Air France Business Class is not Business Class

smurfjed

I got caught by this a few months ago, so yesterday when we started looking at a domestic flight within France I checked that they did actually have a Business Class on that aircraft. Both the Air France site and SeatGuru showed 40 business seats.
We got the 500 Euro tickets, assigned seat 3A, and then discovered that only the first two rows were considered business. Our colleague who only had an economy ticket was sitting one row behind us, and his seat cost 109 Euro.
It’s company money, not mine, but I still think that this is false selling.

So beware, Air France domestic flights may or may not have a business class, but they will sell you a business ticket.

Caranica

Same with short haul eg Paris to Dublin. The aircraft is too small to facilitate different seating types. The only difference is empty middle seat and better food and drink, and usually a dedicated member of cabin crew. Not worth paying for but enjoyable all the same.

It's not unique to Air France either. Flew Swiss to Zurich in Business and it was the same set up. Did have delicious steak though!

smurfjed

Steak? I wish, we got one glass of orange juice as we were physically sitting in their economy class.

Rather than 40 business seats, they had 8.

0lddog

Is it perhaps something like Shamrock's european Aerspace offering ?



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Tenzor07

smurfjed wrote: »

We got the 500 Euro tickets

a domestic flight within France

It’s company money, not mine.

Wow, any jobs going at this company?? :eek:

killbillvol2

Caranica wrote: »

Same with short haul eg Paris to Dublin. The aircraft is too small to facilitate different seating types. The only difference is empty middle seat and better food and drink, and usually a dedicated member of cabin crew. Not worth paying for but enjoyable all the same.

It's not unique to Air France either. Flew Swiss to Zurich in Business and it was the same set up. Did have delicious steak though!

The only European airline I can remember flying with in recent years with proper Business Class seats was Turkish.

Air France, KLM, Swiss, Lufthansa, BA and Finnair (on the A319) all had a free middle seat at best.

smurfjed

smurfjed wrote: »

I got caught by this a few months ago, so yesterday when we started looking at a domestic flight within France I checked that they did actually have a Business Class on that aircraft. Both the Air France site and SeatGuru showed 40 business seats.
We got the 500 Euro tickets, assigned seat 3A, and then discovered that only the first two rows were considered business. Our colleague who only had an economy ticket was sitting one row behind us, and his seat cost 109 Euro.
It’s company money, not mine, but I still think that this is false selling.

So beware, Air France domestic flights may or may not have a business class, but they will sell you a business ticket.

75% refund on ticket price in that case.

jhegarty

If you paid for business and got economy then EU261 compo applies.

JohnCleary

As far as i'm concerned, there's no such thing as real business class within Europe.

Heck, even my recent DUB - IST 'business' class did not feel like real business class... the planes are too small.

Business exists on largeer planes such as A380 / 777 / 787 / A330 / A350.

scout353

And the more expensive fares just provide a greater degree of freedom to change flights, times etc.

With the short haul aircraft (A320/321 or the Boeing 737's) they just keep the middle seat free for the business passengers and they have the adjustable curtain that slides forward or back depending in the number of business seats they have sold.

As John Cleary says you really have to move to the long haul aircraft for dedicated BC.

AndyBoBandy

Had similar on Iberia on an A320 about 10 years ago flying from Madrid to Bilbao, first 5-6 rows had no one sitting in the middle seat, a dedicated member of cabin crew, and fancier snacks, oh and a curtain behind row 5.

I remember seeing all the lovely looking sandwiches going down to the economy section, and I ended being given some fancy looking paté thing that was awful!!

smurfjed

As John Cleary says you really have to move to the long haul aircraft for dedicated BC.

Not really, i shall climb on an A320 tomorrow for a 5 hour flight to Geneva which is fitted with proper business class seats, 2 seats x 2 and almost fully reclining.

The aircraft i flew on last week was an E190, so 2x2 seating. My issue was that the ticket I had was a business class seat and we were behind the curtain, so zero service associated with business class yet we paid for it.

First Up

JohnCleary wrote:

Heck, even my recent DUB - IST 'business' class did not feel like real business class... the planes are too small.

Depends on the aircraft used on the day. I fly Turkish regularly and it really is lucky dip; sometimes a proper Business configuration and others, just the middle seat knocked out to make two slightly bigger ones.