Flight Review: Air France Business Class B777-300ER (LIS-CDG-SFO)

Business Class!

Flight review is a special section in our blog because we are complete beginners in business air travel. In fact, in this post, I will be talking about my first ever flying business in Air France business class. We will first go over the redemption summary. Then, I will review both the ground and in-air experience, as well as the best part — the food! Read more about our Europe trip at 2-Week Adventure in London, Paris, and Lisbon Under $1000.

Cost 

For my return trip from Lisbon to San Francisco, I initially booked an economy seat through the Air France website for 17,000 Flying Blue miles plus taxes and fees. The itinerary included two legs: Lisbon to Paris (operated by Hop) and Paris to San Francisco (operated by Air France), with an overnight transfer at Charles de Gaulle (CDG). 

Three weeks before departure, I noticed that a business class seat had become available for this same route at the saver rate of 55,000 miles plus additional taxes and fees. I eagerly transferred the remaining points and covered the extra costs. It wasn’t easy getting the availability, I checked the Air France website frequently for my itinerary weeks before the flight and finally found a last minute release. Airlines usually release additional award seats 2-3 weeks before departure dates, so definitely be on the lookout for them. 

In total, I used 51,000 Amex Membership Rewards points (thanks to a transfer promotion) and paid $375.40 (which included a $50 change fee) for a flight that cost more than $3,000. This redemption provided excellent value at approximately 5¹ cents per point (for reference: credit cards usually let you redeem points for statement credits at 1 cent per point).

Air France / KLM redemption has quickly become one of our favorite ways to redeem flights to Europe because it offers tons of flight options to Europe through CDG at a competitive redemption rate.

LIS – CDG leg

Check-in

We began our journey in Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS). Since we arrived pretty early, there was no line at check-in. So I went to the regular check-in desk with my brothers (they were in economy class). Business class passengers will get a “Sky Priority” icon printed on the corner of the plane tickets. With Sky Priority, there is a dedicated check-in desk and usually a fast-tracked security line as well.

Lounge

As a business class passenger, I had access to the ANA Lounge at Lisbon Airport since Air France does not operate its own lounge there. Thanks to my Priority Pass², a benefit of the American Express Platinum card, I was able to bring my brothers along.

The ANA Lounge was standard, offering ample seating, food, and drinks. A highlight was the pastel de nata, a delicious Portuguese custard tart. However, the rest of the food was disappointing; the sandwiches were bland and dry, and the pastries didn’t taste fresh.

In-flight

Inter-European business class flights often don’t feature special seating. Instead, airlines typically reserve the first few rows, block the middle seats, and designate them as business class. This leg was operated by Hop, and the aircraft for the flight was Boeing 737-800, which had a 2-2 seating formation up front. So each business passenger gets a row to themselves. I had pre-selected seat 1A, which was clean and spacious, though not particularly special.

Given how ordinary the business class experience was up to that point, I was pleasantly surprised when the flight attendant offered me a glass of champagne as my pre-departing drink. 

A light meal was served as soon as we reached cruising altitude. The meal was extraordinary! The main dish was a shrimp couscous salad, served with a cheese plate and a small pastry. 

The rest of the flight was smooth and quick, and we landed in CDG around 11pm.

Overnight Layover

While some might find overnight layover inconvenient, this itinerary was a no-brainer for us because of the incredibly cheap rate for both flight and layover hotel, and the ample time between transfers.

After touching down in Paris CDG, we made our way to our transit hotel at Hyatt House Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport. There are plenty of transit hotel options near CDG making overnight layover very easy. Some hotels can even be reached by the free CDGVAL tram service.

CDG – SFO leg

Check-in

Because we already had our boarding passes, we headed straight for the security line the next morning. I was redirected to the Sky Priority line, but somehow after rounding the line circuit I rejoined my brothers in the regular line. To make matters worse, the ground crew was blatantly rude and allowed other passengers to cut us in the security line. Sky Priority felt like Sky Poverty.

Lounge

Originally, I was quite excited to visit the Air France lounge in CDG, because it is their home airport after all. However, I quickly learned that not all Air France lounges at CDG are up-to-date. And unfortunately, I was in terminal 2E, which featured a very old lounge. The food was slightly better than the partner lounge in Lisbon, but nowhere near a lounge like the Centurion Lounge. The seating and furnishing felt like they were older than me (I’m 24 years old). 

I quickly left the lounge and instantly regretted staying in the lounge after finding my brothers playing a competitive FIFA match on a PS4 in the public waiting area.

I would recommend going to the lounge just to grab some drinks and bites, but it is not worth staying for long.

Seat

We soon boarded the flight at around 10 am, and this was where all the disappointments ceased. The flight number was AF0084, and the carrier was a Boeing 777-300ER. Before the flight, I already knew that this aircraft did not have the refreshed business seats, so the hard product was definitely a bit old. With that said, when I did reach the seat, I was still amazed at how much space there was. Even on the older product, the seats were still laid out in 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration.

I selected seat 3E in the front section for the business cabin, right behind the La Premiere first-class cabin. The seat offered plenty of storage space, headphones tucked in the little side storage, and a fully reclining seat with blanket and pillow. Looking at the control panel for the seat, you can definitely see some aging of the product. Hopefully, Air France will soon replace all their business class seats with the refreshed product.

Prior to taking off, the flight attendant hung my jacket, handed out the amenity kit, and served a welcome drink of choice between champagne, water, and orange juice. I’ve heard tons of good reviews on the Air France champagne, so I tried it and can confirm the reputation. And finally, each passenger received a hot towel. I have no idea why this is a thing, but nevertheless enjoyed wiping my face with the towel.

Primary Meal

One of the biggest highlights of a business-class flight is the dining experience. Most airlines give you the option to pre-order your meals so they can reduce food waste. For my flight, I pre-selected the beef cheek with butternut puree and rosemary. The flight crew brought out the pre-appetizer about an hour into the flight, followed by a bigger plate of appetizer that contained a salad, mini baguette, foie gras, and an artichoke plate.

The main was served soon after; it was very well heated and the beef was really soft and tender. Every time the flight attendants came by, they offered more mini baguettes and refilled my drinks. I tried both wines they had for the flight, and both paired well with the food.

The cheese plates followed after the main dish. All three kinds of cheese were great, even the blue cheese tasted good. To finish off the amazing full-course meal, I got a strawberry sorbet and an earl gray tea. I highly recommend the sorbet!

Entertainment & Lie-flat

Post-meal service, I ended up watching a movie before sleeping. The entertainment system was great, offering both a remote with a smaller screen and the standard touch screen. The bigger screen was definitely much appreciated as I recounted all the Paris landmarks while watching John Wick 4. When it came time for bed, I simply reclined the seat all the way down and fell asleep quickly. I had plenty of space to turn and move around in the lie-flat bed. Overall the sleep quality was great, though I did find the cabin to be a bit warm, which woke me up once.

Secondary Meal

The flight crew served the secondary meal about two hours before landing in SFO. We had the choice between chicken or pasta, and I opted for the pasta. Usually, in-plane pastas are pretty mid with hard pasta noodles and mediocre sauce. Air France’s pasta was a pleasant delight, the noodles were perfectly cooked and well-incorporated with the sauce.

The 11 hours spent in-flight passed by so quickly. The entire in-flight experience was smooth, and I felt well-rested after a long journey.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, my first time flying in business class was an incredible experience. Although the on-ground experiences were disappointing, the in-flight service and the comfortable seating made up for it. Being able to sleep in a fully extended seat is a game-changer for transatlantic flight. The biggest highlight belongs to the meal service. Each dish was carefully crafted and presented, with no loss of flavor while dining in-flight. The champagne and wines accompanied well with the food.

A lot of people say once you start flying in business class you cannot go back to economy. While business class does offer much more, especially for long-haul flights, I simply don’t think the cash rate of $3000 one-way is worth it. However, I would happily spend 50k credit card points on a business award seat. I actually think flying economy to Europe, and flying business back home was a great idea since it was a wonderful way to end a vacation. Given Air France / KLM’s amazing award chart, this will surely be our go-to strategy flying into Europe.

1. To get an accurate cpp, always use the round trip flight cost divided by 2 to get the one-way cost, since booking one-way is usually just as expensive as booking roundtrip. In this case, the cash price for a round trip in business class between San Francisco and Lisbon was around $6,000 (~$3,000 for one-way), yielding a ccp of ($3,000 – $400) / 51k pts = ~5 cpp. ↩︎
2. Typically, Priority Pass holder can enter a lounge with two additional guests. The Amex app shows you all the eligible lounges with a priority pass based on the airport. ↩︎