Air France A319 economy class, Stockholm to Paris
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01. Trip report introduction
02. Air France A319 economy class, Stockholm to Paris
03. Hôtel Eugénie, Paris
04. Why Paris Is Always a Good Idea - Part 1
05. Why Paris Is Always a Good Idea - Part 2
06. Air France A319 economy class, Paris to Stockholm
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| Stockholm (ARN) to Paris (CDG) |
Date: 2018-05-10
Flight number: Air France AF1463
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Registration: F-GRXJ
Age of aircraft: 13 years
Duration of flight: 2:32 (gate to gate)
Seat: 11F (economy class)
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| Seat map with my seat (11F) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com |
On this trip, I was joined by my wife. I always prefer to travel with her, but this was our first trip together since NYC during New Year's (a trip which I unfortunately didn't review). Paris is the only city that we've revisited as a couple, and this would be our third trip to the French capital. (If there are any passionate
In the beginning of May, several Air France staff unions went on a strike, but luckily it ended two days before our trip. In fact, this was the first time in three days that this specific flight operated, as it had been cancelled on both May 8th and 9th. Not meaning to ridicule the strikers, but if the airlines are having trouble in the future, they just have to give me a call - I'd happily get paid to fly on commercial aircraft ;)
Air France operate three flights daily from Arlanda Terminal 2, and since we wanted as much time as possible in Paris, we took the morning flight. 6:05 am. Ouch. As we would return quite late two days later, we felt that taking our own car was the most convenient option, but we still had to get up at an ungodly hour. I may be an early bird, but this is too early for me as well.
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| Ugh - this is early... |
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| Walking from the parking garage to T2 |
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| Here we are, before security at T2, which is considerably smaller than T5 |
Security was a breeze, obviously. T2 is even calmer than T5, and especially at this time of day. We were airside a little over an hour before scheduled time of departure. There's not that much to do, but they have a bookstore, a duty free shop and a Starbucks, and they seemed to open as people were starting to fill the gates for our flight to CDG as well as a KLM flight to Amsterdam, departing shortly after us.
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| Hey there, F-GRXJ! |
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| No strike today - our ride has arrived, and gate 63 is ready for us! |
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| Yours truly, busy taking notes for this report... |
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| Duty free store in T2 |
Boarding was very punctual, and we pushed back at 6:08am. We didn't take off until 6:19, however, which surprised me a little bit. There wasn't much ground traffic, and we departed from runway 19R, which is fairly close to T2. It would still be an on time arrival though, but now I'm getting ahead of myself...
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| Walking down the jet bridge |
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| As you can see, I let the missus have the window seat, so I took 11E for this flight |
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| Red, white and dark blue colours in the cabin |
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| No, this flight was not as empty as my previous Ethiopian flight - we were just among the first to board... |
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| Coat hooks at every seat |
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| Air France's partner KLM is high on my list - I've never flown them yet |
After boarding, we settled in our seats. The seat pitch was not extremely generous, but at least there was plenty of storage space under the seat in front, which is almost just as important to me. This time, however, I didn't bring my trusted backpack. I had a cabin bag which had to go in the overhead compartment. Wife's orders to bring a bigger bag than usual ;) As the plane was refuelling, we were told not to fasten our seatbelts just yet. Then I had time to discover another perk with these seats - USB ports in the armrests. I didn't use them on this flight, but they can come in really handy when travelling with cell phone and other cameras and gadgets - thank you Air France!
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| Safety card - the 318 is the only one in the A320 family I haven't flown yet - I think I've seen TAROM operate those out of ARN, but they aren't that common in my experience |
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| Seat belt buckle with the Air France name on it |
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| Refuelled and ready for take off - time to fasten the Air France seatbelt! |
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| Moments after take-off from runway 19R |
To my left, in seat 11D, a very talkative lady was sitting. Fortunately, she wasn't talking to me. Unfortunately, her travel partner, a just as talkative lady, was sitting in 11C, which meant that they kept their conversation going quite loudly across the aisle. I prefer peace and quiet when flying (especially on a 6am flight...), but after some 15 minutes or so, they calmed down.
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| Everyone sleeping or silently awaiting breakfast - except for the ladies in 11C and D |
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| Look at that view! Just look at it! *drools* |
Breakfast service started 30 minutes after take-off and consisted of a croissant (what else?), dried figs and a cup with some sort of mashed apples with some caramel thingy - sounds better than it was... For drinks, they served tea or coffee and water or orange juice. You'll see in a few moments what I chose.
This was already a short flight, but with breakfast service, it went even faster. The croissant was really tasty, and the dried figs were good as well. The coffee was totally drinkable, but not on par with the coffee served on Austrian Airlines.
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| Croissant during the AF breakfast service - what else? |
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| This apple/caramel thingy was far from delicious |
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| Dried figs |
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| Coffee and orange juice |
After breakfast, I actually napped for 45 minutes, so this flight went by in a flash. When I woke up again, the flight attendants had removed my trash left after breakfast. Nicely done! Although the coffee was not Austrian Airlines, the crew were definitely rivalling the service of the Austrians.
Barely two hours after take-off, we started the descent towards CDG, and then we touched down at 8:26. Taxiing was slower here than at ARN, and we pulled up at the gate at 8:40, still giving us almost a full day in Paris on the first day of this trip.
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| Passing quaint villages moments before reaching CDG |
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| Touchdown! Bienvenue à Paris! |
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| Thanks for this ride, F-GRXJ! |
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| The characteristic terminal 2 building here at Charles de Gaulle |
This had been a pleasurable flight indeed, and our Paris trip was off to a great start - thank you, Air France! I'm looking forward to flying with you again in just a couple of days!
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