Enjoy !!!! And please tell us here how it went

Absolutely. For now, we're sitting in the weird little private area lounge in JFK.

No, while I'm not sure about the 10 days specifically what you were told is correct: AF rotate between I think 6 different top quality Champagne. Sadly not the very best of them all (which you get on JL) but all are amongst the 10 or so best Champagne that exist.

This Champagne philistine enjoyed the Krug on his flight. The FA was apologetic because she believed Cristal was to be served on my flight.

Krug is perfectly enjoyable. Cristal is quite a bit nicer. Salon is more gorgeous yet.

My trip report ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...al-videos.html ) is now complete.

Please be sure to leave any comments and share how your experience may have been similar or differed from mine.

A slight point of disagreement with master Orbitmic.
I really like Krug because it tastes a bit more like wine. Cristal is nice but I find that it is quite variable between different vintages and not what it used to be. Salon is indeed gorgeous.

I just had a taste of Krug Blanc de Blancs Clos du Mesnil 2003 and it is fabulous (lots of these expensive wine tasting in Hong Kong). But we are far above the typical F budget of any airlines

So, now that I've done my first La Premi�re, some random thoughts on the experience -

* JFK escort is great - but the JFK lounge is nothing special. That weird little lounge area they put you in is strange and impersonal, but whatever... it kept you from breathing non-P air I guess.

* Boarding is awesome - "would you like to board first or board last". And you get shuttled to the front and into your own jetway. Good deal.

* In flight service - fantastic. It was a little awkward at first when you're not used to the attention, but thoroughly enjoyable once you get comfortable with it.

* Love the seats. Love the food. Was definitely a hotel in the sky.

* Hate the lack of overhead space, and the inaccessibility of overhead without breaking the privacy of the window seats. The concept with the curtains is great. The execution just feels like they think nobody is going to dig into their bags mid-flight.

* Lack of Wi-Fi is stupid in 2016. Glad they're getting with the program, but they need to look at their pricing... lot to be said for staying passively connected.


Photos here:
https://goo.gl/photos/4s4jcbro3xLSJfUE7

In Salon La Premi�re now, resting up before our 12.5 hr segment to Singapore, also in La Premiere. Trying to not eat all the things.

Why not?! Enjoy your second flight!

I don't mind! The Grande Cuvee (the 'standard' Krug, I guess, but that's a very odd term for Krug of course) is indeed more regular than vintage Champagnes because of its mix. The Clos du Mesnil is indeed wonderful, but to me it is completely different in taste and style from the Grande Cuvee and also varies by vintage. Both Clos du Mesnil and Cristal are not normally produced in poor years, but IMHO, Cristal paradoxically gets better with good aging. Its development is a bit similar to my beloved Comtes de Champagne: recent vintages extremely pure, but I've recently opened a 1996 C de C and it was absolutely fantastic. Toasty, complex, yet just as exceptionally elegant as the younger siblings. Amazing.

You're right that Clos du Mesnil is typically above F budgets, in fact, Cristal tends to be too. But then JL bless them still give us Salon and that is crazy by airlines F budgets. And yes, gorgeous barely start to describe it. I know many people think it is snobbery, it isn't - Salon is just exceptional. The first time I tasted it was at a time I would say I was certainly no big fan of Champagne and I was blown away. The only other 'first taste' of a wine that gave me a similar (in fact, admittedly, even bigger) emotion was the first time I tried Petrus, and I did not even know that it was Petrus when I was first served the glass! Pure bliss.

I agree with you and that's probably the only criticism I could make on the in-flight hard product. But a good FA can make the difference for this. On a recent flight to JNB, full P cabin and I was seated at the window, the FA told the pax seating in the middle section to not put their bags in the bin over the window seats for the reason you described. He put the bags somewhere else and said to the pax they could have them anytime during the flight if they need.

Is there no good storage space at the seats?

That's one thing I love about the CX First seat -- there are no overhead bins in the cabin *at all*, but there's a personal closet at the seat to hang a few things and stow a bag, and you can also fit a standard roll-aboard comfortably underneath the ottoman.
Then again, they do 1-1-1 in the 77W cabin (though 2 rows).

My carry-on (not very big admittedly) fitted perfectly under the ottoman. There is plenty of room for the bits and bobs you need for the flight in a couple of storage spaces by the seat. My jacket was stored in a separate closet away from the seat.

Our FA asked the guy next to me to ensure he had everything out of the overhead bag before stowage otherwise he would disturb me. He complied so it wasn't an issue.

Simlar to Emirates, Lufthansa and BA, where there is also a personal closet. The BA one is ridiculous and thankfully there is storage space overhead and in the nose section of the 747. The Lufthansa and especially the EK ones are well designed and offer meaningful space. Lufthansa also has stowage in the ottoman, which can be opened and a bag be placed in there

This seems reasonable, though I'm sure it's mildly annoying (for the other pax) to be asked not to access the overhead bin during the flight. Though I guess it's only when the curtain is closed. I'll be on a daytime flight in the window, so I don't anticipate keeping the curtain closed, except maybe a little bit just for the experience. (I've yet to fly in any sort of closed F suite!)