Introduction
This report is on the first segment of a trip whose routing was modified, due to lack of a “compelling reason” to keep it as it was originally.
This is its initial version, which had been booked many months in advance:
Enchainement de vols
- 1AF1240 - Economy - Paris → Amsterdam - Airbus A319
- 2A90952 - Economy - Amsterdam → Tbilisi – Boeing 737-700
- 33F584 - Economy - Tbilisi → Yerevan Airbus A320
- 43F583 - Economy - Yerevan → Tbilisi Airbus A320
- 5J28224 - Economy - Tbilisi → Baku Airbus A320
- 6J273- Economic - Baku → Paris Airbus A321
But almost one month before departure day, the French Foreign Office published this ominous warning. "Risks of arrest, arbitrary arrest and unfair trial in Azerbaidjan"
The relationships between France and Azerbaijan were seriously deteriorating, with the former accusing the latter of fanning the devastating riots in New Caledonia, in reprisal to France’s support of Armenia with regards to Upper Karabakh.

This information did not take long to reach the participants to this trip, and it took only a couple Whatsapp messages to decide to defer the visit of the major sights of Azerbaijan to more peaceful times. Two plans B were drawn up, and this is the one which was chosen, with an unexpected aircraft change on the round trip between TBS and EVN (teaser!):
Enchainement de vols
- 1AF1240 - Economy - Paris → Amsterdam - Airbus A319
- 2
- 33F584 - Economy - Tbilisi → Yerevan - Airbus A320
- 43F583 - Economy - Yerevan → Tbilisi - Airbus A320
- 5A3897 - Economy - Tbilisi → Athens Airbus A320
- 6A3614 - Economy - Athens → Paris Airbus A321
We did not regret the loss of our tickets on J2, a.k.a Azerbaijan Airlines, because a few days later, a Frenchman who had had the stupid idea of spray painting a car of the metro in Baku metro, and the even more stupid idea of bragging about it on social networks, was sentenced to three years in prison, while his two companions who had done the same, but held different passports, got away with it with a mere fine. I had had plenty of time to choose our seats for the first flight, purchased a long time in advance from KLM: this was the cabin layout then:

I had chosen 15A and 15B, displayed as being for free for my wife (FB Explorer), and reduced from 12 to 0€ for me (FB - Silver)…

… but as nothing was going to be as planned, I received this message from KLM a little while before departure:

The flight apparently had sold better than expected, and we were moved back 7 rows to 22A + 22B: the seating comfort was not going to change, but the reliability of the connection was degrading, because I remembered a missed connection at AMS, arriving on the same flight, and seated approximately at the same row.
CDG before dawn
Arrival at CDG-2F with Bolt at a read-eye time; the ride took a few minutes longer than it used to because the speed limit on Paris’ ring road had been lowered from 70 kph to 50 kph a few days before..

When you no longer have a Skyteam Elite+ status, the check-in of your baggage is now DYI, at these automatic terminals which, at that time in any case, are in sufficient number.

They turned out to not quite be Do It Yourself, because the code sharing between KLM and Georgian Airways was not quite transparent and I receive this voucher for a call to a friend.

The friend, i.e. this staf at the end of the row of machines, was available and had superpowers that I didn’t have, because quickly and in a friendly manner…

… he issued our BPs and a baggage tag that he attached to our suitcase

We returned to the DIY level at this row of automated baggage drop-offs, also in sufficient number

Scan of the BP, scan of the tag baggage

… and the Marathon suitcase, whose weight was compatible with the 12 kg limit in force at AF/KL for cabin baggage, but not its size, vanished on the conveyor belt to the innards of the airport.

The whole procedure took barely more than ten minutes, which I found very satisfactory

Arrival at the security check

Apart from the fact that my laptop was randomly selected for an explosives detection test, nothing special happened at this stage, completed in 15 minutes flat.

Walk to Pier #2

And arrival at gate F50, where the seats are well occupied, but we managed to find two adjoining seats at the next gate. Altogether, it had taken us 34 minutes to reach the gate from our drop-off by in front of the terminal

Both escalators down to the lower level were stopped. The toilets there were clean, but had a limited capacity with only three cabins for men at this end of the pier.

A glance at an Air France A220-300 at her gate

Being still FB-Silver, I could board in zone 3 (and my wife with me)

The plane of day

Going down the gangway

Door shot

Fuselage shot

Arrival at our seat, with a misaligned window, but the view remained decent

The width between armrests is AF standard in A32x, i.e. decent

On the other hand, at 22 cm, the distance between the edge of my an seat and the bakrest of the seat in front of me was at the lower limit of standards for Economy, and significantly less than what I measured on easyJet, a LCC

Worse, the seat back can recline 6°, which is admittedly not much, but might reduce a cramped space even more.

The plane is equipped with USB ports at the end of the armrests

They are powered during boarding

The safety sheet, both sides

"Welcome to this Air France A321…": the captain seemed to have as much difficulty identifying planes as I do. She told us of a slight delay caused by 7 no-shows whose luggage were being unloaded (and indeed, the were noises suggesting that containers were being moved in the hold).
Pushback at 7:22, or STD + 12’.

OK for departure!

Royal Air Maroc 737-800 at dawn…

… parked next to CN-MMH, a Moroccan governmental Gulfstream G650

The tricolor lighting of Terminal 1

The ideogram 爱 in the livery of this Air China aircraft means “to love / love”, which leaves open several possible interpretations on who loves who (or what)

No surprise, takeoff was going to be on the runways north of the terminal, runway 9R…

… after this AF A321

Takeoff

Fog patches lingered here and there in the landscape

Turn to the north, off Dammartin in Goëlle

A very poor view of CDG after heading to AMS

Sunrise on the right-hand side seats

A light cloud cover hides the ground

The on-board service is limited to a small pancake and a drink – coffee for me.

Sunrise on the wing during a turn

The ground appeared once we reached the Dutch airspace: Vlissingen harbor

The Delta Works

The outer harbor of Rotterdam

Offshore wind farm

The misty countryside

Bad news: we went far north before turning towards land, which was the telltale of landing on the infamous Polderbaan

Morning fog


This was a confirmed Polderbaan landing, with the Nordzeekanaal now

The Polderbaan is runway 18R (for landing) / 36L (for takeoff), the furthest away from the terminal, which typically requires 17 long minutes of taxiing either way

It has its own dedicated control tower


PH-BXO, a rare KLM 737-900

Passing beyond the end of runway 09

The KLM Embraer parking lot

… with a few intruders of the same type

… such as G-CLYU, an Eastern Airways E190

PH-HXG, a Transavia 737-800

Lufthansa A320ceo

A line-up of incoming KLM aircraft

Reaching our gate next to PH-BGH, a KLM 737-700

14 minutes had elapsed since landing on the Polderbaan, a few minutes less than usual, but to this taxiing time was added the additional flight time to line up due south on AMS.
We were not quite alone in the airport: the connection was going to be a tight one!

Thanks for reading me, to be continued!