Air France

Air France provides four cabin classes of service on many of its intercontinental flights. First, Business, Premium Economy and Coach. All flight attendants speak both English and French and they are really nice, well trained and smiley.
We flew Premium Economy on the way to Europe and Business on the way back.
Premium Economy has better seats than Coach, personal video and music screens, better food and free drinks throughout the whole flight. Still the seats do not recline 180 degrees, but maybe 120.
Business is just wonderful. Seats are lie-​flat, the dinner is a 5 course meal with great wines and champagnes to choose from. It is definitely a better way to travel, but much more expensive.
Depending on the time/​season you fly, the Premium Economy can be 2−3x the price of a coach ticket, while the Business class seat can cost 4−7x more than coach.

Every once in a while it’s good to travel to someplace like France to remind ourselves how comparatively good it is to live in America. France is beautiful and the people are nice once you penetrate their hard veneer, but Air France is to be avoided if at all possible. I booked them this last trip because it was the only direct flight available for my travel dates and I wish I hadn’t. Bought seats four months ago, this time for a family vacation, and was never able to reserve seats either way. If you call customer service here you get one of their American partners who are looking at the same web interface that I am looking at and inevitably end up falling back on «I’m sorry but Air France won’t let us do that.» What? I’m sorry but you are state side customer service for Air France and you can’t reserve my seats 4 months, 3 months, 2 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 week, 2 days, 1 day ahead of time. «Don’t worry Air France is very good about accommodating families.» Now they have the 5 of us scattered all over the plane in center seats. No two of us are together. Did I mention this is a family vacation and I have kids?

My husband used to live in Paris, so I traveled a lot over the course of 2 years. Because I had points on American Airlines, I would fly with them during the summer months (when they flew nonstop BOS-​CDG). During the winter months, I flew Air France (and flying again next week).
To compare the coach class — Air France is FAR superior to American. The seats are more comfortable, the amenties are better (TV screens at every seat, including little games), the food is much, much better.
Comparing business class (one business trip on AF, and American upgraded me because of my gold status) — Air France is again FAR superior. The seats are better, the amenties are superb. The meals are fantastic, champagne at every turn.
The flight attendants are French, so there’s a little attitude, but they’re very pleasant.
For the most part, I’ve found the Air France prices and schedules to be better than American, which is disappointing, because I have tons of miles still with American.
Overall, I find the Air France experience between BOS and CDG to be very enjoyable.

I flew Air France during the last holiday season from Logan to Charles de Gaulle to Moscow. Overall I had a very pleasant experience.
The international terminal at Logan is MUCH MUCH better than the domestic terminals, looks very spiffy and world class inside, and seems to be better organized in spite of the large crowds.
The flight between BOS — CDG was on a 747 jumbo jet, which translated to a silky smooth ride with no turbulence (yes I am a sissy and get scared on coast to coast flights which always seem to have periods of shaking). The food was seriously amazing, I do not go to fancy restaurants too often but I think the meal they served would not be out of place in one. There was smoked salmon appetizer, followed by grilled chicken with potatoes and a really tasty cream sauce, free wine, and drinks. One of the best airline meals I’ve had.
The flight from CDG to Moscow was a level below, smaller plane (although very empty) and the food was actually quite bad, I don’t remember what it was but I didn’t eat it. The flights were on time.
Now for the negatives. On the way back the passenger next to me pushed the flight attendant call button and no one ever responded. Also, Charles de Gaulle airport is ultra modern and nice looking inside, but has a serious lack of dining options. I did not really see any restaurants or cafes, just stores with sandwiches costing almost 10 Euros that tasted very meh. They did have Playstation 3’s in the airport that were free to play though. Overall Air France is probably my favorite airline at this point.

My experience with Air France might be colored by the fact that I got seated in the emergency exit row both ways. Which translates to the most comfortable seat you can have in coach. Some airlines don’t let their emergency row seats recline, but Air France does. You have all the legroom you need and still get the tv (complete with video games and such). The flight staff was fantastic, they spoke French to you initially and allowed you to attempt an answer in butchered French, but didn’t judge me when I switched to English. I actually really liked that they spoke French to me, even though I’m basically limited to «Gin et Tonic» in terms of my French vocabulary. It’s good for us self-​centered Americans to get out of our comfort zone and at least try to navigate a different language and culture.
The food was better than any airline food I’ve had. The cheese and bread was decent, and the wine was definitely a welcome plus. I’d definitely fly them again, and hope that someday traveling becomes somewhat affordable again!

Flying 17 hours (not including 4 hour layover in Paris) from Boston to Bangalore on one airline can provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the service. Let’s face it, stuck with the same people for 17 hours under any circumstances can be a harrowing experience. Even in business class. I can only imagine what the sorry bastards in coach were experiencing. From the start the flight crew assumed everyone was French or French speaking so they would address you in French. This annoyed me. Although I did subject myself to high school French (because the French teacher was hotter than the Spanish teacher not to mention that the Spanish teacher was a male, not that there’s anything wrong with that) I am not able to converse intelligently. So I uttered the few words I remembered, «oui, bonjour, merci» Whenever the attendants came around the cabin I would toss out whatever French word or phrase that came to mind, fromage, le bifteck, je né sais pas, Dieu merci, c’est vendredi! like some demented form of Tourettes. I even tossed in some Italian words to spice things up, saltimbocca, bruschetta, zuppa de pesce, etc. The attendants were either ignoring me or were accustomed to such bizarre behavior from those about to travel half-​way around the world. Overall I’d describe the attendants as competent and tolerant of non-​French speaking travelers. I expected the cuisine to be better. God knows how long the food sits around before it’s loaded on a flight. The rolls were decent as were the cheeses and wine. My favorite feature was the plane’s belly camera which you can access from the TV screen in front of you. Way cool. The fully reclining seats were a godsend but I kept wrestling with the bending reading light thingie like it was an anaconda.
I’d fly them again if I were on a business trip but if I were paying I might try a different airline. 3.5 stars

Man, I fly a bunch, it seems… My ex girlfriend spoke French (and disliked Americans), I do not appreciate the Francophile laws in Quebec. People like English better… Deal with it. I really do not like French food.
Yet, Air France deserves 4 stars. It is a great alternative to fly across the pond. The seats are comfortable. The staff is attentive, and they seem to understand to leave you alone and keep the announcements to a minimum