AshleyB

The CDG lounge is really nice!! Particularly compared to the feeble J class lounge. I also prefer it to the LH FCT. Much better looking and very good staff.

The seat is basically the UA seat from the 90s. IMO it is not in the same league as the QF seat (even the old 744 one). The TG/BA seats are more private than AF. The point though is that AF is MUCH more expensive ex CDG than SQ and CX while they are light years ahead of AF in every way.

The catering HAS improved. It is still rather weak but there has been some movement. Note however that the catering from outstations remains very spotty, which is just not good enough in a luxury product.

Lounges outstation are often bad. SIN is a particular case in point. Skyview is not horrible but it is desperately inferior to the BAQF lounge at T1 or indeed the SQ lounges at T2 and T3. It is crowded at night and there is no concession for the P passenger. The same applies at HKG, although there it is an AF lounge and so rather better.

Any way you look at it though AF's is not a real luxury product except at check-in in Paris, and that is just not good enough. As other carriers cut back on first it remains to be seen whether AF, the weakest player in the market, can hang in there. Management is unwilling to invest at the level necessary to really give the Asians a run for their money and CDG does not have the premium traffic that FRA and above all LHR does. Donc on verra bien!

ranskis

i was booked in business, but hope for a domino effect, of having very overbooked Y, leading to J pax moved from P... but I was not one of them I also like the AF seat itself, but the screen is a major problem.

KL803

I can second f4free's statements. My last trip on AF La Première was in December CDG-IAH. Service has improved compared to my October SIN-CDG trip, indeed. And since then, it should have improved further (e. g. service items).

Regarding SIN, AF P passengers are now treated by JetQuay Services: http://www.flyingbluenews.com/news/4...Singapore.html

So, I reckon, improvement is on the way, hopefully a new seat soon…

JOUY31

The JetQuay lounge in the CIP terminal does indeed seem to be a huge improvement over the usually overcrowded SkyView lounge. ^

bodory

Would you include AF F&F in your "people"?

San Gottardo

Interesting, this is the first time I hear about this.

What exactly does this escort service do? Fast-track pax through immigration? Jump the line at security? At which outstations?

I assume this service is only offered for Premiere pax, right?

Bravo to AF, this is progress ^^^ (how big a progress depends upon the answers to the above questions).

brunos

WOW, impressive support for AF P. Are you one of those guys who fork €10,000 to fly with them frequently? Actually, you sound like you fly First very often on many airlines. I do not fly F as frequently as you, but frankly I find AF in-the-air product quite poor compared to most airlines (and I do not wish to contradict your list point by point, but I could). And they are infamous for depriving you from a real dinner for all their evening departures!

To go back to the thread title, I you find that paying €10,000 for such a product is fine, then that's your choice.

Falco Peregrinus

This is exactly what they do out of JNB. Fast track through security (special line for the crew and diplomats) AND immigration, then escort to the lounge (which is not that great BTW). I have no experience of other outstations. No escort service upon arrival though, which would be highly appreciated if you ask me.

f4free

Firstly, anyone seriously interested in spending this kind of money on an AF P ticket may of course send me a PM. The fares I found are ex Asia only, and are not that cheap at all. After the JNB-EZE died, likely due to postings here or elsewhere, I prefer not to post these as they might even feel these high fares are too low for their standards and increase them again...

The escort service I had was precisely in JNB, and this was new. Didn't have this a few months ago on AF, only on LX. Also, in SIN JetQuai picked me up on an inbound connection before my AF P departure, from another airline, and took me to the lounge. I did not know to ask for the JetQuai lounge, so I ended up in Skyview.

If anybody has reports about this Lounge from JetQuai, please report back. I do fly F as often as I can, but it is not as regular as it may seem here. I have had a chance to fly many different airlines in F, and must say my ratings for AF have gone from next to nothing up to the top five for overall product.

Seat preferences are subjective, of course, but I would not compare it to a product from the 90ies, and find the TG seat to offer exactly the same limited privacy .

Falco Peregrinus

I stand corrected, AF also do escort P passengers at JFK from check-in counters up to the lounge, jumping the line at security. This is what happened to me on my A380 flight end of last year. I failed to finish my FT trip report so nobody knew about it...

San Gottardo

Interesting.

And now comes the really interesting question: do they escort and fast-track you through security upon arrival at JFK and other US destinations?

If that is the case I might seriously consider going AF trans-Atlantic more regularly.

Goldorak

I confirm ^ and this is quite pleasant

I arrived at JFK last sunday (in J) and saw the F pax being escorted by an AF agent through immigration by the lane reserved for diplomatic passports. Good for them as the "visitor" line was loonnng...full of Chinese & Korean pax who arrived just before us and the line was moving very slowly

ranskis

in LAX as well, there is an escort from checkin to NZ lounge and from NZ lounge to gate. (at least last June there was).
I had the special ground service in JNB last year, from checkin to lounge. The nice effects stops when you see the JNB food&drinks offering, the uncomfortable seats etc...

brunos

Thanks f4free for the information that the P product has truly improved in the past few months, including an escort service at many airports. My last flight was in July 2009 on an old A award.
I agree that TG is not a better seat/product than AF. Actually, I have been quite critical of TG F on the TG board. Both TG and AF seat are the same (now old) generation of solo seats. AF seat is more comfortable. Used to have a lot of technical glitches and that still happens periodically. Avod is same small screen. No mattress on TG. What makes total lack of privacy on AF is that there is no back wall to the seat, so everyone can see everyone when seated. But the worse aspect is the plane they fly with FC. On 772s there is only one row so the whome FC cabin is less than 2m deep (seats are sideways). On the right side the seats are against the galley, so extremely noisy as you can hear all the galley noise and chat. After finishing service and when you try to find sleep, a few FAs congregate in the F galley and you start getting the smell of their meal and hours of discussion and laugh. Also continuous foot traffic of FAs visinting their colleagues. On 77W the second row is more quiet but still a lot of foot traffic. On the other hand most TG flights to Europe are in 744 with a very clubby atmosphere in the nose of the ac. First row seats are absolutely private.

However, and to return to the thread topic, a main difference between TG and AF is price. TG has long-lasting promotion ex-LHR or FRA below 3,000€ for a return F ticket to Asia; compared to 10,000€ on AF. I am still to find an airline that exceeds AF FC, except SQ. For example ex-CDG CX sells for less than 6,000€ to HKG return.
As you say, this is all a question of taste, so here is my own (limited) selection of airlines I have flown in F in the past three years. IF IDENTICAL price, and based on overall experience, I would rank LH (A340 only), LX, EK (A380 or A340-500), OZ, JL, NH, SQ, CX above AF. BA on par but better FFP and lounges worldwide. But with AF being so expensive... I should add that I have a small company, so I basically pay for myself and am quite price sensitive.

orbitmic

I fully agree - AF F pricing is outrageous - the fares mentioned by f4free are indeed the best around and they are so vastly superior to any of the competition. Apart from the JNB-EZE, the only cheap AF F ticket I ever saw was on the LHR-LAX direct flight before they stopped it (£1999 return, which was very cheap!!). These fares are usually available as matter of routine on competitors such as EK, EY, and sometimes even BA and QF in periods of promotion.