Air France airplane food
I've been reading travel blogs and about the tales of travel hackers. There's a lot of folks out there that travel for business, and then take those miles and use them for pretty awesome vacations. They used to get airline miles by tricking the U.S. Mint into an ultimately poor business transaction, but basically you see lots of people who use miles to fly business or first class for long haul flights. For the rest of us minions, we fly coach, because honestly, who the fuck has money for business class. So let's talk about flying coach for a minute. In the U.S., they rename it to 'Economy' class because it sounds nicer. It's coach though. For this trip, Steph and I flew Air France non-stop from NY to Paris, because why spend so much time in airports when you can fly non-stop? Well travel hackers do it differently because they get more miles by adding a leg to their trip, and most of them have lounge access so they relax with free alcohol and wifi. Again, normal people like to fly non-stop to get it over with. So let's look at what kinda food you get in coach class.
One nice thing about Air France is that they give you alcohol for free. Yes, you read that right, FREE ALCOHOL. In that first picture, what you see is some Dewar's and some brandy. Double fisting baby, it makes your coach flight all the more bearable. I didn't even drink as much as some other folks. There's wine too on Air France flights. Red or white, and basically for as long as you want it during dinner. The meal itself was way under seasoned. It needed a lot of salt and I was glad to find that the little salt packets greatly enhance the meal from "chicken" to chicken. The highlight of the dinner was actually a cold bean salad that I finished way too fast, hence no pictures of it. The dessert was either a dry cake/brownie, or some rice pudding, both would inspire tears.
After dinner they force you to close the shutter to the window because when you take a NY to Paris flight departing at night, you arrive in the morning. So they try to get you to sleep but the sleep is only for a few hours because they serve breakfast about an hour and a half before landing. While the alcohol made the coach meal tolerable, there was nothing to rescue the breakfast.
Breakfast comes in three parts: yogurt, muffin, and orange juice. They also offer coffee, but that is standard practice I think. The yogurt was inoffensive and generally edible. Flavor was lacking, and it's definitely not Greek yogurt. For airplane food, this was aight. The muffin though... I dunno, it was not good. After two bites, I gave up and just settled on the minute maid orange juice. Surprisingly refreshing on a long flight.
Soon after they cleared our meal, the plane began it's decent towards CDG airport. They flight right over Paris and you a nice aerial view of the generally flat, but very memorable city. It's not like flying over NYC with the tall buildings, but with mostly short buildings, you can make out the details pretty easily. You can see the two little islands in the river and the gardens that are scattered through the city. After landing, there's another three hour train ride, and then vacation starts!
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The food is way better in business on AF. Even so, I just put on the eye-patch thingie and tell them "non merci" and knock out for the entire flight.
FN
September 9, 2011 8:17 am
I was just in Paris over the summer, albeit only for three days. Where are you going, Versailles? I don't think I have to tell you this, but eat as many pastries and croissants as humanly possible. If you are spending some time in Paris, I wrote about the pattiseries and bakeries that I went to that you may find handy. Enjoy your vacation.
Kevin
September 9, 2011 10:00 am
@FN,
haha, I will never know what business class food tastes like on AF. The eye patch thingy is cool though, it helps for getting to sleep. Have to agree with the strategy for sleeping the whole flight, since if you get 7 hrs of sleep and wake up to the morning, it can help trick your mind.
@Kevin,
I'll be in Brittany and Paris. Versailles is on the agenda for sure, and the other days in Paris will be filled with assaults on pastry shops and my waistline.
Danny
September 9, 2011 5:07 pm
While in Paris, if you're looking for something high on the "Frenchie" scale and easy on the wallet:
http://pufflist.blogspot.com/2010/06/chez-paul-paris.html
FN
September 10, 2011 6:40 am
I think the food is supposed to be a bit bland because health-wise, it is not advised to consume too much sodium and caffeine while on flight. Considered that it's only a trancontinental flight, AF's food offering is pretty decent I think. As for American airlines...
I really enjoyed Virgin when I flew with them a few years back.
Is this an impromptu trip or planned? Have fun!
kim
September 10, 2011 1:47 pm
@FN,
Ah, thanks for the tip. We have the food for Paris planned out almost already. I'll keep Paul in mind though. We kept a couple of days open just in case we need something like this. Speaking of 'Frenchie' places, have you been to Frenchie?
@kim,
Oh yes, Virgin airlines is awesome. They give you free redbull! can't argue with that! And I agree, for coach fare, Air France easily beats out their US competition. And it's a planned trip, I can't afford to take impromptu trips to Europe! That euro-dollar exchange rate is killer.
Danny
September 10, 2011 5:29 pm
Yep, been. If you don't already have a reservation, I hope you got some rosary beads....
http://pufflist.blogspot.com/2010/11/frenchie-paris.html
FN
September 10, 2011 6:33 pm
@FN,
damn, all out of rosary beads... haha, yea we've tried calling and hell, they just don't pick up sometimes. Oh well, maybe next time for that then!
Danny
September 11, 2011 7:32 am