Trip report BIQ (Biarritz) – CDG-MAN-CDG-BIQ on AF

Notes:

I have never written a proper trip report before. I’ve tried to include as much as possible. Feel free to suggest improvements.

All times stated are LOCAL times

This is LONG (over 4000 words)!

Last weekend, I went back to Manchester to visit my girlfriend and to go to a Fairport Convention concert. It turned out that I would have more to do on the weekend as my girlfriend had a bad motorway accident the night before I was due to go there so after the concert, we took her to casualty.

This was for me a trip of firsts. It was the first time I’d flown with Air France, the first time I’d flown from Biarritz, The first time I’d flown in to CDG, the first time I’d flown on an A318 and the first time I’d flown in to or out of Manchester. OK, those were the uninteresting details, now on to the report!

I woke up at 3:30 and left my flat in Irun, Spain at 4:35 on Saturday morning (5th June) for the 25 minute walk across the French border to Hendaye, where I caught the TGV to Biarritz. I arrived at the airport at 6:00 for a 7:15 flight. Very late for me but there were no earlier trains. Check in was quick and efficient and I had both boarding passes by 6:02. The trip was going well so far!

I cleared security without problems (no one questioned me about my electric shaver for anyone who remembers my thread from about a week ago) and headed to boarding gate 6. Biarritz is a very nice airport and, once airside, the views are great. It was quite busy that morning with an AF A319 going to Orly, an ERJ145 going to Clermont-Ferrand and a Beech 1900 (I think but am not 100% certain) bound for Lyon. At 6:45 we were called to board our A319 that would take us to CDG.

AF7635 05/06/2004 Airbus A319 F-GRXE (Delivered May 2002)

STD: 07:15
OFF BLOCKS: 07:10
WHEELS UP: 07:17
T/O Runway: 09

STA: 08:45
LANDING: 08:30
ON BLOCKS: 08:36
Landing Runway: 26R

Boarding was swift and I was the first on. As I passed the Flight Attendant on boarding, I asked if I could have a look in the cockpit. At that exact moment, the Captain came out and she asked him in French if I could. He then replied with three words I will not forget for the rest of my life. “Prendant le vol” (during the flight), he asked. I was stunned and all I could say was “Oui!”. He then asked me in French why I wanted to go up and as my French is very limited & I was still in shock, I reverted back to English and told him that I was an aviation enthusiast. He then said he was sure it would be fine for 5 minutes.

So, back to the flight, as you can see, we pushed back 5 minutes early for our 1 hour 25 minute flight to CDG. The take off was quite fast and powerful (surprising for an Airbus 😉 ) and we were soon climbing away with a fantastic view of the Pyrenees out of my window. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day in the South of France.

I was seated in 6F, which is a convertible Business/Economy row so the legroom was great. The seat was very comfortable with adjustable winged headrests. The cabin was spotless and I thought the aircraft was newer than it actually was.

The cabin service was quite slow starting but once the crew got going, they were very good. The snack this morning was either a Pain au Chocolat or a Pain au Raisin. I chose the Pain au Raisin and it was excellent but quite small. I also had a cup of coffee with it but was a little disappointed as it was instant coffee. If that was the worst aspect of my trip, I wasn’t complaining. It appeared that Business Class had the same food/drinks as economy and they didn’t even get the middle seat free so apart from the bonus FF miles, I can’t see any purpose in Business on these routes.

We began our descent at 7:53 & I was getting a bit worried that the Captain had forgotten me so I went to the front of the cabin and asked the Flight Attendant what was happening. She said that the Captain had two friends jumpseating but she’d see what she could do. She soon informed me that I could go in for a few minutes. I was delighted. We were just passing 27,000 feet on our initial descent in to CDG. The captain was really nice & apologised for not being able to show me around properly but he was very busy and there were 2 other people there as well (who got to stay in the jumpseats for landing. Had they not been there, I’m sure I would have had the jumpseat).

I returned to my seat & strapped myself in for landing still absolutely amazed that I got in a cockpit in flight. I had heard that AF still allow it but didn’t think I’d get in, as I have nothing to do with aviation.

We were informed that the weather in Paris was cloudy and 14ºC. The approach was pretty bumpy as the clouds were fairly low. We touched down on runway 26R at 8:30 and were on our remote stand at 8:36. As we were landing, I was able to see the collapsed section of 2E. It looks much worse when you see it in person than in pictures and was very eerie.

A mobile lounge arrived to pick us up and I thanked both the cabin crew and the captain for an excellent flight. We disembarked in to terminal 2D and it was a short walk to 2F where my connecting flight to Manchester was due to leave from.

Overall I was incredibly impressed with Air France at the moment. The flight was early. The aircraft was clean and comfortable. The 3 female and one male cabin crew were excellent, always helpful and smiling and of course the flight deck visit added to my good impression of Air France. One interesting thing was that in-flight magazines were only available at the gate before boarding the aircraft. I think this is a good idea as only those who want one will take one & they will not just be used for writing or drawing on.

The only two negative points I could find were: 1. The coffee was instant which I really do not like but that’s just me being fussy. 2. On arrival at CDG, the Gentleman in the aisle seat in my row had difficulties walking and so needed a wheelchair for his transfer to terminal 1. He was told that he would have to go alone and his travelling companion would meet him somewhere in the terminal as the bus to transport him from the aircraft to the terminal was only insured for the wheelchair passenger. He understandably did not want to do this so had to walk. I do realise that this was probably nothing to do with AF and was an Aéroports de Paris decision but I feel this could have been handled better.

OK, on with the report. The connection from 2D to 2F was painless and once I was in 2F, I was able to see plenty of AF 777’s as well as a 747 and an A330. The engines on the 777 just dwarf those of the A330 and once again showed me that I do indeed prefer Boeing aircraft even thought I’d just had a great flight on an A319. I hung around my departure gate watching the aircraft until we were called for boarding.

AF1968 05/06/2004 Airbus A318 F-GUGC (Delivered October 2003)

STD: 10:40
OFF BLOCKS: 10:41
WHEELS UP: 10:59
T/O Runway: 27L

STA: 11:10
LANDING: 10:58
ON BLOCKS: 11:08
Landing Runway: 24R

Although, I’m not a big Airbus fan, I was quite interested to see what the latest member of the 32x family was like. I was lucky in that I was able to compare it to the 735 the following day so I could give a fair judgement.

Boarding commenced at 10:00 as stated on my boarding pass. Again I was the first down the jetway but this time we would be boarding by bus. Terminal 2F does not have the mobile lounges so we had to make do with a normal bus & stairs. This does not bother me, as I love being on the tarmac with all the sights, sounds and smells of the aircraft. On boarding, I asked the crew if there was any chance of visiting the cockpit and was informed that this is not possible in flight for “security reasons” but it may be possible on landing in MAN. I wasn’t too bothered about this as the A318 has the same cockpit as the 319, which I’d only just seen in flight. Also, I wanted to get out of MAN as soon as possible to check my girlfriend was ok (it must be love if she comes before aircraft!!!).

Once boarding was complete, we started one engine on stand then pushed back a whole minute late (tut tut Air France!) for our taxi to 27L for take off. This time I was seated in 14F and I found the seat pitch and recline to be noticeably less even though the seats were identical to those on the 319. It made no difference because I am not that tall but it was visible. The cabin of this A318 seemed in worse condition than the 319 I had just been on but maybe it was my imagination. This should be impossible because the 318 is newer than the 319.

The crew did the safety demonstration but for some reason did not demonstrate the use of lifejackets even though we were flying over water. On my flight to CDG that had only been over land, they did the lifejacket demo so I don’t understand this.

We had to wait for an A340 to lumber off the runway as well as an A330 and a 777 before we could take off. It was amazing to see how long the 340 took to get airborne compared to the 330 and especially the 777. The microbus turned on to the runway and the captain did a rolling start. We climbed quite quickly and were soon over the English Channel heading for the UK. We turned slightly to the right after making landfall and headed Northwest towards MAN. I had a great view of Stansted during the cruise and shortly after, we began our descent in to Manchester.

The service on this flight was good again but I feel the attendants were slightly less friendly than on the BIQ-CDG flight. We were given chocolate chip cookies and I chose a bottle of red wine to drink, which was very pleasant.

We approached over Stockport and landed at 10:58 UK time on 24R. It was cloudy and 16º. Just what I wanted after realising it was going to be a gorgeous weekend in the Basque Country. We had to wait on the taxiway for about 5 minutes until the Delta 763 bound for ATL passed and then we taxied to our stand. We were on stand at 11:08 but had to wait a further 10 minutes or so for the airbridge to be connected as our stand had been changed at the last minute so no one was there to meet our flight.

We finally disembarked and immigration was pretty easy with two quite friendly ladies checking the passports. By 11:45, I had met my girlfriend and we were on the train back to her university accommodation in Salford.

Overall impressions: Another good flight with Air France. I did not find it as good as the first on for a few silly little reasons. 1. The seat pitch was worse but I’m sure this was because I was further back and not in a convertible Business/Economy row. 2. The 2 Male and one Female cabin crew did not seem quite as friendly as the BIQ-CDG leg but were still smiling and helpful. 3. As this was the end of ½ term, there were lots of families coming back from Disneyland Paris with loads of carrier bags and excited children. They didn’t cause any problems but I found the way that they all clapped on landing in MAN quite funny as I didn’t experience this on any of the other flights over the weekend.

These were all minor issues and I still left the aircraft with a great overall view of Air France and was looking forward to my flights the following day.

One thing I did note on both flights was that the speed brakes were used a lot during the descent. I assume this was just a coincidence and for ATC reasons. They did however cause both aircraft to vibrate much more than I remember from previous experiences with the speedbrakes.

So after a lovely weekend involving a fantastic concert, a trip to casualty to check that my girlfriend was ok and a mad dash to the airport in a taxi due to the train being 25 minutes late! (Stupid UK trains!!!), it was time to head back to Irun by way of Paris, Biarritz and Hendaye.

I arrived at the airport at 4:10 PM after panicking that I would miss my flight due to the abovementioned 25-minute delay on First North Western. There were 3 check in desks open but only one lady was checking anyone in. One of the others was business class check in and she was just sitting there waiting for business class passengers to turn up. The other one was chatting on the phone and from the few words I overheard, the conversation had nothing to do with flights! There were only 2 people in front of me but it still took me 15 minutes to get checked in.

Eventually, I got to the front & was greeted by a rather surly Servisair agent. I asked for a window seat on each flight to which she responded “Well you should have got here earlier then!” She informed me that I had a window on the CDG-BIQ leg but not on the MAN-CDG flight. I assumed from that that there were no window seats available. She then said she did have some window seats to Paris but they were at the back of the aircraft. This did not bother me. I asked her if my seats had been pre-assigned to whcih she answered “oh no, the computer assigns them for me automatically”. I still cannot understand why she made all that fuss.

I was given both boarding passes and she told me that I would arrive in terminal 2F and depart from 2B. When I had checked in at Biarritz, the agent wrote on my boarding pass wallet exactly what gate the MAN flight would go from. This agent did not have a clue. When I enquired as to what gate I’d be leaving CDG from she said “It says on the boarding pass B23B, whatever that means!” I said I assume it means Terminal B, Gate 23B. “I don’t know” she replied. “Ask in Paris!”

This always seems to happen to me in the UK. I always have problems with trains or airport staff or something that I never experience abroad. Every time I go home, I think “what am I doing here?” and the more I experience the atmosphere and service abroad, the more I want to live anywhere but the UK once I graduate.

Anyway, I digress. I cleared security without any problems again and headed towards gate 211 where my Boeing 737-500 was waiting to take me back to Paris.

AF2569 06/06/2004 Boeing 737-500 F-GJNA (Delivered August 1991)

STD: 17:25
OFF BLOCKS: 17:21
WHEELS UP: 17:36
T/O Runway: 24L

STA: 19:50
LANDING: 19:31
ON BLOCKS: 19:38
Landing Runway: 08R

I managed to board first yet again & to sneak in to the cockpit on the ground. The captain wasn’t there but the First Officer was. We had a nice chat about the 737 classic compared to the 32x and his answer to which do you think is a better aircraft was “The A320 is more modern, but with this you can really see and feel what you’re doing” at which point he rotated the control column to demonstrate that both the captain’s and FO’s are interlinked so both can see what the other’s doing. I found this quite interesting but I suppose he must be biased as he flies the 737 and if he were a 32x pilot he’d say that was better. He informed me that the flight time would be 59 minutes and that the weather in Paris was clear and 23º.

We pushed back early and the (2 male and one Female) crew did the safety demonstration. This was the least professional safety demo I have ever seen as the male FA standing at the overwing exit was having a conversation in French with the passengers sitting in the exit row whilst demonstrating the safety features of the aircraft. A lifejacket demonstration was done on this flight so I can only assume it was a MAJOR c**k up on the CDG-MAN flight.

The take off was fast and powerful as the aircraft was not fully loaded. The engines on the 735 are obviously louder than the 318 because it’s a much older aircraft. I really enjoyed it though and had a lovely view of the countryside as we climbed to our cruise altitude of 27,000 feet. There were some light clouds leaving MAN but we did not have any major turbulence.

This time I was sitting in 18A which was 2 rows from the back of the aircraft so I had some lovely wing views. It was obvious that this aircraft was older than the 318/319 I’d been on but it just felt lovely to be on a classic aircraft. The cabin was very well maintained for its age. I also find with the 737 that it’s much easier to reach the air vents and reading lights without taking off your seatbelt than it is on the 32x. If this is the result of the much touted “wider cabin” then I’d prefer a narrower cabin!

The seats on the 737 were definitely wider than on the 318/319 but they did not have adjustable headrests. I’m also unsure if the windows are bigger on the 737s than on the 320s. They seem to be but this may be because they are more square than round. The pitch and recline were the same as on the A318.

The service was the same as on the CDG-MAN flight with chocolate chip cookies and drinks. I decided to see what AF’s white wine was like so I asked for that. I was asked if I was over 16. This offended me a little as I am going to be 21 in 6 weeks or so! Oh well, I’ll be glad I look young when I’m 40. Apart from this minor insult :), the crew was friendly and helpful.

It was a bit hazy at cruise level but I still managed to get a fantastic view of LGW, which I have never seen from the air before. We began our descent at 18:06 UK time while we were over the English Channel. Again, the descent was quite steep and the approach to runway 08R was quite bumpy presumably due to CAT. We touched down at 19:31 local time after the right hand side of the plane had a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomphe. We vacated the runway and taxied to stand F50. The crew welcomed us to Paris but oddly did not mention anything about KLM even though on all other flights the crew said “On behalf of Air France and KLM we thank you for travelling with us……”

My views of this flight were again positive. I had been on 3 AF flights in 2 days by this point and not one had disappointed me. The crew was again friendly and professional, the flight was smooth and we landed on time. What more can one ask for?

So here I was in Charles de Gaulle for the second time. I found my way to the bus for the transfer to terminal 2B very easily and was there in no time. I had to clear passport control and security before I could go to my next gate but this was done with plenty of time to spare.

AF7636 06/06/2004 Airbus A319 F-????

STD: 21:25
OFF BLOCKS: 21:21
WHEELS UP: 21:38
T/O Runway: 08L

STA: 22:50
LANDING: 22:36
ON BLOCKS: 22:39
Landing Runway: 27

So here I was on my final flight. I couldn’t see the registration of my aircraft in CDG and I forgot to write it down on arrival in BIQ. Does anyone know where I can find this information?

We boarded this A319 from gate B23. It was clear that this was an older 319 than the one I’d been on on Saturday morning as it had an older style of handles on the overhead lockers. The cabin was clean however and the seats were the new style the same as the 318/319 I’d been on the day before. The pitch and recline was the same as on the 735/318 so this confirmed that it must indeed be because I was further back.

The number 2 engine was again started on stand (this must be a standard procedure in CDG) and we pushed back 4 minutes ahead of schedule. We taxied to the runway and held for a long time while many other short haul aircraft took off in front of us. One interesting point was that on both A319 flights and on the A318, the pilots tested the brakes shortly after we began taxiing but this did not seem to happen on the 735. Does anyone know why?

After take off, we did a sharp turn to head towards Biarritz and the cabin crew was released to commence their service. Oddly enough, on this flight we also received drinks and cookies or sesame seed crackers even though this flight was advertised as having no food service. This makes me wonder why they advertised a snack on the CDG-MAN-CDG flights when we were given the same as on a flight with supposedly no food. I chose the crackers and a glass of orange juice, both of which were very good. The (4 Female) crew was efficient on this flight but definitely the most unfriendly of all the 4 flights. I asked for a flight deck visit in CDG but was flatly refused. C’est la vie!

We had a lovely view of the sunset over France as we continued South towards Biarritz. We overtook another aircraft flying at a higher flight level than us. We began our descent from FL310 at 22:15 and saw a spectacular thunderstorm in a cloud, which we went around on our approach to BIQ. We landed smoothly on runway 27 at 22:36 and the pilot braked hard to enable us to turn off the runway without having to backtrack. We pulled on to stand 11 minutes before schedule and deplaned to a lovely 20º evening in the South of France.

I then rushed through the airport (forgetting to write down the registration of my aircraft!) and got a taxi to Biarritz railway station to catch the 23:15 TGV back to Hendaye.

Conclusion:

Air France are a fantastic airline that I would fly with again. I had heard many bad stories about them and CDG but I could not fault either. All flights departed and arrived early and all crews were pleasant. I don’t know if it is a coincidence but as stated above, the least friendly crew was the all-female one. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it or if they were just generally less friendly or having a bad day. Overall, top marks to AF. I look forward to flying with you again very soon.

Thanks for reading this marathon report. I didn’t mean it to be so long. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I also apologise for the lack of photos. I was too busy videoing everything and so I completely forgot. If anyone could help me out with the registration for AF7636 CDG-BIQ on 6th June 2004, I would be extremely grateful.