Review Air France, Business Class Johannesburg to Paris CDG

Paul‘s Flight Report for
Air France
Alliance: SkyTeam
Flight: AF995
Route: JNB-CDG
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Business Class / Opera
Flight Time: 11 hours 13 minutes
For the first time in Paul's history!
General Impression: 💩💩💩
Worst ever experience in 29 years flying history. Or in French, "un gros Bordel"
Before the Flight :
Check-in Process: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Security Control: 🐑🐑🌿
Lounge: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Information: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Boarding @ Gate: 🐑🐑
Staff @ these points: 🐑🐑🐑🌿
Boarding in Cabin: 🐑🐑🐑
Welcome Drinks: 🐑🐑🐑🌿
Punctuality: 🌿 1hr 43min delay
During the Flight :
Food presentation: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Food quality: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Drinks: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Service Procedure: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Amenity Kit: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
IFE / System: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Seat Quality: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Legroom: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Lavatories: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Cleanliness: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
General Atmosphere: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Announcement Pilots: 🐑🐑🐑🐑
Announcement Cabin: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Cabin Crew: 🐑🐑🐑🌿
After the Flight:
Immigration: 🐑🐑🐑
De-Boarding: 🐑🐑🐑
Baggage Delivery: 💩
Rebooking Process: 💩
Customer Care: 💩
—-
🐑 = bad, a lot of work needs to be done
🐑🐑 = poor, you will be busy with corrections
🐑🐑🐑 = good & normal, nothing special
🐑🐑🐑🐑 = high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑 = topnotch, leave me here!
🌿= Half a Point/sheep
—-

What a disaster, it all started with a return to gate in Johannesburg and a 1hr 45min delay bringing our connection in Paris to a short connection.

Inflight we learned (thanks to starlink), that due to expected Meteo (snow) in Paris, 30% of flights will be cancelled. Guess in which percentage our flight was?

Our connecting flight (departure 8:50 on 15. Feb.) to Zurich was cancelled. We were rebooked to the flight leaving Paris on Monday (16.Feb.) afternoon at 16:50. This would be a delay of 32 hours. Then a few hours later we got the message that the flight on 16.Feb. Is cancelled and we were rebooked on the flight on 15.Feb. leaving at 21:10!
What a mess it will become, we didn't know back then. We decided to go immediately to the transit desk in Paris upon arrival.
Transit security check was quick thanks to a priority lane.
Immigration in Paris was easy as we could use the automated gates.
But then......
Transfer Desk / Baggage Delivery!
If one sentence describes the situation at Paris airport best, it’s this: “un gros bordel.”

Air France was completely overwhelmed. Not “a bit busy”. Not “operational challenges”. Just pure chaos.

We went to the transit desk, where a gentleman told us that we must collect our bags if we came because of a cancelled flight.
Actually every single staff member gave different instructions.
One says: Rebooked passengers go straight to the new gate.
Another says: No, rebooked passengers must collect luggage and check in again.
A third one: All passengers from cancelled flights have to collect their bags.
Alright then. Off to baggage claim.
At lost & found, the lady calmly announces it will take at least two hours until the luggage even arrives. Two! Hours!
Guess what, they never arrived. Hundreds of passengers were standing around one baggage belt, where bags would be delivered from thousands of stranded passengers.
They were sending people from one end to another, nobody seems to know what the other is doing. No coordination. No clear communication. No structure. Just a giant operational shrug.
After 3 hrs and 45min, our bags still didn't make it on the belt and I went to the lost & found counter again. The lady said that they will send the bags in the next days straight to the home address. So I filed a missed bag report.
Hundreds of passengers were queueing at Lost & Found
And customer service? Let’s not even start.
Business Class?
SkyPriority?
Elite status?
Completely useless when the system collapses. When things run smoothly, airlines love to talk about premium experience. When things fall apart, you’re just another confused passenger in the herd.
Because we didn't want to wait another 10 hours at the airport for the night flight to Zürich, we then headed to another Terminal (yes, Air France is not capable of having a ticket / service desk at all terminals) to see our rebooking options. No other options on Air France, one single option with another airline via another city arriving almost at the same time and no train tickets provided.
So we told them we do not accept the rebooking and ask for refund of the segment. The lady at the counter asked us to buy the train tickets ourselves and to send in all claims to customer service.
You can be sure they will hear from us.
Until this point we spend almost 6 hours at the airport. Absolutely nothing was done, no water, no drinks, no snacks and no vouchers, even they would have the obligation to care.
This was absolutely the worst ever experience in 29 years flying history. We have seen people crying, yelling and lost souls who are not familiar at all with the aviation world.
Air France, you are actually responsible for taking care of your passengers. Today you cheated your customers, left them out in the cold, and did absolutely nothing. No one cared, and passengers were crammed into the baggage claim area without any assistance. This was the easiest way to keep the customers quiet.
This was simply "un gros Bordel"
This case is definitely something for the French aviation authorities.
@Office Nationale de l'aviation civile.

But now to the flight.

On the Ground:
Check-in in Johannesburg was good and the agent was super friendly and helpful.
She chatted and interacted with us all the time. A really good check-in.
The queue at the Security Checkpoint was rather long today and waiting times were around 15 minutes.
No priority lane at the international departure for security.
Staff at the security point was okay. Nothing special, nothing bad.
Right after security in Johannesburg were the emigration counters. Also here a short queue of around 5 minutes.
Air France has contracted the Slow Lounge in Johannesburg as their lounge partner.
This lounge was a first for us and wowww, were we surprised to see such a beautiful lounge.
The lounge is super modern, build with lots of wood, blue, green turquoise colours. It is simply beautiful and one the nicest contracted Lounges we have seen in Johannesburg.
F&B offerings were good with a hot buffet, a very big cold buffet with different salads, cheese, sandwiches and other snacks. A very nice desert buffet with sweets and cakes and fresh fruits.
Non alcoholic drinks are self service, wine comes from a pouring machine and all other drinks are offered at a manned bar.
Staff was very friendly and attentive.
Boarding was indicated on the boarding pass at 18:30.
We arrived at the gate, which is just below the lounge at 18:25 and. Priority boarding was already completed and Economy was boarding.
Thanks to the prio lane we could skip the queue at the gate just to find out, that we were boarded into a hot, bad ventilated corridor and jetbride to stand another 15 minutes there.
Such a boarding makes no sense.
Staff at the gate was okay. Nothing special, just doing their jobs.
At the aircraft door we were greeted by a friendly purser.
No Cabin Crew was present in the cabin whilst boarding on this flight.
Once boarding was competent, the crew started serving the welcome drink consisting of orange juice and champagne.
Once the doors were closed, they distributed the amenity kits followed by the menu cards.
And it was time for pushback and departure, that is what we thought.
On the runway a technical problem and back to the stand.
On stand again the crew distributed hot towels and came to take the order for the main dishes.
New departure with a delay of 1 hr 43 minutes, which would result in a minimum connecting time we thought back then.
The seats were already equipped with a fluffy pillow, a cosy blanket, a mattress as well as some slippers.
The headphones and a small Evian water bottle was prepared in the little cabinet next to the seat.

The amenity kit is good and offers the regular content. (socks, toothbrush, eye mask, ear plugs, a pencil as well as some creams). They offer exactly what could be needed during a flight.

Inflight:
The Air France Opera Business Class on this Airbus A350-900 is Air France's newest Business Class.
The configuration is in a 1-2-1 abrest and all seats are actually suites with closing doors. The aircraft has a total of 48 business class seats in a forward section and a smaller section after door 2.
The seat is simply wowww and for us one of the best business class seats we have ever had. The color which Air France uses makes it stylish and classy and some deco items like the logo make it posh.
The suite seats are very comfortable and offer a stunning privacy. No one can see into your seat whilst they are seated.
Storage around the seat is absolutely sufficient and basically every seat has an own hat rack. Absolutely no problem with handlugage space.
Needless to say that all business class seats are fully lie flat and you have enough shoulder space as well as legroom space.
We really love these suite seats as you have enough space with your shoulders to sleep on your back.
The seat worked perfectly fine and I had a very good snooze on this flight.
After take off the cabin crew immediately started with the main service and the table were set up with a tablecloth and then they started by distributing the full size tray for dinner.
The tray consisted of an Amuse Bouche, a starter, a very very small salad (3 - 4 leaves) with balsamic dressing and some bread and butter.
Once you finished your starter, the crew cleared your plate and brought the hot meal and followed by the cheese.
Once you finished everything, the crew cleared the tray and offered desert and actively coffee and digestives.
Presentation of the food was good. Not as perfect as from Paris to JNB but good. As said, the salad was on the minimalistic side. The quality of the food was good.
During the night, the crew was not seen and you either had to ring the call button or go to the galley yourself if you wanted something.
No kiosk with drinks and snacks prepared or set up.
Around 1 hr 45 min prior arrival in Paris, the cabin crew started with the breakfast service.
They set up the table and distributed the full size tray.
The tray contained some fresh fruits, yoghurt and cereals, the main course option, bread with butter and jam and they offered a full drink service.
Also for breakfast, the food was super tasty, fresh and delicious.

Before landing at top of decent, the crew once more distributed hot towels to refresh for arrival.

The crew on this flight was much more reserved then the crew flying to Johannesburg. They were friendly, helpful when called or asked but they did not really interact with the passengers.
They did their job but without passion or class.

Bathrooms were checked throughout the flight and they were always clean and refilled.

The inflight entertainment is wowww. Each seat has a large ~20-inch, 4K Ultra-HD Touchscreen, one of the biggest business-class IFE screens in Air France’s long-haul fleet.
The system offers audio/video on demand with a wide selection of movies, TV shows, documentaries and more. You can pair your own Bluetooth headphones, connect devices, and even use your device as a remote. The offer hundreds of hours of entertainment in multiple languages.
Air France has begun installing Starlink high-speed Wi-Fi on its aircraft. The plan is to equip about 30 % of the fleet with Starlink by end of 2025 and the entire fleet (all A350s included) by end of 2026.
We were lucky to get a plane with Starlink. When Starlink is installed, the Wi-Fi is free and high speed for logged-in Flying Blue members (Air France’s loyalty program).
Honestly, this is a game changer for aircraft wifi and internet access.
Flight deck announcements on this flight were clear and well understandable, they could have been a little louder.
They made an announcement prior departure, informed after the technical issue and came back prior landing.
Cabin crew announcements were good. They were clear, understandable and exactly the right speed.
After the flight:
Read above, not going to repeat.
Our summary:
Air France is maybe able to deliver inflight product but their ground product and especially at their home hub was absolutely rock bottom, useless und the worst customer experience I have ever had and seen.
Here clearly shows that the promise makers (marketing, management, advertisement) are putting bars to high if the promise makers (staff, airport) has no idea and is clueless on how to deliver!
Air France, we will think twice or maybe three times again before rebooking them!
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
- If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share