Review of Air France flight Paris → Lisbon in Economy

Hello everyone and welcome to the second part of this series about my recent family trip to Portugal. This part will cover the second flight from Paris to Lisbon after connecting from Stockholm. I hope you enjoy reading it :).

Background:
My family usually travels somewhere outside of Sweden during the summer months. We had nothing planned for Summer 2016 but my mom repeatedly told me she had to go somewhere outside of Sweden. Finally things materialized and we booked a trip to Portugal from July 12 to July 19. The fares and timings weren't excellent as we were late to the booking party but my family would get away from Sweden and that was what mattered for my family. Air France was the cheapest option for flights from Stockholm to Lisbon around these dates, Air France had to be choice. This was my first time flying with Air France. The flight from Stockholm departed at 13:10 and we arrived at Paris CDG at 15:50. Our connection would last for five hours before flight AF1124 to Lisbon would depart. Three out of four flights were scheduled to be operated by A320s and the last one to Stockholm by an A321.

NOTE: Some pictures are taken with my phone and some with my camera.

Part 1 - ARN-CDG AF1263, Air France, Airbus A320-200, F-GKXR - Here!
Part 2 - CDG-LIS AF1124, Air France, Airbus A320-200, F-GKXV - You are here
Part 3 - LIS-CDG AF1225, Air France, Airbus A320-200, F-GKXT - Here!
Part 4 - CDG-ARN AF1062, Air France, Airbus A321-200, F-GTAT - Here!

We had a connection of five hours after we landed from Stockholm. My family decided to go to the Aéroville shopping mall located close to the airport, we grabbed a taxi to Aéroville but my dad later learned about a free shuttle bus service between Aéroville and CDG. After a few hours of shopping in Aéroville it was time to return to CDG for our next flight to Lisbon and we went to the airport with one of the free shuttle buses.


Inside the bus, the MB Citaro city bus had onboard storage for luggage.


Arriving at Roissypole approximately 15 minutes later, the next step was to find the signs for Terminal 2.


We followed the signs for Terminal 2 and found out we had to take the CDGVAL shuttle train in order for us to get to Terminal 2.


Inside the CDGVAL heading towards Terminal 2.


We arrived a few minutes later and walked toward the departures area at Terminal 2F.


Terminal 2F departures area.


Going through the regular security line, the security process was quick and efficient.


I was the first one to go through security, I therefore waited for the rest of the family after I was done.


A very familiar name caught my attention while waiting for the rest of the family, I looked out of one of the windows and saw this on a bus. "AF1462 Stockholm", I realize this bus is supposed to take the passengers to the aircraft but imagine if this bus actually took you all the way to Stockholm! It would be even more interesting if the bus sported the Air France livery.


Part of Terminal 2F.


Gate F50 was assigned for flight AF1124 to Lisbon tonight.


Some spotting shots from CDG. I was way too lazy to switch to my 200mm lens for these shots, the first pics are taken with my 55mm lens as a result of my laziness. Air France A321.


KLM B737.


Air France B77W.


Air France A320.


Horrible lighting, Air Europa B738 and Air France A319.


Air France A319.


Cityjet RJ85.


Air France A318.


Easyjet A319.


Alitalia A320.


Air France B77W.


I finally switched to my 200mm lens, HOP! E-170.


Air France A319 without the Servair catering truck.


Air France A319.


That's it for the spotting session at CDG, I went back to gate F50 after my spotting session. Boarding was scheduled to begin at 20:20 but was officially delayed for another 20 minutes. Our scheduled time of departure was 20:50.


Boarding commenced at 20:45, I went through but then saw and heard that my mom was being asked to hold on for a minute after she got her passport and BP checked. The staff then told her the flight was completely full and that they'd have to check in my mom's bag due to issues with space onboard (at no additional cost). That was the confirmation of a full flight down to Lisbon.






Flight information:

Airline: Air France

Flight no & route: AF1124 CDG-LIS

Aircraft: Airbus A320

Scheduled time of departure (actual): 20:50 (21:26), 8:50 PM (9:26 PM) UTC +2 Paris

Scheduled time of arrival (actual) : 22:20 (22:38), 10:20 PM (10:38 PM) UTC +1 Lisbon

Scheduled flight time (actual): 2h 30 min (2h 12 min)



Walking to our A320, I wasn't able to get many better shots during boarding, I was unfortunate to take the shot when these wet windows showed up.


Inside the A320, this plane was equipped with an older cabin. The FAs greeted me in French before I made my way to seat 15F.


The seat pitch was better in this older cabin with better legroom. The overall seat comfort was good.


An Air France A321 next to us.


Overhead bins.


An interesting looking cup holder.


Some very mean clouds were approaching CDG.


The AF A321 pushing back at 20:57 local time.


Another Air France A321, getting ready for a flight to Madrid.


This particular AF A321 that just had pushback completed is a regular on the domestic runs, heading out as AF7712 to Nice tonight.


The youngest in the family, an A318 heading out to Hamburg.


Slightly larger A319 taxiing out for a flight to Budapest.


An A320 (like ours) about to operate a flight to Berlin TXL.


Those pesky clouds are getting closer and closer.


Boarding was soon completed and we were ready to make our taxi to runway 27L.


Taxiing.


AF 77Ws.


Korean Air A388 behind us.


Rolling down runway 27L.


Climbing out of Paris CDG with Louvres and Puiseux-en-France visible over the wing.


We lifted off at approximately 21:26 local time.


We would soon fly through the clouds.


Breaking through.


Pretty thick cloud layers.


And we're through.


I charged my phone with my powerbank again, my cellphone's battery is pretty bad as I mentioned on the previous FR. The smaller seat pocket for the safetycard was very convenient to have on this trip with Air France.


The foldable safety card of this A320.


There's the smaller pocket for the safety card.


A full flight down to Lisbon tonight.


The service for this flight commenced at 22:10, roughly 40 minutes after takeoff. Service on tonight's flight consisted of a small tomato and mozzarella sandwich together with the usual coffee and drink service, I went with OJ as always. The ARN-CDG flight is listed at 2h 40 min but the offering on that flight was much more extensive, this CDG-LIS flight is scheduled at 2h 30 min and only a small sandwich was served compared to a hot sandwhich, cake and bread. The CDG-ARN run is scheduled at 2h 30 min and still gets the same good service as the ARN-CDG leg, those 10 minutes shouldn't make a difference. The sandwich was good but still too small for a flight of this length, especially compared to what's offered on the Stockholm flights.


Sunset.


Wrappings from candy have been left in these accessories that were useful when smoking was permitted onboard (information gotten from Marathon, many thanks to him!).


The sun has almost gone down.


There goes the sun.


The rest of the flight was quite uneventful. Most of the passengers were just relaxing before our arrival to Lisbon.


Getting darker and darker.


Martin1405 tracked my flight once again, thank you for that!


Portuguese ground is visible from above.


Approaching Lisbon and lining up with runway 03L.


Landing on runway 03L at 22:38 local time (23:38 in France and central Europe), we landed 18 minutes late but that wasn't a huge inconvenience for us.


Taxiing to our stand, I'm sorry for my horrible night-photography skills.


A TAAG B77W departed for its flight back to LAD after we cleared the runway.


TAP A343.


TAP A320.


We would park on a hardstand and be taken by buses to the terminal, makes sense as this bird will head back to Paris at 06:00 AM the next morning.


9U (Air Moldova) E90 next to us.


Our A320 came to a final stop at 22:42 local time.


Disembarked by 22:50.


Our A320 with the registration F-GKXV was delivered to Air France in November 2009. These were the only decent shots I could get of our ride.


Bus ride to the terminal, I apologize for the blurry shots.


TAP A332.


TAP wide-bodies.


Walking to the baggage hall, these children in front of me were traveling alone and were escorted by ground staff in LIS.


Obrigado! (Thank you in Portuguese).


Belt 6 was in use for our flight. We had to wait for mom's bag to arrive as it got checked-in at CDG.


Her bag came in after 10 minutes and we were off to our hotel.


Waiting for a taxi, we could have gone to our hotel using the metro but dad thought it would be an inconvenience at this time so we took a taxi instead. Taxis in Lisbon are extremely cheap compared to taxis in Stockholm. One tip if you ever visit Stockholm, never travel by taxi unless you are a group of 4 heading to the airport from the main city with one of the respected taxi companies (fixed price).


We finally got a taxi and it would be a Dacia Logan today, heading to our hotel at 23:31 local time.


Arrived after a 10-minute ride.


That's it for this FR. Thank you for taking your time to read it and I hoped you enjoyed it :). See you!

















BONUS from Lisbon (Part 1):

Lisbon Metro.


I purchased a local pre-paid SIM-card with data from a Vodafone store in Lisbon in order to be able to use Google Maps to find my way around in Lisbon.


Praça dos Restauradores (Restauradores Square).


A familiar sight for my family, Tuk tuk in Lisbon.


Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (D. Maria II National Theatre).


Estátua de Dom João I (Statue of King John I).


Estátua de D. Pedro IV (Statue of Pedro IV).


Streets of Lisbon, Portugal.


Arco da Rua Augusta.


One of many Portuguese flags seen on the streets after they won the UEFA Euro 2016 championship.


Ponte 25 de Abril (25th of April Bridge).


View from Castelo de São Jorge (São Jorge Castle).


Hippotrip Lisboa.


Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery).


Another angle of Ponte 25 de Abril.


Padrão dos Descobrimentos, there was some kind of ongoing construction here when we visited this attraction.



Bonus from Algarve (Part 2):

We stayed in Lisbon for a few days before dad rent a car and drove us to Algarve, Portugal. Algarve is a region along the coast of Southern Portugal. We hired a Peugeot 208 and were off. People drive quite aggressively in Lisbon compared to many European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France etc. My dad liked this kind of driving though, he repeatedly told me how aggressively he would have been driving if he was driving alone here.


Driving out of Lisbon on the 25th of April bridge.


To Algarve!


We stopped once before continuing our journey to Algarve.


Another shot of the car that dad drove.


The trip to Portimão, Portugal took approximately 3h 30 min including the stop on the way. Portimão is a small city in the Algarve region.


Praia da Rocha, a beach located 350m from our apartment hotel in Portimão. I'm not really a 'beach-person' though, I just walked around to have a good time with the family and to snap a few pictures.


Benagil, Algarve.


Praia de Benagil.


Cabo de São Vicente (Cape St. Vincent). This cape is the southwesternmost point in Portugal.


Enjoying the sunset from Cabo de São Vicente.


Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean.


We went back to Lisbon on the 18th of July before heading back to Stockholm on the 19th, passing the Vasca da Gama bridge before entering Lisbon.


The last day was spent going to Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors) in Sintra.


Views from the castle.


Palácio Nacional de Sintra (Sintra National Palace) seen from Castelo dos Mouros.


Palácio da Pena (Pena Palace)




SPOTTING BONUS from LISBON (Part 3):

I was able to do a little bit of spotting at Lisbon while staying there, our hotel was located directly under the approach path of runway 03L. I had no idea about this at the time of the booking, I found this out one morning by hearing loud but familiar noises after I woke up, I looked out and saw planes landing right over me.


TAP A343, taken from a window on the 14th floor of my hotel.


TAP Portugal A320, this and a few more upcoming shots were taken from a random spot 100m from the hotel building.


Orbest A320.


TAP A319.


TAP A343, this and the majority of the shots were taken from a park located 1km from my hotel.


KLM B738.


Air Europa E-195.


Transavia B738.


TAP A319.


TAP A320.


AF A319 arriving from CDG.


Easyjet A319.


Park and an LH A321.


United B752 from IAD.


TAP A332.


TAP A319.


Air Canada Rouge B763.


TAP Express AT76, these last shots were once again taken from the random spot located 100m from my hotel.


TAAG Angola B77W arriving from LAD.


The second daily EK B77W.


Transavia France B738.


The last plane I spotted at LIS, a TAP Portugal A320 arriving from Stockholm-Arlanda.


Thank you once again for taking your time to read this FR, have a good one and see you later!