Comfort in the Sky: Air France A350-900 Business Class PPT-LAX

We had an overall pleasant experience in business class on this Air France A350 flight. While the first meal service is filling, the second is very light.

View other posts in this series:

Booking Air France A350 business class

I originally booked our Air France flight home for our family of four for 323,750 Flying Blue miles plus ~$1,100 in taxes and fees. That’s a cost of 92,500 miles per adult (recall that children get a 25% award discount) plus $275. Not a bad price for the journey by any means, but it meant we would have to return home on a Friday, skipping any chance of exploring Tahiti.

Instead, I later decided to extend our trip by two days and return on a Sunday. That was driven by a great cash price in business class that showed up. Paying for the ticket outright would cost about $6,800. Doing the math, that meant I could save 323,750 miles by paying $5,700 (the cost of the ticket less the taxes and fees). Straight up, that’s like buying the points at 1.76 cents each. But paying cash helped with two things:

Enabled requalifying for Delta Diamond status (and its valuable choice benefits, including a $700 statement credit that I will take)
Earned redeemable miles for the route

The flight earned us a total of 40,131 Delta SkyMiles between the four of us, including bonuses based on status level. For simplicity, I’m going to assume 1 Delta mile = 1 Flying Blue mile. I know they’re not, but I try to make the most of my Delta miles when I can. If I factor in both, it would be the same as me paying $5,000 for 363,881 miles, or 1.37 cents each. I value the miles more than that, so I was comfortable with the cash price.

Technically, I earned extra miles on the purchase via my credit card, but I’m not going to count it for conservatism in the numbers.

Earning Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles

If you’re looking for credit cards, here are a few options to consider. The following links include a referral that may earn me a commission.

The revamped Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers a large 125,000-point bonus for spending $6,000 in the first three months. This one has a large annual fee ($795) but comes with credits that may help you offset the cost.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers 75,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first three months. Why get this one instead of the Reserve? The significantly lower annual fee for the Preferred ($95).

First impressions of Air France A350-900 business class

We arrived at Papeete Airport (PPT) at about 5:45AM, close to two hours prior to our 7:40AM flight. While we might have been fine cutting it a bit closer than that, we didn’t want to risk it. It did take 30 minutes to check our luggage and clear security, even in the priority line.

There is a duty free store if you want some last-minute gifts.

At 7AM, we arrived in the boarding area to find a huge mess. It seemed that no one was following the boarding order and the gate agents weren’t enforcing it. So much for a peaceful process getting on the plane.

However, we did get some breathing room as we passed this point and walked up to the Air France A350. There’s something exciting about boarding a plane up the staircase.

Onboard the Air France A350-900

We had the last row of the first section of the business class cabin (row 8). The seats on this Air France A350-900 flight are arranged in a 1-2-1 pattern, and we liked how spacious the cabin was. There are no first class seats on this plane.

The hallways look so clean and new. They add to the overall ambience of this Air France A350 business class cabin.

Shortly after sitting down, a flight attendant stopped by to offer us a pre-departure beverage (champagne, water, or orange juice). We also received our amenity kits and menus (more on that later).

The Air France A350-900 business class seat

All business class seats are in a reverse herringbone layout. The touches and design of this seat on the Air France A350 is far more aesthetically appealing than the last Air France business class flight we had on the 777-300.

The footwell tucks in under the side console of the passenger in front of you but as is the case in many seats with this design, the footwell can get a bit narrow.

The center seats have a flipped layout from the window seats. I don’t know what I was thinking when I took the photos, but the pics above were of the window seats and then I moved to the center seats.

Anyways, at each seat is a pad controlling the TV, a side light, a small storage area, a wireless charger, and seat controls down by the tray table. It feels like many airlines that add in wireless chargers don’t realize that phones can and do move around with turbulence during flight, so it’s not as effective as you’d think. But more to the point, mine at seat 8H didn’t work.

Anyways, inside the storage cabin when you arrive are a set of headphones and a bottle of Evian water. I didn’t like these headphones because it produced a sharp, uncomfortable noise when you tilt your head to the side. Perhaps they’re broken? There’s also a small mirror in case you need to look at yourself midflight.

The TV is plenty large for the seat. Since this is a daytime flight, we used the TV for most of the flight.

Each seat does have a suite door that you can close. However, the chief purser on the flight, after having introduced herself, informed us that we were not allowed to close our suite doors so that we can accommodate our kids. A reasonable policy, and we did not have an intention to do so anyways.

Also, I’m guessing that a kid named Benjamin was sitting in this seat before me? I discovered midflight that a damp towel and elbow grease were effective in removing the graffiti, so I helped the aesthetics out by removing it.

The seat can recline to a fully-flat position, which wasn’t necessary for this daytime flight. Rather, everyone else reclined but I stayed upright so I can blog.

You can more easily see how narrow it gets in this footwell. It is long enough for me to where the narrow nature of the cutout didn’t impact me. However, you might have to sleep with bent legs if you’re 6’6″ or taller.

There are no individual air nozzles above your seat. All you will find are some cabin lights and lighted placards.

The center seats are excellent for couples. There is a partition that can be raised if you don’t know your seatmate. But we were happy to be sitting next to each other for the first time in a long time.

Amenities in Air France A350 business class

Already at our seat on arrival are a pillow, a blanket, and some slippers. The pillow was comfortable enough for the daytime flight and it’s plush enough to make it work for actual sleep. I didn’t need the blanket since the cabin was kept warm.

The amenity kits have the Air France logo subtly on them.

Inside the amenity kits are the standard contents. You’ll find a blindfold, a toothbrush, earplugs, a pen, socks, toothpaste, and lotion. I always like when a pen is provided in case you need to fill out customs declarations.

The food in Air France business class

The menu

The business class menu is (thankfully) not a novel in length. Despite departing at 7:40AM, our first meal onboard is lunch. That actually helps with acclimating to the time change as it was already 10:40AM in Los Angeles.

*Food options in English (not pictured: the same menu but in French)*

First meal service (lunch)

Our flight departed at 7:40AM, and we received a hot towel (not pictured) at 8:07AM. Normally, we’re used to having someone take orders while on the ground, but this didn’t happen until after we were in the air at 8:20AM. Finally, at 8:40AM, an hour after departing, we received an amuse bouche (cheese, tomato, and zucchini), some cheese crackers, and a drink. I went with some champagne.

The drink came courtesy of the beverage cart pushed between the aisles.

At 9:09AM, we received the first part of our meal: some tuna tataki, a pea puree, and a salad. I didn’t care much for the puree, which was a bit dense. However, the tuna tataki was a delicious slab of raw fish coated with plenty of sesame seeds. I also changed to some red wine at this point.

We received our entree orders at 9:25AM. The sauteed beef and Colombo sauce is the best dish, hands down. The beef is very tender and it comes with some coconut rice that pairs perfectly with it. The sauce does a good job at meshing all the flavors together cohesively.

The foil-baked Polynesian chicken Fafa is the second-best choice. The chicken is tucked away under the leaf and is actually quite moist because of it. The sauce and vegetables in the dish add to the juiciness.

Jenn ordered the king mackerel fillet, which was a very large slab of fish that ended up fairly tough to eat. The dish comes with a side of some Tahitian tiare sauce, which is desperately needed to help make the fish more palatable. Of the meal options above, this was our least favorite.

Kids meal

Char ordered the kids meal, which we pre-selected before the flight. Her meal came around the same time as everyone else’s meals. She had an assortment of different packaged goods like yogurt and compote, a baked potato, and some vegetable sticks.

The kids meal for this flight was cheese ravioli, which wasn’t a bad option. Char managed to sneak a few bites before we were able to get a picture of the meal. Not a bad choice for kids, especially since pasta is typically a safe choice.

Desserts

At 9:45AM, the cheese course started. Today’s selection was just two cheeses. I’m not particularly fond of bleu cheese normally, and this one was fine enough. Not too overpowering in flavor. I mostly was surprised that only two cheeses were on the plate and not three, which is typically the minimum (hard, soft, and bleu).

The final course of this meal came at 10:05AM. There wasn’t a choice of dessert–aside from the flight attendants asking us if we wanted it. The dessert was a Queen pineapple and Tamanu orange jelly with fresh mint. We could also get a small fruit salad if we wanted. I actually didn’t mind the jelly at all and found the dish refreshing. It’s also hard to say no to fresh fruit, which is a great way to end a meal.

To accompany the dessert, I went for some cognac, which was smooth and very strong.

Mid-flight snacks in Air France A350 business class

If you find yourself hungry in the middle of the flight, just head over to the front galley. There you’ll find some packaged goods to help you keep the munchies at bay. This included some biscuits and crackers, and some chocolate bars. The menu calls this selection a ‘buffet’, so set your expectations accordingly.

I picked up some chocolate bars for the kids, who wolfed them down. The yellow chocolate bar was the preferred version since it was nice and crispy.

Second meal service (light snack)

At 2PM, about 80 minutes before landing, the flight attendants served the second and last meal of the flight. This one is called a light snack on the menu, which is appropriately named. It came with a small collection of salty foods, including a cured ham and apple sandwich, a beef skewer, and a ham triangle canape. The ham triangle is most definitely a light snack, with hardly any ham. The beef had nice flavor but it wasn’t substantial enough. And the ham and apple “sandwich” just didn’t rub me the right way with the mix of flavors.

The muffin that came with the meal for dessert was too sweet. We ended up just sticking to the fruit salad. Overall, this course wasn’t all that appealing and it lived up to its name for being light. There was no alternative option for those selecting a kids meal.

Wi-Fi and Entertainment

Unfortunately, the crew announced there would be no internet for the entire flight due to technical reasons. That’s a bummer.

As for the entertainment, there was a decent selection of movies and shows to watch on the flight (I neglected to take a photo of the selection). But that being said, the most entertaining thing I liked to watch were the cameras mounted on the plane. You get your option of a view from under the plane behind the landing gear.

Or from above the plane getting a nice bird’s eye view of everything. I love it when planes offer unique views of the outside, especially for those who might not be seated next to a window.

If you want some extra functionality, you could pair your phone to your seat monitor. However, we found it unnecessary to do so since all business class seats come with a pad anyways.

Service

As you might expect, the purser on the flight greeted us both at the start and at the end of the flight. We found the interactions to be professional but not quite as friendly as what we experienced with United Airlines on the way here.

That said, we found this crew to be pretty accommodating for the kids. They would frequently check in with us and see if things are going well. We got a sense that the crew enjoyed having our kids on the flight, and always interacted with big smiles on their faces when they chatted with our children.

Timing of flight

A brief word on the timing of this particular flight. This flight departs Tahiti at 7:40AM and lands in Los Angeles at 6:45PM. It’s one of those flights where you wonder where the day went. There is a three hour time change, so expect about an eight-hour journey. I typically tell the kids what to expect when boarding the flight, including how much sleep to get. But with this journey, there was no need for them to sleep midflight. Thus, they bunkered down and enjoyed themselves.

Arrival to LAX

We touched down on time at LAX. Naturally, we arrived at the midfield concourse at Tom Bradley. I guess that’s one way to force us to get some extra steps in. This Air France A350-900 flight will continue on to Paris, France (without us, of course).

Recommendation: Yes, if the price is right

First and foremost, the ride on this Air France A350 is incredibly smooth. It felt like perfect weather the whole journey, which made for an awesome experience from start to finish. Air France has a pleasant business class product on this route. Perhaps “pleasant” is the proper word to describe our thoughts on it. This isn’t something you take for a “wow” factor, yet I expect it to be a solid choice any day of the week. The food for the main meal is quite delicious, and the service is caring.

That said, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting a good deal on the cost of the flight. It balanced out for us given it helped me requalify for status, and I count that as partially offsetting the cost, but it might not check out for you. This is a route that can be very tough with finding awards–especially for four seats–so be prepared to pay. If only need two seats, you’ll probably have an easier time with awards but it’s still not a walk in the park. Tahiti is a popular destination.

It sounds like a cheap answer, but it’s absolutely true that your experience on the flight is going to vary with how much you paid for it. We paid pretty close to the limit of what we were comfortable paying, and walked away still liking the flight but not falling in love with it. On the flip side, we loved our United Polaris flight on the way in (minus the huge delay) and paid a better price for it (85,000 miles/person).

food.wada.travel

experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children