Air France Business Class Review: Boeing 777-300ER New York to Paris
Not all business class flights are created equal. Quality can vary from airline to airline and even from plane to plane. Here’s my thoughts after flying Air France’s Boeing 777-300ER from JFK to CDG in business class.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.
For just a bit of context, I live in Chicago but took a positioning flight from ORD to JFK the night before this flight because the flight times worked better for me. As a result, I also had the opportunity to stay at the TWA hotel at JFK.
[Related: How positioning flights save time and money]
How to Book This seat
I booked these seats via AirFrance’s website 5 months out. The cost was 55,000 Flying Blue Miles + $186.60 in taxes & fees per person for this one-way flight.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue is a transfer partner with all 4 major banks, but I was sitting on a stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points I’d accumulated using my Chase Sapphire Reserve, so I transferred them from Chase.
Don’t transfer points from your bank until you’re certain of the flights you want and that they’re available. Once you transfer points out of the bank, you can’t transfer them back!
[Related: Credit card transfer partners explained]
To search award availability on Air France, you must be logged into your account. Creating one is easy if you don’t have one yet. Select “Book a Flight” and then toggle to “Book with Miles.” From there, you may need to play around with dates and airports in order to find availability, but I found flights from JFK to CDG in February 2024 for 55K points + taxes & fees. As a rule of thumb, the earlier you go book (about 11-12 months out), the more availability there is.
[Related: Step-by-step guide to booking this flight]
If flying business class isn’t important to you, Air France often has great deals for economy award seats too. In fact, we flew home from Paris to Chicago direct (in economy) for only 11,250 points + $146 per person!
Air France Business Class Lounge
Our flight didn’t depart until 9:30PM, so we had a plenty of time to kill after finishing up our workday and leaving the TWA Hotel. JFK is home to a Centurion Lounge (which was my first choice), but it is located in Terminal 4 and Air France flies out of 1. At JFK, you do have to exit security to go between terminals. We didn’t want to deal with TSA twice, so we headed to Terminal 1 and went the Air France lounge.
(With our Priority Pass, we actually had access to a couple additional lounges in Terminal 1, but Thomas didn’t want to “lounge hop,” so we stayed put in the Air France lounge).
To check into the lounge, we had to present our passports and boarding passes. They had to scan our passport into the system, but this allowed us to save time at the gate.
My first impression of the lounge was that it was dark and quiet. There was no music playing, which felt awkward.
I had seen information online that said those on the latest flights of the day (leaving around 11:30PM), could choose to eat their business class meal in the lounge instead of on-board. It said the food would be the exact same, but it would allow you more sleep. This didn’t appear to be an option for our flight, so we ate from the buffet downstairs. However, when I went upstairs, I saw people eating the plated meal who were on our flight. Next time, I’d ask.
In the future, I would take them up on this and skip my meal on board for an extra hour of potential sleep.
The food in the lounge was good, but nothing really jumped out at me. Salmon was the main option and it was well cooked and flavorful. I also was surprised at how much I liked the potato salad. Everything else was pretty forgettable and I’m pretty sure their smoothie was just a Naked juice.
There was not a full bar in this lounge, but instead a self-serve area with a few basic wine, beer, and soda offerings.
While I would take this lounge and free food any day over the overpriced and crowded terminal, I didn’t love the silent atmosphere and was ready to leave by the time our flight was boarding.
This lounge did also feature as Clarins spa, but I didn’t have time to check it out between eating and frantically searching for a converter after realizing I forgot to pack one (rookie mistake!).
[Related: Centurion Lounge first impressions]
Hard Product on the Boeing 777-300ER
A plane’s hard product refers to the physical parts that are connected to the plane. While something like blankets can be easily switched out and upgraded, the hard product cannot be. This includes the seat itself, the entertainment unit, etc.
When I booked this flight, I thought I’d be on Air France’s new business class hard product that features doors at each seat for privacy. But when we boarded, I noticed we were on the old product. Air France’s Boeing 777-300ER features a 1-2-1 business class configuration, so every seat has direct aisle access. The 2 center seats angle away from each other, so it’s not awkward if you don’t know the person sitting next to you.
We had seats at the bulkhead, but there was no extra legroom or any other noticeably difference from the other seats.
I had a window seat that had 2 windows. The storage on all window seats was near the windows, so I felt far from the views outside and didn’t have much privacy from the aisle. The entertainment screen stowed away at an awkward angle, but there was a button to push to move it. There was also a remote to control the TV.
The seat also had USB and universal outlets so I could charge my electronics. We were not permitted to have anything plugged in during taxi, takeoff, and landing.
The tray table came out from the storage area and unfolded to a good size. The storage area also had a little door to hold headphones and other accessories. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the extent of storage in the seat. There was a sign saying not to store anything under the foot rest, but I put my backpack there. I didn’t have a good place to put my shoes while my seat was flat, so I awkwardly stuffed them on the side.
The bathroom in the business class cabin was nearly identical to an economy class bathroom, but did have Clarins lotion available.
All these complaints are very minor and don’t detract from how great a lie-flat seat is on a 7 hour red-eye flight. The seat had less adjustability than ANA’s business class, but I had no problem being comfortable.
[Related: ANA’s business class review]
Amenity Kit
When we boarded, there was a pillow, blanket, coat hanger, water bottle and a pair of headphones in our seats. I’d read Air France business class reviews before and knew they usually provide amenity kits, but I started doubting we’d get one. However, shortly before takeoff, a flight attendant came around and let us pick between a blue or gray amenity kit. The contents were the same in both kits: a pair of socks, an eye mask, a toothbrush (with a cover), toothpaste, earplugs, Clarins lip balm & moisturizer, and a pen.
On red eye flights, being able to brush your teeth in the morning is so nice. I also used the eye mask while sleeping.
I did feel that Air France missed out on marketing by not branding most of the products in the amenity kit with their logo.
Food/Drinks
After we boarded, a flight attendant came around offering orange juice or water before takeoff. Meal service began shortly after we reached cruising altitude. Before each meal, we received hot towels and our tray tables were covered in white tablecloths.
The first thing to arrive was a glass of champagne and a packaged snack that was basically a French version of Ritz crackers with cheese. I opted to save my snack for later since it wouldn’t go bad.
Dinner service started with appetizers, a salad, cheeses, bread, and desserts all served at once. I would have preferred saving the desserts until the end, but that wasn’t a big deal. The cheeses and the lemon macaron were the standout favorites for me.
I had pre-selected my entree online in advance when I checked in for the flight and was served poulet with fois gras, mashed potatoes, and spinach. The chicken with fois gras kind of reminded me of meat loaf, but it was delicious. However, between eating in the lounge and it being well past my bedtime, I only took a few bites before I tried to get some sleep.
In the morning, I was asleep at the beginning of breakfast service and only woke up with enough time for a hot towel and a coffee. The flight attendant did offer a croissant as well, but I wasn’t really hungry yet.
Final thoughts
I wish I could say I slept like a baby and woke up refreshed upon landing in Paris, but that’s not what happened. Of our 7 hours in the air, there was severe turbulence for about 5 hours. In fact, the only times it was relatively calm were during dinner and breakfast service, so sleep didn’t come easy.
Obviously turbulence is largely out of the pilot’s control, so despite only sleeping about 2 hours, I would book this Air France Boeing 777-300ER business class flight again. There were some areas for improvement, and that’s what made me realize that just because a business class flight is a good deal (with point or cash), you might be getting what you paid for compared to more luxurious planes.
You may also like: