Review of Air France flight from Lyon to Paris in Economy

hello my dear

TIme for a quick visit to London! 

 Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 210
Status earned: 2 XP 

When you fly domestic with Air France, you are entitled to 1 bag in the cabin, adding my extra luggage allowance as I am a Skyteam elite member, we had an allowance 1 bag of 23kgs in the hull.

Air France app is quite comprehensive, you can easily navigate through options, travel tips, and of course your bookings and the service you will have on board.. Of course, like many others, the app offers you the possibility to check in online and get your boarding pass.

Prior to flying yoi can also download the Air France Play app that entitles you to download (and unlimited when you have the elite status) newspapers and magasines and I must say their section in English is good.

I arrived in Lyon airport about 1 hour before the flight with the Rhône Express tramway.

You arrived at the famous bird shape TGV station and followed by a corridor to reach the terminals 1A and 2.

at lyon saint exupery airport

The airport is split into two terminal, Terminal 1 featuring Terminal 1A and 1B and Terminal 2, mostly used by AIr France and subsidary Hop.

The airport is named after the famous aviation pioneer Antoine de Saint-Exupery. 

With nice views on the Mont Blanc

 As a skyteam elite member I did use the priority lane which was almost empty for once :)

As I was early, I went for a quick spotting visit.

From the Embraer jets 

and Bombardier jets

to our bird!

Aircraft: Airbus A319-111
Registration: F-GHRH
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: 18 Years
Layout: C20 Y123

The AvGEEK bit
Air France usually splits its A320 family units into two groups: for mainland france destinations or European/North African markets. The airline has 33 A319s, 25 out of them are assigned to the European markets, just 8 for mainland france. The french flag carrier has started to retrofit the European units with Smart and Beyound cabins and seats, and lately with Wifi too.
Air France recently announced a plan of replacing its A318s and A319s with A220-300s.

on board the a319

I was queuing on the Priority lanes for boarding.
When boarding I had the very pleasant surprise to be told my seat has been changed to much forward seat. With the french strike the crew anticipated that my flight my be delayed which would make my connecting time of 52min even shorter. Kudo to them I have never seen/heard that.

And indeed once onboard where we re told the departure was delayed of 20 min.

The crew assigned to the cabin today was very professional. 

 Soon after cabin lights were deemed as for the late afternoon.

Captain made the usual pre-flight annouce for this domestic flight
We started push back soon after. 

Crew performed safety briefing in the old fashion way but with smile. As advised by the crew, here is the safety card!

We started taxiing next to Terminals 2 before reaching the runway 18L.

Although the aircraft is old, the cabin was fully refurbished with smart and beyound leather seats, reclining and adjustable head rests, and small blue pillow with the typical accent of AF patterned on it. The seats were equipped with USB plugs too.

 Although a good chunk of the A320 family fleet of Air France are now equipped with wifi, this A319 wasn't just yet but I guess it wasn't bothersome for such a short flight.

Air France has been offering free press for a very long time now.

 
Just like the A320 family fleet, this aircraft wasn't equipped with IFE nor screens; a standard that seems to be the norm nowadays, where some Airlines like British Airways chose Live maps to be displayed on cabin screens.

The magasine offered was the very thick Air France magasine that a section of travel articles, and coporate news.

For a very long time Air France didn't name its aircraft and that just changed with the A350s!

Above all, the main change was the arrival of the A350 in the fleet!

A very nice view on Lyon Saint Exupery Airport

  The crew started very shortly after take off to serve us food, even before 10,000 feet and the seat belt signal being switched off.

I chose coffee and brittany cake the complimentary drinks

We approached Paris Charles De Gaule very shortly after towards and made our way to the final on the runway 26L.

at paris charles de gaule airport

The landing, although in a very fogy condition was smooth, so congrats to the captain!

As usual, we arrived at the terminal 2F, the aircrafts operating within mainland France and the Shenguen area.

I arrived in the terminal building and headed towards the next terminal building for my following flight.

As we landed 30 min late I had to really run like crazy and so I don't have any pictures of the airport