Review of Air France flight Tel Aviv Nice in Economy

Airline Air France
Flight AF1795
Class Economy
Seat 7F
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 04:15
Take-off 05 Sep 15, 20:20
Arrival at 05 Sep 15, 23:35
AF   #26 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 5929 reviews
ChrisB
By GOLD 759
Published on 19th October 2021

back from the holy/promised land!


Hello all,
Welcome to this shortarchive  series of flight that took me from my hometown to Tel Aviv and back, with a stop at Nice to spend some time with my parents that were in Menton.
Could be worse right?  Well this was also a funny avgeek experience as there were not less than 3 different companies for 4 legs!! 


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Routing


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This was before the revenue-based calculation but in today's term this would be
Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 415
Status earned: 5 XP 


Air France usually operates seasonal routes to North Africa, Greece, and middle east from regional bases during the summer, and this flight was one of them. 


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Time for the cabin map moment! A highrt density 178 seats A320. 


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at tel aviv - ben gourion airport


A last glance at the beach before jumping to a cab for the airport…


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Israel doesn't do stamp but on an attached slip.


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We went through check-in even though we had no luggages to check in, but just in case, we had a bad experience with security on the way out.


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About 1h30 min before the departure time, we went through security.

I must say my travel buddy was from pakistani origin, hence not white. Surely you can imagine what happened next.
When you arrive at security, you have the standard lanes in which you can just show your boarding pass and passports, and a dedicated lane on the left hand side.

A lady asked us to go on a different lane and at first I though that was a nice touch to go to a dedicated lane…
And when I looked around me, everyone was either from a muslim background or oriental background. I litteraly was the only "white" person in there.

Queueing to reach a first check was very long - about 30 min. During this time we had our passport checked 3 times.
You then reach a typical metal detector check point.
Then the second check was an Airport Body Scanner. 
Then you had your passport and boarding pass checked again.
Then despite the first two detectors and scanner, a guy came to have an throughout search, touching every inch of my skin - i am not joking when i say every inch.
Then your suitcase go through the usual security checks. Once you take out your liquids and tablet into a tray and leave your suitcase in the conveyor belt, another person checks you again with a portable metal detector.

The bigger problem for me was once I was checked AGAIN, the guy at the conveyor belt was opening every suitcases, widely putting clothes here and there and once searched left the suitcases with everyones mess on the table. 

This is where I lost it, I had a massive heated discussion with him and - like Karen - asked to speak to his boss.
Basically the guy said he asked me to open it to which I said it was impossible as I was still being checked and also the fact that my suitcase was all over the place.

Basically they kept lying and they said hurry if you don't want to miss your flight.

I am not sure if this is my worst experience in an airport - this one or a bomb scare at St Petersburg - but this was the first time I felt completely neglected, treated without the basic dignity and of course extremly frustrated that some old toad can get away with it.

I did complain to the airport in the 9th of September.


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After 17 emails of me chasing them, I finally received a cheque on the 21st of december, for missing items, but no apologies to this day.


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I didn't take this many pictures, I was truely infuriated at this point.


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Here is the boarding hall


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And our plane arriving next to Delta B767


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onboard the a320


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Aircraft: Airbus A320-214
Registration: F-HEPB
Engines: 2x CFM56
Age: XX Years
Layout: Y178


The plane wasn't so full which was a good news - I could have slept a bit across the seats.


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We were given a pillow and a blanket, a rare thing to seen on AF A320!!


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After the usual safety demonstrations, we started taxiing.


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Of course a lot of El Al planes here


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and take off above Jaffa and Tel Aviv


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Service started straight away after - we had the full meal that you can find onboard long haul flights.


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Unfortunately there was no alcool available on this flight.
The crew turned off the lights for everyone to have a well deserved nap. 


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A quick glance at the magazine


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That offers a comprehensive dossier of the destination of the month


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and my favorite pages: the fleet! You can really tell the change that happened in just a few years time…
110 long haul aircrafts against 85 today
122 medium haul fleet against 110 today 
99 regional aircrafts against 52 today… 
but 16 Transavia against 60 today.. So Air France got greener by the colour of the tail! 


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at nice cote d'azur airport


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I was sleeping for the rest of the flight - I just took this picture when we arrived at the gate.


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See more

Verdict

Air France

7.9/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering9.0

Tel Aviv - TLV

3.0/10
Efficiency0.0
Access6.0
Services0.0
Cleanliness6.0

Nice - NCE

8.4/10
Efficiency8.5
Access9.5
Services8.0
Cleanliness7.5

Conclusion

TLV: What else can I say?

AF: The cabin was Ok, I was mostly impressed by the meal offered.

NCE: The airport is so close to the city and the beach of St Laurent du Var, perfect for a quick tour on the sand! T2 is bright, clean and has a descent amount of services.

Related

4 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 583770 by
    Aigle_voyageur 838 Comments
    Thanks Chris for this exotic (or kind of) review. :)

    TLV security measures are always so strict, I admit it but what you experimented is clearly unacceptable. Perhaps it would have been better if you and your friend have passed security controls separately, one after the other.

    We were given a pillow and a blanket, a rare thing to seen on AF A320!!


    No wonder when you consider the time departure, which is kinda "red-eye" flight. Besides, the flight duration time with this aircraft rarely exceeds 3 hours.

    Have safe flights. ;)
    • Comment 583812 by
      ChrisB GOLD AUTHOR 3391 Comments
      Thanks Brian for your comments!
      well I was about to go through the normal line, but when asked if we are together I said yes and ended up in this line - where clearly there was a racist agenda going on there. It was the first time I experienced it and it is not nice.
      Yes the 3hours long flights usually have this level of service, and apart from Tel Aviv and Yerevan, not sure where else this could be seen on A320.
      Have safe flights too and thanks again!
      See you soon!
  • Comment 583794 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Hey Chris, cool route! I guess this was back in the day when AF were still doing Intl flying from Provincial bases, which has mostly all gone away in the past few years. Nice to see they were running one of the more comfortable "Europe" cabins on that flight. I'd flown from Intl flights in/our of TLS which were on Métropole fleet so crappy Recaro ironing boards and no USB outlets at the time.

    Thanks for sharing!
    • Comment 583815 by
      ChrisB GOLD AUTHOR 3391 Comments
      Hey Kevin,
      thanks for stopping by!
      Yes Air France always resume these little routes in the summer to Athens, TLV ..., at least that was the case before covid...
      Ah yes I was lucky I guess to have the same treatment as if I was flying from CDG in terms of cabin!
      I have read somewhere that AF might consider A321neo operations from regional bases, just like LYS used to be a strong base for Hop, offering flights to european direct destinations like Goteborg, Prague, Rome... I don't know if that will ever happen with the CDG base being such of a paramount importance...
      Thanks for your comments!

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