French Chic: Allure of Air France Business Class 777

Welcome aboard Air France Business Class! Stepping on board, you are greeted with friendly crew and elegant surroundings that set the stage for a memorable journey.

If there is one area Air France Business Class seems to entice; the anticipation of culinary delights that await you! Indulge in a delectable menu curated by top chefs, featuring a fusion of French and international flavours. From the finest wines to the most decadent of desserts.

I had originally booked this New York trip to fly Air France’s newly launched Suites product only available on a handful of aircrafts. When I had to change my dates, unfortunately there was no business seats available at all on the rotations with the latest product.

Flight Particulars

Route: Paris CDG – New York JFK
Flight No: AF10
Date: 23.06.2023
Departure Time: 16:30
Flight Duration: Blocked 8 hours 10 minutes
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seats/Suite: 10L

Check-In for the Trip

My journey started in London City airport (LCY), one of the most convenient airports to fly out of London. I checked in on the KLM app, where I booked this trip and headed to airport just 35 minutes before the short hop to Paris.

I also absolutely loved going through the new speedy security at LCY!

Air France Lounges

I did not visit any lounges in LCY but did have a 1 hour 45 min connection in CDG. There used the main Air France Lounge in Terminal 2E, where I was departing from.

A word of caution, depending on your arrival gate, it can take a while to get to this lounge, so you might want to plan your visit accordingly!

The lounge was fairly busy at this time and I went straight to the Clarin’s spa to try and book a complimentary treatment..

Unfortunately there was no slots available for my time-frame. Which is frustratingly the norm in these lounges, unless you have a 5 hour layover and luck out with a slot!

In any case, it was a hot day in London so I decided to have another shower to freshen up..

The lounge showers are great here. On way out I poked my nosed around a bit and noticed there was a larger rest area here than I previously realized when reviewing this lounge

I had decided to have a light lunch here since my flight was not sure to take off till past 4.

Boarding Air France Business Class

My flight was boarding from gate M48.  It took longer than I expected, so I only arrived at the gate 25 minutes before departure!

Both Air France and KLM text you with your boarding gate, which is very handy!

Most Business Class passengers appeared to have already boarding, so I just walked straight through the Business boarding lane..

Onboard Air France Business Class 777

The Air France 777 have a large cabin..

This 4 class aircraft has 4 First Class La Premier seats, 58 flatbed Business Class seats split in two cabins. This was followed by 19 Premium Economy seats and then 219 Economy seats.

I was in the second bigger business cabin, and it looked like every seat was taken!

Air France Business Class Amenity Kit

The woven fabric amenity kit looks quite smart with Air France log stitched inside that makes it look rather stylish when you open it up.

The contents included standard flight socks, eye masks, ear plugs, dental kit, some Clarins lib balm and moisturiser and also a pen..

The amenity kit is fairly standard for a good business product. In addition you have pillows and blankets for sleeping but Air France does not provide PJs or slippers, which you might expect from premium business airlines.

Air France Business Class Service

Not long after take-off the crew did a hot towel round, and then a further drinks service.

Air France currently serve the Cuvee Royale Brut, which I liked on boarding, so I went for that again..

This time it was served with an amuse bouche of carrot puree with orange, ewe’s cheese and pine nuts,  together with some crispy cheese filled crepes. It was very rich and an all around super cheesy affair !

The menu for the flight was as follows:

As you can see, catering centres around dinner on this late afternoon departure from Paris.

During the drinks service, the meal choices were also taken. With all else coming as standard, I opted for the slightly healthier sounding Sautéed Shrimps.

Around 20 minutes after the amuse bouche the starter arrived:

The raspberry and grapefruit jelly complimented the smoked salmon fillet rather well. The menu described a lemon and basil soup which was nowhere to be seen on the tray :S It was a great starter nonetheless.

Next up was the main show..

The shrimp main arrived super hot, I dared not touch it for 10 minutes.

While the presentation of it wasn’t great, when I tucked it, I found it a well flavoured. They were some decent sized prawns too, but yet it did not feel heavy. The main was paired with the Saint-Veran Albert Bichot Chardonnay, which I surprisingly enjoyed.

Following this the crew asked if I would like the cheese plate or some dessert. If I wasn’t already feeling full, I would have ordered both but decided to go just for the dessert selection with some strawberry sorbet to finish..

The dessert selection here was an absolute treat. Such a great way to finish a meal!

Throughout the whole meal service, I mainly interacted with the 2 crew working my side and they were both very attentive, checking up on me during and after each course and clearing up plates soon after I was done each time!

Air France Business Class WiFi & Entertainment

While the aircraft was WiFi enabled, this did not work for most of the flight unfortunately.  The 3 options on offer are a Message Pass, Surf Pass or Stream Pass, while the Message pass is free for basic text based messaging, the other 2 allow increased level of data.

The IFE programming looked ok, with many French titles, it had more limited English content compared to other good international carriers.

I started a movie during meal service and finished once I finished with that I watched a documentary and then alot of the flight map basically!

The wireless headphones provided were also decent and comfortable enough for the whole journey.

Air France Business Class Bed

While this was a daytime westbound flight, the late departure time meant you should probably have a nap so you don’t arrive ready for bed straight away!

Converted into bed mode, it does look super cosy indeed..

As before, in bed mode the product felt very roomy and comfortable. I had a nap for just over an hour and chilled for a little watching the flight map after..

Pre-Landing Service

Mid flight I decided to walk around the cabin to stretch the legs and found the self service area wasn’t stocked..

Not sure if this was because it was already quite late at that point or it wasn’t stocked because staff brought out snacks on request, I’m not sure.

Not long after the the second meal service was served this time, all in one go..

I found the brioche pastry dry and rather unappetising. The diced pear and cranberries was great however!

How To Book Air France Business Class

Cash Offers

I booked this as a cash ticket going out from LCY-CDG-JFK and return ATL-CDG-LHR. There was an offer in January for was listed for £1800 but was actually less when I plugged in my dates. On top of that, I had an Amex Platinum cashback offer of £200 off for spend of £1000 or more.

In all, I consider this a very good deal given the about of Flying Blue miles I would earn with my Gold status.

Miles Redemptions

Air France’s and KLM Flying Blue while charging dynamic pricing most of the time do have good saver rates. Most Europe – USA routes can be booked from 57.5K – 67k miles plus around 300 Euro in taxes. The taxes are more if departing from London unfortunately.

Another good option to book this would be with Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club miles, with some east coast/Caribbean routes available for as little as 47.5K!

Overall Thoughts

I had a very enjoyable flight to New York. While it was disappointing that I wasn’t on the new Suites product that I had booked the trip for, this product is still very solid. There is nothing fundamentally lacking with this seat other than the door, which you will know from many of my other reviews can be more of a gimmick than anything else.

The service was by and large excellent, with a very friendly and knowledgeable crew. At one point I noticed I had 5 different glasses and tumblers on my table because of all the different drinks I was ordering. Even though they cleared many others away previously! I couldn’t help but wonder where do they find the space to store all the these?!

The catering was good but I have to admit I perhaps went in with high expectations, mostly because people tend to rave about it so much. But I wouldn’t say it was anything spectacular. It was decent for sure.

My return Air France flight from the States will be in a different product entirely so stay tuned!