#68 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
384 reviews
Welcome to a long overdue report of my trip to the US last fall.
My final destination was Indiannapolis.
From Paris, the best option in terms of travel time is UA via EWR or IAD.
AF and DL via DTW or ORD are not bad but way more expensive.
Surprisingly, AA only offers 2 stops itineraries via LHR and JFK, or JFK and PHL and at crazy prices.
The itineray was simple CDG-EWR-IND-EWR-CDG, with the 787-10 on both transatalantic flight.
First time for me on this version of the Dreamliner.
I arrived a little over 2 hours and found a pretty quiet check in area.
As I had already done online checkin I could use the shorter line and a friendly agent quickly checked me in, took care of my bag and printed my boarding passes.
10 minutes after arriving to the airport, I was on my way to security.
My flight would be departing from the remodelled part of CDG 1, which is basically a high end shopping mall, with tiny signs indicating the gates, because in the end you're still here to take a flight…
The gate areas are really nice and the decor is pretty unique and doesn't look like an airport.
My flight was boarding from the far end of the terminal, so there was a lot of space and in spite of a full flight, it was still quiet.
Some security agents were standing near the gates, so here's a blurry picture of the gate area as they were getting ready to start boarding.
Our plane, wearing the new livery
As usual with US airlines, a detailed and friendly boarding announcement was made.
Even though I wasn't in the last group, it still took me a while to get onboard, as there were MANY people with some kind of priority boarding.
Fuselage shot
I don't remember any special welcome, so it must have been basic, as the crew would turn out to be during the flight. My row was occupied so that's what the seats look like
View from my seat, the SFO bound 777 had just pushed back
RwandAir and Ethiopian
On each seat was a pillow and blanket. As I couldn't find the blanket, I asked a passing FA who replied "there should be one on each seat, please recheck" and left…
We pushed back on time, not that I cared as I had 3 hours between flights
After a short taxi we lined up behing this AC 77W and took off
Some sharp turns as we gained altitude
We quickly reached Normandy with its typical green landscapes of fields and meadows
A snack was served, I went with coffee and tomato juice.
Nice to see that UA didn't discontinue that first service as many airlines have.
No views of the UK or Ireland as it got cloudy
Lunch was then served, I went with the vegetarian option which was very tasteful.
A weird tasting "salad" as an appetizer and nice chocolate truffles for dessert (UA finally discontinued that overly sweet ice cream as dessert they had for many years)
Drinks came from a separate trolley a long time after the trays were delivered.
The crew as mentionned was basic, they did their job, that's it.
No smiles and no eye contact unless necessary.
I know that Us airlines have relaxed they policy on body piercing and tatoos, but when a crew has mismatched uniforms, some male FA's wearing piercings, some not, and a rather unpolished attitude overall, it really makes you feel at a fast food restaurant than onboard a legacy airline.
After the trays were cleared, coffee, tea and water bottles were offered.
We had started our Atlantic crossing when the windows were darkened but not blocked on that setting.
The flight passed by uneventfully, the IFE had many movies and films to choose from.
About 1,5 hours before landing, the snack service started.
Again a second FA was serving drinks from another cart and it look a very long time for the cart to reach my area, and in the meantime it got bumpy, but nothing really bad.
2 rows before mine, the FA just said, sorry it's too bumpy we have to stop serving drinks, and rolled the cart back to the galley.
It was just laziness, as the turbulence was not that bad, maybe a bit too much to serve hot drinks, but still.
So it was just a sandwich in the end.
We started our descent towards Newark and soon reached a heavy cloud layer
The ground only became visible a few seconds before touchdown, the floodings affecting the NY area at the time could be noticed
We landed more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule
EWR was very quiet, with many aircrafts parked and not many moving, I could tell we had landed outside of the usual hub rush hours
After a short taxi, we parked at the gate but it took a while to disembark.
A last view of my plane
Even though we landed early and the immigration hall was deserted, it took 40 minutes to clear immigration as the agents were all on break.
It turns out the Egyptair flight had landed late and they wanted to take their breaks before the wave of European arrivals.
Passengers were confused and trying to find a booth with an officer but got yelled at by the lady supervising the line.
A really bad experience, a shame as the immigration process in the US has greatly improved in the past years.
Overall this was an average flight, meals and IFE were good, but the crew's attitude who clearly did the minimum and the service protocol really made for a botched impression.
Overall this was an average flight, meals and IFE were good, but the crew's attitude who clearly did the minimum and the service protocol really made for a botched impression.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 24 avis concernant 5 compagnies sur la ligne Paris (CDG) → Newark (EWR).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est La Compagnie avec 7.8/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 8 heures et 26 minutes.
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2 Comments
The scourge of US carriers to where they find every monetary way possible to hawk some sort of priority. Almost like FR, where the priority line can be >75% the cabin. It actually does the opposite of what the new boarding system was supposed to accomplish by boarding window => middle => aisle since the Y cabin is already half full by the time they start Group 3.
Why should that be their problem? You clearly are at fault for not noticing sooner and taking one from the adjacent seat before your seat mate got there.
Using the can for size reference, that is one tiny meal… The quality of mains has improved, but the overall appearance is very meh of the tray with packaged bread and dessert. Agree the truffles are a better dessert option, but also just a packaged snack that can likely be found in the galley mid-flight.
At the end of the day, a standard UA experience that is largely defined by the crew lottery you draw.
I hate boarding on US carriers because at least half the plane has "priority" boarding. It's just such an unpleasant experience. I'm in the process of switching FFPs between AA and BA because I just don't like flying AA with high status anymore vs BA. Since everyone is "Elite" on AA flights, no one is Elite...so it just feels like a ripoff.
Shame about the cabin crew, it's so hit or miss. I usually don't care so much in Y since you don't interact with them much, but in J/F attitude is very important and it's like sometimes you get super lucky with a great crew and it makes for a great trip and then you get a grumpy crew and it just kind of rubs off on everyone else.
Another thing that drives me crazy about US carriers is how they overdo it with these situations and friggin keep the seatbelt sign on for like the whole flight when there's no turbulence. I think a lot of it has to do with the sue-happy culture in the US--companies try to protect themselves from getting sued if someone gets hurt. I get there are safety concerns for cabin crew of course, and we've all seen videos of passengers and cabin crew flying up to the ceiling with rough turbulence but US carriers are clearly overdoing it. It's so noticeable how much longer the seat belt sign stays on on US carriers vs others. On a AA SYD-LAX 14h flight the other day I swear the seatbelt sign was on MOST of the flight...and there was NO turbulence! That would never happen on BA or IB. Just drives me nuts--along with the often rude and cranky crews, I just don't care to fly US carriers anymore--except Alaska and JetBlue, which I both like. Ok rant over, lol
Thanks for sharing!
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