Last November I grabbed two Air France ‘La Premiere’ (how they call First Class) tickets between London and Johannesburg for the 2018 Easter break. It cost me just under £8000, a lot of money, but this was well below other first class fares to JNB and even below business class fares being offered by other carriers on the same dates. The flight times were good, and I could try Air France’s highly rated first class product for the first time, on one of my favourite aircraft, the huge A380 ‘superjumbo’.

Two days before departure I was phoned by one of their elite customer service agents to help prepare me for my first La Premiere flight, and to tell me they were upgrading my Flying Blue frequent flyer card from the base Ivory level up to Platinum, the highest level!  I was very excited that Air France appeared to be offering a terrific level of service which I hadn’t encountered before.

The LHR-CDG sector (included in the price) was in Business Class and is covered in a separate article, but I was given special treatment because I was a La Premiere passenger, such as being invited to a personal VIP room off their business class lounge at Heathrow.

Upon arrival in CDG the La Premiere experience really began: we were met at the aircraft door by a charming lady agent, who guided us down some steps onto the apron, where a black Jaguar XJ was waiting, to drive us to the La Premiere lounge!  Many times over the years I’ve sat on a plane and wondered who was being driven to the aircraft side in a black limo, and that evening it was me and Mr. A!!

The La Premiere lounge was quite a good size decorated in red, grey, white, and pale wood, with a distinct bar half hidden away, plenty of quiet, more private areas (although only around six other passengers we’re in the whole place), showers, a Biologique Recherche spa, a light buffet as well as seated restaurant-style dining from an Alain Ducasse devised menu.  There was also a private lift down to the main departures concourse, were I went for some tax free shopping. There were only restricted airfield views, which disappeared as darkness fell.

I was dismayed to be told that the spa closed at 15:30!  (God’s speed to President Macron in his efforts to modernise France’s working practices!).  Our dedicated agent (was she a ‘butler’?) offered to change our homeward connecting flight so we could have more time in the lounge, when the spa was open, but we declined and decided to have a meal to allow us to bed down to sleep right after take-off.

A starter of foie gras terrine with brioche and a nice Sauternes was very pleasant, but I didn’t  like my main course of halibut, gnocchi and a seafood sauce, which had a very strong seaside/ammonia flavour which wasn’t nice at all. And the halibut was over-cooked and dry, making me believe the food had only been reheated in the kitchen, rather than freshly made by a proper chef. But an Irish whiskey for Mr A and an XO Cognac for me, got us both back in a good mood!

Our lovely agent drove us to the side of Airbus A380, registration F-HPJI, which was operating flight AF990 to Johannesburg that night, after confirming to us that our bags had been loaded into the hold – a nice touch for a transit passenger’s peace of mind.  She walked us up to the aircraft door and advised the Flight Attendants who we were, and one of them then showed us to our seats; window seat 2L for me, and behind me on the starboard side of the plane, 3L for Mr.A.  Air France places La Premiere at the front of the main deck on its A380. The cabin is airy with an open, spacious feel, but there’s enough architecture around the nine seats to give decent privacy.  The suites are in a 1-2-1 configuration over two rows, with an extra seat on the port side being the only one in row one.  That seat looked ideal for someone who really doesn’t want to see his fellow passengers at all, or for them to see him.  Seats are in a light grey woven fabric with sculptured surround and arm- and head-rests in a slightly darker/browner grey leather. My window seat was angled by about 15

degrees to the fuselage and there was a good sized side table to keep my ‘bits and bobs’ on. Facing me was a leather ottoman with a large drawer for useful shoe storage space, where Mr. A could join me for a chat.  There is a good narrow-area reading light, a white glass side/night light which looked like a homely bed-side lamp, and two good overhead wide area lights.  I was pretty impressed.  And I thought it nice that video monitors were stowed in the armrest, so we weren’t faced with banks of monitors, like one sees in modern business class, where everyone has a seat back monitor in front of them.

And then I was impressed to the max when I was served a glass of Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2006, along with a small china plate holding a quenelle of Oscietra caviar, blinis and soured cream. Caviar before take-off – wow!!

The senior FA introduced himself to the passengers. He told us he had Googled us (I guess this is good practice, so the crew can personalise their service), but he told Mr. A that he came up as a jihadi who’d been killed in Syria last year, and I was someone who bought London Bridge and shipped it to the US a few decades ago!

Doors closed and we pushed back at 23:45, some 20minutes late, with no reason given. We took off at midnight and were advised of a 10h15m flight-time.

Strangely no menus were loaded for La Premier, so as I couldn’t be tempted by anything I stuck to my plan to sleep, rather than to eat.  I stowed my shoes in the ottoman and put on the socks and slippers which were in there, I grabbed my attractively simple fabric pyjama bag and the leather-bound box of toiletries given out while on the ground. The PJs were simple but well designed, in a navy blue. The L size fitted me better than any other airline PJs I’ve worn. The toiletries featured Carita, a brand I wasn’t familiar with, but they have a Rue du Faubourg address, so they must be a premium brand. The hand cream and moisturiser were good and had a pleasant light perfume. There was also a lip and eye cream and a “masque biologique” which I’ve yet to try.

As soon as I stood up a FA came to ask if she could make my bed up, which is good attentive service, as one would expect when travelling First, but which is so often lacking these days (especially on BA).  The La Premiere cabin is served by one lavatory and one ‘changing room’, forward of the cabin, on the starboard side, but neither is any larger than a standard aircraft lav, which was a disappointment.  They share the space with the stairs which lead to the upper deck, doors 1L and 1R and the cockpit door. Adjacent to the stairs are a few shelves, which display help-yourself champagne and soft drinks throughout the flight, glasses and some chocolates.  It really is just shelving, so I was surprised to read in the drinks menu on the return flight that Air France calls this space “a bar”.

My seat had been converted into a flat bed, with a seat cover, a 1.5cm thick mattress and a soft white duvet. A ‘guards red’ blanket was also available, but I didn’t use it because I’m usually too warm on night flights.  I asked an FA to wake me at 07:00, so I could “look at Africa” for the three remaining hours to Jo’burg.  I was woken on

time, but unfortunately I couldn’t see Africa through the cloud cover.  I’d only had about 5.5 hours of real sleep and an hour or so of half sleep.  The bed wasn’t as comfortable as on Thai Airways, or as large. The length is OK, but the width isn’t as good, even with an armrest lowered, so sleeping on my side was more restrictive.  And the gap between the seat back and its base cushion is too large, so even though it was covered with a mattress, there was still a crevasse to try to sleep on.

I think if Air France were to have La Premiere upstairs, as most A380 operators do, there would be more available width because of the stowage compartments next to the windows, and there would be space for larger lavs.

At about 08:30 we were offered breakfast, and a verbalised choice because of the lack of menus.  I went to Mr. A’s suite, intending to dine with him while seated on his ottoman, but found that the seat was too low and the tray table wasn’t large enough for both of us to comfortably reach.  On seeing what I was attempting the FAs made up tables on the two unoccupied centre seats, so we could dine side by side.  It was nice of them to do that, but I think it would be better if the seat design allowed for face to face dining, so friends could dine together in a full cabin.

For breakfast I had a good fresh orange juice, cappuccino, sliced fruits and yogurt with toasted grains. My main course was scrambled eggs and chorizo, which was very tasty indeed, even though the eggs had not been freshly scrambled.  Mr. A chose the pain perdue, which he thought was too doughy and dry at the same time.  One little niggle from both of us was that breakfast was served with a serviette rolled around a spoon, a knife and a fork, which was not sufficient to cover the various food items served.

After breakfast, and just after ‘Top of Descent’ I was very surprised and delighted to be invited to visit the cockpit – a very rare privilege in these security-conscious times!   Our descent towards JNB was a smooth but busy time for the pilots, so it really was especially generous of them to invite us to their ‘office’.  They told me they enjoyed flying the A380, but noted that it uses a lot more fuel than the B777, which operates this flight on certain days in the week.

And a few times during the flight the FAs told me that “the new La Premiere” on the 777 was a “much better” product. The 777 and 787 also have the latest Business Class product, configured in 1-2-1, as opposed to the 2-2-2 on this A380.  I was told that by 2020 the A380s will have the latest products.

We landed from clear sunny skies, on runway 21L at 09:55; bang on time.  But there was then a long taxi to the terminal building, where we parked and disembarked through an air-bridge to door 2L.  We were met at the aircraft door by two lovely South African ladies who escorted us through passport control and onto the baggage belt area.  There was a little wait for the bags to appear, but ours were first off.  Somewhat embarrassingly one of ‘our’ ladies insisted on pushing our trolley into the

landslide area, where we were met by Eric from Federal Air, who took us onto their terminal for our connecting flight into the bush.

This had been a very enjoyable first experience in Air France’s La Premiere. Despite a few criticisms, like the bed comfort, the overall standards of customer care both on the ground and in the air made this an experience to remember and to treasure. 10/10

Our return flight was on 12th April 2018; flight Af995, scheduled to depart for Paris CDG at 18:50.  We checked in around 16:30, at the La Premiere desk, along with a young French couple we met the night before at our safari lodge.  They were booked in economy class, and as they had got engaged the day before, I wanted to try to get them access to the Business Class lounge. The check in staff had no problem with them checking in at the La Premiere desk, and after referral to their management they issued our friends passes to the lounge. We were all then escorted through the ‘fast track’ security channel, which has rarely been such a privilege, because the standard security had an enormous queue, which I estimate would have taken over an hour to get through.  But there wasn’t a fast track for passport control and we had a very dull 25 minute wait for that. I advise you to give yourselves loads of time to fly out of JNB!!

The four of us were escorted to the “Slow Lounge” (sic) which is used by Air France, BA and a range of other carriers.  From its reception area one can turn right or left into one of two very large lounge areas, each dominated by a food buffet, coffee station and self-service bar. There are partial apron views from each lounge, lots of soft seating, a few quieter areas and, in between the two lounges, toilets and showers which are cleaned after every usage.

We were taken into the left side lounge, and onto a VIP room at its rear, like what happened in LHR, and like there, the VIP room didn’t have airfield views.  But what it did have was a jolly butler in Edwardian attire, overseeing a lounge of about a dozen soft mini sofas (designed for one), a TV screen and a small help-yourself drinks area.  One can order a decent range of drinks and snacks, which are brought to you by the butler or his assistant.  I chose Moet and a cheese toastie.

The lady who had shown us to the lounge said she’d be back at six to take us to the aircraft.  She was a little late, but our butler reassured us that we would’t be left behind!  And when we did leave the lounge we were called back because “boarding has been suspended because of refuelling”.  But ten minutes later we were off again and we got to the gate after everyone else had boarded.

We boarded Airbus A380 registration F-HPJI (the exact same plane we came out on) at 18:30.  The plane was full in all cabins. Air France staff were taking strike action that day and the next day’s B777 flight had been cancelled, so I suspect they had filled up our flight with some re-bookings.  I was once again in seat 2L, with Mr A behind me in 3L.  Very soon after sitting down the captain came on the intercom to tell us the aircraft had a fuel transfer valve problem and that some fuel still needed to be loaded, which would take at least two hours.  Everyone was to stay on the plane and dinner would be served whilst we were still on the ground.  Initially I was quite distressed because the delay would mean we’d miss our connection from CDG to LHR, and because I would need to contact the chauffeur meeting us.  Our plane didn’t have wi-fi, so it was challenging to find the chauffeur’s phone number, and I would have to pay to phone him.  Initially I felt the FAs should have been doing more to help me out, so they asked one of their ground staff to come aboard, who rebooked us onto a later flight from CDG to LHR, and I was able to tell my driver the new arrival time.

 

Dinner was pretty poor! I scored the ‘mise en bouche’ canapés selection 2/10, the cold shrimp appetiser 2.5/10 and the grilled Springbok main course 3/10, just for the pea and mint puree; the meat was overcooked to inedible levels.  But the drinks I chose for each course were very pleasant and left me feeling very pleasant too: five glasses of wine and a lovely Cognac Tesseron lot 76 “XO Tradition” to finish.  Perhaps it was due to inebriation that I thought it would be a good idea to visit my friends in economy to gloat at their conditions! They weren’t amused, so I returned to my seat to wait out the delay.  We finally pushed back from stand at 21:45 (three hours after STD) and we took off from runway 03L at 22:09.

I managed to sleep for about eight hours, but I wasn’t very comfortable because of the issues I have mentioned with the bed, and because I found the cabin to be too hot to be lying under a duvet. I asked the FAs twice to turn the temperature down and it was eventually lowered to 21.5 degrees!  (note; there is no personal ventilation in the overhead panel in the A380’s La Premiere.)

Breakfast was even worse than dinner, scoring 1/10, but I consoled my self that I would be able to eat something else when we got to the La Premiere lounge in Charles de Gaulle.

The live feed from the tail mounted camera was put on the cabin video screens which showed a beautiful picture of the white fuselage illuminated on the starboard side by the rising spring sunshine.  We enjoyed a fly-past of central Paris before lining up to land on runway 08R at 08:24, 2 hours 45 minutes late.  It was very noticeable that the plane didn’t have to spend any time circling in a stack before landing, unlike at Heathrow.  That’s mostly thanks to CDG’s four runways and LHR’s two.

Once again we were met at the aircraft door by a chic lady who drove us in a Jaguar to the La Premiere lounge.  Lovely car.  I should note that it was excellent service from Air France to take us to that lounge, rather than to a business class lounge, given that we arrived in First, but were going to depart in Business to London. I’m interested to see if Qatar does the same when I change from First to Business in Doha in a few months time.

The lounge was busier than it was on our outbound journey, but we found some comfy sofas in a quiet area.  Our ‘butler’-style lady arranged for me to have a massage in the Recherche Biologique spa, which was pretty good with pleasant, fully absorbable massage creams rather than oils, and which lasted 40 minutes.  Mr. A made use of the shower facilities, which then left us both with time to grab some muesli, a croissant and a cappuccino.  Job done!