Aberdeen – Paris – Friday
After work on Friday I headed to the airport for my 5pm flight. Working right next to the airport, I left the office at 4, and had parked the car, dropped off my bag and cleared security by 4.30. The joys of regional airports!
The departure boards flashed up “boarding” and at the same time the inbound pulled onto the stand. We were delayed 30 minutes, but no announcement was made. The aircraft was wearing the new Air France logo, which now features extra large “Operated By Regional” titles, so I snapped a quick photo.
When I checked in online, I was offered row 20 on an Embraer, which the online checkin claimed was an emergency exit row. I was intrigued as to how this was the case, as from experience the Embraers do not have an emergency exit row – sure enough row 20 was the last row, with a bulkhead behind. No emergency exit, and no extra legroom. Oh well.
The flight was full, and I had a rather attractive French girl for company – normally I would take a video on takeoff and landing, but given the present company, I decided not to look too sad. As a result there are no further pictures or videos of this leg – it was uneventful anyway!
We soon landed on runway , as we always seem to do, and took the usual 15 minute taxi to the other side of the airport, only to be bussed back to where we started!
A bit of a wait for baggage, then on to our hotel at the airport for the night.
Saturday – Paris – London – A380
We woke early on the Saturday, and headed back to the airport for our 10am Airbus A380 flight to Heathrow. We left our bags in the hotel, so all we had to do was reprint our boarding passes, then head through security. My friend was is a FlyingBlue Gold member, so we headed to the Business Lounge for a champagne breakfast.
We weren't in the lounge for too long before it was time to head to the gate.
We took the obligatory group shot of us standing infront of the A380 (joined by some random ginger kid!) then boarded.
We were on the lower deck for this flight, right at the back to try and get a good impression of the size of this thing. Boarding took a while due to the flight being full (I believe it was oversold by 20), but soon we were onboard and found our seats. Boarding is done via a dual jetbridge, with the upper jetbridge connected to the top floor of the terminal and therefore Business Class lounge, while those travelling in upper deck economy queue downstairs, then take an escalator up to the upper jetbridge. The config was 3-4-3 downstairs (2-4-2 upstairs in economy – see return leg report for details)
Leg room was pretty average, as were the seats, it was slightly dissapointing really. The interior was quite plasticy, and the carpets were poorly fitted, and a little torn already, despite being less than a year old. The window consisted of a standard size outer pane, with a much larger inner pane set back a few inches, which made the windows appear much larger than they actually are. I felt Air France could have done a lot more with their economy product, it was no different than any other aircraft in their fleet.
As we pushed back from the stand, the monitor on the back of the seat spring into life, showing us a view from the tail mounted camera.
This remained on for takeoff, and again for landing. The takeoff run was relatively short, due to the light loading in terms of fuel and cargo, and very quiet (you dont really appreciate just how quiet it is, but having just taken a 737-300 flight, I know realise how much quieter it really is!). My friend had the window seat going out, so I filmed the camera view for takeoff and landing.
Once airborne the IFE was turned on, although headsets werent given out due to the flight being a mere 40 minutes! Once on, there are three cameras to select – the tailfin camera which was on during takeoff, a nose camera, and a downward facing camera. I had a quick flick through the options on the IFE, and the choice of programs was fairly limited, I find BA longhaul IFE offers a much better selection. The cabin crew began the inflight service – just the normal regional flight service of booze and a biscuit. They were about halfway through serving our section when we started the descent to Heathrow. Thankfully we still got a beer though!
The IFE was soon switched off and replaced with the tailcam view as we came in to land at Heathrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6rSCGjyZV0
The landing was a little heavy, (see this video of us landing). We taxiid to Terminal 4, and had a slight wait while the jetbridge was attached – we were informed by the crew that this was the first time the ground staff had used a jetbridge on an A380 so there may be a slight delay.
A few minutes later we were off, at the gate there were a lot of people standing around with high vis jackets on, a numer of them with “Airbus” written on the jackets. You would have thought that Heathrow would be used to handling the A380 given that Qantas, Singapore and Emirates all fly there daily with A380s. There was also a woman standing there with a sign reading “Passengers returning to Paris today”, as we were returning to Paris on the return leg, we identified ourselves, and were told to just go to the Transfer queue rather than clearing passport control (which we intended to do anyway!). It seems there were quite a few people doing the A380 daytrip option like ourselves, and by the look of it we could have also taken our bags with us and checked them right through back to Paris. Oh well. Once inside the terminal, some BAA employees handed out some booklets - “BAA Welcomes Air France A380 Passengers”. As you would expect from BAA, it contained information about all the retail facilities available in T4!
We then proceeded direct to the lounge!
Saturday – London – Paris – A380
We soon found the SkyTeam lounge in T4, and grabbed something to eat from the buffet, as well as the obligatory beer to wash it down. We had two hours to wait for the return journey, so we made the most of it. We had a slight mixup with the boarding times, thinking we were due to board at xx, when infact we were due to board 10 minutes earlier. We were cutting it fine for what we thought was boarding time, when we got there we were expecting to find the large queues we had at CDG, but were greeted by an empty queue, and a boarding gate sign flashing “closing”. Oops – we cut it a bit fine! We were on the upper deck this time, so once through the queue at the gate, we took an escalator upstairs and boarded via the upper jetbridge. The stairs in the A380 seem to be rarely used, due to the dual jetbridges. We found our seat, once again quite far back, but this time discovered the config was 2-4-2. This configuration doesnt quite fill the aircraft, so the gap left at the side is used for lockers – similar to the 747 upper deck, although this is typically used for business class passengers. The lockers were surprisingly deep, and offered a lot of storage space (albeit only for small items), from my experience in Business class, these are very handy, allowing you to get everything you might ever want from your bag, saving you having to get up during the flight. A welcome addition to economy class!
The flight soon pushed back, watched by quite a few ground handlers, surely they are used to seeing A380's, but it still brought a croud. I had the window this time, so took a few videos out the side rather than of a monitor. Airborne once again quite quickly, and rather silently.
We climbed out, and the cabin crew began quickly serving drinks (again only getting halfway before we started descending). Searching through the IFE, we discovered the chat facility (which I didnt even know existed), and were soon joined by a few other passengers who also found it. It offered a unique opportunity to chat to fellow passengers, and could be quite fun on long haul flights! (although the controller takes a bit of getting used to!).
I also noticed the “mood lighting” in effect this time, I dont know if it was on during the first leg or not, but I never noticed it. Again it was a little underwhelming.
The brief flight soon came to an end with another heavy landing, followed by another long taxi to stand. We headed up to the cockpit for a visit. Business class looked a little basic, not as good as BAs lie flat product, and we didnt find first class (I think it was downstairs). Upstairs next to the cockpit there is a small area where passengers can meet and chat.
I didnt find the casino, jacuzzi or bars that were promised when the A380 launched... maybe only virgin will be offering them? *-)
We proceeded down the staircase at the front of the A380, taking a photo as we did so (not exactly the Grand Staircase of the Titanic though!).
On the outbound flight, we were all handed certificates, which sadly we both ended up leaving in the seatback pockets. We hoping they would hand out more on the return, but didnt. However when we asked they had plenty left, and gave us another one. We proceeded to the cockpit and got the pilots to sign them for us. Strangely, we were not allowed to take photos in the cockpit, which was a little disappointing. The cockpit is fairly spacious, and has two small rooms off to the side of it for crew rest, these appear to contain two armchairs, although these may recline into a bed, i'm not sure. (there was also an elevator on the lower deck, midway, which we assumed lead to the crew rest for the cabin crew).
That was the end of our A380 experience, so we returned to the hotel to collect our bags, then headed into Paris to find our next hotel. All in all, I was a little disappointed by the A380. I was hoping to find a much superior product, but it seems to be no different than any other longhaul airliner in the Air France fleet. I cant see any reason to choose an A380 over a 747/777 with Air France, the only benefit is the reduced noise. I cant see the A380 revolutionising travel, at least not if Air Frances product is anything to go by!
Sunday – Paris – Aberdeen
We had plenty of time before our flight back on the Sunday, so we decided to grab some lunch at a typical French streetside cafe, before heading to the airport 2 hours before our flight so we could make the most of our lounge access. Getting there by train proved to be no issue, but as always navigating CDG proved hassle some as always. My friend checked in through the business class lane, and as there was next to no queue at econmy, I decided to just check in there. What I hadnt realised, was the queue was further down! The queue was split in two, with a large queue at zone 7, and a tiny queue at zone 6. Despite selecting the shorter queue, it still took an hour to drop off a single bag!
We headed to security, and this time I follwed my friend through the business class lane – even still it took a long time. We finally reached the business lounge just 10 minutes before boarding for my flight was due to start! We grabbed a quick beer and downed it, then headed to the gate. I left on time, and got bussed across the airfield once again to a remote corner. My friends flight was a little after mine, and delayed a few minutes. He was also bussed to the same area, and managed to snap a photo of my plane pushing back. We were upgraded to an Embraer 190 this time, still in the old colours. Another long taxi to the other side of the airfield for takeoff, followed by another uneventful flight back to Aberdeen.
All in all, I was unimpressed by the A380, and re-discovered why I despise CDG airport!
