This year I have ended up flying quite a lot with SkyTeam and seemed to be close to the number of flights to upgrade to Silver with FlyingBlue. I therefore decided to take a short weekend break in Paris to get me to the 15 flights required. Having just moved to Sheffield in the north of England my nearest airports are now Doncaster-Sheffield Robin Hood (with very few flights at the moment, but will soon be much more useful with the arrival of Flybe in March 2016), Leeds and Manchester. I searched for some cheap Skyteam options and decided upon a weekend in Paris flying from MAN with Air France with the return flight being run as a codeshare with Flybe. This gave me the opportunity to directly compare the services.
Here are the details
MAN-CDG AF1069
CDG-MAN AF5010/BE3128
My journey started off at Sheffield station where there is an hourly direct service to MAN airport which takes about 1:15. My train was at 11:11 and would get me to the airport around 2 hours before the flight.
The station is located between Terminals 1 and 2, with access to T3 via T1.
The walkways are nice and help you to avoid the notorious Manchester rain. At the end of the walkway you enter T1 and and I walked past the VERY slow lifts into the check-in area of T1.
It is here where many people get confused and lost. Walking left to end where some more lifts (slightly quicker) are located take you back down and drop you off in what looks like a back alley. You are now outside and have to walk under a building and on to T3. Then back up again to the check-in.
All in all there's a lot of going up and down and inside and out again. It would be helpful to have an escalator here where there is one coming up which is useful for the return journey (As long as you don't take the airport's preferred lift route).
As I was travelling with only hand luggage I headed straight for security.
There weren't many other passengers when I arrived and I passed through security swiftly. I then had to pass along a weird narrow passage with a view of the tarmac to the departure lounge
It was lunchtime and I chose to go to the italian restaurant. One of their menus includes a main course, side dish and drink for £15 which isn't too bad for airport food. This menu is also availble to be served within 15 min for those in a hurry. To get in the french spirit I opted for a glass of wine to go with my ravioli and insalate caprese.
The portion size wasn't the greatest so I also decided to take a dessert of a chocolate brownie.
After paying I had a little time to browse the shops before my gate was called. There are now more places to eat and shop in T3 than compared to this terminal around 20 years ago when I took my first ever flight. Now the area is bit cramped like many UK airports these days. Where once were seats now you have to buy something to sit down and they try to squeeze as money out of you as possible in the couple of hours they have you trapped there. The departure board.
Arriving at th gate I had a good view of the tarmac and the runway as well as my A321.
While waiting at the gate the staff came around and tagged small bags saying these were to go under the seats as the flight was quite full. Boarding proceeded first with families, business class and Skypriority. Then those at the rear were asked to board and finally those of us at the front were allowed onboard. There was an extra level of security at the gate due to the recent attacks in Paris before we were allowed down the air bridge.
We were greeted onboard with a Bonjour and I took my seat.
The leg room was ok. In the seat pocket was the safety card and the magazine which seemed quite substantial and included the route maps and details about the fleet.
The captain came on and gave us the flight details and then gave a shout out to a passenger who's birthday it was which was a nice touch
Time for push back and lift off
Service was provided from both the rea and the front of the cabin. We were offered a brownie (I regretted having this for lunch at this point). I also ordered another wine. The flight was only an hour long and as I was in the middle of the plane I was one of hte last people to be served. Our decent was announced by the captain and I had to quickly drink my wine!
It was then time for landing
We arrived at Terminal 2E which was only a very short taxi
Departing the aircraft we headed to the border control. There was only one woman doing the checks and the automatic border machines were not in use. It therefore took quite a while to get through
Finally I was out and headed to the RER station There was no queue for the tickets and the train arrived soon after whisking me away into the centre of Paris.
Thanks for this report and congrats for your silver status :)
Nice flight with AF. Catering is a bit tiny for sure, but it's just one hour flight.
Wish youy enjoyed Paris.
Thanks for reading, I had a great time in Paris and I look forward to my new card!
Sure the catering wasn't amazing but it was perfectly fine for this flight.
Thnak you for this report !
You were lucky as this is the previous cabin seats that are quite comfortable and not the slimline seats configured on most European aircrafts.
Catering is correct for such a short flight in the afternoon, was there a savoury option though ?
MAN is indeed a maze, amazing they did not consider a better walking path from the station.
Yes it certainly is a maze and in the past I have gotten a bit lost on the way to T3. But I've been there so many times now I know all the tricks!
There wasn't a savoury option actually this time. I probably would have taken it if there were due to just having had a brownie an hour before!
Thanks for this FR.
I agree that MAN is really crowded due to the many shops/restaurants airside.
How do you rate this AF flight compared to a KL one?
Hope you had a nice time in Paris, unfortunately, since the events of November the genral isn't that great.
Thanks for reading.
Comparing to KL is slightly difficult, I've had a mixed bag of KL flights recently with many cancellations. The comfort/interior onboard an AF A321 was better than the comparable KLM Cityhopper Embraers not that it makes much difference on the short routes to AMS/CDG. However due to the larger size, the service was a bit slower due to where I was sitting and required me to have to down my refreshments. The friendly captain was also a nice touch, but I've also very nice KL captains who have waited for me and chatted to me when I nearly missed connections at AMS. This was actually my first ever flight with AF and overall I thought it was a good service. I'd say it was on par with some of the better KL flights e.g. my recent AMS-MUC which was a similar flight time and aircraft.
Yes it's a shame that people can't be as relaxed in Paris anymore, but luckily this didn't really have any negative effects on my stay there.
*the general mood