Review of Air France flight from Tokyo to Paris in Economy

Hi and Good Morning.
Today, we will be flying onboards AF A350-900 from Haneda to Paris CDG.

Taking a scheduled 14h and 40 minutes, it will be my longest flight ever, topping my FRA-SIN leg, which took 12h 50m on Lufthansa's 747.
Also, it will be my first longhaul airfrance experience in economy class, since I've only flown business class on AF before it it was long haul.

Stats

Airline: Air France
Model: A350-900
Reg: F-HUVI
Name: Albi
Age: 2 years
Seat: 33J, Aisle
Schedule Flight time: 14h 40m, 14h 20m in air

Tokyo Haneda International Airport

I decided to use the metro to reach Haneda Airport.
From my hotel in Ginza, I therefore went to Shimbasi Station to take the Asakusa line, which uses a train that converts into a Haneda-bound line upon reaching the end of the Asakusa line.

The subway was packed with people with suitcases (including myself) headint to HND.
That said, I highly recommend taking HND over NRT if you have the possibility to.

Air France operates out of T3 at HND.

I tapped out at the fare gates with around 350 Yen left on my suica card (2 USD), which I consider well budgeted for the trip :)
I then took the eleveator up to the departures level.

After obtaining my boarding pass, I headed through security and passport control.
Please be informed, that the priority lane is Business class only - if you have an economy ticket you cannot enter, even if you have elite status.
I already knew this beforehand so I also didn't test it but according to the signs, it seems to be true.

In opposite to entering, you can use eGates to leave Japan, significantly reducing queues which I appreciated.

JAL Sakura Lounge

Air France does not operate their own lounge at Haneda and neither does a SkyTeam airline (at least not in T3), so eligible passengers can enter the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge. There are multiple lounges of JAL in that terminal, which JAL uses for its international flights. The JAL First Class lounge is not accessible, so you get access to the JAL Sakura Business and Skyview Lounge. I decided to use the regular Sakura.

What I liked about the lounge is the design and that there were many empty seats. Maybe that's only because it was early in the morning tho.

The lounge also offers great apron views.

They also have a QR code on each table, which allows you to enter a lounge portal to reserve showers or order diateary meals.

Wifi was available in the lounge but did not work.
The food selection was good (I liked the automated rice dispenser) but the soda section was really lacking some options. The only available ones were coca cola and tonic water. That's it. I found that quite disappointing.
There is a small self-serve liquor area as well.

For food, I helped myself to a beef curry, pasta and fried potatos.
While tasting good, the pasta and potatos were unfortunately cold.

Then it was already time to head to my gate, which was really close to the lounge.

Flight AF187, HND-CDG, Economy Class

Today's boarding will take place from gate 146.
It started around 10 minutes delayed.

The employees took boarding by groups VERY seriously.
After group 1 boarded, group two already lined up infront of the gates.
However, we were not allowed to board, until ground staff asked EVERY SINGLE sitting passenger in the area if they were group one.
This significantly delayed boarding and was quite annoying.

Quick view of today's bird.

I then boarded with my group 2.

I really like the design of the AF cabin in this dark blue.

The seat offered a big screen with awesome resolution, USB-C (which did not work) and USB-A (which worked) outlet and a headphone jack.
It also offered bluetooth connectivity and a seperate small table with a cupholder and a phone stand to watch your own content. I really appreciated this, since AF's own IFE has a very limited selection of movies and series and none of it appealed to me.

This said, I really like the design of the IFE tho. It looks very clean.

The seat was comfortable for the 14h flight (which would only take 13,5h).

That's the said phone holder:

Legroom was fine. (I'm 180)

The amenities provided included headphoes, a pillow and a blanket, which was too small but urgently needed since the cabin was FREEEEEZING cold for the entire flight.

Quick window shot before my seat neighbors arrived.

I was lucky, since the seat next to me stayed empty and only the window seat was occupied.

We then pushed back 1 minute late and taxied 19minutes before taking off am 9:10am, 10min behind schedule, which I watched from the camera on the IFE.

Dinner was served two hours into the flight with the choice being chicken or pasta with no more details given. I chose chicken.

While not looking appealing, it actually tasted really good. The chicken was not dry and the cake was delicious.
I kept the flutes as a little snack for movietime.

After clearing the trays, tea and coffee were served and the crew then disappeared for the rest of the flight until about 3 hours before landing.
So for about 8 hours, not even water was offered anymore unless you went to the galley to get it yourself which I found disappointing.

The cabin lights were then dimmed for the rest of the flight.

As you can see in the picture above, the camera has a picture-in-picture mode which I found cool to use as splitscreen with the map.

I also snacked these chocolates, which my date gave me the night before. They were AMAZING.

1.5 hours before landing, breakfast was served in a little carboard bag which included apple juice, a salad (?), a joghurt, an apple pie, a warm pie filled with meat and mushrooms (I think?) and a bread roll. Also your choice of coffee or tea. Like the main meal already, the cuterly was wooden.

Then the descent already began and after 13h 37min in air, we touched down at Paris CDG on 15:47. It was then a 11 minute taxi to our stand where we arrived at 15:58, 32mins ahead of schedule.

It was then time to deboard and head to my connecting flight (with a 5 hour connection ….)