At noon we headed to the airport, and I was still uncertain and quite nervous about the state of our travel for the next few days (making last-minute plans for three people, and ensuring everyone is satisfied, is not easy at all!).



I have never flown out of Orly, and have to applaud its convenience and proximity to the city. It is an absolute mess, however. Wow. Indeed, a fascinating mix of airlines (and associated passengers) fly from Orly, the France DOM routes, flights to North African countries (Tunisair, Air Algerie, Royal Air Maroc, and so on) and of course (once in a while) even a Soviet airliner.

Check-in was an incredibly long line-up stretching halfway into the terminal, but we were ushered into a special line-up for business class, with two passengers in front of us. Everything was branded Air Europa, the flight number was UX931, and Cubana was only in small letters underneath.

Nothing was moving. It appeared there was a system failure, though no announcement was made to explain. A Cubana lady came around and started talking with the contract staff - it was a mess.





Noticing a tourist card sticking out of someone’s passport, I was reminded of the need to purchase one and asked the lady if it is done at the check-in desks. The emphatic “no” she gave as a reply was not encouraging. As there is absolutely no information on the subject on Cubana’s (agreeable) website, I had read some forum posts and it appeared that people always purchased the cards at the airport. However, I had no confirmation of this and was concerned perhaps for this flight it would not be possible. Who knew? Luckily, the older little lady continued, in a mix of English, French, and Spanish, that it can be purchased downstairs, at the Air Transat Tours desk. I quickly ran over, three passports in hand (as well as a bunch of cash) and found the desk. The tourist cards were arranged for 40 EUR per person, and are simple pieces of paper, to be filled out by hand. No passports necessary to purchase...



Back at the check-in desks, nothing at all had moved. I realized the Cubana lady had deposited a luggage cart behind us, and scanned through the printout left out. “Precio Full Charter" immediately stuck out - 257K EUR. There was also a full manifest of all pax booked as well as pax per segment. All very interesting. Essentially, every passenger would have to pay over 1K EUR of fare only for Cubana to break even on the flight. Considering our business class one-way fare was 700 EUR per person, I will say thank you, Cuba, for this subsidized flight (and sorry, Cubans).



I’m guessing these were bags of cash to pay for the charter:



I asked about seats at check-in and the fairly confused and unfriendly agent wasn’t sure what I was asking for - so I popped over to see her screen and pointed to her. With the Air Europa configuration, it was 4 rows, as opposed to 3 on the scheduled Il-96, so I asked for different seats, to try to ensure I would not have a seat mate. Ultimately, boarding passes were printed for 2K, 3H, and 3K. Baggage was tagged to HAV and given a priority tag, even.

As we were leaving the check-in area, a family of four had just arrived, with a lot of luggage tagged “Embajada de Cuba", an escort, and at least two diplomatic passports. For sure, they would be our fellow passengers in business.