You know that cliché about bringing the weather with you? Crowded house did very well from it. Well, I'm from the West of Scotland. So when, on our second day in Hong Kong, I saw that our weather alert was showing a black warning for rain, I rolled my eyes. I was thinking of the things I wanted to do in the city. We did plenty of them eventually as things died down (but remained soggy) and earnt myself the "oh you got the Hong Kong weather" comments from my HK/Canto colleagues on my return to the office. What I hadn't considered was the effect on air travel.

So, taxi to the Airport Express (got a bigger one - the bungee technique wasn't one I wanted in the rain) and back to the airport it is. The Air France checkin for the late evening flight is well underway when we get there, and the J checkin queue isn't too big, but they invite us to check in at one of the Y desks, which I'm sure has looks of daggers directed towards us. We hold back on the waltzing. We're given multi-leg boarding passes (why have I never had one of these before?) a confusing map of Roissy and we're off. Security is busy but fast, and the outbound passport control is quiet. We were given directions to the Qantas lounge, which is just as well, as if you blinked, you'd miss the entrance - it's right as you come through.

I think it's a fairly recent innovation for AF to use this lounge, and, well, I don't know the old one, but this seems like a very good choice. It's one of the balcony lounges (rather like CX's The Wing) and has a long, thin form, stretching along past several gates. Open, airy, not too busy, and comfortable. It got particularly quiet after the QF flights departed (as you might expect) but it didn't wind down at that point, which I was grateful for. The food on offer was decent - the main dish was a chicken curry, and there were plenty accompaniments. Basically, good enough that you can use it as an evening meal if you want to get to sleep fairly quickly on the plane (which I did). Can't say enough how kind the lounge staff were in here, particularly with my son - they even offered to cook him some off-menu food, and brought it out to him, which was very much appreciated. There's a decent bank of showers in this lounge too, so we all made full use of that before the overnight flight.

What was going on below, however... Not chaos - HKG is too organised for that - but some significant delays going on, particularly for any flights heading east or north-east. Just below us was a flight boarding for HND, which was running 8 hours late (and due to arrive at 2am). And that was far from the worst, the CX operations were really disrupted, and there were extra flights laid on for cancellations the previous day, due to a typhoon over Taipei. Luckily, it seemed that our inbound flight was arriving pretty much on time, so fingers crossed...

Back out on the transit train, and carrying far too many carry-ons, we find the gate. Boarding is already trickling through, but there's a separate J queue and pier, which makes things all the more relaxed.

First impressions - this new J cabin is sparkling. There's a very warm welcome from the crew. They have pretty strict policies about flying with children in the business cabin - where they're allowed to sit and which doors have to be left open in order to assist (e.g. in case of oxygen masks been needed), which are all explained to us. They also have an incredibly tasty yuzu-based drink, which I think I'm the only one on board drinking, so I get copious top-ops. The slight flaw with the children's seating policies is that the window and centre aisles are offset, enough that you can't see each other. These are the seats where you have to have one adult and one child if travelling together. On the other hand, the divider in the centre seats comes right down, all the way back, meaning you can help a child a lot better from that position (though presumably not for more serious things, as you'd have to get up and walk round). We're in the mini-cabin this time, just 4 rows, which makes for a very cozy atmosphere.

Sitting back, the obvious comparison is with the BA A350 J seat. Superficially, it's the same, but there's enough differences to make it significant. The seats and backs are at more of an angle, and the offset of the seats means that, even with the door left open, there is no line of sight (and hence less light/noise) from the other seats. The various cubbyholes are the same, but somehow there is much more space to lie at the angle you'd like on this layout. The various controllers are similar, though the nice touch on the AF version is that you can watch some media on the iPad-mini sized controller, which is great if it's the middle of a night flight, or you just want to lie at a certain angle. There was, however, a panel coming away behind where the controller docks, presumably as it's not obvious how it's supposed to come out.

When I checked in for this flight, it was possible to see exactly what the meals were going to be, and pre-select them, which is a fantastic innovation, and one I'd really like to see more widespread. Forgive me if it is, I clearly don't fly on the airlines that have it. However, it's not that useful in this instance, as I've already eaten and just want to get off to sleep once we're up in the air. Which reminds me, we're not moving anywhere and it's slightly past time...

...at which point the breezy but clearly fresh from a argument with ATC pilot comes on to tell us the inevitable news, that there are weather delays. There are basically two waves on rain due where the airport will have to stop operations, so they're expecting a 2 hour delay, as the already more delayed flights are prioritised. Honestly, this could have been so much worse. Crew crack open the apéritifs and associated snacks and go around chatting to passengers. Such a genuinely hospitable crew on board today. My last AF flight was a rather quirky A319LR flight from CDG-TAS about 20 years ago, so I'm not sure what I'm compaing it with. We chatted in a mixture of French and English (I have confusing accents and used to live in France) that slightly made my head hurt. My son coped admirably with the delay, but was fussed over by the crew and had plenty in the IFE to keep himself entertained. At this point, I'm slightly concerned about our connection in CDG (there aren't that many flights to BHX and they're mostly RJs) but can't influence that. After a long day, it's very easy to drift off to sleep - and all of us find this.

Breakfast is a tasty mix of pastries, yoghurt, fruit and cooked option (an embellished omelette) and the pains au chocolat are flowing freely to my son's seat. The crew come round to all of us on connections and give us precise instructions on how get this quickly, and our chances of making it. We're lucky in that we've got a Hall L to Hall L connection so we stand a fighting chance.

It's been a long time since I was last at Roissy and this is my first visit to 2E. My previous experiences have been slightly chaotic, particularly the airside transfer buses. However, this is very different. We are directed to the Hall L security, and there's a real sense of urgency from everyone involved to get the delayed pax through on time. So this whole procedure takes under 5 minutes, and we're spat out into the usual premium shopping parade. The lounge is there too. What time is it? Surely, no, we don't have time, do we? Buoyed on by a need for coffee, we head up in the lift.