#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
I went to several places in East Africa and the Indian Ocean and I had the following flights:
Paris to Dar es-Salaam (Tanzania), Air France, business class
Dar es Salaam to Lilongwe (Malawi), Malawi Airlines, economy class
Lilongwe to Dar es-Salaam, Malawi Airlines, economy class (no flight report)
Dar es-Salaam to Moroni (Comoros), Air Tanzania, economy class
Moroni to Dzaoudzi (Mayotte), Ewa Air, economy class
Dzaoudzi to Saint-Denis (Réunion), Air Austral, premium economy class
Saint-Denis to Paris, Air France, premium economy class
I booked this flight as an open-jaw from Paris to Dar in business and Réunion to Paris in premium economy.
The airport is named after Roland Garros.
I arrived to the airport at 09.00 for a flight scheduled at 10.20. This is not exactly what Air France recommends but I had already checked-in on-line.
The check-in area was already quite empty by the time I got there.
Most flights from Réunion are to Paris, Mauritius, Madagascar or Mayotte.
Departures are upstairs.
There’s a snack shop called Cap Méchant which is nice cape on Réunion.
First there was an automated boarding card control and then passport control. Although Réunion is part of France it's not part of the Schengen area.
Fast track security was available for premium economy passengers. I was through all controls in about 20 minutes.
The airport is quite small airside. It's good I didn't arrive hours earlier.
Nice view over an Air France plane waiting for a different flight.
Some options airside to buy food:
Boarding started at 09.40. Premium economy includes Sky Priority (priority check-in, security, immigration and boarding) which was very useful given the crowd at the gate.
Our plane as seen from the passenger bridge: a B77-300, registration number F-GZNO, delivered in 2012.
This plane has a small business cabin with only four rows on the sides and three rows in the middle in a 1-2-1 configuration with a total of 14 seats only.
Both business and premium economy were fully booked and there was no upgrade offer for this flight.
Premium economy has three rows on the sides and four rows in the middle in a 2-4-2 configuration with a total of 28 seats.
The seat is comfortable and the pitch is good.
A pillow and a blanket were waiting on the seat.
An Air Austral plane next to ours.
An expected flight time of 11 hours and 20 minutes was announced.
Push-back was exactly on time at 10.20. We took off at 10.30 from runway 14.
The terminal as seen during take-off.
The views right after take-off.
The view a few minutes later.
Different views are available on the screen. My favourite one shows the heading (332°), the speed in knots (410) and the altitude in feet (13,160).
An amenity kit and a packed refreshing towel was offered 10 minutes after take-off.
Champagne was offered 20 minutes after take-off.
We reached our cruising altitude of 32,000 feet and speed of 484 knots. Heading remained 332°.
The headphones were OK quality for premium economy.
Drink and meal service came 45 minutes after take-off. There was a choice of duck and vegetable.
The food was OK. Not very good, not very bad.
I had some white wine with my meal.
I watched several movies. The in-flight entertainment is very good. The screen is reasonably large and has good reactivity. There’s an excellent choice of movies - it's important on such a long flight.
We reached the African coast near Mogadishu, Somalia a bit over 3 hours 15 minutes after departure.
Flying over Northern Djibouti near the border with Eritrea. The sea on the left side is the Red Sea and the one on the right side is the Gulf of Aden. The Strait of Bab el-Mandeb is between them. Yemen can be seen on the other side. The small island on the Yemeni side is called Perim.
An archipelago in southern Eritrea near Assab.
Flying over the Red Sea between Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
The view of the Nile near Qus, just north of Luxor.
The Nile again a few minutes later.
I spent my time watching movies one after the other. The cabin crew couldn't be seen in the premium economy cabin for hours.
A second meal service came 3 hours and 50 minutes before landing (which is 5 hours and 45 minutes after the first service) when we were near the Egyptian coastline of the Mediterranean Sea.
The charger worked well.
I listened to music towards to end of the flight.
About 20 minutes before landing.
We landed at Paris CDG Airport at 18.49 and were at the gate at 19.01 for a scheduled arrival time of 19.20
Air France's premium economy offers a comfortable seat - you pay the extra cost primarily because of this. The additional services such as priority check-in, fast track security and priority boarding are all useful. In-flight entertainment is excellent. On-board service is however not much better than in economy. The food was not very good. The cabin crew was friendly during the two meal services but otherwise couldn't be seen in the cabin for hours.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 52 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne St Denis (RUN) → Paris (CDG).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Air Austral avec 7.7/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 11 heures et 22 minutes.
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2 Comments
The Premium economy seat is fine on a day flight.
The food is not premium at all and the bag is a shame both gastronomically and environmentally.
The advantage of a day flight is the possibility to watch the scenic desert views.
All the best !
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