Speechless !!! Review new business class on Air France's A350
I waited over a year to book this cabin, the reason is simple I wanted to be sure at 99.9% to [...]
Air France
SkyTeam
ORD
United States of America
I waited over a year to book this cabin, the reason is simple I wanted to be 99.9% sure that I was booking a ticket and flying on it, and when very few planes have a cabin it can always happen that for one of a thousand reasons at the last minute there is a change of machine to ruin the plans.
In this article:
- Specifications
- Aircraft:
- A350
- Class:
- Business
- Treat:
- CDG - ORD
- Price:
- 27,500 FB + 210
- Book
The best bonuses
Of course an atåtent reader might say "Matteo you are a 2000 Club, you could talk to the company and avoid problems," but the point is that I am a paying passenger and I never warn the companies that I will be flying with them, otherwise it would not be a real review, but what in journalistic jargon is called Marketta.
Reservation
This note was a theft by juggling, a fare that appeared and lasted just a beat of a butterfly's wings and then disappeared forever. A ticket I paid for entirely with Flying Blue miles., points that I have accumulated effortlessly through the spending that I and my colleagues do every day and that turn into lots of points. To be exact, every euro we spend with Mooncard becomes 1.5 FB miles, to have a term of comparison with 11,250 FB points you fly from Italy to New York or Miami.
This ticket, however, was even more special since it with only 55k FB points I took two flights. Both routes aboard their respective flagships and both in the best cabin possible.
- Hanoi to Paris in business class with Vietnam Airlines
- Paris to Chicago.
So dividing the expense by two this single leg cost me 27.5k FB points and just over 200€ in taxes and surcharges. As I said, legalized theft.
Of course, when these rates come up, I don't just keep them to myself, but I share them with readers via The Flight Club whatsapp channel., over 14 thousand subscribers ready to jump on the unmissable offer. If you sign up please activate the bell, otherwise you won't get notifications.
At the airport
I landed at CDG a few minutes after 6 a.m., the A350 parked at the end of T2, at the M gates, the furthest from the heart of the airport. I took the little train to get to the main body. Here I headed to the Air France transit counter to get my boarding pass.
In Hanoi they had not given it to me because of my strange "itinerary," and they had started asking me dozens of questions, and finally I had said, "All right give me the boarding pass just for Paris, I'll think about the rest then." Here not a single question, unhinged the passport printed the ticket.
I then headed to the K gates, from where my flight was leaving. Here is the worst of the Air France lounges at this airport, the staff calls it Vintage, not to say "old."
Having quite a backlog of work, the 5 hours flew by, I sat in a corner on the upper level of the lounge And I've been working on the PC the whole time.
On a positive note, but nothing new, catering in the lounges has definitely improved.
On leaving the lounge I met Alessandra, the Air France assistant, who had escorted me like a VIP on my recent trip to La Premiere, so we chatted and eventually she even escorted me to the gate
Boarding started a few minutes late, but then everything went smoothly partly because the plane was by no means full.
On board
The first feeling is of a fashionable cabin. Why doors are a "fashion" that is also useful, however, you can see The difference between this product and the old Air France cabins., you can also see how AF knew, along with the Safran team that created these chairs, install a truly top-of-the-line product, different from all other carriers.
The innovation of these booths is so rapid that every time a new product comes out, immediately all those before seem old. This booth Is comparable to British Airways' Club World Suite., but coming 4 years later improved that product in many aspects, both technological and finishing.
The A350 cabin, despite the presence of the structures confining the seats, does not feel heavy there is no claustrophobic effect, is a product designed down to the smallest detail, such as the texture of the carpet, which as the flight attendant with Italian ancestry explained to me, is reminiscent of parquet floors in Parisian apartments.
One of the many little touches of class that AF has deployed in the cabin. 1-2-1 layout, not even saying that, and classic Air France colors that make everything elegant and not dirty.
If we then consider that the aircraft in question debuted in mid-November. was less than 3 months old, basically had not even finished running in yet.
My chair
Choosing the right chair, is all the more important the further back you are seated on board the plane. However, if you travel in this cabin, the most important seats are 8. That is, the 4 in the first row and the 4 in the first row of the second cabin.
These chairs were not created equal to the otherAnd, indeed. Of course the first row always has a few more inches of space, but none at this level.
These 8 seats are without ifs and buts, the best business class seats on the market today (March 2024).
They are superior to the QSuite chair, to the special chair in the front row of Virgin Atlantic's A330neo, are unrivaled in the Old Continent and even in the East, perhaps only JAL's newly commissioned A350/1000 comes close to this product, but it is still too rare to evaluate.
This seat, on the other hand, is on all A350s delivered to AF from November 2022 and on all 777s that have been renovated in their interiors and previously offered the terrifying Caribbean configuration, namely 2-3-2.
If the seat/console part is the same for all chairs, what changes is the front part.
Here you have a bench as wide as the seat and almost 1m deep. There is so much space. We're not just talking about space above, but also below and to the sides. There is a huge chest of drawers, a closet cabinet, and still an open space under the bench perfect for shoes.
Then integrated into the console is the coffee table, the base for wireless cell phone charging, and there is a third, small compartment, where the IFE's headphones and a water bottle are hidden.
Then there is a tablet that controls the whole chair, but really the whole chair. And since this A350 is equipped with the new electrochromic windows, it is possible from the tablet, or from the touch zone to decide how much you want to tint the glass.
This is the first time I have found this technology on the A350, since it was previously an invention only of Boeing on the 787s.
They are faster and more obscuring, but the only outside is there and you continue to see it. The good old manual curtain, on the other hand, completely isolates And you don't have that glowing thumbtack staring at you all the time.
The seat equipment also includes a removable armrest that completes the comfort of the chair in all respects, the only flaw is that the table, once extended does not move to any position, to get free you have to close it. A real shame.
Of course, the armchair becomes a bed, and this is where all the difference in the world is. The legroom makes the armchair almost a single bed. A perfect position can be found without any kind of constraint.
The door
The use of ports is different from the rest of the other companies.
Of course, they must remain open during takeoff and landing.
Unlike QR, there is no unlocking procedure that releases the doors to facilitate exit, but more importantly, the doors are not activated until the end of the service. The reason is simple. 9 out of 10 passengers, if they can close the door, and then during the service the staff should continuously do open and close.
Of course not being very high they could pass plates from above, but as they explained to me it is forbidden to avoid risks of spilling the plate or glass on the passenger. Which makes sense. The doors are then unlocked only when everyone has finished eating and the tables cleared. Having seen Qatar's continuous "open and close" I do not blame AF for this decision.
Immaculate airplane and perfect bathroom, with many products available for guests.
One thing that I found superfluous, however, is the trash door that opens by itself thanks to a proximity sensor, one of those things that if it breaks makes a bathroom unusable and doesn't innovate anything on board.
Service
If on board ITA I am "the bum" marked with a Gardaland model "Dead or Alive" sign. aboard Air France to "screw me over" is status.
I'm not just any Platinum are a 2000 club and on the cabin manager's tablet this shows up and so they know that there will be a different passenger on board, what they don't know is that I will come along and take videos and pictures of everything.
The status doesn't guarantee me special treatment, but certainly as I've had before. Resets the crew's concern about my activity to zero, as a Purser, i.e., the cabin crew chief, explained to me during a flight, "I am quiet, because it is obvious that the company knows very well what you will be doing on board, otherwise you would not have the C2000."
The crew was AMAZING, they told me the merits and demerits of the new cabins, even some subtleties that you normally wouldn't notice, because to everything there is an explanation, nothing is put there by accident.
Two minutes after I sat down came the first glass of champagne, then the trousse, the hot towel. Everything perfect, everything at the right time.
IFE
Technology is an integral part of this cabin. The windows are electric, the tablet manages everything from the lighting to the seat, from the screen to the IFE.
I was able to connect my bluetooth headphones in a few seconds, but wi-fi has been acting up, so much so that I desisted from paying the 30euros for the maximum package; I didn't want to run out and get nervous.
Rich content offering, the interface is all new compared to the one on the rest of the fleet. The screen is touch, but it is much more convenient to use the tablet, albeit a heavy one. I, when I am there, always look at what is happening outside the plane.
Food & Beverage
I booked my main course in the days before the flight, a service that AF has designed to avoid leaving passengers high and dry, but also and especially to reduce waste. The menu, the same one that is delivered to passengers is available online and you can choose what to reserve for free. I didn't miss a thing.
From amuse cocche to hors d'oeuvres, from fish steak to trio of cheeses to cake, Everything good and served at the right pace, and less than 2:30 after takeoff lunch was gone. Extensive as always the wine list although I stayed on bubbles and a glass of coke to finish, also because coffee the French don't Los anno make even with espresso pods.
I was less convinced by the pre-landing snack tray, I just didn't like it.
Immigration in Chicago
We arrived in Chicago 45 minutes early, too bad though that immigration at U.S. airports from JFK on down can be agony.
Over 2 hours to get in front of the officer, answer the usual questions and seeing my passport stamped before the green light to set foot in the U.S.
In conclusion
This is the gamechanger of business classes, as said it is not the best in the world, but the chair and the space it gives are really without competition at this time. A kind of premium business, and the decision to "give away" these seats to loyal passengers is an incredible marketing strategy, because people when they see the difference regret not booking it, not knowing that they could not have done so.
Pro
- Environment
- The chair
- Technology
Against
- Wi-fi not working
- Gastronomic proposal not up to the mark
- Electrochromic windows