Flying Air France: 777 Business Class Experience from France to NYC

Rating: 3/5 (Old seats, OK service)

Route: CDG-JFK

Price: 50,000 Air France FlyingBlue Miles + ~$300 in taxes and fees

After spending a week in Spain and Morocco, it was time to head back to the US.

Air France is one of the best ways to cross the Atlantic with miles, especially given how straightforward award availability is to find. I was able to lock in business class tickets during the low season in February for just 50,000 points per person + moderate fees of around $300 per person. This is probably the upper limit of what I’d consider a reasonable deal, given that one-way economy tickets might cost a total of $300 in February. However, for business class which usually retails in the off-season between CDG and JFK for $2k-$4k one way, this was a pretty good value.

Today, I was on a Skyteam-Livery Air France 777-300ER.

This Air France 777 is set up in a premium-heavy 4-class configuration: 4 La Premiere Seats (maybe one day…), 58 business, 28 premium economy, and 206 economy. The business class cabin is split into to sections in 4-class Air France 777s. If you have the option, I would definitely recommend the front cabin, which is in front of the boarding door and just 6 rows. This is just behind La Premiere and feels a lot more quiet and exclusive compared to the 11 row section behind. For this flight, I was seated in the middle row, in 3F.

Business Class is set up in the usual reverse herringbone configuration, although note that if traveling with someone, you won’t be right next to them, even if in the middle section.

Here’s the middle section and legroom in the front row of business class. I’m 6’2 and had just enough room to stretch my legs.

Now one thing to be aware of one Air France’s 777-300ERs is that the seats are relatively old, which are starting to show some wear. While a few 777s have been retrofitted for the new business class suites, the majority of their fleet still features their old product. It’s still a great comfy seat with all having direct aisle access, but they lack updated tech and are a bit scuffed in places.

While the IFE is pretty old, the content selection was great. I binged Industry from HBO for most of the flight.

The flight attendants came around with an amenity kit and pre-departure drinks, and then we were pushing off for our 8 hour flight back to New York.

Once we were 30 minutes out of Charles de Gaulle, the meal service began. The menus were custom to the specific route (Paris – New York), which I thought was pretty cool. Although makes sense given how many daily flights Air France holds between Paris and New York.

I’m not going to pretend to know anything about wine, but they had what seems like a lot of good options. For my main, I got the beef. Air France also has an express dinner option for those who want to get some rest or work. No chance I’m choosing that this time.

I started off with some little salad thin in a dish and a box of what tasted like fancy, cheese-filled goldfish. I ate through probably 6 boxes on this flight. What are these things and where can I buy them.

For the appetizer, I had a mini baguette (of course), a salad, carrot puree, and crab salad. All very good and felt generally healthy.

Next was the beef main. 5/10 presentation, 10/10 taste. It also came with a selection of cheeses.

Now, about service on this flight. Service was on par with what I’d expect from American carriers – the crew was efficient and polite enough, but that’s about it. Maybe I’ll chalk it up to the dreary weather in Paris, but definitely a step down in friendliness, even to the Economy class experience I had in Air France prior.

After eating, I watched Dune (ahead of the Dune 2 release) and watched a whole season of industry. This was a daytime flight, so no sleep needed. Before long, we were starting to approach the US. For the pre-arrival meal, I had some sort of croissant-bagel thing. This was my least favorite meal of the flight, but can’t win ’em all.

Overall, a good flight home in business class to top off a great trip to Spain and Morocco. The seats were a bit old and the service was meh, but I still got to lie flat for 8 hours across the Atlantic with good food for pretty cheap. Hard to complain with that.