After two amazing weeks crisscrossing the globe for our honeymoon it was time to head home. We flew into Athens the day before from Santorini and spent the afternoon exploring the city. The next morning, we were up early and met our driver downstairs at 3:45a for the ride from the Moxy Athens out to the airport.
Booking
This flight was booked using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles transferred over from American Express Membership Rewards. I originally booked 2 tickets in business class (ATH-AMS-AUS) for 55,000 Flying Blue miles each on KLM. A month or so before departure, our plans changed and we needed to be back in Dallas, so I swapped our routing to Air France Business ATH-CDG-DFW. Air France had availability for the same number of points, so I just had to pay a small difference in taxes and fees.
Arrival and Check-In
We pulled up to the terminal at 4:25a and headed for the AirFrance/KLM check in desks. There were a few passengers in the Sky Priority Lane but the line moved quickly and we had our bags tagged and boarding passes through to DFW in under 5 minutes. We were also given an invitation to the Goldair Lounge, which is the contract lounge used by Air France in Athens.
With nobody in front of us in Fast Track security, we were through in seconds and made our way through the duty-free maze towards gate B13 and the lounge.
Lounge
Air France uses the Goldair Handling CIP Lounge in Athens, which I already reviewed in detail. The lounge wasn’t spacious but was clean and well stocked. It certainly was better than spending time in the terminal where many of the food and beverage options had not yet opened.
Boarding
Our flight was departing from nearby gate B7, so we headed down to the gate at T-5. I’m not sure if it was due to the early morning departure or if the Greeks are much more polite than your average American traveler, but there was no crowding at the gate and soon Zone 1 was invited to board.
Air France
AF 1033
ATH-CDG (Athens International – Paris Charles de Gaulle International)
Seat: 3D (Business)
A320-200 (F-HEPE)
Scheduled: 6:15a-8:50a
Actual: 6:11a-8:47a
Seat
I assigned us seats 3D and 3F, the aisle and window on the right side of the plane. I typically like to sit in row 1 when flying EuroBusiness as it provides a bit of extra legroom (since European Business Class consists of Economy seats with a blocked middle) but Mrs. ATX Jetsetter likes being able to have her bag close by.
The seat pitch was extremely tight, especially for my 6’ 2” frame.
Departure
As boarding was wrapping up, the flight attendant working the Business Class cabin came around with a bottle of water and sanitizing wipe for each passenger. We also got our first glimpse of the sun coming above the horizon.
We pushed off the gate a few minutes early and taxied out to runway 21L. With no traffic this early in the morning, we were immediately cleared for departure and took off towards the southwest before turning west to head for Paris.
In-Flight
Once airborne, the flight attendants sprung into action. While they worked on breakfast they closed the galley curtain and made announcements enforcing that the front lavatory was for Business class passengers only.
Breakfast was served on a single tray and consisted of some pineapple that was at the “use by” date, some sort of terrible pancake and cheese looking sandwich that I took one bite of, and a croissant served with butter and jelly which was decent. Overall the meal could be described as mediocre at best. Not sure if it was the outstation catering or what, but I expected a little more imagination here.
After breakfast I napped for a bit, on and off, which helped pass the time. We also got some great views out of the window and soon we were on our approach to Paris.
From the right side of the aircraft you could see the city center of Paris off in the distance and we got a close-up of Le Bourget airport on our final approach.
Arrival
Once on the ground, we had a long taxi over to Terminal 2F where we pulled in a couple minutes ahead of schedule. From there, we followed the transfer signs through the maze that is Paris-Charles de Gaulle over to Terminal 2K for our final leg back to Dallas.
Summary
This flight was your typical EuroBiz experience. The seats are extremely tight if you aren’t in the bulkhead and the food wasn’t that great. Compared to our flight from Amsterdam to Athens with Aegean, this one was somewhat disappointing. The crew was the high point of this flight but they can only do so much to make up for the hard product and what was loaded by catering.
