Review of Air France flight Stockholm Paris in Economy

Airline Air France
Flight AF1063
Class Economy
Seat 7A
Aircraft Airbus A321
Flight time 02:40
Take-off 17 Jun 16, 19:25
Arrival at 17 Jun 16, 22:05
AF   #25 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 5929 reviews
marathon
By GOLD 591
Published on 21st June 2016
This is the return flight of this business trip in Stockholm :

AF1062 : CDG – ARN reported here
AF1063 : ARN – CDG (You are here)

This time I knew that Seat 10F was a real window seat, despite Seatguru’s erroneous claims, but its was on the wrong side from a lighting point of view, and I changed to Seat 7A when I checked in on the Internet. Not that it would change matters much eventually, but I did not know it yet.
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I was about to leave to the airport when I received this information by e-mail and SMS. I find it downright offensive that in case of a delay, the check-in deadline never changes (and probably that of the luggage drop too). This does not have an impact if you used the OLCI and have hand luggage only (which was my case), but for all other passengers, the message is :
“We KNOW that your aircraft will be an hour late, but you MUST waste that hour at the airport, or else we cancel your ticket.”
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I had seen in an old webpage that there was an observation deck at Terminal 5. The staff at an information desk did not know of one; since I had ample time, I went all the way to the far end of Terminal 5 and saw no signage about one.
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I don’t know about flights to Japan (日本, on the fuselage), but I doubt that SAS serves the Netherlands (the houses and windmill on the wing) with a 747.
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Terminal 5 is the main international terminal and the waiting line there was doing nothing to promote SAS or Norwegian to fly back to France.
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Some plane spotting on the way from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2. It was sometimes impossible to eliminate the reflections because I could not reach the windows.
Thomson 767
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An SAS 737-600 at pushback
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And a SAS 737-700 ready to taxi
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A Nordica CRJ-700
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Two sightings of QR’s 787 taxiing before leaving
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Different types of turboprop aircraft : ATR-42, Fokker-50, ATR-72 (from left to right)
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Close-up of the same. This ATR42 appears to be based in ARN; I already saw her several times
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Amapola Flyg Skyways Airlines
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SAS ATR72
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Norwegian 738
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Air Berlin A320, in new livery
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Two NextJet Saab 340
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ARN (and Sweden in general) is serious about parenthood equality
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The baby care facility is hidden in a recess far left beyond the sinks.
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Note the hung decoration above the diaper change folding table.
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The waiting time at the security check was minimal and the staff was friendly
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I had no hesitation about pressing the leftmost button – this was the first time I noticed this in ARN.
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Now I know where to find salmon to bring home – it is actually dead in front of the security check exit.
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More NextJet Saab 340. Nextjet must have a full time livery designer – no two aircraft seen that day were the same.
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Another Amapola Flyg Skyways Airlines Fokker-50, in a different livery
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Air Berlin A321, with new sharklets and old livery
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TK A321
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Primera Air Nordic 738
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BA 767
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Finnair A319
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These DHL freighters are a usual sight at this time of the day
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Using maximum optical and digital zoom magnification ratio, I managed able to identify G-BMRA and confirm that this is a 757-200
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Last, not least : this Ethiopian 787 was parked in the freight area, and eventually got towed to her gate, to operate a flight departing at 20:00 to Addis-Abeba via Rome.
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The delay had worsened to 2 hours on the FIDS. Note the Jet Airways share code flight number of my flight.
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I do not see how they could identify that my flight was late, but wifi was free. (I apparently did not try to connect to the Internet the last times I flew out of ARN, so I do not know if there is usually a charge for the access there).
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Flight Report’s home page at that time
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It also gave me access to the schedule of the trains from CDG and confirm to a passenger that sorry, but he had no chance of catching the last train. I felt lucky to have used my car to go to the airport, because delayed flights would mean looong lines at the inefficient taxi stands of CDG.
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A distribution of vouchers for food (valid anywhere in the terminal) was announced. I was amused to see at least 80% of the passengers raise and wait patiently in line, all the more that the staff seemed to have to answer to many questions. Were they that hungry, or afraid that the voucher supply would not be enough ? I waited until the line had nearly disappeared.
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For those familiar with Swedish restaurant prices, 150 SEK (about 16 EUR) does not buy much in a restaurant.
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I could only buy one of the cheapest appetizers in that restaurant with that budget.
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My company would certainly not balk at an expense claim for dinner when a delayed flight leaves after dinner time, but I decided to play it cheap and tried to probe further.
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I tried the restaurant at the (not so) far end of the terminal
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This Italian restaurant was more affordable, and I settled for a 159 SEK chicken breast with rice and tomato sauce.
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“Fast service” means 30 minutes between this picture
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… and this other one. I advise Mainland China’s restaurants against hiring Swedish staff (I remember a Chinese waiter once told me he could not take the order for a given dish, because the 20 minute waiting time would be too long).
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This restaurant overlooks Terminal 2’s luggage delivery room, but that view does not provide any additional detail.
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Air Alsie (a Danish business charter airline) Dassault Falcon 2000LX
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The AF A321 taxied in at long last. She was F-GTAE whose Skyteam livery gave me a good smile, from overhearing French passengers eating their meal next to the window :
- I did not remember the Air France livery was like this?
- They changed it after the Rio-Paris crash.

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Eager passengers started waiting in line on both sides of the gate a long time before boarding actually started.
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Meanwhile, this BA A321 pushed back
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And taxied away to fly back to LHR
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This time, I knew already that my Economy Flex gave me SkyPriority, and I was not going to waste this privilege. Maybe another Flight Reporter in the jetbridge ?
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Fuselage shot
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All passengers were obviously impatient to depart, and boarding looked unusually efficient.
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My window seat
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I had never noticed that the middle seat belt was not the same color as that of its neighbors
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The safety card both sides
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I did not really have a 61 cm wide space
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… including 8 cm between the cabin wall and the armrest on window side
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… because on the middle seat side, my neighbor was the kind who was commandeering full control of both armrests, and then some more extra space, while sleeping. My bad luck was that he was not even supposed to be there : he sat there by mistake with a ticket for seat 7E, and the passenger who was supposed to sit there unfortunately accepted to sit in the other middle seat, since it made no difference to him. Well, it turned out to make a difference to me !
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The seat pitch measured my way, from seat limit to magazine pocket appeared to be 3 cm more than on the A321 on the way in,
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…because the seats were different, with a more recessed magazine pocket. The real seat pitch, i.e. the distance between the same part of the seats of two successive rows was the same, but there was more space to fit your legs if they were (a lot) longer than mine.
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Marathon carpet cleanliness test : passed with flying colors
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Pushing back at long last
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It was literally a couple minutes before 10 pm, i.e. 2.5 hours late
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A last Saab 340 seen on the way
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I recently wrote that I had never ARN’s Runway 08/26 being used, but I’ll never be able to write it again.
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This is one of ARN’s short runways, but F-GTAE was airborne rapidly… a few minutes after the time she was scheduled to land in CDG.
(thanks to RI 777 for the correction : 01R/19L is 2,500 m long too)
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Apart from a brief sunset lighting on part of the reactor before the plane veered to her main heading…
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…. There was not going to be much in way of a landscape, due to the rapidly vanishing light and to the cloud cover
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The captain announced with a thick French accent that we were expected to reach Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport at a quarter past noon, which triggered chuckles and humorous comments in the cabin, on the “it will take him another 12 hours to sort out the communication with air traffic control with that level in English” line.
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Any new menu since last time?
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Well no. It was strictly identical to that of my AF1063 flight two weeks earlier, admittedly in the same month, so I’ll copy-paste my previous evaluation : “all that was decent, period, and was enough to make it to my home without feeling hungry”.
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The flight thereafter was nothing special, only that I wanted to use my reading light, since there would be no landscape en route. Well, forget about that, only the aisle one in my row worked. I mentioned that to the FA (of course, she could do not nothing about it, but please take note of it so they fix it in CDG).
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No ID check (but there had been one at boarding) when deplaning at 00:30 am.
In her standard announcement just after landing, the purser initially announced that it was 00.30 pm, but instantly corrected herself. That crew was definitely not used to landing after midnight.
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Going down through the checked luggage delivery room. I had none, and this time, I found easily the fast access to Terminal E’s parking lot.
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It was 01:44 when I received this obviously automatic message of apologies from AF, but I had already sunk to sleep at home : the road traffic from CDG had been VERY smooth at that time!
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This is the end of this flight report. I had again no time for tourism in my agenda during this business trip, but as a bonus, I’ll tell you about my subway trip from my hotel with Madeleine.

Globen is both a tram (Tvärbanan) station, here on the right (thanks again to RI 777 for the correction)
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… and a Green subway line station, where a C20 series train approaching here.
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No matter if it is a newer C20 train…
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… or an older Cx train, the driver leaves his cabin to go on the platform look at the CCTV screens on the platform, in a cabinet above, or overhead below, with a microphone to announce the departure of the train.
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I connected at T-Centralen station, and when the passenger exchange is completed, the driver announced the closing of the doors
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Would I ever see Madeleine again… ?
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No, Madeleine was not some charming Swedish girl I had met, but the name of this C20 train, because they all have a first name (and also a serial number, of course). I have been told that these were the names of children, who may have grown up to adults today, because the C20s entered revenue service in 1998-2004.
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The C20 rolling stock is operated in 2-train or 3-train multiple unit consists. Should I find it a symbol that Muhammed teamed here with Melker ? The former was named after the Prophet of Islam, the latter (Swedish for Melchior) after one of the Magi who appeared in the first weeks of the history of Christianity.
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If you wonder about how multi-culturally diverse Sweden has become, I suggest you read the opening section of this ARN-SXF report by RL 777, a promising young Flight Reporter hailing from Sweden. I was not surprised when I read it (I suggest that you read the entire FR, by the way).

This is what the C20 trains look like inside
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In this older Cx series train, there is an escape ladder overhead, and also the same advertising as in the picture above, reminding passengers that they should vaccinate against the TBE (tick borne encephalitis), a potentially deadly disease transmitted by ticks in the nature. (France is one of the few Western countries which are not affected as of now)
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Have a safe summer vacation !
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Verdict

Air France

7.0/10
Cabin6.5
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi5.0
Meal/catering8.0

Stockholm - ARN

8.8/10
Efficiency10.0
Access9.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness10.0

Paris - CDG

9.3/10
Efficiency10.0
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

It would have been a standard non-descript AF European flight, only that it was late, and very badly late. Flight Report no longer rates the punctuality, and AF was not to blame anyway, because you should not expect airlines to fly in unflyable weather; crashes in areas in the world with lesser safety standards are a grim reminder of that.

The voucher for dinner was somewhat stingy. You can hardly buy yourself a dinner with 150 SEK in ARN. But at least, AF provided one. (When a domestic flight was delayed in China, I had sometimes often more to eat, sometimes less, and arguably of lesser quality).

I can’t blame AF for my expansionist neighbor. On the other hand, failed reading lights were AF responsibility, but this did not ruin my day (or my night, rather).

Getting to ARN was fast, efficient and expensive as usual (but there are much cheaper buses). I don't know who is to blame exactly, but I penalized ARN's services for keeping a check-in deadline at a time when the plane has not event departed from the previous airport.
The orientation of the terminal is unfavorable in the afternoon, and you can’t get close enough to the windows, but I nevertheless could indulge into plane spotting.

Leaving CDG in the middle of the night with my car was fast. There may have been long lines at the taxi stand, but I did not bother to check.

Information on the route Stockholm (ARN) Paris (CDG)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 76 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Stockholm (ARN) → Paris (CDG).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Air France avec 7.5/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 2 heures et 36 minutes.

  More information

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 354426 by
    Rl 777 802 Comments
    Thank you for sharing this FR with us!

    There is no official observation deck at ARN, I can confirm that to you haha. We only have an official spotting hut outside the airport.

    Great spotting shots with a decent variety at ARN, a part I always look forward to. I never get to see so many different airlines when I fly out of ARN. I also thought that AB livery was a new one the first time I spotted it but after I looked up the reg I learned it was the ex OLT Express livery, they'll still keep their current livery :). Nice catch of the AB 321 with Sharklets!

    Sorry to hear about the delay :(.

    Almost everything at Arlanda is extremely overexpensive.

    Unfortunately we don't have many long runways here, both 08/26 and 01R/19L are 2500 m in length. Only 01L/19R is 3301 m long. At the same time we don't have many long-haul flights from ARN compared to other cities in Europe.

    The meal offering is still better than the competitors, even though it was better before. I'm excited to try them in July from ARN!

    Thank you for the interesting bonus!

    “Globen is both a suburban train (Pendeltåg) station, here on the right“
    - I know some people who have thought those are suburban trains haha, I can't blame you as I'd probably also think they were if I didn't know. That is actually a tram (part of Tvärbanan) but could have been a 'pendeltåg' in STO haha.

    Thank you so much for mentioning my report and for the very nice comments! It's highly appreciated :).

    I have to say that I genuinely enjoy reading your reports, thank you very much for sharing another FR to/from ARN with us!

    Have a good one, see you!










    • Comment 354550 by
      marathon GOLD AUTHOR 10117 Comments
      Thanks you for the various corrections – I do appreciate them. I update the report accordingly, with due reference to your input.

      Plane spotting was more diverse this time because I spent an extra 2 hours in ARN due to the delay (and also because it was mid June, so there was still enough light at 10 pm). This flight is the most convenient for my trips, so I do not get to see the traffic at other times of the day.

      Most airport shops I remember of around the world are overexpensive. The exception in ARN, from my point of view, is smoked salmon, where the quality price ratio is better than in ordinary shops in Paris, which may mean that it is super-overexpensive in Paris.

      Thanks for your appreciative comment !
  • Comment 354768 by
    jish.b 283 Comments
    Very interesting flight report, thanks so much for sharing!

    Delays do suck - but I guess a 2.5 hour delay is better than a 7.5 hour delay (yep, that happened to me!)

    The comments about the SkyTeam livery were HILARIOUS!

    It does suck a lot when someone comes in and hogs both the arm rests :(

    Looking forward to more flight reports from you!

    PS - nice pics, and nice bonus as well!
    • Comment 354858 by
      marathon GOLD AUTHOR 10117 Comments
      My own record was taking off 13h12' late, on a memorable CTU-NAY flight that I reported on this website. Have a look to see how a second rate Chinese airline handled the situation !

      I would have claimed my seat space back from that neighbor on a longer flight. In all fairness, he had a very wide body frame, and was certainly much less comfortable in his seat than I was.

      Thanks for your comment !

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