Review of Air France flight Lisbon → Paris in Economy

Welcome on board this new flight report from Lisbon Portela to Paris Charles de Gaulle with Air France ! 

I am quite happy to fly with Air France today. They have one of the best product in Western Europe currently from my opinion. Yes the Cabin on the 320 series is pretty old but fine, and the catering is good compared to other companies.

Flight Information

Aircraft : Airbus A321-212
Registration : F-GTAS
Aircraft age by the time of travel : 15 years
Flight Number : AF1025
Flight Time : 02:19
Seat : 28A
Departure Gate : 21

Online Check-in

The online check in opens 30 hours before the flight. Usually I do it pretty as early as possible in order to choose my seat. Yes this is still free of charge with Air France. The earliest during the checkin if you have a Economy Light price. If you have one of the others, then I think that you get to choose your seat too before the check in. During the check in process you also get to see the availabilities in the business class, there were some free seats at 109 euros. I gave some thoughts about it but since it's a rather short flight, plus besides the food and the free middle seat there aren't any big reasons to do the upgrade. So I decided to stay with my eco seat. 

I had received the day before a mail saying that the flight is delayed by 20 minutes due to operational reasons. Another mail I received the day of departure is that the flight is full and so they want me to check in my hand luggage. They remind also of the size and that it can't be above 12kg. To be honest I had way more than 12kg so I decided to take the hand luggage with me hoping that they would not check the weight at the gate. Let's see..

LIS aiport

I took the public transportation (subway) to go to the Airport. It takes about 30 minutes from the city center and works quite well. 
Quite odd architecture of the airport, don't really know if I like it or not to be honest.

I went directly to the security screening since I decided not to check my luggage in, there is a huge line but it seems to be pretty fast because people keep on moving. A screen says in September 93% of the passengers got through in less than 10 min. Ok but what about the rest of the time? let's see…
 
In the queue the usual reminders with liquids and stuff. They even put a vending machine with envelopes/boxes and a post box so that you can send out you stuff in case you have liquids more than 100ml. Didn't check the prices but it's a pretty good idea.

A you can see in the pictures below there is this famous snake waiting line and different areas where you have to go through before reaching the security screening. 

So in the end it took me 35 minutes to walk through the snake and pass through the security control. They have the new scanners there I think so you only need to take out the liquids and that's all. They don't even check their size or whatsoever. Moreover they have this new organisation where more people fit at the same time in the band, so the screening gets faster and it's a formality. It's just the queueing that takes a while.. 

After you reach the duty free area where you'll find the same products which they sell all over the world. 

Yes they even got some musicians playing.. !

I make then my way to the ANA lounge since I have some time left before my flight. Below the area near the lounge which is located upstairs. 

In between the gate is announced, 21. Nice ! It seems to be just near the 22 which is just below the lounge.
 
I stay a few more minutes, enjoy the view even though there are the shades which makes it very difficult to see the runway because they are perfectly at the right level.. But otherwise it's pretty big with some food and drink options, even a smoking area. 

I leave the lounge and I find out that yes the gate is below, but due to construction work a detour is needed to reach the gate. At the same time I see on flight radar that the boarding is gonna be by bus (looking forward to do some spotting there :D). The detour is not big but takes another 5 to 10 minutes. 

I reach out the gate and they start to organize the boarding shortly before 12.
Zones are divided from 1 to 5 as it usually the case with Air France. If you have an eco light ticket (as I do) you'll be within the last ones to board with zone 5.

boarding

At 12, 15 minutes behind schedule but on time regarding the announced delay they start the boarding with the Sky Priority passengers. The boarding with zones is fine from my opinion, but they should check it at least. Because I am sure some passengers don't go with their own zones (and most of the e-gates don't check the boarding group).. a bit annoying if you ask me. Anyways with the zone 5 I still managed to get my luggage in.
 
After passing the gate we go down the stairs and reach another small waiting area where we wait for the bus to take us to the aircraft. As I wait inside the bus I see that I was lucky because some other passengers passing after me have tags on their luggages so that they have to put it into the hold. So they have to leave them in front of the bus.

We leave from the gate and I was looking forward to some plane spotting with the tour bus, but unfortunately LIS is very bad for this.. The bus drives just below the terminal where there is a very bad view. A pity because we drove by many A330 Neos, and a beautiful one from Azul. Just on the last part of the drive is good for plane spotting. But only boring a320s… 

That's the view you get… 

Finally getting out..

Reaching the parking position, a TAP 320 parked next to us which will depart to Venice afterwards just behind us. 

We finally reach the aircraft and I placed myself at the back of the bus just near the back door hoping I would be able to board from the back of the plane. In the end the crew says somehow no to the ground personal, close again the back door and they open only front door of the bus, making me on the last to deboard the bus… 

This give me some time to make some pictures of our aircraft which is as you can see and a321 named Castres. F-GTAS. 

The captain preparing the flight

After some minutes I board the aircraft where I am welcomed by two very beautifully dressed Cabin Crew. On the right side directly near the door they put a small pot with some sanitizing wipes which is very good. Not new since covid, Air France always had those. 

I reach my seat which will be 28A for today's flight. There is still plenty of space in the overhead bins so that I could put my luggage just above me. Hoped that the seats in my row would stay empty, but unfortunately not. Full house today.

The seats are a bit old, made out of leather, the pitch is fine though. They have a recline and a usb power socket in the arm rest. 

The pilots makes the welcome announcement and it expects a flight time of 2:25 minutes. Seems to be pretty long compared to what I saw on flight radar from the previous flights. Anyway not a problem since I very much like flying Air France. He also apologizes for the small delay, reason "late arrival of the aircraft". Yeah thanks man we saw, but that's not a reason. Wether you give a us full info or say nothing (even more for a small delay like that). Because this doesn't help anyone.. I really hate when they do it like that. Why not explaining ? 

TAxi and take off

At 12:50 so 25 minutes behind schedule we push back from the gate and taxi towards the runway. 

Holding in line for departure while this Airbus 330-900 is taking off to GRU.

Then an Embraer 190 landing from MRS.

Another take off before us, TAP 572 to FRA.

Our turn to line up

And take off at 1pm towards the south.

I'm glad I choose the left side of the plane for the take off. It allows me to have a beautiful view over Lisbon. 

Reaching the south side of the city we make a 180 turn towards the east and the north. It gives me another an amazing view over city. Moreover the clouds are pretty high so very good to see the city. Not really sunny though..

in flight

After passing above the clouds I switch on the wifi and explore a bit the offer. Air France offers complementary messaging service onbaord their aircraft. Another position where Air France makes the difference with the other carriers. With Lufthansa it would be against another fee (they are anyway charging for everything), but they're gonna make it free I think within the next months. 
The portal also offers a short overview of the flight data and info about the arrival time and luggage carrousel.
No other offer is provided, no map, no series, etc. But okay I don't complain since the messaging is free. 

After reaching cruising altitude the Purser announces that there is no hot water on board so they can't serve any hot drinks (May be the reason for the late arrival of the aircraft ? Lol). Pity, i was looking forward to getting a coffee..

Roughly 45 minutes after departure the crew reach my row and I get offered a sandwich with cheese or chicken. Nice to even have the choice ! No hot drinks so I go for the typical french Perrier. 

The sandwich tastes ok but i won't complain here, very nice to have a little snack and a free drink for a flight I paid 116€. As there are some left overs after the service, one of the crew gets through the cabin with other sandwiches and this time I try the emmental variant. Forgot to make a pic but since it's a sandwich I think you'll excuse me.. A different bread than the chicken sandwich.

As we fly over the Atlantic we go through a medium turbulence area where the aircraft is shifted from left to right and the PIC makes us fasten our seatbelts.

Reaching then the french Atlantic coast with a beautiful light.  

And I found out towards the end of the flight that flight radar is working onboard, amazing !! I was able to check some traffic passing near us. Love it. 

Can you spot the 737 below us ? 

descent and lading

Descending towards sunny paris.. 

Left turn to probably catch the ILS RWY 26L. 

On final

Landing at 16:24 local time RWY 26L, 35 minutes behind schedule.  

taxi to stand

We wait a few minutes at the holding point 26R for a b773 to take off towards DSS. 

And crossing 26R

We taxi the whole round towards the gates, pass by the old Air France concorde, the Air France head quarters and finally turn right towards the parking position, terminal 2F.

After 15 minutes taxi time we reach the parking stand at 16:38. So in the end almost 50 minutes behind schedule.
And now start the usual annoying game with the Airbus A321. It takes ages to deboard when you're in the back of the plane. And Air France uses only the front door. 

Some cabin view before leaving my seat.

We are parked right next to the terminal so pretty easy and fast to reach the main terminal and the luggage carrousel.

And the luggage carrousel. Nothing to pick up for me though, so I head directly towards the Roissy bus to take me to the city center !

That's all for this flight report :) 

Thanks for reading me !