Air France Business Class Review (& Why We Recommend AF for Families!)

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In today's episode I am sharing my first-time business class journey on an Air France flight from Paris to Phoenix, including the process of how I upgraded from economy to business class. ensuring you never miss out on the comfort and luxury of premium travel. 

In this episode of the Travel Party of Five podcast, join us as we dive into the world of Air France Business Class, sharing our experiences to help families make the most of their travel adventures using points and miles.

I am sharing my first-time business class journey on an Air France flight from Paris to Phoenix, including the process of how I upgraded from an economy ticket using a combination of points and a last-minute cash payment. 

We're also sharing all the family-friendly benefits Air France offers families, especially when booking on points, such as a 25% discount on award bookings for kids and guaranteed seating together without extra fees. Learn how we booked an economy flight from Chicago to Paris for just 85,000 points! If you're planning a family trip to Europe, this episode is for you. 

We also discuss the availability of award seats on Air France Business Class. Unlike many airlines that limit the number of award seats, Air France often has multiple seats available, making it easier for larger families to secure business class tickets using points. 

Another standout feature of Air France is their commitment to seating families together. Unlike some airlines that charge extra for seat selection, Air France guarantees that parents and children will be seated together without any additional fees. 

The episode wraps up with a discussion on the ease of accumulating Air France Flying Blue points. As a transfer partner of all four major banks (Chase, American Express, Capital One, and Citi), Air France offers numerous opportunities to earn and combine points. Transfer bonuses often sweeten the deal, allowing families to accumulate the necessary points for Air France Business Class flights more quickly and efficiently.

Whether you’re dreaming of flying Air France Business Class or simply looking for a reliable and family-friendly airline for your next European vacation, this episode is packed with tips, personal experiences, and expert advice. Tune in to learn how to make the most of your points and miles, and start planning your unforgettable family journey with Air France.

As always, if you have questions or need more information, feel free to reach out to Raya and Duane on Instagram at @TravelParty5. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating on Spotify or a review on iTunes. Thank you for listening, and happy travels!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you're thinking of a trip to Europe with your family. We are sharing all the details about why Air France is an incredible airline for families, especially when booking with points, and I'm also going to share my very first business class flight experience, which was also on Air France.

Speaker 1: 0:17

So tune in, hi, I'm raya and I'm duane and we are your hosts of the travel party of five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world we will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free. So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2: 0:53

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Hello and welcome back to. We're gonna redo that. We're gonna redo it, hi friends. Hello and welcome back to.

Speaker 2: 1:24

Travel Party of Five.

Speaker 1: 1:25

Thank you for joining us today. Okay, so today's episode has kind of two parts, and I realized that I did you all a disservice because when we did our Paris episode, I did say that I was going to talk about my business class flight, that I flew back from Paris to Phoenix, and I never did that. So we're going to I'm going to share that experience because it was pretty fun and I think also business class at least. When I see people flying business class on Instagram, they're like oh, my food wasn't good. And they're like really hoitytoity about it and I was like this is amazing, Like I'm so excited to fly business class and you could probably serve me like porridge and it would have been great.

Speaker 2: 2:12

So I have yet to fly business class.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Yeah, we're going to figure that out, but we're also going to talk about why Air France is a really fantastic airline in general for families, if you're wanting to fly from the United States to Europe, and we actually have additional flights booked on Air France for next year when we go with the kids to Europe, so let's get into it. So I think let's first I'll do my business class flight and then, and kind of how I booked it because I didn't actually use points to book it, I used points for the economy ticket and then upgraded at the last minute, and so, as a reminder, we flew back from Paris to Phoenix, my mom and I, I think very beginning of June. And Paris to Phoenix nonstop is actually a newer flight for Air France. They just released it this summer, right before the Olympics, and you know I think we've talked about this before but for being such a big city, phoenix doesn't have a lot of nonstop international flights. Yeah, and that's really frustrating. So, like you know, you have to go to LAX or Chicago or whatever. But anyways, now we have a nonstop flight to Paris, which is exciting, and so originally we had booked this flight for 20,000 points in economy one way from Paris to Phoenix nonstop and I had been trying to upgrade and seeing if I would be able to upgrade through the Air France app for weeks, weeks and weeks before our trip and there was no option.

Speaker 1: 3:52

So basically, you have to wait until like a day or two before, and I think maybe three days before. I called Air France and I said, like, are there any upgrades available? And they said I had to wait until the day before the flight. So I did that. The day before the flight I went onto the app and there was the opportunity to upgrade for a fee, like a cash fee, and so the upgrade cost was $902 and it's an 11 hour flight. So I'd kind of told myself like, like, if it was a thousand or less, I was going to do it, and like secretly hoping it would be like 500. And so when I saw 902, I was like, but I decided to go for it. It was definitely a splurge, but I was treating myself and I was also doing it for the content, so I could share it with all of you.

Speaker 1: 4:50

And so my mom was on the same flight as me and, what's interesting and I don't understand the logic but she didn't even have the option to upgrade for cash, she wouldn't have spent that amount of money anyways. She was like, nope, I don't want to do it. Because I said, hey, we can call and ask, and she was like, nope, I don't want to spend that money. But it wasn't even an option available to her. But she could upgrade to premium economy, and so she did end up doing that. I don't know what the difference is, because I don't have any kind of flying blue status, and so I don't know what would have made my ticket different than hers other than I called. So I don't know if they can like make a like, like check a box and say that I'm open to upgrades, or not. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 5:40

But, when I mean, is there a chance that you got the last seat? No, no, because when I booked it, I had the choice to choose my seat and I had like five different seats I could choose from, and so, yeah, I don't think that was it either. So I'm not sure. I don't understand. If someone knows, like, how this works, find me on Instagram at travel party five. Send me a message, because I would love to understand better. Um, but so she did did end up upgrading to premium economy and that was like $250 extra, I think, which is still pretty good, you know.

Speaker 2: 6:13

And what's premium economy?

Speaker 1: 6:15

So the difference is so premium economy is like the class between regular economy and business class, and so your seat reclines a little bit more, you have a little bit more leg room, the seats are a little bit bigger and I guess, like in theory, I think the food is supposed to be better. I thought that she would get the same food that I had in business class but, but, like, packaged differently. But she didn't. She had different meals than I had. So I think that's about it.

Speaker 1: 6:47

But we are going to fly premium economy on Air France next year so we can report back and we're doing that with all the kids. I do think it's worth noting that this was part of the reason I chose to take this opportunity to fly business class is because there was just one of me. I only had to pay for one ticket, like I would have never paid for five, I would have never paid 902 times five for all of us to upgrade ever, and I don't even know if we would have done it for the two of us. You know, cause that's almost $2,000, like, maybe, but I think probably what we would rather do is just book it on points to begin with and not have to pay that much money or if it was just us two, you can do the first half and then I'll sit in.

Speaker 1: 7:29

Well, you're not supposed to switch they won't know they're not gonna know the difference between me and you because we look so similar. They're gonna be like oh hello, mrs san augustine, wow you've gotten so tan. Your hair is your facial hair is so much more prominent anyways.

Speaker 1: 7:49

So that was the other reason why I was like I'm gonna take this opportunity, because I don't know when it's gonna come again and it's just me and it was a daytime flight. So a lot of times people will think that they want to fly business class from the United States to Europe because that's the overnight flight and that's when you want the lie flat seat to sleep, but you also miss half of it, I think, when you're sleeping. So this was a daytime flight and I stayed awake all 11 hours and, after schlepping around Paris in the rain for three days plus being in Italy for like 10 days prior, it felt so nice to relax and like stretch out my legs and not walk 20,000 steps a day. Like it felt great actually. And so let's get into like the actual experience.

Speaker 1: 8:41

So when you fly business class, you get access to the business class lounge. Since we flew out of Paris and this is Air France, which is based in Paris there are tons of lounges, and I didn't spend a lot of time in the lounge because my mom couldn't come with me and so I just went in, had some coffee breakfast. It's huge. The lounge is huge.

Speaker 2: 9:03

And I could. I'm assuming it's pretty fancy.

Speaker 1: 9:07

It's nice. Yeah, like it's definitely nicer than a priority pass lounge, but I would put it on par with like a capital one lounge that we've been to, but it's huge, like so way bigger than any lounge we've ever been in and in this lounge, here's where they would step above capital. One is I could have gotten a facial for free if I had time. We just didn't have time before the flight. But like, yeah, you can get like spa services, which I was like kind of bummed that our flight was early and so I couldn't take advantage of it, but would for sure take advantage of that next time if I could. So did the lounge for a little bit, picked up some chocolates for the kids at the airport and some macaroons and met my mom at the gate. So the other cool thing about business class is like you get to board first. So I got to board in the first group and my mom in premium economy was like right behind me. So like I think I was first group and maybe she was second we both, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1: 10:06

Let me back up a step. When we got to the airport, we both got to go through the priority boarding lane, which was incredibly easy and short. We didn't have to wait um in like a long check-in line, and so that was great too. So, but that was for both business class and premium economy. We both got to do so. That was awesome too, and then we got to board, first I. The only kind of thing I was bummed about is they talk about when you're in business class, you get on the plane and you go left. But I got on at the very front of the plane and so I still went right. There was no. The only left was the cockpit. So was?

Speaker 2: 10:41

do you know? If it was a 747? Did it have the second floor, whatever?

Speaker 1: 10:51

no, no, so what plane is that? It's a 747 oh, that has two floors. Oh, there was only one floor here on this one, so I think it was a. I'm pretty sure I looked up. Is that a 787? Is that a thing?

Speaker 2: 11:06

it was probably a 737 oh, maybe I don't remember anywho but it was yep.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So when went in, went right, I was actually in the first row in the middle, the only kind of bummer there is. There was no spot to put my luggage. So each in business class, each seat has its own luggage compartment and I didn't have one. I did have a baby bassinet in front of me and I asked the flight attendant can I put my bag in here? And she said no, that's for babies. And I was like well, I don't have a baby, so can I use it? And she was like no, so I had to use the 1A, with the lady that was there who kind of looked like I wasn't supposed to, but that's where the flight attendant told me to put my bag. So that's where I put it.

Speaker 1: 11:58

And so they give you champagne when you board. They do that, I think, in all classes. So I don't think that's just business class, but I think the type of champagne you get is different. So I think business class is like a fancier one, and then not sure about premium economy, and then I know economy is like a cheaper one, because I looked that up.

Speaker 2: 12:16

So they gave everyone champagne.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Yeah, everyone gets champagne, yep.

Speaker 1: 12:20

And then they give you the menu and they speak French first. And then they give you the menu and they, they speak French first. And so I think like if I had tried to use a little bit of French, I think maybe they would have I would have gotten a little more favor from them. They were, I mean, the service was fine, I had no issues with it, but they were definitely more friendly to the people that spoke French. So, but I mean it's fine and they give you the menu and there's like you know, uh, like a four course meal that they serve shortly after takeoff. So there was like a cheese course and then the main course and then a dessert and a salad and all that, and so that was all quite good. Um, and then they kind of turn the lights off and you relax.

Speaker 1: 13:02

I watched 10 episodes of this show. I've heard that the media on Air France isn't great, but I watched this show. It's in French so I obviously had to watch it subtitled, but it's kind of similar to Bridgerton, so it's kind of like a French Bridgerton. It's called the Bonfire of Destiny and it's basically focuses on the struggles of the 19th century French women after the 1897 fire at the Bazaar de la Charité in Paris, which was like a huge fire that killed hundreds of women and it was great.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Why just women?

Speaker 1: 13:46

because it was a charity event that was primarily women and the men not to give it away. But this happens in like one of the first episodes. The men like start beating the women to keep that like to get out first. Basically, it's like the men are pushing and shoving the women aside so that they can get free and like the women are stuck.

Speaker 2: 14:06

It's not very nice.

Speaker 1: 14:08

No, no, but it was a great show, like, if you don't mind watching subtitles, I would highly recommend it. It brought me a lot of joy and I watched the entire series on the plane. In between meals they also have like a snack buffet set up and this is for both business class and premium economy, and it's kind of like in the middle, so you basically can just get up and go to grab a snack. And so I went, got up once and I grabbed every single snack they had, and I'm pretty sure that these French flight attendants were definitely judging me, but I don't care. I was excited, I was curious, I wanted to try it all I wanted to see. And so you also can order like coffee or cappuccino or whatever at any time. And so I did have a couple of cappuccinos, especially because we left Paris at 10am I think, and we landed in Phoenix at 12pm, so I still had to stay up for another eight-ish hours after we landed, so I made sure to have my coffee at the right time, basically. And then you do get served a second meal a few hours before you land.

Speaker 1: 15:25

That meal was not as elaborate as the first meal, but I mean everything comes to you like with cloth napkins and actual silverware, like no plastic anything. They clean up your tray. In between I think I had a glass of champagne plus another glass of wine and I could have had more. I just didn't want it. They come around. I mean you can just literally have whatever you want. They have blankets. You get a little amenity kit, so you had earplugs and eye mask and all that stuff. In the bathroom in business class they had like all this facial stuff that you could use and so I did that and that was fun, because you know like your skin gets dried out when you're flying stuff.

Speaker 1: 16:09

I'm assuming it's bigger than it's actually not that much bigger. No, it's like the same. The bathroom is basically the same, but it's cleaner and it had more stuff in it. So, yeah, there was like a facial toner and a moisturizer and a couple other things that I got to try out. So, plus, you get an amenity kit that has like some face stuff in it. I actually have some of it's right up there, a couple of little sample size like moisturizers and stuff.

Speaker 1: 16:37

And let's see, um, yeah, I got. I reclined my seat, so the seat lies completely flat. You get a little pillow. I reclined my seat watching my show. I mean, it was just like I just spent the day in bed watching TV. Basically is kind of what it felt like with a servant that brought me my meals. Um, I loved it. I can't wait until we can do it again together, like I think that'll be really fun.

Speaker 1: 17:03

Yeah, I'm excited for that again together, like I think that'll be really fun. Yeah, I'm excited for that, yeah, so, um, let's talk about, let's switch gears and let's talk about, oh, you know the other thing sorry, let me backtrack when, when we checked in, they marked our luggage priority both my mom and I and so our bags were like the first bags to come out and they had like these big priority stickers on them. So I guess that's also a perk. I don't know, had never thought about that before, but anyways, okay, so here's, there's a couple of reasons why Air France is fantastic value for families.

Speaker 1: 17:50

You for families Number one kids get 25% off award bookings when you book a flight, and that doesn't that's any class. So, business class economy, premium economy, 25% off. So you know, if a flight is 40,000 points for an adult, you're only going to pay 30,000 points to book it for a kid. So when we, like I, have us booked, we fly from um, we fly on air for, on air france to paris, and it was 85,000 points total for all five of us in economy. Because we are cheap, that's super cheap. We are full, obviously. Two adults full price and then three kids 25 off. So 85 000 points, that's literally as cheap as it would get, and I think the taxes were 400, maybe, maybe not even, and so, yeah, incredible, here's the kind of bummer.

Speaker 1: 18:43

I booked those flights before the Phoenix to Paris nonstop route opened, so we fly out of Chicago to do that route, but then they opened the award bookings on the nonstop routes so we could have flown directly from Phoenix to Paris. It's a longer flight, it's like 11 hours versus eight, but we could have done that. Here's what kills me is, when I was in Europe, they had business class tickets from Phoenix to Paris nonstop on the exact date that we needed them, for 50,000 points each, and so that would have been for all five of us to fly business class. It would have been 212,500 points, and I was just like maybe like 10,000 points through chase, which is a transfer partner to air france, but they hadn't hit our account yet, and so, like I had to wait, and by the time they did hit the account, the flights were gone that sucks yeah.

Speaker 1: 19:57

So we were this close to flying business class to paris, all five of us. So number one, air France has discounted kids tickets on point bookings. But number two, they also often have a lot of seats available for booking on points in business class. So some airlines they'll only open up like one, two or three seats at a time, rarely ever five. But Air France is different and they will often have five that you can book. So that was a disappointment for me. I still check it all the time just to see if someone has canceled their tickets, but as of now they have not. So wah, wah next time.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Another reason they're really good for families is because they have a lot of flights. So I mentioned that. I found one Chicago to Paris, but I mean JFK, lax, phoenix, dfw they all have nonstop flights to Paris, and then once you're in Paris, you know you can just use that as a stopping point to get to wherever else you're going if Paris is not your final destination. You know, taking the train in Europe is super easy, and so I think that's a fantastic way to get to Europe. I think they also have a fair amount of flights that go through Amsterdam too, and so, but generally they all connect through Paris. So super great and cheap points way to get your family especially if you have a big family like we do all the way over to Europe and the service is good. I mean it's all good, I don't have any complaints.

Speaker 1: 21:46

And then probably the last reason or at least maybe I don't know if it's the last, but the fourth reason that Air France is so great for families is they will seat you and your child together without you having to choose seats. So you do have to sometimes pay for a seat choice, which can be really nerve-wracking for families, because obviously you want to make sure that you can sit with your kid so that there's at least one adult in your party with a kid. But Air France just it literally says on their website like they will seat you together if you're flying with a minor. So it's not like you don't have to pay for the seat choice, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2: 22:24

They will just see you together is that how other airlines do it?

Speaker 1: 22:29

I mean, there's like a recent law, I think, that now says that like they have to seat you. But it didn't always used to be that way, Like when we flew. When I flew with our daughter, who at the time was two, from Atlanta to Phoenix this was on Delta I didn't have, I didn't choose seats for whatever reason, because I think it's like $40 per person to choose a seat. And when I got to the and I've always asked nicely at the check-in and they've always been like oh yep, like I'll put you together. But this time the check-in lady was like you'll have to ask when you get on the plane, I can't do anything about it. And I had to ask strangers on the plane if they would move their seat so that I could sit next to my two-year-old kid, and like our seat was a window and a middle. So it's like obviously whoever takes the seat or, I'm sorry, the seats we were assigned were two middle seats, not in the same row, and so I obviously needed a middle and either an aisle or a window, and so whoever switched with me was going to get the middle. And I still think about this.

Speaker 1: 23:44

I asked this woman hey, would you mind switching with me so I can sit next to my two year old. She's like yeah, of course, what are you? And I told her my seat, but I think she misheard me because she was sitting like in an aisle, which wasn't the seat. I told her it was like I said J and it was K or whatever it was. No, the seats don't go J, k, it's A, b, c, d, e. So I think I said E and she heard D, maybe I don't know, but she definitely sat not in the middle. And then the flight attendant had to talk to her like you're not in the right seat, and then she just like gave me a dirty look and I just had to like ignore her because what am I going to do?

Speaker 1: 24:26

Not sit with my two year old, you know, like, and I clearly said to her that like I didn't lie, I was like my seat is blah. The fact that she either misheard or didn't realize that was a middle seat, I think is not my responsibility, but it shouldn't have been put on me to to coordinate that. Anyways, you know, it's like when we just went to Grand Caymans and Southwest was like we have a family that has to have two seats together, they were the last family to board the plane and they were like the flight attendants were like we can't go anywhere until this gets solved. So you know, you guys figure it out Like all 120 of us strangers who paid for these tickets. You guys figure it out Like no, that should never be on us to figure out no so, anyways, benefit of air france.

Speaker 2: 25:24

Sorry about my tangent, but they will see you and your kid together and you don't have to stress so I always thought, like when you book a flight, you go to the whatever delta website and you there's like a list of the open seats and you just choose. Yeah, two seats, yeah. So is that not the case anymore?

Speaker 1: 25:45

it's not the case anymore, not really, so it used to be that way, and now it's so what?

Speaker 2: 25:51

you just buy your ticket and they. You don't know where you're sitting until you get your boarding pass, basically like you.

Speaker 1: 25:57

So you have a couple choices when you buy your ticket and and it's a little different depending on the airline, but in general you buy the ticket and then it asks you like after you see, okay, I'm gonna pay 400 for this ticket. Then it's like oh, do you want to pay an extra 35 to choose your seat? And you no, and then it will either tell you your seat will be assigned at check-in or your seat will be. You know, you can choose your seat 24 hours before it's corporate greed 100% yes.

Speaker 1: 26:25

That's why Southwest is changing their policy to now have assigned seats so they can, yes, have a new revenue stream.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Yeah, it's really annoying. And then some airlines it's like, oh, you can choose your seat, but it's like the last 10 rows of the plane. Good luck, godspeed. Okay. So the last reason that Air France is such a good, easy airline for families to fly, especially on points, is Air France's loyalty program is called Flying Blue, and Flying Blue is a transfer partner of all four major banks.

Speaker 1: 26:59

So that would be your Chase points transfer there, your American Express points, your Capital One and your Citi points, and they also often have transfer bonuses. So sometimes there might be let's just say, for example, from Chase, a 30% transfer bonus, so you could transfer, let's say, 100,000 Chase points to Flying Blue, but you would get 130,000 Flying Blue points. Normally they just transfer at a one-to-one ratio, but if you can catch it when there's a transfer bonus, I mean that's an incredible deal. But if you can catch it when there's a transfer bonus, I mean that's an incredible deal. So the reason that that is super important is it is super easy to rack up flying blue points, flying blue points, right, and when you have a family you obviously need a lot of points, and so you know you can use your points from your American Express and from your chase card and combine them together and have enough points to fly your entire family business class premium economy economy, whatever your points budget allows. So hope that this was helpful.

Speaker 1: 28:05

As always, if you have questions, shoot us a DM on Instagram at TravelParty5. And if you enjoyed this, this podcast, we would really appreciate a rating on spotify or a review on itunes. Thank you so much for listening have a good one bye.