Review of Air France flight St Denis → Paris in Economy

Hi everyone,

Here I am again with my Réunion trip and after an average flight with AF to RUN, let's see what they can do on the way back to Metropolitan France.

After having returned our rental car to Sixt, we now head out to the terminal.

The path is covered, that's very helpful in case of sudden tropical rain ^^

Réunion Airport is named after Roland Garros, a french aviator and WW I fighter.

A view from the terminal.

As expected, most of this evening's flights are to Paris.

We head to the Air France SkyPriority counters.

The SkyPriority counters were not that busy this evening and we checked in no time. My friend also asked the nice agent if the middle seat would remain empty and she made sure it was blocked in the system, a nice gesture.

Let's head to security upstairs!

Security was quite busy but thanks to my Platinum status with Air France, I can skip the queue.

It took around 15 minutes to go through security, with a weird request to take off all shoes, even sneakers. First time this happens to me ^^
Anyway, after that we end up in the duty free area, in which you can get quite a bargain when it comes to cigarettes at 40 EUR for a 200-pack instead of the 100 to 120 EUR you'd pay in Metropolitan France :)

The Air France Lounge is located just after the duty free.

I immediately ask the nice lady at the counter if the shower's available. Lucky me, it was. Very appreciable after a day of hiking with 30 degrees and 85 to 90% humidity ^^

After that refreshing time, let's see what we can eat before our flight:
some cold cuts and salads.

And a very iconic dish from la Réunion, "Rougaille Saucisse" which consists of bits of smoked sausage in a spicy-tomato sauce.

A plate of Rougail and a last "Dodo", the local beer, for me this eve!

The lounge in itself gets quite crowded before the evening flight to Paris. Fortunately, there's only one AF flight at a time leaving RUN, either in the morning to CDG or in the evening to ORY.

Boarding is announced by the frond desk lady and we make our way to the boarding gate.

An agent is there to check if you're eligible to the Priority line.

Air France's lead station attendant waits for the priority passengers in the jetbridge. A nice touch and a friendly discussion with a very passionate man!

Down the jetbridge we go!

An again, the view is blocked by the other jetbridge ^^

Business Class:

Premium Economy

and finally good ol' Economy Class!

Seat pitch in a "normal" seat is decent, yet could be better at 31".

Fortunately for us, the middle seat is blocked and we can enjoy some more space! :)

A long flight awaits us with 11hrs and 20 minutes forecast this evening.
IFE is the same as on the way to RUN: I find it modern and well equipped. AF's film and TV show selection is large enough even for such a long flight.

Cabin is ready by 21h40 and we pushback ahead of time alongside Air Austral and the rival French Bee.

The traditional AF safety video is then shown on the screens:

We make our way to the runway in no time.

I really like these cameras!!!

Take off at 21:52.

The crew quickly activated the nice bleu-blanc-rouge moodlighting

and distributed the AF Protect kit with a face mask and a wet wipe.

An hour into the flight and the crew came back to serve us our dinner.
A three course meal is provided as well as the drink of your choice. AF still serves Champagne in Y, that's my usual choice when flying with them ^^

Colombo de Poulet or in English some chicken with a sort of curry sauce.

Again the meal was pretty good, yet in a very tiny amount to be honest. Fortunately I was able to eat before the flight otherwise I would've been hungry as a horse midflight…
I quickly fell asleep and missed the coffee/tea/liquor service (which I did not need in the end lol) and slept a good 3 hours. I then made my way to the rear galley where the crew had setup a bar with a few drink options.

The cabin is very quiet and most people are trying to get some shut eye.

I did too for the next 4 hours before waking up as we approched Albania.

Still dark outside but some lights are on in Albania.

Approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes before landing the lights are turned on again, and the breakfast service begins 1:30hrs before landing. Again, we get this bag, with a hot pastry.

I did like the pastry! Much more suited for breakfast than the horrible tomato-goat cheese sandwich we got on the outbound journey! Coffee and tea were also offered by the crew.

The cockpit announced that we'd begun our approach as we flew over Geneva.

The final approach takes us over the southern suburbs of Paris.

We touched down at 06:08.

Taxi went by quickly as it's still early here. We just had to wait a few minutes for a Transavia plane to vacate the apron.

And we made it to our parking spot at 06:19, 6 minutes ahead of schedule. Top job.

Merci et à très bientôt !

Cabin stays quiet and seated, that's something we're not used to!

We quickly leave the airplane as we still need to go through Passport Control. This was done in less than 2 minutes thanks to the automated passport control machines (PARAFE) which were in use at this time.

I dunno if Paris loves me but I can't say I don't love Paris :)

Our bags were quickly delivered as well. No one from Customs was there and we made our way to the exit.

And… then I had to drive back home, a 5-hour drive which was quite exhausting considering I was quite sleepy after this flight ^^

Thanks for reading, do not hesitate to comment!
See you soon for the next trip!
Jules