DAY ONE: Thursday, August 18, 2011
I arrived at IAD’s main terminal at 1430, after leaving an appointment in Alexandria 60 minutes before that. Pretty much the south and west portions of the Capital Beltway are torn up due to various construction projects, including the new Metro Silver Line which is being built in the median of the Dulles Access Road between Route 7 and Route 828 and is scheduled to open before the end of 2013. An accident which occurred somewhere around the junction of the Beltway and the Dulles Access Road backed up traffic all the way back to I-66, which I ended up taking to US 50, and then onto VA 28—a 30 minute drive with a 20 minute delay. Anyhow, the shuttle bus reached me within 30 seconds of my parking the car.
Other than having to avoid a Voyageur family group trying in vain to use the Affaires check-in line, check-in was friendly and efficient, as was the Dulles Diamond security entrance on the baggage claim level. I immediately went out to the United gates on Concourse C to take pictures of Air France’s BIG bird, ship number F-HPJE . The A380 is big, if nothing else. A KLM A330-200 was parked at an adjacent gate, and it looked puny by comparison. A United A320 parked next to the window where I was taking photos was miniscule compared to the A30.
Taking the Aero Train back to concourse A, I spent an hour of quality time at the Air France “salon” (the former NW World Club), particularly enjoying the ham and butter sandwiches on crusty bread; however, in my haste to pack up and board the flight when it was called at 1600, I left my little pouch behind containing the power cord to my Dell mini netbook and the battery charger for my Canon camera (which I didn’t realize until I had to unpack my backpack to go through security at terminal 2E at CDG).
At Dulles, two loading bridges are used for the A380; A20 services the lower deck; and A22 services the upper deck. On this version of the A380, a nine seat “La Premiere” F class (in three rows, 1-4-4) is immediately behind the flight deck, which is on the lower level; the Y cabins are behind F. The upper deck accommodates about 80 J seats, in two sections, with 2-2-2 seating; with “Premium Voyageur” behind them, and a small section of Y at the back. I was seated in Row 60, the first row of “Affaires” class. A large restroom was in front of me to my left, and a “gallery” stand up area with three TV monitors was in front of me to my right. A partition separated me from the staircase leading down to the area between the flight deck and F class.
I’ve posted a few pictures at the following link:
http://pangborn76.smugmug.com/Airpla...597639_jNqPBP8
My impression of the flight is that Air France placed some of their best flight attendants on the A380; AF has always been good to very good, and they upped their game with the service on this flight. I came in contact with four flight attendants, and all of them were terrific.
My section of J was maybe 66% full. The seat next to me was empty.
The only disappointment, if you can call it that, with AF’s pre-departure service is that it is timed to begin when the doors close, rather than when you board as on Delta. At the very moment that the doors shut, one FA rolled out a trolley containing newspapers, and two others were passing out champagne or orange juice. Pushback was right on the number at scheduled departure time of 1640.
As someone who likes the air show, the A 380 has a fantastic set up. There are three different cameras, one somewhere on the nose, one mounted in the tail, and one somewhere on the belly. The monitors mounted on the bulkheads showed the taxi and takeoff from the tail mounted camera. Once aloft, as I recall, there were seven different maps the user could call up on the individual monitors, showing different levels of detail, and one showing where night and day were located in the world.
The taxi out and takeoff from runway 19L were fascinating. The wings on the A380 are so much bigger than any other aircraft out there. The outer engines actually were over the grassy areas on either side of the runway. We took the runway at 1655, and without explanation were ordered to taxi off on the first ramp and make a 360; finally we started our takeoff roll at 1709, were in the air 30 seconds or so after that. We banked to the right and made a U turn; the A380 headed up to Williamsport in central Pennsylvania, then northeast to Springfield, Massachusetts, then over BOS to the ocean, then up the east coast of Nova Scotia, crossing over the French possession of St. Pierre island (I think we flew north of Miquelon), then on across the open ocean to the route into CDG crossing over the island of Jersey and near the city of Rouen. Upon landing, we had a very quick taxi and park at the gate. Three different loading bridges were used at CDG; I was invited to go down the stairs and use the F exit. The first clock I saw in the terminal read 0605 (CET). Time en route was about 6 hours 45 minutes, which was a little longer than normal (the eastbound run IAD-CDG usually is around 6.5 hours), but, given the wonderful surroundings, not long enough.
I played around with the AVOD system a bit. I started watching “The King’s Speech”, which everyone I know thinks is great, but which I found ponderous, and I gave up on it after 20 minutes in favor of rugby highlights.
I really enjoyed the food service on this flight. Nothing like a steak and lobster night on the upper deck of the world’s largest civil aircraft. The Affaires menu indicated that Lanson black label champagne would be the bubbly on offer, but catering substituted a golden nectar called Champagne Philiponnat Royal Reserve Brut (an online search revealed that this retails for $29.99 per bottle), which was very drinkable and very enjoyable. The cocktail service was from a fully stocked cart operated by two FAs, and was accompanied by the one ounce AF box of cashews and almonds and an “amuse bouche” consisting of a cube of smoked duck on top of a cube of pear within a delicate flaky pastry lightly filled with some kind of cream cheese; this was really good.
The next course was a green salad served with vinaigrette dressing, and a cold plate of a poached Maine lobster tail accompanied by a wasabi mayonnaise and by a sort of relish made from different peppers.
The main course was a filet steak with a good flavor, served with whipped potatoes and a vegetable. I was offered sauce Bernaise, but declined. The FAs let me taste each of the three still wines they were serving, a red and two different whites, while refilling my glass with champagne a few times with a smile each time.
Dessert was in two parts—a plate of two cheeses, one a wedge of Camembert, the other possibly a Jarlsberg (or the French equivalent) (I think some grapes were served with this); and then a sampler of different sweets. I ordered a port to go with this, and got a big smile from the male FA who was working the dessert cart, as it turned out he was Portuguese.
My seat was comfortable. It was not a complete lie flat (like on the Delta B777-LR), but it seemed to recline further than the J seat on the large aircraft Delta inherited from Northwest. I did wake up once during my 3.5 hour siesta; and went back to one of the two buffets which are positioned between the two sections of J. When a passenger took a can of Perrier, for example, an FA put a new can in its place. There were bottles of Glenlivet and the AF house cognac on the buffet, along with water and soft drinks.
One really nice thing about the interior of the A380 was the soft purplish lighting in the cabin, as opposed to glaring bright white lighting in other aircraft. Very comfortable and very easy on the eyes.
After 2,000,000 miles in the sky, I was embarrassed to have to resort to an FA helping me set up my tray table. On the A380, the tray is not opened by flipping up the armrest, but rather opens up from along the right side of the seat module. Tray table was large, and had good movement from front to back.
AF is still using their brownish wallet or “clutch” style amenities kits. The contents are pretty sparse beyond the usual eyemask and socks.
Lastly, I wanted to re-emphasize how professional the AF FA staff were, and how much they added to my enjoyment of the flight. Unfortunately, AF crews do not wear name tags. That’s a shame, because I like to praise airline staff when they do a great job, as was the case on the A380.