[JFK-BUD] Air France Business Class: Short & Sweet Review
When we started traveling, I never imagined that I would start a travel blog - which means that I don’t have a lot of pictures that I intentionally took for this purpose. Nevertheless, I wanted my first airline/flight review to be this one because it was one of the best flight experiences throughout our travel journey. So, I will keep it short and sweet.
Air France Lounge at JFK
When we were headed to Budapest, our flight was at 10:00PM out of JFK (we intentionally book redeye flights for flights over 6 hours because we want Eli to sleep on the plane). So we got there early to plan ahead - and by plan ahead, I mean make sure Eli had time to burn off his energy. Luckily, because we booked business class tickets, we were able to utilize the Air France lounge.
The lounge is two stories and a decent size. A great thing about Air France is that you can elect to have your in-flight dinner for redeye flights in the lounge instead so that you can get much needed sleep. However, there was a great buffet available when we walked in so we just decided to try what was already available. The selection of foods were great and they were on a constant rotation. Drinks are abundant and staff inside the lounge were quite lovely.
How cool is it to watch planes arrive and take off while having dinner?
However, our plan didn’t go as planned. The flight was delayed for about 3 hours due to a flooding issue at one of the gates. We were extremely anxious because we had a connecting flight in Paris to Budapest. To make sure that we had a flight when we arrived in Paris, we went to the ticketing agents inside the lounge. As surprising as it may sound, I often get nervous with airline agents (especially at JFK) because I’ve encountered one too many rude agents when asking a simple question. However, the Air France agents were sympathetic and made us feel at ease by immediately rebooking our connecting flight on the spot.
In-Flight Experience
Eli fell asleep while we were waiting for our delayed flight, but quickly woke up as we boarded. Needless to say he was so excited to finally take off with a welcome orange juice in his hand. Thankfully, he quickly fell back asleep shortly after departing and slept throughout almost the entire flight.
The in-flight experience was nothing short of amazing. As soon as we boarded, the flight attendants took our heavy jackets to store on a hanger for us. Meal service started pretty quickly after departure (given the time after the delay) and the flight attendants were quick, attentive, and lovely. We were pretty tired from the delayed so we quickly turned out seats into a bed and slept for a few hours. As far as the food quality goes, there is really not much I can say - I’m not a “foodie” per se and fancy cuisine like foie gras is not my food of choice. I tried it, because that’s what I got, but I can’t definitively say whether it was “good” or not. The breakfast, on the other hand, was wonderful with warm pastry and amazing butter.
After much needed sleep and wonderful breakfast, we landed in Paris CDG airport.
Connection from CDG - BUD
Because of the delay at JFK, our connecting flight was rebooked to a flight departing 6 hours later from our original flight. While we were tired from the longer than anticipated flight schedule, having access to the Air France lounge at CDG made the experience a lot more comfortable. The AF lounge is HUGE compared to the one in JFK. While waiting, I was able to book a complimentary mini facial at the lounge’s Shiseido spa. If you’re at the lounge, I highly recommend this experience - but make sure to book a slot as soon as you get to the lounge as it gets booked pretty quickly and there were multiple people who were turned away while I was getting my facial. Besides the wonderful spa, there are multiple rooms for sleeping and shower facilities to freshen up.
End to our Journey
When it finally came to board our connecting flight to Budapest, Eli handed the flight crew goodie bags he made the night before, filled with “American” sweets. The crew was so sweet in thanking him and let him go meet the pilot in the cockpit. The pilot was also wonderful and let him sit in his seat, and gladly took some pictures with him (needless to say this was Eli’s highlight of the trip).
