Romanianflyer

Part 22: Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport (SVO)
Moscow and Jazz lounges

After a good night of sleep I woke up for another long day of travelling which would first take me back to Paris CDG with Aeroflot and then with Sky Team minnows TAROM to my home base of Bucharest. First however it was time for some breakfast at the Pushkin Hotel, which was acceptable enough with decent coffee, eggs and potato cakes



It was a cold day and not too pleasant to drag along my trolley through snowy Moscow streets to the nearby Tverskaya metro station. But as my flight would only depart at 1.05pm and I had plenty of time, I still vastly preferred a metro and train ride above a taxi given my fascination for train and metro networks.


Tverskaya metro station


Riding the long escalators down to the platform

It is only two stops from Tverskaya to the railway terminus of Belorussky (Belarus) Station from where the Sheremetyevo airport express departs. Yet you'd be crazy to stay on the train and not to get off at the intermediate metro station of Mayakovskaya – which is in my opinion one of the most beautifully designed of the entire Moscow metro network. And given there are trains every two minutes, you hardly lose any time at all getting off – snapping a picture – and getting on the next train again!


Mayakovskaya metro station

I was lucky again to encounter a half-empty train at Belorrusky Station and I had nobody sitting next nor opposite of me.


Watching out of the train window while stationary at Belorrusky Station

It was again a fairly long walk from the Sheremetyevo railway terminus to Terminal D from where my flight to Paris would depart. Although nowhere close to being beautiful or having any kind of groundbreaking architecture, the airport does feel quite spacious and never felt crowded. That included the check-in area, which had a separate area for business class passengers. With just 2 people in front of me, I was quickly helped and had my Aeroflot boarding pass in my hand. Unfortunately, the check-in agent could not get me a boarding pass for my connecting TAROM flight, but as I already checked in online for the flight and had a mobile boarding pass it did not matter too much.




Check-in counters for Aeroflot at Terminal D.

The lines at security and passport control were a breeze and with two hours to spare before departure I was airside at Sheremetyevo.

It was my first time at Terminal D (having previously only seen F when once flying to Copenhagen, and obviously the domestic terminal on my way to Irkutsk). For those with a priority pass, flying business class or having elite status, there are ample of choices for lounges. Frankly, there were so many available that I hardly knew which one too visit, there also being little information about it online.

After exchanging my last Rubles for Euros I went to the first lounge I encountered – which is one floor up straight after security. Called the Jazz lounge, it is only accessible for Aeroflot passengers AFAIK. Like the domestic lounge, the first impression was rather bad as it was very dark and absolutely crowded. The only seats available were stools on a long table.

Offerings in the lounge were decent enough, OK coffee, some breakfast stuff, the usual amount of booze.. and lots of sweets! I therefore decided to have a second breakfast LOTR-style and get myself a cup of coffee and some OJ while trying every sweet I could find in true Hobbit style. The little cakes were however visually more appealing than they tasted.






Jazz Lounge at Terminal D

As I didn't really like the lounge, I went for a quest to find a better place to spend my time. Right next to my departure gate I found the 'Moscow Lounge', which is mostly used by all kinds of passholders, but also available for Aeroflot flyers. Even though it was absolutely packed to the brim at 11am – I found it more pleasant than the Jazz lounge as it had some natural light coming in from the terminal corridor which separates it from the tarmac. I managed to grab a seat by the window so I could look out over the same-floor terminal.

When I arrived they were changing the food offerings from breakfast to lunch, with a soup and a huge bowl of chicken wings available. As I was not hungry, I didn't partake. Instead I just had a glass of bubbly and some water.

The Moscow Lounge is again nothing to write home about – but vastly superior to Jazz in my opinion. Yet I would never go out of my way to arrive early at SVO or to have a long connection here, as what I've heard there is simply not such a thing as a good lounge at any major Moscow Airport.








The 'Moscow Lounge' in Terminal D

As I didn't feel like drinking more before the flight and it was getting so crowded that many people were even standing all over the lounge, I decided to leave and just wander a bit around the gate area.


Departure gate for my Paris flight


The Aeroflot bird which would take me to Paris

In short: While much better than the domestic lounge, the international lounges at Terminal D are nothing to write home about. There are quite some other lounges available besides the two I tried, but what I've heard they are all more or less the same. Sheremetyevo is not necessarily a bad airport when it comes to lay-out, design, spaciousness or queues (although nothing great either) – the lounges are something which definitely could and should be improved as they are no way on par with the level of Aeroflot's business class.

Next up: Flying to Paris CDG in Aeroflot business class

Romanianflyer

Part 23: Moscow Sheremetyevo (SVO) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) in Aeroflot business class
SU2462 (booked as AF4855)- Airbus A319 - Seat 3F
STD 13:05pm - STA 15:00pm (flight time 2h55m)

Priority boarding was again strictly enforced and I was the first to walk on board. The Airbus A319 was the same as I flew a week earlier from Paris to Moscow – and unlike the B737 it did not have in-seat monitors.

The load seemed again to be relatively light, with economy perhaps being two thirds booked while there were only three or four other passengers in business class. As soon as I took my seat, a friendly FA introduced herself to me and handed me today's menu and drink lists, as well as offering a PDB. Naturally, I went for the champagne. I won't post the drinks list and seat pictures again (see the link above to my CDG-SVO flight as it's all the same) but only the new food menu.


Ayala champagne as PDB


Today's lunch menu

Some good plane spotting opportunities again from the window at SVO. As I wrote before, I always prefer the window seat as I just love the beauty of the earth and quirky plane views at airports. Given the light load on this flight I again lucked out by having nobody seated next to me.







Take-off was smooth and before I knew it we were above the clouds. Today's flight time would only be two hours and 55 minutes, so I'd better make use of the time as it would be my (so far) last opportunity to try out the Aeroflot delights. Mind you, I am a person who flew economy for most of my life and only recently (mostly due to meticulous planning, spontaneous adventures and FF knowledge) have the opportunity to try out premium cabins more and more. I guess plenty of us here at Flyertalk know the feeling of overindulging and amazement I am describing here :-)





Once we reached cruising altitude the friendly and pro-active crew distributed tablets and headphones. I was a bit surprised by this as we didn't get them on my inbound CDG-SVO flight. I do really like the Aeroflot soft product, but this was again a reminder that at times the service is a bit inconsistent and there is room for further streamlining. The quality of the headphones was certainly acceptable however. And while nowhere near exhaustive, there was sufficient interesting stuff to watch on the tablets (although I did miss the airshow being a geography freak! I just love to see where exactly we are flying..)





After distributing the headphones and tablets the crew came to ask if I would like another drink, while asking as well what my dining preferences are. Having sampled the excellent baked beef starter and pastrami beef main on my SVO-IKT flight, and not finding the baked carrots dish anywhere near appealing at all, I wanted to try out the trout gravlax as starter and fried salmon as a main. Unfortunately, all other passengers apparently thought likewise and as I was the last passenger served in business class was told that they ran out of those dishes.

I therefore had no other option than ordering the baked beef as a starter and pastrami beef as main again – although I knew that at least both dishes would be good quality. One for the category 'First World Problems', I assume..

I had another glass of Ayala, which was served with a bowl of nuts. After my freezing Siberian adventure I only found it natural to re-watch the three latest Game of Thrones episodes which were loaded on the tablets.


Nothing beats an expedition beyond the wall when drinking champagne


Baked beaf and white bean hummus starter – still as good as it was on the SVO-IKT flight. The bread from the bread basket was tasty too!

Before my main arrived, I rang the call button to make sure I would have a red wine for my main course. Having tasted both reds on my previous flight, I found the Italian red slightly better (and mostly more suitable for high altitude plane environs) than the Bordeaux one.



Fortunately, the beef pastrami was indeed as good as I remembered it was from the SVO-IKT flight, although this time it was slightly less succulent.


Beef pastrami with cabbage stew, served with Port wine Jus sauce

After dinner, vanilla ice cream with chocolate flakes was served. It was simple, but it being ice cream of course tasty enough.



After clearing my table, the friendly FA asked if would like to have some coffee or tea. Naturally, I couldn't resist a coffee and a cognac, which was again served with a nice Aeroflot-branded chocolate.





When clearing the plates, the FA was surprised when I only asked for some water and if I did not want some more alcohol. It being my last Aeroflot flight of the trip and flying to France, I thought that another glass of champagne wouldn't do harm at all. Somehow the FA could read my mind as just like during my last flight, the entire bottle was just given to me and left at my seat. Not complaining here :-)



Starting to enjoy my flight quite a bit more, I also decided I should have a G&T when the FA asked if I would like a last drink before the final approach into Paris.


King in the North!


I definitely can get used to flights like this!

The descent into Paris was fairly choppy due to the bad weather. Not much of views at all due to the clouds.







After what seemed again to be some eternal taxiing across CDG, we arrived at a gate at terminal 2C next to an Atlasglobal Airbus, which interestingly could also be booked to Istanbul on the same “flash sale” ticket as I was travelling on as an Air France codeshare.

In short: Having sampled Aeroflot's business class product on four flights, I can only say that it was a very pleasant surprise. Proper short/medium haul business class seats, a great soft product, and an eager-to-please crew on most of my flights. Compared to probably all European competitors except for Turkish and Air Serbia, I can't name an airline which can offer the same.

The only negatives I have to mention that the service can get streamlined a bit more and is not of the same professional standard as one would find at Qatar Airways (although the crews were always friendly). My main complaints (non-distributed tablets/headphones on my first flight out of four, and a not-so-clean flight at one of the domestic sectors) are however relatively minor.

The biggest improvement Aeroflot can make is at its Moscow hub as I think the lounges are subpar compared to (most) of its rivals, or at the very least is nowhere near as good enough as the on-board product. A shame, as otherwise Sheremetyevo isn't a bad airport at all to transfer.

Overall I cannot recommend Aeroflot enough for such short to mid-haul flight in Europe and the Near East – I had a blast.

Next up: Flying from Paris CDG to Bucharest OTP with TAROM (RO) in business class.

Romanianflyer

Part 24: Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) to Bucharest Otopeni (OTP) in TAROM business class
RO384 (booked as AF5050)- Airbus A318 - Seat 2F
STD 16:20pm - STA 20:10pm (flight time 2h50m)

No time to check out any lounges this time. A layover of only 1 hour and 20 minutes is not very long at most airports in the world – let alone at CDG when you have to change terminals. Knowing the airport and the French, I was honestly even a tiny bit nervous of not making it at all to my next flight. My previous Aeroflot flight arrived at Terminal 2C – and I had to go to 2E for my TAROM flight.

I was one of the first passengers to disembark and after my previous bad experience walking between terminals I opted this time for the intra-terminal bus service. Luckily, queues were pretty much absent and after a short wait I was in a near-empty bus.



I can't recall the exact details of the transfer (I should write up TR's faster... and not like this three months late) but somewhere along the route it involved both a security and passport check. Not very glamorous whatsoever, transiting CDG...



When I finally arrived at the gate after what seemed like an eternal walk at 2E, boarding has not yet commenced. Judging by the people seated at the gate area it would be a light load for the last flight of the day to Bucharest.



Within minutes after arriving at the gate, boarding commenced – with priority boarding neatly observed. I was the only passenger in the two-row business class cabin, with economy probably not being more than one third full.

TAROM is arguably one of the more unknown Sky Team airlines. To be honest, it is a mixed bunch altogether and I'm not surprised it keeps on making big losses. The airline has an odd mix of several aircraft types, including ATR's for domestic and a few short haul routes, some A318s and A319s, as well as some Boeing 737s of all sorts, from older types to new ones with gleaming sky interiors. Not what I would call the most effective way of maintaining your fleet from a cost-perspective. Until quite recently, the airline even had some ancient A310s used on routes to Spain and Dubai – the furthest points in the network. There has been some chatter of TAROM acquiring some long haul planes again to serve routes to such countries as China, although I really can't see that happening in the first place, nor being profitable whatsoever in the second place.

When booking this ticket I opted for a TAROM operated flight to Bucharest, and an Air France operated on the way back to see how the two would compare (spoiler: it wasn't even close). The biggest reason for choosing TAROM was the chance at a proper business class seat. Yet with TAROM having such a motley fleet, there is no way to tell absolutely sure in advance if you will indeed get one. Weirdly, both some of the older planes as well as some of the most recent 737 acquisition from Boeing have proper business class seats. Yet when I flew a brand new B737 with sky interior recently from Brussels it had only economy seats. There is just no constistency whatsoever in the hard product – it just seems the airline is run by someone who cannot make up his mind what planes with which seats to order!

Unfortunately, I lucked out on this flight and all I got was a crappy euro-business seat: a normal economy seat with the middle seat blocked by a tray table. Fortunately, I was the only one in business. The A318 seemed quite old and wear-and-tear was clearly visible, although the seat wasn't too uncomfortable really (modern planes are often worse with economy seats!).




The A318 business class cabin

Business class consisted out of two rows on the left side of the plane, and only one bulkhead on the right side where I was seated. On the seats, a pillow and blanket was waiting – which is a nice touch as the majority of intra-European airlines will not give you these.



The FAs on this flight were a mixed bunch. One was quite friendly while the other one was snappy and arrogant at all times. Neither of them were very proactive as they never showed their faces outside of the galley unless pushing the call button. Service commenced however quite neatly, as a warm towel and PDB was offered. Naturally, I opted for “champagne” - which after inquiring later during the flight turned out to be something called Angelli – which you can buy in a supermarket for 4 EUR. Needless to say – it was “drinkable” at best and nowhere near anything premium.


I could have flown Air France and got proper champagne...

Taxiing took not that long this time and with the A318 being a small plane we were airborne quickly in a rainy Charles de Gaulle.







There is no in-flight entertainment besides overhead screens showing the route map (which I don't mind as I always bring my own books/music, and I hardly ever look at anything else besides maps if I would have my own screen). The entire TAROM Airbus and Boeing fleet has something called “Airfi” - but don't get too excited! There is no wifi – just the opportunity to connect to the in-flight network to watch a very, very limited offering of videos and stuff.



Soon after reaching altitude, the service kicked in with the FA bringing another hot towel.



No food or drinks menus, no choices of meals whatsoever – just one tray with everything on it brought to you as soon as possible. Today's dish was some chicken and rice – which was catered in Bucharest according to the paper with tiny letters seen in the left-bottom of the picture below.



While edible, the meal was a huge disappointment after my recent Aeroflot flights and even the ultra-short Amsterdam-Paris hop on Air France. You get better stuff at your local Chinese takeaway. The buns were very chewy, the salad was super dry, and the desert was totally unremarkable. Plating was also quite horrendous in my opinion as lids were still on each bowl (with ugly stickers) and the entire tray was just crammed full of stuff. The only thing on it clearly getting a passing grade were the two pieces of cheese.

I asked for a red wine to be served with the food – which was a bog-standard 5 EUR supermarket red. Not that the wine is that bad or so (it's drinkable) – but given how much of a wine country Romania is and how good some of the (more premium wines) can be I found it to be a very underwhelming choice for business class to put it mildly. At best, it's a perfectly acceptable wine for economy class. (SPOILER: TAROM serves the exact same wine as well in economy...)



How hard can it be to deliver a real premium experience in business class? Being a FF on both Sky Team and *A (Aegean Miles & Bonus) there was such a stark contrast to Aegean Airlines, which imho serves a great soft product on its business class flights. Not only with food, but also with a separate wine menu which highlights distinct regions and changes every few months. Romanian wine can be as good as Greek wine and it's a big up and coming country in the industry. A truly premium F&B service can be a great introduction for foreigners into your country and what it has to offer. As an expat who has come to love Romania, the whole soft product was just a very big disappointment.

Not being happy with the choice of wine, I decided to have a beer instead after the meal. TAROM serves Peroni from glass bottles in business class. Yet I don't think it is anything better at all than the very decent locally brewed Ursus beer they serve in cans in economy... (let's call it the Heineken sickness, many airlines just think that a famous brand from abroad is surely the best they can offer while in fact it is not).



There was however one thing which made this flight memorable. The flight path took us straight over the entire length of the Austrian Alps – and boy, it made for some spectacular views from the window. I will let the pictures do the talking here.















Arrival in Bucharest was on time – no pictures here due to the approach route from the East which goes above farmland with zero views at night. Fortunately, we had a proper gate and within 15 minutes I had cleared passport control and was in my Uber for my ride to my home.

In short: Where to begin... if you can catch a plane with a proper business class seat, TAROM is great as it's only one of the four intra-European airlines (Turkish, Aeroflot, Air Serbia, if I have it right) who have proper business class seats on narrow-body planes. If you can't, it's an entirely different story.

FAs get a passing grade at best compared to other airlines, the meal is not much better than your local Chinese takeaway, and a ...... 4-EUR supermarket sparkling wine and the same wines as in economy are served. I would just never pay the full business class price for such a TAROM flight to be honest – also because economy class on TAROM is actually relatively good. On 2-3 hour-long routes you get a proper warm meal, two drink rounds including alcohol. And basically you fly in the same seat..! Especially after flying the return sector on Air France back to Paris, it would become quite clear how much the airline is lagging behind in its soft product.. a pity!

Yet maybe I'm a bit too harsh – as there are airlines which have an even more unremarkable service in J on short intra-European hops (KL, LH..). Tough one to call!

Next up: The return portion of the big trip: exploring exotic and rainy Azerbaijan with flights on Air France, Azerbaijan Airlines and KLM in business class, as well as spending some more time in beautiful Norway.

ironmanjt

Jealous of your TAROM flight.....I still have yet to fly an A318!

mad_atta

Ditto - still on my to fly list, but they're pretty rare!

Honestly, it made me nostalgic for the brief rainbow flourishing of the Tarom forum on FT back in the day. Probably the closest I will get to the airline

rapidex

Spend a few AA miles on the BA A318 JFK-LCY in 32 seat all business class. Its a great way to cross the altantic.

nequine

A bit late to the party but what a great TR you have written so far and thanks for sharing

Romanianflyer

didn't expect that!

Although there are plenty of aeroplanes (especially the more recent ones!) which I haven't flown yet, I can't complain about a lack of A318s as I had quite some hops on them with TAROM and Air France - and perhaps even some other carriers when I was not paying attention [the pre FT-days when I cared solely about my destination and not the means to get there].

They are fun little birds, nice and small so quick off the ground.

There used to be a TAROM forum once really? Best bet to catch one is actually not TAROM but AF as I believe they are the largest operators!

That's the one making a stop in Shannon on the way to the States to clear immigration? Have seen quite a few TRs on that flight - looks indeed like a fun way to cross the pond! It is still operating as I once read some while ago its future was unsure?

Thanks for the compliment and for reading along - it's never too late to join the party!

Romanianflyer

Part 25: Bucharest Otopeni Airport (OTP) and the TAROM business class lounge

After a one-month-long hiatus in which I was busy catching up on work, social life and moving apartments it was time for the return portion of the trip. For those who are just casually reading along this might sound bizarre, but for those who paid careful attention to post number one understand what I mean. The ticket I booked was basically a simple Norway to Romania return ticket, with the outbound flight allowing a side-trip to Russia. On my inbound flight back to Norway, I managed to get a side-trip booked to Baku, Azerbaijan. Having visited Georgia and Armenia before I was immensely curious how the third Caucasus republic would be like in comparison. The opportunity to fly Paris-Baku-Paris on a codeshare with Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) – which has proper business class seats – was an additional reason why opting for Baku instead of other destinations which could theoretically be booked on the same ticket.

With my flight departing at 2.50pm, I took an Uber to the airport around 12.30. Traffic was a breeze and it took just over half an hour to reach the airport. Otopeni can be immensely overcrowded during rush hour (5-9am) when dozens of Wizzair, TAROM and Blue Air flights depart, as all have very big bases at OTP. Then there are quite some other early morning departures (couple of Ryanair flights, most big EU carriers who have an aircraft stationed at OTP overnight) which can make security checks a giant mess (unfortunately there aren't priority lines). But come at any other time of the day, and the lines are a breeze. Within 10 minutes after leaving my Uber I was already through security and passport control.

After passport control OTP feeds passengers directly into a duty free shop. After a few hundred feet through a narrow corridor with small shops and bars on both sides of the pathway, the crowds thin out as most passengers head downstairs into the bare-bones basement for the bus gates. Further ahead is the more modern part of OTP with some proper gates in a shiny glass terminal. The TAROM lounge is accessible by taking the escalator upstairs at this point. Upon seeing my boarding pass in business class the lounge dragon let me into the lounge. Even though the lounge is TAROM/Sky Team branded, it is actually used AFAIK by most airlines, having entered many times with *G on Aegean Airlines or Lufthansa flights.

Even though I have visited the lounge before on several occasions, I have never reviewed it – so let's begin with the best. Even though it was quite crowded when I arrived (80% of people however left within the next 15-20 mins) it is normally an oasis of quietness. Seating is great, with tables, bean bags and couches available. Many seats either overlook the terminal from above, or have good views over the tarmac (unfortunately, towards the corner of the airport so you will see 2-3 planes at most which happen to be parked at the gates here). There are plenty of plugs and Wi-Fi is fast, as opposed to the spotty public network in the airport.






Seats in the TAROM business class lounge – the third picture is taken when the lounge emptied out, compared to the first two pics when most tables where occupied.


View towards the tarmac from the lounge


View down over the airport terminal.

There are even some cool features in the lounge, such as this giant TAROM route map (which is outdated though!).



With that done, let's get to the bad part. The selection of booze is decidedly average – with just a few spirits, one wine available and no champagne. Food is even worse. Don't ever come to the lounge thinking you will be fed. It doesn't matter if you arrive in the morning, afternoon or evening: the entire day it's just dry crackers and peanuts only. Drinks are self-serve from a long counter opposite the lounge dragon desk.


Food/drink counter at the lounge

I spend about an hour in the lounge catching up on email and drinking a Romanian beer.


The only lounge beer is Ursus, served in cans. A decent enough Romanian brew!

As the lounge really ain't much, I headed back downstairs to the departures terminal to stretch my legs.

In Short: The TAROM lounge is quite poor compared to other European lounges when it comes to food and drinks. Food is lacking altogether (unless you can survive eating peanuts) – and the drinks selection is decidedly average. It's a pity as these things are so easy to fix if TAROM would want to – as the lounge itself doesn't look bad at all, has good seating, good views and good internet. Go there if you need a place to sit in quiet to work or relax before the flight, but don't count on food and don't come early to the airport thinking to have a nice experience.

Next Up: A surprisingly great Air France flight in euro-business class. [SPOILER: something with too much champagne and cognac]

rapidex

That's the one making a stop in Shannon on the way to the States to clear immigration? Have seen quite a few TRs on that flight - looks indeed like a fun way to cross the pond! It is still operating as I once read some while ago its future was unsure?



Its still running. The reason it stops in Shannon is because the runway at LCY is too short for it to carry enough fuel for JFK. Customs clearance is incidental. It returns JFK-LCY non stop.

mad_atta

There did indeed! Quite a few obscure airline/frequent flyer forums existed one upon a time, but the less popular got rolled up into the 'Other [region name] airlines' forums. Back in 2001/2002 when there was a fierce debate raging over whether there should be a separate forum for GLBT travellers, following the model of the (then-new) Women travellers forum, an impatient group of us looked for an under-used forum we could 'occupy' while waiting for an actual dedicated GLBT space. The unsuspecting TAROM forum fitted the bill perfectly, and it briefly flourished as the pinkest, campest, most frivolous place on all of FT (with the odd off-colour joke about service levels in 'Ceausescu class' so we could pretend we were on topic). Strange but fun times!

offerendum

TAROM is one of the airlines I have never flown.

Romanianflyer

Now that is a fun story and bit of FT history that cheered up my morning reading it as somehow I could perfectly picture it all. Thanks for sharing!

There is always a first for everything - although you don't really miss that much by not flying them! (especially in business class, in economy I still think the product is better than most other European airlines nowadays but I would still not go out of my way for a beer and mediocre meal in Y )

Romanianflyer

Part 26: Bucharest (OTP) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on Air France
AF1889 - Airbus A320- Seat 1F
STD 14:50pm - STA 17:00pm (flight time 3h10m)

Flying from OTP with a legacy carrier as opposed to a low cost already becomes clear at boarding as there was almost no gate lice whatsoever. Priority boarding was strictly enforced and I was the first to board the Airbus A320 for today's flight to Paris.




Walking towards our aeroplane, which was parked next to a FlyDubai plane.

I was warmly welcomed by two friendly middle-aged Air France air hostesses, who both would turn out to be serving me for most of the flight. Only one row of business class on today's flight, and it turned out I was lucky being the only passenger on board. The plane was clearly quite a bit older but clean. In the seat, a pillow was placed, which is a nice touch which not all European carriers do on short haul flights.


The one row of euro-business class on today's flight.

I can't speak highly enough of the crew on this flight as both ladies were charming, talkative, friendly and very proactive (later more on that..!). Shortly after I took my seat they asked me if I wanted a PDB. I asked for a glass of champagne, as well as some water. Both were quickly delivered. As boarding took a while, they asked if I would like a refill, to which I gladly obliged.



While I was the only one in business, economy looked completely packed. We left some minutes late from our gate but the pilot announced we would easily make up for it once in the air. Taxiing at Otopeni showed one interesting bird as it seemed some high dignitaries were in town judging by Bulgaria's government plane parked near the VIP terminal.


The modern part of OTP's single terminal as seen from the aeroplane.


And the older part.. the overcrowded airport is basically one single, old terminal – with a modern extension at the far end of the concourse.


A Bulgarian government plane


The VIP terminal. Note the red carpet.

Take-off was smooth and there were some decent views of the Wallachian plains on which Bucharest is located. Even though it was a nice day for flying, the scenery still looked quite dreary on this day in March (for anyone considering visiting Bucharest: don't come in winter, it's depressive).









As soon as the fasten seatbelt sign went off, the crew came into action and closed the curtains separating business from economy. Like true Air France dragons they would also guard their post, kicking those in economy who thought they could visit my personal toilet up front to the back of the plane.

The only weird thing of this plane was the plastic/glass window separating the aisle from seats 1ABC. What is the purpose of it and what had the person who designed it in mind? It had a curtain which was also closed, but due to the lousy curtains separating business class from the galley you could still easily have a peek..



First things first, the FA came to me to ask if I perhaps would like another glass of champagne. Who am I to say no to that?



She also came back with the menu for today's flight, which would take a bit over three hours.





The starter was listed as a sautéed shrimp, tomato and red onion tartare. For the mains it gave a choice between grilled beef in red wine sauce and four cheese tortellini, I went for the beef to create a surf and turf. As desserts, both cheese and profiteroles in vanilla custard were given.

I asked the FA if I could have both a white and a red wine to go with the meal as for some proper pairing. I can't after all in good conscience when flying French wash away seafood with a red, or drink a white with beef. That's a capital offence in France which would land your head under the guillotine.



The meal came on one tray, and I thought the presentation looked great. Even though I'm no great fan of shrimps the starter tasted fantastic, the shrimps sautéed to perfection and the tomato and onion tartare adding a nice bite. The beef was tender and tasted equally great, and went very well with the excellent Chateau Rollan de By 2015. The profiteroles in vanilla sauce were great too, but it's obviously not something you can easily get wrong.

By a mile, it would turn out the best airline meal and wine I would have on this trip. Everything was just absolutely right about it, and I was thoroughly enjoying every single bite. I'm not exaggerating that it even would beat most of the meals I had on long haul flights with airlines known for their good food such as Qatar. Job well done, Air France!

Big was my surprise when I read on the tiny paper [on which the starter was placed in the picture] that it was actually catered in Bucharest... Each time when flying TAROM I get underwhelming meals, while Air France manages to get this gem of a meal out of an outstation...

The surprise was not yet over, as after the tray was taken away the FA asked if I would like some coffee. I kindly asked if I could have a cognac with it as well as a digestif. Little did I expect she would come back with this tray:



Some great Segafredo coffee, Berlingots cookies, Ladurée macarons, a box of pralines, and a double serving of cognac. Count me very, very impressed here for a short haul European flight!

As there were still two hours to go to Paris and the FAs could ostensibly read my mind that I was thoroughly enjoying the flight, they upped the ante even further by literally insisting I should have another drink. When asking for a glass of champagne, they decided I should have the entire bottle (something is becoming quite a theme lately on the flights during this trip.. )





Before I knew it, the champagne bottle was empty and fasten seatbelt signs went on for our descent into Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The landing was uneventful, and due to my slightly intoxicated state I forgot to make any pictures during the last bits of the flight/at the airport. What a fun flight it was!

In short: Wow, Air France blew me completely away with this flight. Yes, we all know the intra-European hard product sucks. But what a great soft product did they have. Friendly FAs, great food, great wines, Ladurée macarons. What a world apart from their close partners of KLM where all you get is a sandwich... I wish I had chosen more flights on AF metal instead of codesharing them on TAROM and KLM.

Next up:A short stopover in Paris.

mad_atta

Now THAT is my kind of shorthaul flight. By halfway through the bottle of champers you would have been blissfully aware of your crappy Eurobiz seat!