All style and no substance is a common complaint about Air France, but does it hold true? Hi there,
my name is Kevin and I make honest, unsponsored and to the point narrated
trip reports about flights and hotels all over the world. This is episode 109
and today we’re onboard an Air France A320. The full experience begins in 10 seconds.
Welcome to Madrid’s Barajas Airport where today’s trip begins.
Air France uses Terminal 2 and when you talk about the best places to be at this airport,
Terminal 2, is not it. But, it does get the job done. If you’d like to know more about the
exact fare that I paid for this flight, my next five videos in queue or a list
of all of the equipment that I use on a daily basis, please check out the description below.
ITA Airlines, the new but not really improved Alitalia had a status match around a year
ago- and with them, I have Skyteam Elite Plus status. Actually using that status has been a
pain in the butt though except for when flying Air France who easily and automatically extend
SkyPriority benefits with it- and so checkin was a breeze and it was off to find the lounge.
Now is the time I usually fill with a clever transition as I ask you to give this video
a big thumbs up and subscribe if you’d like to see three new videos each week.
Then, I’d likely invite you to check out my new Patreon in the description below
before giving out a big thanks in advance for all that you do. See what I did there?
British Airways stored I believe four A380s in Madrid throughout the pandemic and it is
a strange sight to see in Spain. It was on in the intro graphic, but just to be clear
this flight was taken in April of 2022. The first lounge rejected me and the lot
of people behind me since they said it was too far from our gate- so we made our way
through what looks to be the newer part of Terminal 2 to find the Puerta del Sol lounge.
The lounge was nice enough but nothing to write home about. The apron views were really good
though. And even by Covid standards, their food service precautions were just silly.
Some things you could touch, some things you couldn’t touch and needed to wait in a line for.
But, not to worry these practices are of course out the window these days.
Air France, she’s quite a heavy hitter in the airline world for one specific reason.
With the exception of Turkish Airlines, of all of the airlines with a single city Hub,
Air France has the most destinations, currently serving 205 with a fleet of 212.
Compare that to the likes of United Airlines who has the most destinations with 369,
but they have 8 distinct hubs with even more Focus Cities.
It was quite the active apron as well with a constant flurry of aircraft.
Heading to the gate, we had a last minute change to E82 which is awkwardly above the regular part
of the terminal. Our flight was delayed, but I will at least give them credit for actually
announcing the delay updates as it happened. We’re only talking about 40 minutes, but I feel like
when the delays are under an hour, lots of airlines just pretend like nothing is happening.
A quick look at today's stats while we board. We’d be departing due north from Runway 36R
heading up to 36 thousand feet on our 96 minute journey up to paris
where we landed just 12 minutes behind schedule.
Boarding began and this is the awkward part of the upper gates,
you have to walk down a flight of stairs in order to get to the jet bridge
which is a level lower. Not a problem, but not ideal either.
Back to what I was speaking of in the intro- asking if they were all style and no substance,
I do need to admit that I think Air France’s branding is some of the strongest out there.
Every part of the experience is distinctly French, but in a subtle and chic way. That is
of course until you sit in your seat and realize you’ve got less than generous 29 inches of pitch.
From the front, the seats are very good looking and sleek in their dark charcoal,
but possibly blue vinyl with the red and white head rest covers. The back on the other hand
leaves a bit to be desired. I do know that Seatguru says all
Air France A320s have 32 inches of pitch but there is no way that is actually true.
I’m 6’ tall and was not able to comfortably sit with my knees at a 90 degree angle.
Besides that, the seats have everything you need and not even a tiny bit more.
The seats themselves though were actually pretty comfortable-
especially compared to the slimline seats on many other European carriers.
There’s also a USB port in the end of each armrest.
At first I thought the seatback was splattered with mud or something, but no,
it’s just the material not wearing too gracefully. It was a triple check for coat hooks, cup holders
and personal air vents and admittedly I was getting antsy to get in the air.
Push back came and we prepared for a bit of a length taxi to line up with our runway.
The admittedly nothingburger of a spool up is up next.
Today’s route would take us on a North Northeastern track as we made our way
up to the Pyrenees Mountains and Bay of Biscay.
Seeing other aircraft while in flight never gets old for me. No matter how
far away I know they really are, they always just seem a little bit too close.
After crossing the mountains and into France we were served a snack service
consisting of either a Cheese or Vegetable sandwich with a drink of your choice.
Considering how boring you’d expect that little sandwich to be, it was actually pretty decent.
We would be approaching Paris from the west
before making a Uey and landing at Charles de Gaulle from the east.
The crew on this flight were clearly enjoying their job and happy to chat
away with a multitude of customers, which might be why that snack service took almost an hour,
but if friendly service is the reason, I’ll take it.
Very random question, but if anyone could tell me why Iberia only flies into Orly
but Iberia Express goes to Charles de Gaulle, I’m generally curious to know the answer as I
was considering them for this flight and was surprised to see it distributed that way.
We landed and made our way to taxi to the north side of the airport to Terminal 2F which
despite its overcrowding and just lack of space in general, is one of my favorite terminals on earth.
Baggage was surprisingly very quick and that is that.
Let’s get into the Flip Flop Score. 90 minute European flights will never be the most exciting
bunch, but if they get the job done in relative comfort, then I hardly find a reason to complain
about them. If I had one wish it would have been for an extra inch or two of legroom.
I hope you enjoyed this video and will give it a thumbs up and subscribe for a lot more content.
I’ll see you next time from Paris at the Canopy by Hilton Trocadero.