For the first long haul segment of my exotic journey to Bangkok via Paris, I flew Air France’s Boeing 787-9 business class on the 6hr25min flight from Montreal (YUL) to Paris (CDG).
It had been many years since I had flown on one of Air France’s Dreamliners, so I was curious to see how the product is holding up. These planes have a solid hard product, though admittedly it’s not as cutting edge as on Air France’s newer aircraft, and I’d seek out those aircraft, all else being equal (the new A350 and 777 business class products are phenomenal).
Beyond that, though, this was the typical, excellent Air France transatlantic experience, with great food and drinks, very friendly service, and solid amenities. There’s not an airline that delivers more consistently across the Atlantic than Air France, in my opinion.
How I booked my Air France business class ticket
For this portion of the trip, I redeemed Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles. Specifically, I booked the following for 60,000 miles plus $266.47 in taxes & fees:
11/16 AF343 Montreal to Paris departing 5:00PM arriving 5:55AM (+1 day)
Flying Blue miles are easy to come by, thanks to all the transfer partners that the program has. Whenever there’s a transfer bonus, I always top off my account a bit, since Flying Blue is one of the currencies I redeem most often.
Air France business class lounge & boarding
In a previous installment, I reviewed the Air France Lounge Montreal, which I visited prior to my flight. While it gets crowded, it’s a solid outstation lounge, with nice decor, lots of natural light, and pretty good food and drinks.
My flight was departing from gate 57, with boarding scheduled for 4:25PM, 35 minutes before the posted departure time. Sure enough, that’s exactly when boarding started, with business class passengers being invited to board first.
From there I boarded F-HRBB, the nine-year-old jet that would be taking me to Paris. I’ve gotta say, I think Air France’s updated livery with bigger font looks particularly good on the Dreamliner.
Air France 787 business class cabin & seats
I boarded through the second set of doors, where I was greeted by two super friendly flight attendants, and was pointed left into business class. Air France’s Dreamliners have 30 business class seats, spread across eight rows, in a 1-2-1 configuration, taking up the space between the first and second set of doors. Specifically, the airline has Safran Cirrus seats, a pretty standard last generation reverse herringbone product.
If you’re traveling with someone, you may want to select a pair of seats in the center section. Admittedly reverse herringbone seats aren’t ideal for couples traveling together, as you do still need to lean forward to communicate. If you end up in one of these seats and are traveling alone, worry not, as there’s a privacy partition that can be extended a bit.
Meanwhile for solo travelers, or those who just generally value being by a window, just about all the window seats are equally good.
I assigned myself seat 8A, the window seat on the left side in the last row of business class. Aside from the Air France-specific colors, this is your typical off-the-shelf reverse herringbone seat from a decade ago.
When it comes to seat features, there’s a console to the side of the seat, which includes an enclosed storage area with a vanity and a hook for headphones.
Next to that you’ll find the entertainment controller, though I don’t really find that to be necessary, given that the monitor is also touchscreen.
The tray table then slides out from the side of the seat, and to fully extend it, you need to flip it over.
You’ll also find the basic seat pre-sets next to the area with the tray table, plus the controls for the reading light.
This seat has AC and USB-A outlets, located underneath the console to the side of the seat. There’s no USB-C or wireless charging.
There’s a 16″ personal monitor at the seat, which is attached to the back of the seat in front. When stored it’s at an awkward angle, but it can be extended at the push of a button, for head-on viewing.
Lastly, the seat has a decent size ottoman, which becomes part of the bed when the seat is fully reclined. I’ll talk more about bed comfort a bit later.
When it comes to the overhead console, Air France has reading lights, but no individual air nozzles, sadly.
All-in-all, this is a competitive hard product, but nothing cutting edge. Air France’s new business class on the A350 and 777 is excellent. I am curious to see what Air France’s long term plans are for its small fleet of 10 787s — will the planes eventually get new cabins, will Air France transfer these to KLM (which has a larger Dreamliner fleet), or something else?
Air France 787 business class entertainment & Wi-Fi
Air France’s 787 business class boasts 16″ touchscreen monitors (there’s no bluetooth audio). Air France’s entertainment selection is generally very good, though the 787 doesn’t have the latest generation interface. Still, I found the variety of movies, TV shows, audio, etc., to be extensive, and more than sufficient.
Of course my favorite entertainment system feature is the map feature (assuming there’s no tail camera!), so I had that on for much of the flight.
When it comes to Wi-Fi, Air France’s Dreamliners have the service available for purchase. Free messaging is available for Flying Blue members, and then you can pay 12 EUR for a one-hour Wi-Fi pass, or 29 EUR for a full flight Wi-Fi pass. The pricing is a bit on the steep side, though fortunately Air France is transitioning to free Starlink Wi-Fi for most of its fleet in the coming months, which is exciting.
Since this was an overnight flight, I decided to just use the free messaging pass that’s available to all passengers, since I didn’t need the Wi-Fi otherwise (on a daytime flight, I would’ve purchased it).
Air France business class amenities
There were an impressive number of amenities waiting at our seat upon boarding. For one, there was the entire complement of bedding, including a pillow, blanket, and mattress pad. The mattress pad is a fairly new addition, and is in partnership with Sofitel. It’s awesome how this is available even on the shortest long haul flights.
There were also a pair of slippers. Again, it’s a much appreciated amenity, as it makes it easy to use the lavatory without having to put on shoes (and you don’t want to go into the lavatory barefoot or with socks).
Then there were a pair of noise canceling headphones, which I find to be pretty good quality.
There was also a bottle of Evian water.
Shortly after settling in, the crew passed through the cabin with pre-departure drinks, with the choice of champagne, orange juice, or water.
Moments later, amenity kits were distributed, with products from Clarins. The kit included socks, eyeshades, a dental kit, earplugs, lotion, and lip balm.
Later on in the boarding process, menus were distributed.
Lastly, warm towels were also passed out.
Air France 787 departure from Montreal
Despite the flight being full, the boarding process was efficient. By 4:45PM the main cabin door was closed, with every seat in business class occupied. A moment later, the captain was on the PA to announce our flight time of 6hr25min, and our anticipated early arrival in Paris.
At 5PM we began our pushback, and then at 5:05PM we began our taxi, at which point the safety video was screened. It took us about 15 minutes to get out to runway 24L, where we were cleared for takeoff at 5:20PM.
We hit a few bumps on the climb out, and the seatbelt sign was ultimately turned off around 20 minutes after takeoff.
Air France business class dinner service
Air France crews do a stellar job with efficient service on overnight flights, and this crew was no exception. As usual, dinner was served after takeoff, and you can find the menu below.
Then you can find the Air France business class drink list below.
When it comes to efficient service on an overnight flight, I tend to think there are two things to judge — how quickly the first drink comes out (let’s be honest, people are often happy once they have their first drink), and how quickly the entire meal service is performed. This is an area where I find Air France does a better job than any other airline across the Atlantic.
Just five minutes after the seatbelt sign was turned off, the crew passed through the cabin with trays of champagne, plus those addictive, irresistible cheese crackers. This is a great way to at least efficiently offer people something, before the main part of the service. The champagne on offer was De Saint-Gall “Le Tradition” Premier Cru Brut.
There wasn’t a long gap after that initial round of drinks. Just 40 minutes after takeoff, the meal tray was brought out, containing the appetizer duo, salad, cheese, and dessert.
The appetizer consisted of fennel and watermelon salad, and also of pan-fried sea scallop and citrus fruit zest. I like how Air France crews offer to crack pepper after serving you, since it’s a small, restaurant-style touch.
Then there was a simple salad, a selection of cheese, and the raspberry and nougat dessert. I was also offered a selection of bread, and to drink, I switched to the sauvignon blanc.
After all passengers were served, the crew came through to clear the appetizer trays, and then another flight attendant came around to bring out the main courses. For the main course, I opted for the seared Canadian lobster with creamy rice bisque, maple-roasted sweetcorn, and edamame beans. The dish tasted great, and also had very nice presentation (when you consider that dishes aren’t plated onboard).
After the meal, a trolley was rolled down the aisle with after dinner drinks. I ordered a vanilla and almond tea, and the lovely flight attendant also talked me into ordering a cognac.
I thought the meal was excellent, and in particular, I was impressed by the pace. The meal service was done just over an hour after takeoff, which has to be some sort of record.
Air France 787 business class lavatories
Air France’s 787s have two business class lavatories — one is at the front left of the cabin, right by the cockpit, while the other is at the front right of the cabin, right in front of row one. These are pretty standard Dreamliner lavatories, and they were kept tidy throughout the flight.
The only other thing worth mentioning is that there were some products from Clarins.
Air France 787 business class bed
After dinner, I reclined my seat into bed mode, and tried to get some rest. Placing the mattress pad onto the seat was super easy. I should mention that the crew actually offered to place this on my seat at the beginning of the flight, but I declined at the time. But it basically just adds an extra layer of comfort, regardless of whether you’re trying to sleep or lounge.
By the time I actually got around to sleeping, there were just under 4hr30min remaining to Paris.
Fortunately I fell asleep almost immediately, and woke up just under three hours later, with around 1hr30min remaining to Paris.
Air France business class breakfast
Breakfast was served within 10 minutes of me waking up, and you can find the business class breakfast menu below.
For such a short flight, I find it impressive that Air France serves a hot breakfast, since some other airlines don’t. Also, I very much appreciate how Air France often has vegetarian egg dishes, unlike US carriers, which seemingly refuse to serve eggs without pork (hey, I’m just sharing my personal preferences, and am not claiming I’m right, or that airlines should cater to me!).
Breakfast consisted of fruit salad, yogurt, and a hot dish with scrambled egg, potato rosti, mushrooms, etc.
While I had a coffee with my meal, I also asked for an espresso afterwards, which was nicely presented on a tray, with a glass of water.
Air France business class service
I find that Air France has among the best flight attendants you’ll find at any European carrier, and this flight was no exception. In particular, the chief purser, Corina, was working in business class, and she couldn’t have been lovelier.
Not only did she have an incredible eye for detail, but she was extremely entertaining, and fun to talk to. She was from the Alsace region of France, so we communicated in German throughout the flight. Sometimes I had to remind myself that I wasn’t on Lufthansa.
But yeah, kudos to Air France flight attendants more broadly, for being (in my opinion) the best combination of efficient and friendly.
Air France 787 arrival in Paris
All too soon, the flight was already coming to an end. At around 5AM Paris time, the captain announced that we’d be descending in around 10 minutes, and would be landing 30 minutes after that. Sure enough, that’s the timeline with which we descended, and the seatbelt sign was turned on at 5:25AM.
At 5:40AM we ended up landing in Paris on runway 26L, and from there had a quick taxi to our arrival gate, where we pulled in at 5:45AM, around 10 minutes ahead of schedule. I bid farewell to the lovely crew, and then it was time for a fun two nights in Paris.
Bottom line
Air France’s 787 business class is a pleasant ride across the Atlantic. Admittedly while I think that Air France offers the all-around best business class across the Atlantic, the 787 doesn’t have the cutting edge cabins that you’ll find on many A350s and 777s.
The thing that sets Air France apart is the friendly and efficient service, comfortable seats with good bedding, and delicious food and drinks. Ultimately this is all that one could ask for on a quick overnight flight.
What’s your take on Air France’s 787 business class?