room, watched a little TV (terrible quality picture), and then hit the sheets for a 5am start the next day.

Outbound

Typically, I work up at 3.30am and couldn't get back to sleep, so watched some news and then got ready for the day ahead. The shower was mounted too low on the wall for my comfort, and the water pressure was somewhat inadequate. The hotel shampoo, however, smelt rather nice, so all is forgiven!

The Executive Lounge opens at 6.30am, and I was waiting outside and the first person in at that time. The breakfast selection was pretty comprehensive for a four star hotel lounge, with bacon, scrambled egg, baked beans, tomatoes and the usual selection of continental items. The staff, as they had been in the evening, were pleasant and welcoming.

I checked out of the hotel around half an hour later at 7am, and toddled along the walkway for five minutes or so until I had reached the T4 check-in level.

T4 check-in is now looking very smart indeed, and with the forecourt extension open, it is probably the second nicest check-in experience you will find at Heathrow, after T5 of course. Although the departure screens showed Air France premium check-in as being located in Zone H (the SkyTeam premium check-in area), when I got there there were no desks open for Air France flights, and so I printed my BP at one of the self-service machines. The premium check-in area is tucked away around the corner from the main check-in hall, and has two entrances, with a secluded seating area in between. The manned desks seemed to be for specific flights, and there was a fairly lengthy queue for the business class check-in of one SkyTeam airline (I can't remember which). The area served its purpose for me however, as I was in and out within a minute.

Since my last visit to T4 in August, the new expanded security checkpoint has opened, with a FastTrack line that was policed and working as described! I must have been through in about 5 minutes, with no need to remove shoes. As seems to be the case now at LHR, footwear only need to be removed if shoes have large heels or are boots.

The refurbishment of airside departures in T4 is almost complete, with just some work on the ceilings and gate desks left to do, and the new shops make the area feel much more upmarket than before. I took a right after security, and walked the couple of minutes to the SkyTeam lounge, opposite Gate 10. This lounge is located adjacent to the Etihad lounge, which occupies the former BA First lounge. The SkyTeam lounge is spread over two floors, with the ground floor occupying the former BA Concorde Room, and the upper floor occupying the former BA Terraces lounge. The entrance to the SkyTeam lounge is located where the entrance to the Concorde Room was, and once inside it was apparent that the lounge looked a lot nicer when it was under BA's ownership!

Both floors of the SkyTeam lounge had almost the same facilities, and both featured the 'living wall' which was actually rather impressive, and much more than a token feature - it felt part of the lounge. The minimalist design of the lounge did not appeal to me at all, and it was all too white (clinical) and orange for my taste, but SkyTeam have a done a good job transforming the space into a talking point.

The ground floor of the lounge was absolutely packed when I arrived, and so I climbed the stairs by the reception desk to find somewhere quiet to sit on the upper floor, which was far less busy. There is no reception desk to the upper floor, as the lounge is now all one as opposed to the division between the BA Terraces and Concorde Room before. SkyTeam have positioned the reception desk to their lounge beyond the lifts on the ground floor, meaning that these lifts are now out of use, and so the large lobby area on the upper floor is now somewhat redundant, which seemed a bit bizarre. The upper floor of the SkyTeam lounge in particular offered good views of the Victor gate area, with aircraft from carriers such as Air Malta, KLM and Aeroflot.

The lounge, across both floors, provided ample seating (although only a limited number of areas were private) and interesting feature areas such as for playing console games and watching personal TVs. These areas did not seem particularly popular, however, and given the demographic of the lounge (European business class and elite passengers), they seemed to take up too much space.

The food selection was pretty poor for the whole four hours or so in which I was in the lounge, with the platters often empty. There were few decent hot choices. The lounge staff, however, were pretty on-the-ball when it came to clearing away empties and ensuring the lounge was kept clean and tidy.

I left the lounge briefly at around 10am to watch the arrival of the A380 from Paris, and managed to get a good selection of shots of the whale-jet arriving at Gate 6 - there were four or so fellow photographers primed and waiting at the gate too. I noted the hoarding around the entrance to the former BA Gate 1 Lounge, which I had mistakenly assumed was now the Malaysia Airlines lounge - this is actually opposite and down a bit on the left hand side.

Around 15 minutes before gate closing time I strolled back to Gate 6 and waited for boarding to commence, which it did within five minutes. Gate 6a had two boarding lines, both for main deck Voyager (economy) passengers, with one of these being for main deck status pax. Gate 6b equally had two boarding lines, one for upper deck Voyager pax, and one for Affaires (business) and upper deck status pax. We boarded through Gate 6b when taking our Qantas A380 flight last summer, and I note how much more efficiently Air France managed to board their A380 than Qantas. Air France had separate lines at each gate (which were strictly enforced by ground staff), clear announcements and held back upper deck economy pax for business and status pax. I noted that all three airbridges were connected to the A380, despite the La Premier (first class) cabin not being sold - this was presumably for ground staff training purposes.

Date: June 2010
Route: London Heathrow [LHR] (T4) - Paris Charles de Gaulle [CDG] (T2E)
Flight: AF1981
Aircraft: A380-861
Registration: F-HPJB
First Flight/Delivered: 2009/2010
Seat/Class: 61A/Affaires

Onboard I was welcomed by a member of cabin crew, but strangely wasn't pointed in the direction of my seat. Out of instinct, I turned right initially, but then realised I was in the forward cabin, and backtracked through the galley to my seat. First impressions of the A380 Air France Affaires cabin were pretty good - the colours were warm, the seats looked comfy and everything of course looked and smelt clean and new. As soon as I had dumped my carry on and jacket into the overhead bin, I went down the front stairs and took a few pictures of La Premiere, unsold on this short flight. The cabin crew seemed welcoming, and I asked the CSD for a picture of the cockpit, the door to which was open. He said it wasn't strictly allowed, but said it would be fine if I stayed at the bottom of the cockpit stairs and ensured the flash didn't go off. Not quite the full cockpit shot I would have liked, but still enough to please me! Impressions of the La Premiere cabin were not great - the seats seemed to have very little privacy at all, and the cabin seemed to have an awful lot of empty space, which made it seem even less private.

Back in Affaires and at my seat, I noted that my seat-mate had arrived, a businessman who had not known that this was an A380-operated flight, and was somewhat bemused by all the attention the aircraft was being given by most other passengers (including, of course, me!). I was certainly not the only person taking photographs on this flight. I explained to my fellow traveller about the need for crew training, and I could tell that he was interested and pleased with the experience, despite putting on a 'I'm too cool for all this' attitude! We talked on and off throughout the flight, and by the end he was playing with the IFE too and looking at my pictures of La Premiere!

A brief appraisal of the Affaires seat - it was very comfy for sitting in and relaxing, the controls worked well and there seemed to be enough storage (particularly for window seat pax, with the side bins). However, the motors of the seats were very loud, and would most likely cause a disturbance during a night flight. Additionally, the (effective) noise-reducing headphones and IFE controller were somewhat awkwardly positioned at the side of the seat, and the IFE screen did not adjust, which could be a problem when reclining the seat. There was no privacy divider that I could find, which would most definitely be an issue when sleeping. Furthermore, the legroom was somewhat restrictive, most notably in fully-flat bed mode, where my feet became squashed into the footwell. Regardless, AF still have a firm hold on the competition over LH, who have chosen to retain angled seats in J on their new A380 aircraft, a big oversight in my opinion.

The soft Affaires product will be difficult to judge from this short flight, as of course there were no amenity kits, pillows, blankets, menus, pre-departure drinks etc. I will continue with the description of the flight, and try to relate it to my other shorthaul European business class experiences, which have mostly been with BA.

Once boarding had finished, the cabin crew continued to scurry up and down the cabin for a good 15 minutes or so as paperwork was finalised and the ground staff finished their training. The safety video commenced in both French and English, before the IFE screens all switched to the tail camera view for taxi and takeoff, met with much ooohing and ahhing from the French contingent! We were in a fairly long line for takeoff, not unusual at LHR, but our turn for takeoff came around quite quickly, and we powered down 09R and were off the ground with hardly a sound from the engines.

As soon as the seatbelt sign was off, I went downstairs again and asked the crew member if I could spend a little time in La Premiere, which was no problem, although she didn't seem to want me to recline the seat for some reason. A brief spell there checking out the seat, and I was back up to Affaires in time for lunch. The cabin crew member serving my aisle had just gone past my row, but he turned and saw me and handed me my lunch tray. I've not travelled with Air France before, and so don't know what the typical product offering is in shorthaul business class, but I was somewhat disappointed with the product offering, which was a canape, tiny tiny sandwich, very small pot of potato salad, bread and cheese. The quality was pretty good, and the dessert of strawberry cheesecake was rather yummy, but I thought it odd to have such a small first course and relatively substantial dessert. The bread was hard and the lack of butter was odd. One drinks run was offered, and I took an orange juice - the plastic cup was unexpected and a little poor in business class, really.

I watched some of an episode of The Simpsons on the IFE, which I didn't really have time to fully check out - the system was a little unresponsive at times, but the selection seemed perfectly adequate and was obviously AVOD. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the headphones, and whilst not exactly Bose standard, they were effective in noise-reducing exterior sound (I don't think they were noise-cancelling).

The lunch clear-in was done by plastic bag, which I think is unacceptable for business class, although given the short flight I can see the efficiency saving is important. The cabin crew were perfectly adequate, but didn't seem to have much time for individual passengers, although one CC member did offer to take my photo when he saw me taking photos on disembarkation.

I noticed that once the seatbelt sign had been turned on during descent, the CC didn't seem bothered about people still having headphones on, although they did ensure that seats were returned to the upright position. The IFE system was switched off before approach, and the moving map displayed, before eventually changing to the tail camera view once more, much to the delight of most of the passengers, including me!

Landing was smooth, and as we taxied to Terminal 2E, we passed the smallest member of the Airbus fleet, the A318. As soon as we were clear of the active runway, one passenger across the aisle stood up! He was promptly told to sit back down again, although the cabin crew didn't ensure he fastened his seatbelt.

We had a short wait to dock at the gate, and when we did it seemed to take an age to get the airbridges positioned. Eventually it was announced that the upper deck bridge would not be connected, and pax disembarked via the front stairs and the two lower deck airbridges. It was a fairly lengthy walk to immigration via a train from the satellite terminal we had docked at, and a very long queue for French/EU passport holders, with only one position open for an A380-load of passengers! The immigration official in the booth seemed to be having trouble with his passport scanner, as it was taking a good 40-50 seconds to process each passenger (a longer amount of time in reality than it sounds). There was an Access No 1 line (the French equivalent of fast track), but I noticed this too late and suspect this was for non-EU passport holders, as it is at LHR.

Once through immigration, it was a short walk out to landside. I then of course had the joy of changing terminals at CDG, and once again got slightly lost, even having been here twice before. Eventually I found the correct bus stop and transferred to T2A for my BA flight back to LHR, which was largely uneventful, although my post here on the BA forum has proved somewhat controversial!

Conclusion

I was underwhelmed by the Air France Affaires hard product, but was pleased to have experienced the A380 on such a short flight and feel the value for money was good. I don't think that the likes of BA and QF have anything to worry about judging by my short experience of Affaires, and the La Premiere hard product certainly appears to be inferior to the international first class offerings by the vast majority of other alliance airlines.

Thanks for reading, and as usual comments and questions are welcomed!