Review of Air France flight Frankfurt Paris in Economy

Airline Air France
Flight AF1619
Class Economy
Seat 10A
Aircraft Airbus A318
Flight time 01:20
Take-off 13 Jun 13, 12:10
Arrival at 13 Jun 13, 13:30
AF   #26 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 6085 reviews
KévinDC
By SILVER 3321
Published on 27th August 2014
Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the next installment in this series of Flights between Washington DC and Rodez, France. The point of this trip to Europe was to go to a big Flight-Report.com meet-up which coincided with the Le Bourget Paris Air show. I also took the opportunity to go see my parents in the Southwest of France. I worked out a somewhat complicated routing to stretch out the miles, and basically because I'm an AvGeek and the more flights the better, when you are not time constrained, that is.

Normally, when I go to my hometown in France, I do IAD-CDG-TLS and then drive 2 hours to Rodez, but that was getting a little boring. The ORY-RDZ flights will take me directly to my hometown; this was also the first time that this route had been reported on the site.

Here is the full routing.

Washington DCA-New York JFK, Delta Air Lines, First, CRJ-900
New York JFK - Frankfurt FRA, Delta Air Lines, Business, B767-300ER
Frankfurt FRA - Paris CDG, Air France, Economy, A318 [YOU ARE HERE]
Paris ORY - Rodez RDZ, HOP!, Economy, ATR72-500 [COMING SOON]
Rodez RDZ - Paris ORY, HOP!, Economy, ATR72-500 [COMING SOON]
Paris CDG - Frankfurt FRA, Air France, Economy, A318 [COMING SOON]
Frankfurt FRA- Detroit DTW, Delta Air Lines, Business, B767-400 [COMING SOON]
Detroit DTW - Washington DCA, Delta Air Lines, First, MD-88 [COMING SOON]

Knowing that I had strung together an itinerary with 4 flights and a change of airport in Paris, the Air Traffic Controllers strike had me very worried. Imagine my HUGE relief when I got this e-mail from Air France a few minutes before my flight took off from JFK for FRA. So everything should be fine!

photo omu2

Upon exiting my DL flight from JFK, I asked an agent in the jetway if there was a way to transit without having to go out landside since my AF flight to Paris was in 2 hours. The answer was a clear no, not surprising as I expected that to be the case. Non-Star Alliance connections in FRA must be rare. Immigration went pretty fast and it was nice to get some fresh air after an overnight TATL flight–no harm, no foul.

Since I'm landside, I go to a kiosk to re-print a boarding pass instead of using the one I printed during OLCI. I changed my seat and picked an emergency exit window with noone next to me–lets hope it stays that way!

photo z7ld

Getting some fresh air before heading to the lounge.

photo u6yx

Frankfurt's Terminal 2 is large, airy, and light-filled, unlike Terminal 1. However, I do find the design to be someone cold and industrial…seems very German :-)

photo 9fe

There is a Premium/Sky Priority lane, which is very useful considering there is only one passenger in line in front of me and I'm airside in less than 2 minutes.

I was kind of worried that 2 hours would not be enough time, but with all this German efficiency, I had plenty of time left before my flight to go to the Air France lounge.

The lounge is small but pleasant, especially since it wasn't very crowded. One thing that surprised me, however, is that there are no restrooms (much less showers) in the lounge. It would have been nice to take a quick shower after getting off an 8 hour overnight flight.

I found a nice quiet corner to myself where I took advantage of the Wifi to catch up on some things.

photo q7wl

I was a bit hungry since I hadn't really touched the cereal on the JFK-FRA flight…being lactose-intolerant and all. SO I had myself a little breakfast and some bubbles to properly hydrate à la Française :-P

photo m9ob

I left the lounge at the boarding time indicated on the BP and saw this ANA 787 on the way. I was in excited Geek-mode as it was only the 2nd 787 I had ever seen at the time. What a beautiful bird!

photo alyk

When I got to the gate I noticed that there was no plane yet, even though departure time was in half an hour. The screens still show on-time…yeah, sure, that's gonna happen.

photo 9n6t

So now I'm worried for my connection between CDG and Orly. An agent makes an announcement to inform us that there will be a slight delay of 10-15 minutes. Lies, all lies…I used to work for an airline…I know that 10 minute delay really means a half hour or more!

And of course I was right! The aircraft doesn't even arrive until its scheduled departure time. Now, I've seen some pretty fast turnarounds on delayed flights (around 25 minutes for block-in to block-out) but 15 minutes on a full A318 ain't gonna happen.

This will be my first ride on an A318. Today it's ship F-GUGB



Boarding begins 20 minutes after the arrival of the aircraft. Luckily, the boarding went rather quickly as I'm sure many pax were worried about their connections in CDG and in a hurry to leave.

I was the first on board and found the cabin to be aesthetically pleasing–this is one of Air France's strong points. Confort, however, is not one of AF's fortés.

A warm welcome on board by two smiling FAs.

photo coey

Good pitch, which is normal for an exit row :-)

photo 943v

Hello there…the aircraft that flew me from NYC earlier. It's kind of funny that I had to go through immigration to come back out landside and back through security to find my self, in the end, going back to basically where I started.

photo 1tb5photo aq19

Announcements are made in French and English. German announcements are pre-recorded.

We finally push back with almost an hour delay.
So much for the 10-15 minute delay mmm hmmmm

Apparently I fell asleep right away because I have absolutely no recollection of taking off and completely missed the drink service. I didn't wake up until wheels-down in CDG!

Although it was in the upper 70s(25C) in Frankfurt, the crew announces an outside temperature of only 14C (57F) in Paris! That's a big difference for such a short distance.

photo gc78

Le Concorde on this rainy day.

photo dtl6

We get to the gate at Terminal 2F 45 minutes late.

photo c6ij

I ran like hell to catch the next Air France coach service leaving for Orly Airport. I got there just in time for a 2:30PM departure. I'm hopeful at this point since my flight is at 4:15PM and I already have my Boarding pass with no bags to check. We'll see if I make it!

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment :-)
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Verdict

Air France

6.5/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering6.0

Air France Lounge

6.2/10
Comfort6.0
Meal/catering6.0
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Services6.0

Frankfurt - FRA

8.2/10
Efficiency8.0
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0

Paris - CDG

8.0/10
Efficiency8.0
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0

Conclusion

Almost an hour delay on departure and a 45 minute delay on arrival. For a flight that's less than an hour long, that's a big delay, especially with a connection.

Comfort: To be honest, I was expecting a lot worst. This was my first experience flying with this new cabin outfitted with slimline seats so often decried as planches à repasser or ironing boards. Yes, the seatbacks don't recline, but who reclines on a 50 minute flight? Reclining in coach on short flights in this day and age in rude in my opinion, but I still believe seats should have the ability to recline. I managed to sleep on this flight so the seat couldn't have been that bad. Of course...being in a exit row with noone next to me helped a lot :-)

Staff: Very nice and pleasant crew on board, but I'm taking away some points for the blatant lies and lack of information from the ground crew in FRA.

Catering: My standard grade for AF's short-haul snack offering, known to the French as the eternal sucré-salé

Information on the route Frankfurt (FRA) Paris (CDG)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 100 avis concernant 5 compagnies sur la ligne Frankfurt (FRA) → Paris (CDG).


Useful

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

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 14 minutes.

  More information

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 116543 by
    KL651 TEAM 4534 Comments
    Thanks for this translated FR.

    All that german efficiency you know how it makes me feel ^^

    You girl sure know how to hydrate in the morning.

    It must be weird to get on a plane and wake up at destination with no memories in between.
    • Comment 300301 by
      KévinDC TEAM SILVER AUTHOR 6658 Comments
      Haha, oh Ja I know you think it's wunderbahr! LOL
      I used to ALWAYS fall asleep the second I hit the seat on a plane and not wake up until landing, but since I've been doing reports I make an effort to stay away...sometime's it doesn't work though :-)
  • Comment 116559 by
    jetsetpanda 2283 Comments
    Thank you for this short and sweet report.

    It's always great to be in an empty lounge. I see that the old AF chinaware (Limoges if I am not mistaken)is being recycled there. I miss those days when airlines had individuality and designs on their tableware. Nowadays it seems that everyone is using a standard and boring white china for premium cabins.

    Nice trip. Just close your eyes and when you open them again you are already landing.

    • Comment 300403 by
      KévinDC TEAM SILVER AUTHOR 6658 Comments
      Yes, it's always nice to be in an empty lounge. I was surprised to see that old china that I hadn't seen since the early 2000s, or maybe even earlier. Thanks for your comment!
  • Comment 122171 by
    Chibcha SILVER 539 Comments
    Another great report! I found FRA's T2 to be not as nice as I imagined, I share your view. IMO Pier A+ is the best building in FRA. You must have been really tired to fall asleep like that...sometimes one's geekness can beat our own body I guess. I reckon that sprint across Paris must have been really stressful.
    • Comment 304927 by
      KévinDC TEAM SILVER AUTHOR 6658 Comments
      Thanks! Haha, yeah, sometime the geekiness just gets tiring when you string together so many flights. I've done worse with DCA-JFK-NRT-SIN-HKT last year :-) Yes, the sprint between Paris airports was stressful. Thanks for stopping by!

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