AF1879 E190 KRK-CDG 1A
Planned: 1535-1755L
Actual: 1605-1804L

The aircraft arrived at the airbridge gate, but unfortunately underneath rather than attached to it! After a hold at the bottom of the gate stairs, it was a walk to the aircraft steps as tiny flakes of snow began to fall. A friendly greeting by name and bottle of water once on board. Row 1 was full again. The meal offered was standard, like those above (for comparison, BA would provide a hot meal choice on a flight of this length). When I declined the meal, I was offered a chicken or cheese brioche bun as an alternative - so it was chicken bun and Champagne for afternoon tea.

Arrival at CDG Terminal 2G it was stairs and walk to the building, then a bus to Terminal 2F, exit border control to Terminal 2E.

CDG Terminal 2E Lounge

A large lounge similar to 2F, I was again guided to the Ulti private room. This was smaller than that in 2F, and I was warned that it was a little warm, and that an adjacent alcove was also available. It was T-shirt hot! A different a la carte menu was available and I asked for a small portion of Tartiflette. If that was a small portion, the full serving would be enormous (forgot to take a picture)!

A message popped up from the AF app that boarding was about to begin at gate L31, so I made to leave. [Side tip 2 - the lounge exit is separate from the entrance by about 100m. There are 'Sortie' signs along the path following the entrance, but who looks at them on entry?]

AF1558 E190 CDG-NCL 1A
Planned: 2140-2220L
Actual: 2155-2207L

I arrived at the gate - there were plenty of passengers, no seats and no gate staff. They arrived about 15 minutes later, and boarding commenced about 15 minutes after that. The gate lines were well managed, but we ended up with a familiar 'boarding-not-boarding' queue on the airbridge for a few minutes. I was the only occupant of the one row business cabin and there was a pillow, bottle of water and a hand-written welcome card from the crew at my seat. I managed the cheese from the meal with a glass of wine, followed by a liqueur (dredging my memory for 'digestif'). Arriving at the same stand as we had departed the day before at NCL, it was down the stairs, through a lengthy border control zig-zag and out into the terminal, where I waited for a message from Mrs T that she was at the car park. (Taxi and other services are of course an alternative).

First thoughts

BA Eurobusiness in Airbus A3nn aircraft with the middle seat blocked (in all except unusual IRROPS circumstances) is far more comfortable than the Embraer lottery of seatmates for a solo traveller.

BA also appear to have a better short-haul meal offer, but to be honest for sectors up to about 2-3 hours it is better to eat in a lounge. The wines on AF are (as expected) better than those on BA.

With the exception of AMS, ground handling was as good as, and sometimes better than BA. Flight times felt to be more punctual than BA (CDG ground ops less congested, despite long taxy, than LHR?)

While absorbing the experience, and still deciding on my strategy 'going forward', my first trip on AF Eurobusiness was a positive one.

I hope this is useful for SkyTeam newbies, and particularly for BA 'refugees'.