Review of easyJet flight London → Paris in Economy

300th Flight and a Unique Paris Trip!

Here we are, the 300th Flight I've ever taken! Probably would have happened a little sooner without the pandemic of the last few years, but to finally be here it amazing!

easyJet has the honours of hosting my 300th Flight, I've done 19 flights with them at the time of this article.

The honours of the 300th Flight will go to easyJet on this occasion on a London Luton to Paris Charles DeGaulle, not the most exotic way to mark this milestone, but that's the way things go on the majority. At least its a new route for me, as well as being an interesting trip overall.

Majority of my Luton flights have been operated by easyJet unsurprisingly.

Whilst there is a flight on this trip, its a one-way flight. Flying out with easyJet and then travelling home by the Eurostar train- to compare the two modes of transport! It is something I've wanted to do for a few years now.

I'll leave a little memo on my Eurostar experience in the TOURISM Bonus for those who want to see that alongside some additions from the trip to Paris!

easyJet EZ2431 (LTN-CDG)

With the first part of my trip feeling a little "deja vu" giving the similarities to the last trip (also a LTN easyJet flight). We arrived into London Luton Airport, being dropped off by a hotel just off the Airport and walking the 10 minutes under the tunnel that leads to the Airport entrance. I do not recommend this lightly during January in the UK- it was freezing cold at 5:30am!

Overall I've done 19 flights either to or from London Luton Airport, its my 4th out of six most used London Airport.

Entering LTN Airport, we went for the security lane, after grabbing a boarding pass from the check in as it was quiet as a souvenir of my 300th Flight. A bit of a side note, easyJet offers free boarding passes at check in, unlike some of their counterparts, A lot of people don't seem to realise that.

Me and my mate (who was also excitedly on this "petrol-headed" adventure) went to the Hawker Bar at Luton Airport for two quick half-pints of beer to toast my 300th Flight milestone!

Cheers All!

Our Gate was allocated and put on the departures board, and for the third time in a row at London Luton Airport, it was off to the "old fashioned" area from the 1970s for a bus gate. We were oddly enough also leaving from Gate 1, where we boarded our LTN-BFS flight only six weeks prior.

The boarding bus took the first load, me and my mate were on the second bus load of passengers, whilst a third trip would be required once we'd been dropped off. Apparently the flight had a load of 140 passengers.

A short ride across the airport we arrived at a remote stand where our plane was setting up for the short round trip to Paris.

Our flight that day would be operated by Airbus A320-ceo(WL) G-EZWX. The aircraft was built in July 2014 and has served its whole career with easyJet carrying a maximum load of 186 passengers in a single class layout. 

Boarding through the rear stairs on this occasion!

The cabin on this easyJet Airbus A320-ceo had the slimline seats with black-orange fabric. Unlike Ryanair, easyJet posts little adverts promoting the companies services instead of the safety card. My seat promoted the easyJet Holidays arm of the company, whilst the seat my mate occupied promoted the easyJet duty-free.

I sat in Seat 21F, at the back of the wing, its a good spot for a good view of the wing when you land, but also provides a good field of view when in flight. Though this morning I was greeted by the rear cargo door being open.

Good time for a knock, knock joke???

We pushed back about half an hour behind schedule due to us missing a slot resulting from a mobility lift not working properly in the cold weather. But in no time at all we were moving and made our way to the runway, following a departing and arriving pair of Wizzair Airbus A320… come on easyJet! You're the airline that built this airport- yet to you give way to Wizzair???

We took off into the dawn and observed a really beautiful sky as we climbed out of Luton and made our way south for France. A small bit of winter haze added to a good effect on my photos as we took off.

It was a nice morning for flying!

The flight time was going to be about 50 minutes that morning, allowing for a quick arrival into Paris CDG when we got to France. 

Due to the nature of the flight, it was not advisable to buy hot food (though it didn't stop some pax) so I opted for an English Breakfast Tea with a blueberry muffin. It was a nice sweet treat to provide a boost for the morning. We cheekily noticed that someone who had ordered a toasted sandwich was getting it just minutes before we landed, well into our decent.

We began our arrival into Paris CDG, the cloud cover was so thick and low at Paris that morning.

In order to help time when to film with my GoPro to preserve its battery power, I estimated when to start filming by listening out for the sound of the undercarriage and watching the positioning of the flaps… it worked out well!

We landed into Paris CDG, with the plane only passing through the cloud with less than a minute before we touched down on the runway. We taxied off the runway and the lead cabin crew gave the welcome to the passengers into Paris. We had a pro-longed taxi as we must have covered a good half of the airport as we made our way over to Terminal 2B.

We parked up on a jet bridge stand at Terminal 2B with our neighbours being a mix of American Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliners and a row of easyJet Airbus A320s parked on remote stands. My assumption is the non-Schengen easyJet flights have to dock at the Terminal and the Schengen flights operate from the remote stands. easyJet has a base at Paris CDG, so it was also a general assumption that the remote stand easyJet A320s were based here at CDG.

Multiple easyJet & American Airlines aircraft together? It can only be Paris Charles DeGaulle!

As everyone was clambering to exit the plane, me and my mate opted to hang back and be some of the final people off the aircraft. I took the opportunity to grab a better cabin shot using the almost empty aircraft. Conveying the seat style of the A320 cabin. Its a nice seating, however I don't know how long easyJet will keep it around as they might retrofit the A320-ceo cabins to be inline with the A320-neo aircraft.

And with one final shot of the Airbus A320 before exiting into the Terminal of Paris CDG, that wraps up my 300th Flight!

Hope you enjoyed the Flight Report, and if you fancy reading on in the Tourism Bonus section- there's a bit more to enjoy!

Bonus : Click here display hide

You can't come to Paris and not visit at least one of the many French built Concorde's scattered around the Metropolis!

This is F-BVFF, preserved at Paris Charles DeGaulle Airport… Nice to see the French doing what British Airways & London Heathrow should be doing with their resident Concorde (G-BOAB).

Musée de l'air et de l'espace- Jan 2023

My favourite place to visit in Paris is the French Museum of Air and Space at the historic and iconic Paris-LeBourget Airport. It is the oldest aviation museum in the world and covers a huge range of French aviation and space from the humble beginnings of 1903 through to the present day- almost 120 years of Aviation & Space!

Various commercial airliners and military aircraft line the main outside apron, including a prototype Airbus A380-800 as well as a Dassault Merucure & Sud-Aviation Carravelle- the French predecessors of the modern Airbus A320!

One of the long time highlights for the museum is a retired Boeing 747-128 of Air France! Exploring this airliner is incredible and conveys the sheer size and might of the Boeing 747!!! 

Air France operated various types of the Boeing 747 from 1970 (747-100) through to 2016 (747-400). That's a whopping 46 years of service for the airline, whilst the home built Airbus A380 operated for Air France from late-2009 to May 2020… only a single decade.

A country that saw a lot of conflict during both World War 1 and World War 2- a collection of WW2 era war birds show cases a tribute and memorial to the French, American, British and German airmen that fought in the skies over France from 1940-1944!

A more varied selection makes up various other parts of the museum including Helicopters, Prototypes and the Pioneers!

Arguably (alongside the B747 & A380) is the crown jewel- not one but TWO French production Concorde aircraft, F-WSST the first ever Concorde built and the first to fly, as well as F-BTSD, an Air France aircraft showcasing the side-to-side differences between the original prototype from 1969 and the 1976 airliner that entered service. F-BTSD even featured the 1996 Pepsi livery that summer.

Landmarks of Paris

Obviously almost every tourist to Paris is there to see iconic monuments and landmarks around the city. 

We started our whirlwind journey around the city centre with the Arc de Triomphe!

London has the River Thames, Oslo has the Akerselva River, Amsterdam has The Amstel River… Paris in its own right has Seine River!!!

Of course, it has to be visited at least- The Eifel Tower!

Our last stop was the French Army Museum- which houses the Tomb of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte!

Eurostar- For Better or For Worse than easyJet???

Paris Gare du Nord to London St Pancras with the Eurostar revolutionised intra-European travel in 2006 when it launched!

You can now travel from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam with the train service, though it has really caused the airlines to up there game, its becoming a more popular option in a time when people are more environmentally conscious!

The journey from Paris to London took about 3 hours, though we had little trouble with the passport and immigration formalities and the journey was less hassle as Eurostar doesn't restrict liquids or worry about luggage as much as the airlines do.

The cabin was nice for the journey with enough legroom, a comfortable seat (even in standard class) as well as points to plug in charging devices. The screens didn't offer much- it would have been nice for a moving map, a very first world problem.

You can buy stuff at the Eurostar's on-board café. Premium cabins offer complimentary food offerings. I went for the basics- a tea with a chocolate bar… it was reasonably priced compare to airlines, but I will say its without a doubt easier to carry your own food onto the Eurostar.

Overall the service was nice and I would consider the Eurostar again if I couldn't get a good deal on flights to Paris. If you live in London or Paris itself, you can easily look at this as an alternative to flying from an Airport. However as I live outside of London, its something I would have to weigh up a bit more…