You might be surprised but besides aviation, I am also in love with my +1 and I could be romantic..! I organised a nice trip to where we spent our first holidays about 5 years ago, I thought it would be nice to refresh our memories and going back on the roots of what we became :-)
This holidays is also the first time I used my drone, and the pictures it can take are amazing!
We flew on the way out with Transavia, so it had to be two seperate bookings because Air France doesn't allow you to have one leg operated by TO.
Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 928 Status earned: 5 XP Air France doubling the XP status in 2021: 5 additional XP
Being gold flying blue member, you can book your seat and from your travel companion as early as the booking stage, even though the other person has a lower status. The cabin was of the 178 seats of the A320.
AT HERAKLION - NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS AIRPORT
We arrived at the airport with our rental car, and even though it is a but ugly to see this giant car park with all these flags, I must say it was super convenient as there was just one street to cross to get to departures..
Departures entrance hall
The airport was packed full of people, I think there were no less than 5 flights departing at the same time as us: Tui, Aegean, Aeroflot, Easyjet and Lufthansa! There were just two Air France counters, one with a huge queue and one dedicated to SkyPriority; very luckily!
This couple in front of us made a massive scandal that the lounge was not open, and that who they will wait amongst all these people, this was going to be awful etc… Which I found funny personnaly !
The lady at coutner was super friendly and had to print again our boarding passes.
The duty free - covid or not - was well open though…
The view on the planes… I am not sure it that was made on purpose or not but all the legacies planes were on the right hand side and the low costs on the other side of airport…
Here is our bird of the day, apparently a Boeing A320 according to the lady at counter that was making the pre-boarding announce XD She can now apply for TV journalism talking about aviaiton!!
Inside the terminal… not really quiet right?
Boarding started without the priorities being called, I guess it doesn't really matter since we all got into paxbuses.
Sorry for the hair compilation I wanted a last picture of the airport ;-)
I like this fish eye view, it almost looks like we are boarding a B777!
onboard the a320
Aircraft: Airbus A320-214 Registration: F-GKXJ Engines: 2x CFM56 Age: 18 Years Layout: Y174 Observations: One of the A320 used on European destinations.
Hello CFM56 engine!!
So here is the for the lady who thought this is a BoeingA320 XD
Hello DLH!
The cabin crew gave us a warm greeting, and the captain made a comprehensive announce with flight parameters and even touristy places we will encounter during the flight.. I also noticed, and I am not sure since when but they have started saying there is wifi on board… During taxi..
Align
And take off!
Good bye Heraklion airport!
A quick turn after take off to avoid flying over Heraklion… but not avoiding the beautiful sea!
As you can see this is still the old cabin inside with the old buttons..
But at least with the Best and Beyound seat…
We were handed over this form to fill in again (but not on the way out!)
Flying over mainland Greece…
When the service started: A vegetarian sandwich A galette Two choices of drinks
And later on they handed over some more galettes. So not as great as TK but I guess ok for this 3 hours flight… I guess just on the edge to have a Long haul service..
I usually don't take any pictures from the toilets, not sure if this is really useful however I am happy to offer you a view FROM the toilets!
Flying over my home town…
Wifi was working perfectly from the moment you step in the plane till reaching the gate at arrival. The basic option to send and receive messages is free, that can also send pictures on whatsapp if there are not too large…
And for once I tried these games for kids (we all are still!)
There are still no paper magasines on board and so I read it on the app.
And with this month's cover about Greece - Air France do you spy on me?
And of course that amazingly good looking new lounge - that I will report at the next flight… I don't garantee the same professional picture !!
And of course the fleet review.. The CRJ700 fleet keeps shrinking and so is the A321 fleet… I think this is the last time we see this page with 18 A318s and 30 A319s before the A220 arrival.
And approach over Paris… Hello Eiffel tower
on finals…
touch down..
And another AF A350 that keeps reminding me I need to find a way to fly on it!! Such a beautiful plane.
AT PARIS - CHARLES DE GAULLE AIRPORT
Arrival at 2F as usual for this shenguen zone flight..
Goodbye F-GKXJ
Thanks for reading me!
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Verdict
Air France
8.3/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew9.5
Entertainment/wifi8.0
Meal/catering7.0
Heraklion - HER
7.4/10
Efficiency7.5
Access9.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness7.0
Paris - CDG
7.3/10
Efficiency8.0
Access6.5
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.5
Conclusion
Air France: hard product satisfying for the price and soft product to the standards (with the smart and beyound seats). Entertainment is 7.5, I guess the next thing to reach 10 is the IFE... But so far with WiFi, magazine, Play app, and Live TV this is not too bad.
HER: A bit messy and old airport, and the lounge was closed down as previously reported.
CDG: Very easy to transfert when the two planes are at 2F terminals, however I imagine it is rather much harder for Parisians to come and leave from there.
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2 Comments
Thanks for stopping by and your comment, that is very kind!
See you soon!
Chris
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