Goldorak

Yahtzee

I assume, based on this, that there's no way to confirm prior to booking whether access would be granted to a qualifying business class traveler. I'm thinking about a leisure trip and having lounge access would be a big factor (and don't want to pay USD14,000 to travel through NY).

orbitmic

Everyone to their own I guess. BA F use super thin mattresses, hard synthetic pillows and duvets, and the J service uses a mini partial seat topper, a seat that has significant "bumps", and is much much smaller than the AF P one. AF P uses full feather and down mattress, duvet, and pillows, which are probably the best in the industry. Ultimately, tastes and habits vary and if you say you and your wife found BA J more comfortable to sleep in than AF P, then that is exactly what you felt, but all I can say is that I have no doubt you would be in an extremely small minority.

lloydah

Very small minority I feel. La P is about the only cabin in which I can actually get a decent sleep. As for BA J, nope, sorry, not even in the running.

silx

Quick question for the experts, this does not seem to require a separate thread . I am planning to burn most of my miles for a one-way P trip to SFO in January from CDG (I am Gold, Unfortunately, I have not enough miles for the round trip). I am hesitating between taking the CDG-SFO or the return SFO-CDG. After reading extensively this thread and others, I can't really make up my mind. Both would be on the 777 cabin.

CDG-SFO:
pro: 2 meals, much better inflight better food from Paris.
cons: leave at 10am so no real chance to enjoy the lounge in Paris.

SFO-CDG
pros: overnight so possbility to get a good night sleep, possibility to use the lounge on arrival (I am planning to take a TGV connection to Reims just for that).
cons: food much worse when flying from the US, and only one meal.

am I missing anything? am I correct to hesitate or is it a no-brainer?

(PS: I am also very annoyed at having to book an award ticket and pay 300€ of fees, rather than upgrade my flight, as this is a work trip but my work won't book above premium and I can only upgrade to P from J, according to AF/FB).

ijgordon

SFO-CDG will have 2 meals -- dinner and breakfast, no?
Are you sure you can access the lounge on arrival when connecting to the TGV? If not, then I'd definitely do CDG-SFO. Otherwise, a little more of a toss-up IMO. You can still enjoy the lounge for a 10am flight, obviously it means waking up earlier, and I don't think the breakfast menu would be as exciting as the lunch/dinner menu, but I think there have been reports of guests being able to get at least something off the lunch menu even in the morning (at minimum, you could try for the coquillettes, I'd think they could whip that up without too much advance notice).

San Gottardo

Take the day flight.

1) Full onboard service, and with >11 hours flight time you'll still have time to sleep, sample the bed and the PJ, etc
2) You can experience the lounge, you can get there at 7am if you like. It's definitely worthwhile experiencing. But I belong to those that feel that as good as it may be, it is still an airport lounge, so it will become boring after some time. My very personal choice would have been to get there by 8-8.15am, have breakfast and finish whatever you need to do online (because AF still cuts you off for >11 hours while you're in the air), and then board. If you are into massages (where you can ask yourself the question of whether you'd be having a massage at 8am in an airport because that is what you're into, or you do it because there is time to kill), then arrive at 7 or 7.30am

Enjoy!!

silx

thanks to both of you for the advice. Any experience on the access to the lounge in case of connection with TGV? Seeing past threads, I do not want to take a dummy flight and not board it for sure (as it was repeatedly said to be a pretty bad idea). But for a TGV I could either unboard the train immediately, or worst case scenario come back with a cheap ticket (Reims seems to be the closest station from Paris by TGV so not a big hassle anyway).

AlvinMaker

(deleted)

Sjondorn

On my upcoming trip I decided to do P only from SFO-CDG-PRG (in 777), then back in J PRG-AMS-SFO with KLM in 787. Was considering P both ways but then I felt like for a day flight J is just enough, mainly because it's a day flight and not that much time to enjoy P lounge.

JakeMorgan

Having just taken this flight last month (and about 3 times previously in La Premiere) I'd definitely push for flying first from CDG, mainly for the reasons you've already cited:

1) Better food in-flight from CDG
2) Better lounge in CDG - by a long shot. Even if for a limited amount of time.

In SF La Premiere customers now use the Virgin Atlantic lounge which is nice, but can get crowded. Previously they cordoned off an area of the AF lounge for La Premiere customers - which wasn't ideal - but at least it was airside (if that matters to you). Personally I don't like to get to the lounge knowing that I still have to clear security (even if it's with an AF escort).

lloydah

Although there's a difference I've never found the food on ex US AF flights to be bad at all. Most of the time I've had to use the IAD return so shorter than SFO but it's been way above the catering I've experienced with other carriers' F products. In fact on my last flight I wasn't much interested in the dessert and was asked what sort of thing I'd like as "We will make something up for you with what we've got on board." That said, catering out of CDG is a standard of it's own.

Goldorak

silx

Thanks to all for the feedbacks! Will book the first leg (CDG-SFO) then and report here after my trip end of january.

PS: Since one-way tickets are so expensive on air france, I have booked (through work) my return OAK-CDG via norwegian (decently priced at 600€ for a one-way in premium eco), this will also be my first trip on this company, and this complicated round trip will probably cost me my elite status next fall with FB, but at least I will have tried the "la premiere" in the best possible conditions.

Klems

Maybe try to book a round trip with one way in P, and a dummy return in economy, that might bring the price down.