Review of Air France flight from Washington to Paris in Business

Summer trip to europe

This was somewhat spur-of-the-moment trip, seeking to get a quick trip in before work really picks up over Summer and into Fall.  I had never been to Hungary before and combined with good AF availability and transfer bonuses from both Chase and Amex meant there were great deals to be had.  Anytime you find transatlantic business class for under 50k points each way, it's a bargain.

Incidentally, this would be my first flight ever on Air France and also my first flight on the A350. 

silver line to dulles international airport

The Silver Line to Dulles officially opened in November 2022.  I had yet to have an opportunity to try it out (especially since I have to transfer to get to the Silver Line), but decided to this time because a 9:30pm departure left me with tons of time during the day and no rush to be anywhere else.

The whole journey (door-to-door) took about 1.5 hours for me, of which approximately an hour was spent on the Metro.  Combined with the fact that it is a flat fare on the weekends, $2 to get to Dulles is quite a steal.  Of course, you'll have to make your own determination as to how much you value your time.  I don't mind doing this if I don't have much luggage or have plenty of free time, but otherwise I'll probably eat the cost of an Uber/Lyft. 

Air France, KLM, and Korean all have their check-in counters in the relative center of the departure terminal.  The Sky Priority lane was clear and I was quickly checked in and directed towards the Air France lounge.

The IAD Air France/KLM Lounge can be found across from Gate A20/A22, where my flight would be departing from that evening.

air france lounge (iad)

I've reviewed this lounge a few times by now, as I am fond of using it as a Priority Pass option at IAD.  I'll focus my review on the Air France Business dining option this time.   I believe this option is available for the 9:30pm departure, but not sure about the earlier ~6pm departure.  In any case, the back dining room becomes off-limits to non-AF business passengers at this time.

The menu mirrored exactly what you would have onboard.  I opted to start with a glass of Taittinger and the foie gras appetizer.

I had the wagyu filet as my main.  I was a little skeptical at the it purportedly being high quality wagyu (maybe it's an A3?), but the steak turned out to be quite good.  It was cooked somewhere between medium rare and medium.  Not pictured, but I had the Chateau des Tours Brouilly 2020 with the steak, it wasn't very good.

We had some mignardise at the end, the macaron in particular was fairly good.

Here's a look at the hot options served in the main lounge.

Here's a picture from when I visited the main portion of the lounge, plenty of passengers, but you can see there are still some empty seats left.

I always forget to test this, but lounge WiFi was fairly strong.

At around 8:40pm, about 10 minutes before scheduled boarding, I walked out of the lounge to get a glimpse of the plane taking me to CDG.

AF27

My ride to CDG was F-HTYT, a A350 only delivered in September 2022.  Incidentally, this would be my first time on an A350.

Boarding began at 8:47pm, with Zone 1 starting at 8:56pm.  The facial recognition scanners struggled for a while with the passengers in front of me, so the gate agent just scanned my ticket manually.  AF's older A350s have Zodiac Optima seats arranged in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration.  If these look familiar, it's because it's the same seat as the United Polaris seats (with different finishes).  AF is beginning to install its new business class with doors on newer A350s.

This is a rather familiar look for me, though with a all white/blue combo rather than United's finishes.  I suppose I prefer United's configuration slightly more with the faux marble and lamp.

Waiting for you at your seat is a pillow, thin blanket, and hanger for your coat.

A small amenity kit also awaits you on the table.

In terms of the seat itself, I liked how much more crisp the screen was on AF compared to United's seats, but otherwise missed having air nozzles.  The rest of the seat is laid out fairly similarly, with the exception of an extension that gives you a little more privacy.  As you can see in the last picture, there's already some wear and tear despite being less than a year old.

Getting back to the amenity, it's a fairly standard set of goodies inside.

I opted to just have a glass of water for my PDB.

FAs came around with hot towels before we pushed back–a nice touch.  Boarding was complete by 9:22am and the captain informed us at that time it would be a flight time of 7:05 to CDG.

We pushed back on-time at 9:30pm.  AF, as readers of this site is no doubt familiar with, has a rather chic safety video.

One thing I love about the A350 is the tail camera.  I had this on until it got too dark.  We took off at 9:42pm ET.

This is a view of the DMV from an angle I haven't seen before.

Other than the tail camera, I thought AF's entertainment was pretty easy top navigate and well laid-out.  WiFi was offered at 8 Euros for 1 hour of surfing, 18 Euros for the entire flight, and 30 Euros for streaming speeds the entire flight.  Messaging was free.  I did not test any of these options.

Right after takeoff I went to the lavatory to wash my hands before meal service.  It was a fairly straightforward lavatory–nothing much to comment on.

For your meal selection, it was the same as what was offered in the lounge–and you can have it again even if you ate in the lounge.  Here's the pre-order menu.  I'm glad so many more airlines are doing this nowadays.

Here is the full menu:

Service began around 18 minutes after takeoff with a glass of champagne and some snacks.  AF is currently serving Pommery NV, which is okay, but not particularly to my liking.

In contrast to the Polaris seats, there is a much simpler slide-out tray table.

I opted to skip the main since I already ate the lounge, but got the express meal (appetizers + dessert).  It was all conveniently served on one tray.  Everything was collected from me approximately 35 minutes after service began (overall less than 1 hour after takeoff).  It was quite efficient with the "express" service and I attempted to go to bed immediately afterwards.

Unfortunately, I had a hard time sleeping even though it was around my usual bedtime.  I think the lack of bedding hampered me somewhat here. 

I slept on and off, somewhat restlessly, until it was about around 1 hour before landing.

Breakfast service was already underway and I was quickly offered a tray.

AF offers the same tea bags as it does in its lounges.  It was okay–I was waiting for the lounge to grab coffee.

Playing around with the screen during breakfast I realized these screens give you a picture-in-picture option!  I can have the flight map on while looking out the tail or nose camera.  This is pretty much the avgeek dream.

It was a gorgeous day to arrive in Europe.

One more hot towel to wrap things up.

France!  I haven't flown into or through CDG since 2016, so it's been quite the long time.

We landed at 10:54am CET and was at our gate 12 minutes later.