Constructive Criticism of La Premiere
Apr 28, 2019, 11:32 am
#572
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 21,918
Apr 28, 2019, 1:49 pm
#573
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Boston, MA
Programs: AA Million Miler, Mosaic, Delta Platinum
Posts: 1,561
May 22, 2019, 8:55 pm
#574
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: DL DM, 1.5 MM; AS MVP Gold 100K; HHonors Diamond; AMEX Platinum
Posts: 487
Just finished up my first flight in La Premiere. It certainly was a wonderful flight, and I'd be happy to fly La Premiere again. There were several reminders, however, that even La Premiere can't prevent all disruptions or headaches related to air travel.
The flight was a family trip for spring break. Mom and my youngest son few out on a separate set of flights to Madrid. The husband and I went out to Dulles to catch AF55 to CDG, which would connect to AF 1600 to MAD. The first surprise was that there was some type of governmental delegation checking in, and more than 10 people were crowded around the La Premiere check in counter. The last thing I expected to see was a line for La Premiere. After checking the Sky Priority line (which was longer) I came back to the La Premiere desk and finally one of the staff pulled us over to another check-in desk. Really not the experience I was expecting. To add insult to injury, I forgot to check on our trusted traveller numbers, so our boarding passes didn't have TSA pre-check. So, we had an escort take us to security, but the security experience was the full-on wait in line and take out all your electronics and liquids. It's been years since I've had to do that, so it was a really disappointing introduction to La Premiere.
The AF lounge is still under construction, so we were led to the Virgin Clubhouse, which I've always enjoyed. It was a bit crowded, but tables were still easy to find. We quickly got some champagne cocktails and a light "lunch" from the wait staff.
Wonderful lounge, and I hope the new AF lounge can compete with this experience. Boarding was a bit delayed, but we were soon escorted to the plane. IAD only uses two jet bridges for the A380, so we were boarding with the lower-deck Sky Priority passengers and (of course) turning left. Now things were looking up -- we had started the *real* La Premiere experience! I knew to expect no champagne at this point, so I settled for an escorted tour around the plane, with a quick stop in the cockpit. Wonderful!
Just to prove (again) that La Premiere cannot fix all things, our departure was delayed by some storm showers, and we were about 90 minutes behind schedule. The takeoff (my second in an A380) was exciting as expected -- if not a bit bouncy. And we quickly settled into dinner time. Now the champage (Taittinger) came out and I started with a cream of butternut squash soup -- delicious. After that, I moved on to a rack of lamb, a salad, some cheeses followed by a caramel cake.
After dinner, the bed was more comfortable and more private feeling than I expected. I slept soundly and missed breakfast (as I had planned).
Our delay was long enough that we really couldn't make our connection -- we only had 1:35 to begin with, and we exited the plane 11 minutes before our connection was scheduled to depart. But, how much can you complain if the alternative is that you have several hours in the La Premiere lounge? To their credit, AF had us re-booked on the next flight out, and we were able to keep our (Euro) business seats.
My first visit to the lounge (Salon) was wonderful, and much longer than we would have had otherwise. It was disappointing that the spa was fully booked for the day. I had been told to book in advance, and that's clearly good advice. So, I did make a booking for our return flight while I was there. The buffet selections were impressive, but we did sit for the restaurant service, and were impressed as so many others have been. For some reason, the immigration officers were not available in the lounge, so we had an escort take us down to passport control so we could be "processed". Once that was done, were were driven off to our A320 for our flight to Madrid. (And, we were late enought that our overhead bins were already full.)
There were plenty of activities in Madrid and Barcelona, but this post is really about the flight. So, for the return....
We had an early flight from BCN to CDG. I picked this because the price was better, and we would have more time in the lounge. The first hop (in Joon!) was good enough. Of course, the best part was the agent greeting us at the jetway and driving us to the Salon. This time, we had three of us (my youngest was joining us in economy). And, he was able to get guest privileges in the lounge. The lounge was decorated for Easter, and even had a brunch special for the holiday -- leg of lamb carved table side.
Our plane was delayed, and we also had the dreaded SSSS on our boarding passes. Fortunately, the did the security processing in the Salon, so it was about as painless as possible. We were finally off to the plane, and really enjoyed our drive around CDG. On the way back, we had another wonderful fight with some naps, great food, and superb drinks.
At this point, I was stuffed.
The final touch was our arrival at IAD. Air France had a staffer meet us again on the jetway and drive us to the IAD Arrivals building. I was *so* happy to skip the Dulles moon buggies!
Unfortunately, I'm still fighting for the correct posting of the miles. Even though I had my Delta SM number on all the boarding passes, my flight posted to Flying Blue. Wish me luck getting that corrected.
So, that's a mini trip report on La Premiere. To recap:
Pros - Excellent service, wonderful food, top-notch lounge
Cons - Lines at IAD, miles posting incorrectly
The flight was a family trip for spring break. Mom and my youngest son few out on a separate set of flights to Madrid. The husband and I went out to Dulles to catch AF55 to CDG, which would connect to AF 1600 to MAD. The first surprise was that there was some type of governmental delegation checking in, and more than 10 people were crowded around the La Premiere check in counter. The last thing I expected to see was a line for La Premiere. After checking the Sky Priority line (which was longer) I came back to the La Premiere desk and finally one of the staff pulled us over to another check-in desk. Really not the experience I was expecting. To add insult to injury, I forgot to check on our trusted traveller numbers, so our boarding passes didn't have TSA pre-check. So, we had an escort take us to security, but the security experience was the full-on wait in line and take out all your electronics and liquids. It's been years since I've had to do that, so it was a really disappointing introduction to La Premiere.
The AF lounge is still under construction, so we were led to the Virgin Clubhouse, which I've always enjoyed. It was a bit crowded, but tables were still easy to find. We quickly got some champagne cocktails and a light "lunch" from the wait staff.
Wonderful lounge, and I hope the new AF lounge can compete with this experience. Boarding was a bit delayed, but we were soon escorted to the plane. IAD only uses two jet bridges for the A380, so we were boarding with the lower-deck Sky Priority passengers and (of course) turning left. Now things were looking up -- we had started the *real* La Premiere experience! I knew to expect no champagne at this point, so I settled for an escorted tour around the plane, with a quick stop in the cockpit. Wonderful!
Just to prove (again) that La Premiere cannot fix all things, our departure was delayed by some storm showers, and we were about 90 minutes behind schedule. The takeoff (my second in an A380) was exciting as expected -- if not a bit bouncy. And we quickly settled into dinner time. Now the champage (Taittinger) came out and I started with a cream of butternut squash soup -- delicious. After that, I moved on to a rack of lamb, a salad, some cheeses followed by a caramel cake.
After dinner, the bed was more comfortable and more private feeling than I expected. I slept soundly and missed breakfast (as I had planned).
Our delay was long enough that we really couldn't make our connection -- we only had 1:35 to begin with, and we exited the plane 11 minutes before our connection was scheduled to depart. But, how much can you complain if the alternative is that you have several hours in the La Premiere lounge? To their credit, AF had us re-booked on the next flight out, and we were able to keep our (Euro) business seats.
My first visit to the lounge (Salon) was wonderful, and much longer than we would have had otherwise. It was disappointing that the spa was fully booked for the day. I had been told to book in advance, and that's clearly good advice. So, I did make a booking for our return flight while I was there. The buffet selections were impressive, but we did sit for the restaurant service, and were impressed as so many others have been. For some reason, the immigration officers were not available in the lounge, so we had an escort take us down to passport control so we could be "processed". Once that was done, were were driven off to our A320 for our flight to Madrid. (And, we were late enought that our overhead bins were already full.)
There were plenty of activities in Madrid and Barcelona, but this post is really about the flight. So, for the return....
We had an early flight from BCN to CDG. I picked this because the price was better, and we would have more time in the lounge. The first hop (in Joon!) was good enough. Of course, the best part was the agent greeting us at the jetway and driving us to the Salon. This time, we had three of us (my youngest was joining us in economy). And, he was able to get guest privileges in the lounge. The lounge was decorated for Easter, and even had a brunch special for the holiday -- leg of lamb carved table side.
Our plane was delayed, and we also had the dreaded SSSS on our boarding passes. Fortunately, the did the security processing in the Salon, so it was about as painless as possible. We were finally off to the plane, and really enjoyed our drive around CDG. On the way back, we had another wonderful fight with some naps, great food, and superb drinks.
At this point, I was stuffed.
The final touch was our arrival at IAD. Air France had a staffer meet us again on the jetway and drive us to the IAD Arrivals building. I was *so* happy to skip the Dulles moon buggies!
Unfortunately, I'm still fighting for the correct posting of the miles. Even though I had my Delta SM number on all the boarding passes, my flight posted to Flying Blue. Wish me luck getting that corrected.
So, that's a mini trip report on La Premiere. To recap:
Pros - Excellent service, wonderful food, top-notch lounge
Cons - Lines at IAD, miles posting incorrectly
After 1 call to Delta, 5 calls to FB and 2 e-mails to FB, they FB team finally reversed the points posted in error. (And I've been told this *is* difficult to accomplish.)
It then took another call and 2 e-mails to Delta to finally get them to post the miles to my SM account.
So, all's well that ends well. But, this should have been *much* more easy than it was in reality. The post La Premiere experience was certainly not the same as the La Premiere experience.
Jun 17, 2019, 7:51 am
#575
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: AMS
Programs: Hilton Diamond, FB Plat
Posts: 312
Report from my first F-trip on La Premiere on the A380;
Flew DUB>CDG, where Michélle was waiting for me in the passenger bridge. She led me to the side-exit where the limo was waiting for me.
Limo
As it was pretty early (arrived at 8:00a) several standard breakfast options were available in the F-lounge @ CDG. Later on they got replaced with some nice lunch options and champagne going with it.
Lounge lunch selection
Michélle booked me a 30 minute spa treatment, which I opted a back massage for. I can highly recommend booking this as it was very good.
Spa
I only had a digital boarding pass for my CDG>IAD flight, I asked the lounge staff for a paper copy which unfortunately showed me a dreaded SSSS mark on there (not unexpected, as I egressed out of DUB as a Dutch citizen).
When it was time to board, Michélle did her best to hide the SSSS mark and made the additional checks in the private security screening section below the lounge go very smoothly as if they'd be part of the normal check.
After boarding I got a very nice glass of Krug, and a refill after I was 3/4rds through it.
Captain drops by, introduces himself and apologises for some delay as there were issues with one of the engines. Onboard staff refilled my glass twice more after which I had to tell them to please cut it out before I actually get drunk before we even take off.
The cabin feels extremely spacious, though not very private. Seats are very comfortable. IFE is very..meh. The touch screen controls are wonky at best and the screen+resolution is absolutely sub-par. But that's the only negative I really have about this experience.
F cabin
Inflight food was absolutely amazing. I had to opt-out of the last two courses on the menu because I was absolutely stuffed. The wine, which was picked by the attendant, was absolutely amazing. I mentioned this to the first class attendant, who looked at me with confident stare and said "of course it is" as if I'd dare to suggest otherwise. That made me chuckle quite a bit.
menu on board
Before landing they served a puffed pastry with Fois Gras with a dessert wine, that was amazing.
After landing @ IAD, we got moved to a shuttle bus, bypassing the moon buggies. Unfortunately I don't have global entry and had to queue for immigration which took 2.5 hours to get through. (Who the hell thought it was a good idea to remove those damn ESTA machines, last time it took me 10 minutes). When I got to baggage belt, one of the F-attendants was STILL waiting for the few F-passengers that had to queue and she bid me farewell.
This was definitely a very cool experience. It might be because I've never done this, but the amount of attention directed PERSONALLY at me, made me feel uneasy at times. In business class you're treated extremely well as a group of passengers. In first class your treated extremely well as an individual, where there's 1 or 2 people working personally on YOUR comfort. I guess that takes some getting used to.
The only criticism I have, is with the hard product on-board. Though it's exremely comfortable, it simply feels very aged (my 10 year old iPad has better video quality than this IFE). Everything else is absolutely sublime.
Also, the XL pyjama's are VERY large XL's, only noticed now that I got home. They're extremely comfy though.
Flew DUB>CDG, where Michélle was waiting for me in the passenger bridge. She led me to the side-exit where the limo was waiting for me.
Limo
As it was pretty early (arrived at 8:00a) several standard breakfast options were available in the F-lounge @ CDG. Later on they got replaced with some nice lunch options and champagne going with it.
Lounge lunch selection
Michélle booked me a 30 minute spa treatment, which I opted a back massage for. I can highly recommend booking this as it was very good.
Spa
I only had a digital boarding pass for my CDG>IAD flight, I asked the lounge staff for a paper copy which unfortunately showed me a dreaded SSSS mark on there (not unexpected, as I egressed out of DUB as a Dutch citizen).
When it was time to board, Michélle did her best to hide the SSSS mark and made the additional checks in the private security screening section below the lounge go very smoothly as if they'd be part of the normal check.
After boarding I got a very nice glass of Krug, and a refill after I was 3/4rds through it.
Captain drops by, introduces himself and apologises for some delay as there were issues with one of the engines. Onboard staff refilled my glass twice more after which I had to tell them to please cut it out before I actually get drunk before we even take off.
The cabin feels extremely spacious, though not very private. Seats are very comfortable. IFE is very..meh. The touch screen controls are wonky at best and the screen+resolution is absolutely sub-par. But that's the only negative I really have about this experience.
F cabin
Inflight food was absolutely amazing. I had to opt-out of the last two courses on the menu because I was absolutely stuffed. The wine, which was picked by the attendant, was absolutely amazing. I mentioned this to the first class attendant, who looked at me with confident stare and said "of course it is" as if I'd dare to suggest otherwise. That made me chuckle quite a bit.
menu on board
Before landing they served a puffed pastry with Fois Gras with a dessert wine, that was amazing.
After landing @ IAD, we got moved to a shuttle bus, bypassing the moon buggies. Unfortunately I don't have global entry and had to queue for immigration which took 2.5 hours to get through. (Who the hell thought it was a good idea to remove those damn ESTA machines, last time it took me 10 minutes). When I got to baggage belt, one of the F-attendants was STILL waiting for the few F-passengers that had to queue and she bid me farewell.
This was definitely a very cool experience. It might be because I've never done this, but the amount of attention directed PERSONALLY at me, made me feel uneasy at times. In business class you're treated extremely well as a group of passengers. In first class your treated extremely well as an individual, where there's 1 or 2 people working personally on YOUR comfort. I guess that takes some getting used to.
The only criticism I have, is with the hard product on-board. Though it's exremely comfortable, it simply feels very aged (my 10 year old iPad has better video quality than this IFE). Everything else is absolutely sublime.
Also, the XL pyjama's are VERY large XL's, only noticed now that I got home. They're extremely comfy though.
Last edited by Wunk; Jun 17, 2019 at 8:36 am
Jun 17, 2019, 12:52 pm
#576
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: East Anglia UK
Programs: BA-S UA LH-Sen KLM/AF-Plat.
Posts: 1,627
This is a journey I have done many times, fewer since half retired now, but you can see why I take it rather than a non stop from LHR. If you have to go then you might as well go in style.
As for IAD and those machines.... I can't understand what they were thinking when they got rid of them. I heard replacements were on the cards, I expect they're still queuing to install them
As for IAD and those machines.... I can't understand what they were thinking when they got rid of them. I heard replacements were on the cards, I expect they're still queuing to install them
Jun 17, 2019, 1:05 pm
#577
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 21,918
Immigration in IAD has become out of control. This is truly unacceptable. Same experience for me the 2 last times. But I am surprised they don't bypass the lines for the P pax. They used to do it so it has likely be forbidden by US CBP. 
Jun 17, 2019, 1:51 pm
#578
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Seat 1A, Juice pretty much everywhere, Mucci des Coins Exotiques
Posts: 34,339
Great report Wunk
Jun 18, 2019, 1:25 am
#580
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Paris, France
Programs: Flying Blue (LTPE) All (Gold)
Posts: 1,519
Jun 18, 2019, 7:48 am
#581
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: East Anglia UK
Programs: BA-S UA LH-Sen KLM/AF-Plat.
Posts: 1,627
Jun 18, 2019, 9:31 am
#582
Join Date: Apr 2005
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, SBB-CFF-FFS GA-AG, SNCF Grand Voyageur LeClub
Posts: 7,836
Great trip report, thanks Wunk ^
Yep, very aged. If you happen to have a chance, fly on Air France's 777-300ER in Premiere, it's sublime in every aspect and certainly does not feel aged. Definitely one of the best First Class products in the world (some say it's #1 , others rank it more like 4 or 5, but that's a matter of personal taste, and you wouldn't find anyone who says that it's not a top notch product).
They feel large? I actually find them too small! I always feel squeezed. The quality of the cotton is great (and so much better than what they used to have). I take them from the plane to the hotels at destination, but not home anymore simply because they feel small. Someone my size should fit into XL (unless there also is XXL, but there isn't), I am not obese or corpulent, just tall and big.
Just a tiny thing I noticed, but falls into the category of "constructive criticism" (CAUTION: First world problem discussion): paper napkins in Premiere, really? Unheard of on other airlines. Here's a picture I just took of how others serve nuts
Also, the XL pyjama's are VERY large XL's, only noticed now that I got home. They're extremely comfy though.
Just a tiny thing I noticed, but falls into the category of "constructive criticism" (CAUTION: First world problem discussion): paper napkins in Premiere, really? Unheard of on other airlines. Here's a picture I just took of how others serve nuts
Jun 18, 2019, 2:10 pm
#584
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Paris, France
Programs: AF/KL Flying Blue Platinum for life/Club2000 Ultimate, Accor ALL Diamond
Posts: 21,918
New 2019 SkyTrax awards for AF La Première
Today, AF has received 3 new SkyTrax awards at the 2019 edition for La Première:
- Best first class lounge dining;
- Best first class in-flight dining;
- Best first class comfort amenities.
Jun 28, 2019, 8:58 pm
#585
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: San Francisco, CA
Programs: Flying Blue Platinum, JetBlue Mosaic, Hyatt Globalist, Alaska MVP Gold.
Posts: 1,962
For all the virtues of the La Premiere lounge, I was flabbergasted to find that the middle shower room has an issue where it will absolutely flood itself when you have a short shower. My clothes were all wet! I asked a lounge attendant if they had at least a pair of socks (Delta always has all the items from amenity kits on hand for use, for free, in Sky Clubs) - she returned 10 minutes later with a genuinely sorry 'je suis desolee'. I told them (politely) they should probably get that fixed... I almost flooded the camera compartment of my bag, and that would've been an extremely expensive trip.