Air France’s La Premiere first class is known for being among the best in the world. In terms of exclusivity and ground experience, it’s simply in a different league than anything else, and is more along the lines of what you’d expect in private aviation than commercial aviation.
Along those lines, I want to share an experience that my friend Nick (yes, a contributor here from years ago) had flying Air France first class from Los Angeles (LAX) to Paris (CDG) recently. It really shows the extent to which Air France just keeps raising the bar when it comes to the first class ground experience.
Air France’s unreal first class LAX ground experience
Air France departs from Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) at LAX, and specifically, from the Midfield Satellite Concourse, where it has its own lounge. Actually getting to the Midfield Satellite Concourse is a bit of a trek, and Air France has seemingly decided that this requires too much effort for its top customers.
So here’s what the ground experience is now like (along with some other thoughts from Nick):
I recently flew from CDG to LAX and back in La Premiere. Outbound, my experience was the same as before — upon arrival, a greeter escorted me from the gate at Bradley West (which, fun fact, is located three counties over and in a different time zone from the rest of LAX) and walked with me all the way through immigration and then to curbside (I hadn’t checked bags). While on our long walk from gate to curb, I asked her if AF had considered a car service for LP customers to shorten the journey, but she told me it was actually impossible due to LAWA (the airport authority) regulations with respect to the international terminal; however, she told me my return experience would be different… and boy, was it ever.
Departing LAX really is another story; as of just a few weeks ago, LP check-in is actually curbside at the end of Terminal 1 (which is otherwise the Southwest terminal). This has two advantages: one, you can skip most of the traffic on the LAX loop getting all the way to the Tom Bradley terminal, and two, apparently they have LAWA authorization to use a private car service from T1. In practice, this meant as soon as I was dropped off at Terminal 1, a La Premiere greeter immediately unloaded my luggage from the trunk of the car while another greeter took my passport and within moments I had my boarding pass and an escort to take me through a lesser-used security line (what LAWA, apparently, refers to as “T1.5”).
He escorted me past the line directly to the ID check (effectively not much different than Clear in that respect) and then he had me go through the scanner while he waited to load my bags into the X-ray belt. (There was a bit of a line which he attributed to lower staffing due to the shutdown — he told me otherwise it was even more of a breeze.). From there we took the elevator down to the tarmac, he badged me through a door and a La Premiere-branded Tahoe was waiting — at this point my greeter passed me off to the driver, who drove me directly to the exterior entrance of the lounge elevator at Bradley West. (The La Premiere car rides through CDG are always fun, but they’re on separated roads, and there is really nothing quite as exciting as *driving on the tarmac* at LAX).
Up we went to the lounge and then he led me to the La Premiere salon within the lounge — I’ve only seen the small La Premiere rooms within IAD and SFO, but this was a bit bigger with several tables set up for dining as well as lounge chairs and dedicated staff pouring Bollinger. I checked out the menu but didn’t order from it (flight was at 6:30 and wanted to save my appetite for dinner on the plane) but seemed to overlap a great deal with the menu at the LP salon at CDG, at least as far as the “greatest hits” go (e.g., the chicken croque monsieur).
I’ve been lucky enough to have flown LP a fair amount of times and I will say this is the most exceptional outstation experience I’ve experienced with LP — Air France got shafted a bit with the Bradley West gates but the upside is they got to build out their own large lounge to spec and they found a way to whisk LP passengers directly there from T1 while minimizing the often-ghastly LAX experience.
Now if only AF could do a better job on sourcing bread for its outstation catering– the LAX bread basket at least featured a sort of semi-edible ciabatta roll, but ex-SFO the bread is supbar and ex-IAD the bread is legitimately disgraceful (hilariously gigantic slices of limp white sourdough, I believe). The croissant I had before landing tasted like they got it from the day-old bin at a Dunkin. There are great bakeries in L.A., S.F. and even D.C. that make fantastic demi-baguettes and croissants!
It seems like such a silly knock on an otherwise amazing product but for the flag carrier of a nation that prides itself on superlative bread, AF needs to do what it takes to load the cabin with great product. It’s an actual shame on AF that their outstation bread is so bad (seriously, it’s not just me — check FlyerTalk, this is a pretty constant complaint).
No airline tries as hard as Air France in this regard
Understandably, airlines typically create their passenger experience based on what the competition is doing, and what they feel they need to do to be competitive. This is an area where Air France has decided “forget what the competition is doing, we’re going to make this the best in the world.”
For example, I love Emirates first class, but the first class ground experience is non-existent at outstations. There’s no dedicated first class section in lounges (despite being run by Emirates), not even an escort through security, and no priority boarding over business class.
Now contrast that to Air France first class. The airline has decided that the terminal layout at LAX is too inconvenient for its first class passengers, so the airline meets customers curbside at the most convenient terminal (to avoid traffic), escorts them through security, and drives them in a car to the lounge.
This just shows an uncompromising commitment to being the best in this regard, and you would never see something like this at another airline. Other airline executives would say “hey, well too bad it’s a long walk, that’s just how the terminal is laid out, it’s not our fault.”
Meanwhile I would’ve loved to be there when the discussion took place that led to this — “yeah, it’s kind of a long walk to the lounge, what if we instead meet the passengers at the most convenient terminal, and drive them to the lounge from there?”
Now, there are two things worth acknowledging. First, Air France first class is priced at the very top end of the market, so it’s not going to come cheap. But it’s also clear that Air France is increasingly trying to model the La Premiere experience after private aviation more than commercial aviation.
Second, I should also acknowledge that Starlux Airlines sends its first class passengers to PS LAX, the private terminal at the airport. That being said, the first class experience is otherwise sort of a joke (at that price point, at least), as there’s not even a curtain between first and business class, or a dedicated lavatory.
Bottom line
While Air France’s La Premiere ground experience is consistently excellent, the airline has taken its outstation service to a new level at LAX. The airline now meets La Premiere passengers at a completely different terminal, escorts them through security, and then drives them across the apron, directly to the lounge.
It’s fascinating to me how Air France is simply in a league of its own when it comes to first class ground service. Then again, Air France’s first class pricing is also in a league of its own… but hey, fair enough, because people are paying it, and clearly value this experience!
What do you make of Air France’s incredible first class ground experience effort?
