Air France Boeing Dreamliner on testing flights to London Heathrow- HELL YES! After doing the A380 in 2010, I felt it would be great to do the 787 subsequently.
Two days before the flight the aircraft (F-HRBA) goes tech in Ciaro and I end up having an aircraft swap… To a Boeing 777-200(ER)
Not too bad, I haven't flown on a Boeing 777 of Air France and the B772 was the first aircraft type I flew on.
Air France then later offered me a free Dreamliner flight return the following month (March 2017) and that made everything all right.
So it comes to my flight. I get to LHR in plenty of time, the Boeing 777 (F-GSPD) arrives on time. Then a technical fault happens….
We are on the plane and don't get away for a good 90 minutes… However it did mean I could get some nice cabin shots!
We get going, taxi all the way down to the end of the Runway, then we cross the runway and go back to the T4 gates…
Low & behold someone didn't get a piece of paperwork signed off and we had to go back and get it done before we could fly.
But we finally got out at 12pm sharp- nearly 2 1/2 hours late!
Other than the hairy start- the flight itself was brilliant and a great introduction to Air France long-haul economy.
We got a belated breakfast. Air France on LHR-CDG offers a Croissant (or other pastry) and a Hot Drink complimentary… Please Take note BA!!!
I also enjoyed listening to some French music I downloaded from this Musical legend…
We got to Paris CDG eventually, Taxiing about I got some parked AF jets.
After taxiing to the gate & disembarking, I went about my day in Paris (casually running late).
I went to Terminal 1 where I found a decent spotting point for a good hour (I did have the CDG/LBG Permit).
Concluding a good hour there- I grabbed the Train to central Paris. I went to enjoy dinner at the Paris Hard Rock Cafe!
I was staying in a hotel & catching a morning flight the next day- so I had a nice evening waltzing around & exploring Paris in night.
I took some pictures around and from a bus, but the highlight was grabbing a picture of the Eiffel Tower all lit up in the dark!
Thank You very much for this flight report :)
It's always great to take a widebody aircraft for a flight within europe, very rare indeed! I only had this opportunity once on a BA 767 from FRA to LHR.
Nice to see that AF still offers this classic breakfast for free unlike BA ;)
Glad you liked the review. It was nice to fly on a 5th Air France aircraft type for me. I've done the A380, A321 & A320 as well as the B789, this B772 was a bonus despite the troubles...