#23 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
6118 reviews
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lounge: People who have read my domestic IAD reports know that I'm quite fond of the Air France lounge as my go-to Priority Pass option. Taittinger is still the champagne offered here. For the 9:30pm departure, you also get the meal option in the lounge, which is quite nice.
Cabin & Seat: I'm quite familiar with the Zodiac Optima seats and AF offers a perfectly fine version of this seat. There are some pros and cons compared to the UA version, but overall I'm a fan. I am even more looking forward to when AF puts planes with the new business class seats on the IAD routes.
Service: Service was really efficient, which I appreciated on this flight. I wasn't paying much more attention to the FAs as I was trying to squeeze every minute of sleep I can out of this.
Meal & Catering: AF offers a pretty solid meal option both in the lounge and onboard. I did fine the wine list a bit weak given that France is the preeminent wine country in the world.
Bottom Line: The dine-in lounge option combined with the late departure (closer to bedtime) and soon-to-be-added new seats, Air France's 9:30pm Dulles departure is probably going to end up being my preferred transatlantic business class option, especially given United's latest devaluation.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 39 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne Washington (IAD) → Paris (CDG).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Air France avec 7.5/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 7 heures et 39 minutes.
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7 Comments
The overall experience seems quite good, but it's such a pity to see wear on a year-old seat
Not a great touch
Like the meal service with the possibilty to have a lighter dinner
Definitely a good option leaving late in night
Have good flights and enjoy Europe :)
I agree it's a pity about the newish seat--sometimes passengers really treat planes roughly and there's little airlines can do about that.
Awesome to see an AF report from IAD as I used to fly AF often from IAD when I lived in DC. The lounge looks really great since the renovation a few years ago and the in-lounge full Dining option is really nice. Reminds me of the BA dining rooms for Club passengers from East Coast airports, similarly also reserved only for Business/First class passengers. The food options outside of the dining room don't look bad either.
AF's "Old" A350 J (It feels weird to call it old) is a very nice product. It's crazy to think AF are already introducing better seats. They've really come a long way in recent years as far as hard-product improvements, especially after holding on to angled-flat J for such a long time.
The dinner menu looks appetising--I'd have been all over that duck confit. I realise duck isn't very common in the US (outside of Chinese cuisine), but where I'm from in the southwest of France, duck is very popular and deeeelicious. It's nice to have that express option for those who aren't too hungry and just want to go to sleep since it is a short overnight flight.
Thanks for sharing!
Compared to when I usually visit with Priority Pass, it's a big step up outside, I assume they upgrade it for the AF/KLM passengers in the late afternoon/evening.
Meanwhile, over in Star Alliance, Lufthansa's new J is delayed yet again . . .
If I didn't eat in the lounge, I would have opted for the duck confit (and it's what I would have pre-ordered). Being Chinese and loving French food, I am a huge duck lover. In fact, one of my favorite restaurants in DC specializes in a French duck preparation.
Thanks again for stopping by!
It's a solid option and I tend to find the Turkish lounge a bit overrated and more often than not way more crowded.
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