Air France Business Class Review: SFO to CDG on the A350 Booked With Points (Our First Time!)

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Yep, that’s me in Business Class – for the first time ever! My husband and I traveled from San Francisco, California (SFO) to Paris, France (CDG) in Air France’s Business Class, which I booked completely on points (plus some taxes and fees). Consider this an honest Air France Business Class review from a first-timer who had longed for a taste of that bougie life!

In this review, I break down how I pulled off my points redemption, along with my experience with the food, service, and comfort in Business Class on an A350-900. I’m also including a few notes on our intra-Europe Business Class flight on a Hop regional plane from Paris to Bilbao, as that was part of our same booking.

Let’s get into it!

Air France Lounge Access

Before we dive into the flight, let’s cover the Air France pre-flight lounge experience. Flying Business Class on Air France from SFO means having access to their somewhat newly-renovated lounge. I’ve been getting used to lounge life over the past couple of years and was very excited to see how this one compared!

I’m actually going to be writing up a whole separate review on the Air France lounge at SFO, which I’ll update and link here.

We arrived to the lounge fairly early and there was hardly anyone in there yet. In fact, it didn’t really ever feel that full with guests! Everything was pristine and nicely decorated in Air France’s colors, with ample seating throughout the lounge.

For me, I’m all about the food and drink in lounges and the selection here was pretty solid from the charcuterie spread to fresh salads and hot dishes like beef bourguignon, salmon, veggies, and croque monsieur sandwiches. There was also a bounty of desserts and even bonus desserts served to us by an attendant at our seats.

One slight bummer here was the less-than-pleasant bartender. My husband and I even took turns going to the bar to minimize interacting with him. But then the bubbles kicked in and I was like who GAF – not gonna let this man ruin my first Business Class experience high.

Compared to my very first lounge experience at the Capital One Lounge at DFW, that one still gets first place in my book for vibes and food. Overall though, I’d still give this lounge a thumbs up.

Flight Details

And now the flight – and finally, that chance to turn left! Although, we didn’t actually turn left because we boarded through the front door which gave us a right turn. It’s the thought that counts though, right?

• Aircraft: A350-900
• Route: SFO (San Francisco) to CDG (Charles de Gaulle in Paris) – lay flat + CDG to Bilbao, Spain (Intra-Europe Business)
• Seats: 1H and 1D

Our Business Class flight with Air France was on the A350-900 from San Francisco (SFO) to Paris (CDG). Additionally, we also took a Hop flight from Paris to Bilbao, which was included in our Business Class booking. So, technically I booked “Business Class” from SFO all the way through to Bilbao.

Points Booking Details

Flying in Business Class was a bucket list item that I wanted to experience at least once in my life but I wasn’t really willing to pay Business Class prices. Thanks to dipping my toes into the points and miles game, we were finally able to make it possible!

• Points Used: 94,500 Capital One points per person, transferred to Flying Blue
• Transfer Bonus: 20%
• Points Total: 113,000 Flying Blue points per person
• Taxes & Fees: $248.80 per person
• Booking Timeframe: Booked in September for a May flight

How I Booked This Flight

I sort of did this the hard way by manually searching for award space every free moment I had. In hindsight, I could see how signing up for an award alert service could have benefitted my mental health. Searching for award availability can be exhausting and disheartening when nothing seems to be available.

I spent a lot of time logging into Flying Blue via Air France randomly picking dates to see if something would pop up…like for months. Luckily, a reasonable points deal finally made an appearance that was good enough to book. I was ecstatic!

Our points had built up with Capital One, which is a transfer partner with Flying Blue (Air France & KLM’s miles program). Capital One also just happened to have a 20% transfer bonus when I booked, which meant our Capital One points got a 20% boost! That meant less Flying Blue points needed for booking. Score.

The transfer from Capital One to Flying Blue went through quickly, and I was able to snag our seats. All in all, this part of the process was very smooth.

Note: You can only transfer points from Capital One (or Chase – another transfer partner) to the primary cardholder’s Flying Blue account.

Total Cost

In the end, we used 94,500 Capital One Miles to get 113,000 Flying Blue miles plus $248.80 in taxes in fees per person. Was it the best deal in the world? Maybe not. But, again, our booking did also include our connecting flight from CDG to Bilbao in Intra-Europe Business Class (plus lounge access at CDG). To me, it was worth it.

Seat Review

Business Class on our A350-900 was in a 1-2-1 configuration. Given this was our first-ever Business Class flight, my husband and I wanted to be able to sit together and share that experience so I chose two seats together in the middle.

I went with seats 1H and 1D, which are the bulkhead seats in the Business Class cabin. I read that these can give you a bit more legroom, and wanted to make sure my tall husband (close to 6’4″) had that extra space.

Our pods were incredibly spacious – even more than I had anticipated! It was like having our own private little rooms. Legroom was ample and while I can’t compare it to the other seats in the cabin, I’d say these bulkhead seats are excellent for tall people.

Sadly, I couldn’t figure out how to get my control pad working for my TV, so I kept having to reach across my spacious pod to touch my screen. I guess it got me to move around a bit!

Lay-Flat Comfort

When we took this flight, Air France hadn’t yet introduced their new mattress pads, so our “seat bed” wasn’t the most comfortable in a lay-flat position. We just missed the rollout of these pads by a couple of months! Sleeping straight on the seat was just a little too firm for my liking.

The plane temperature was quite warm too, which made it extra difficult to sleep. I got less than four hours of sleep and did not feel well-rested at all.

Seat Controls, Charging & Plugs

The bad: the seat controls are in an awkward spot and both my husband and I either kept hitting the flight attendant call button or moving the seat position on accident with our arms while trying to sleep.

The good: the wireless charging stations for cell phones were a nice touch. I like not having to fuss with cords! There are also USB A and USB C ports right above the wireless charging area if you like to keep things old school or have multiple devices.

Amenity Kit

I’m usually not a huge fan of airplane amenity kits as I think they just contain a bunch of cheap items that I’m never interested in using. This one was fine – I did use the slippers and earplugs and a little bit of the hand lotion.

Also included in the pouch was a pair of socks, toothbrush, and toothpaste, an eye mask and a pen. Pretty standard, nothing fancy.

Drinks & Dining

And now for my favorite part of the flight – the food and drinks! Seeing as how this was Air France, I had to take advantage of all the French stuff, including lots of champagne.

On our flight, the champagne of choice in Business Class was Pommery Brut Royal. Being a bubbles girl, I actually stuck with this throughout the flight while my husband went with whiskey and beer.

When we fly in Premium Economy, we do get drinks on long-haul flights but having our drinks in a little private pod in Business Class felt so much more bougie!

Along with our drinks, we got the most delicious Crêpe Fourrées – an airy, crispy crêpe filled with cheese. I think I may have found my new favorite airplane snack! Wish we could have found a big box of these in the airport at CDG because they were so good.

Below are the menus we had on our flight for champagne, white wines, and red wines.

Dinner Menu

Our dinner menu on this flight was designed by Dominique Crenn – a Michelin-starred French chef based in San Francisco.

In order to guarantee the meals we wanted, I did pre-order our choices prior to our flight.

Appetizer Course

We started our dinner service with a mini cup of eggplant and sun dried tomato “caviar,” which was excellent. It was packed with flavor (and lots of garlic)! This was a very small bite but had me feeling excited for what was to come.

Starter Course

Next was our starter course, which was a seared tuna served with a tangy mango salad, dollop of basil mayo, bread roll with butter, and a simple salad.

Both the tuna and the mango salad were my favorite bites of the entire meal service. The tuna was nicely seared and everything was served chilled. I avoided the basil mayo since I’m not a mayonnaise fan and the salad was just fine.

The bread was also decent but the butter was a shining star! It kind of made me wish we had a layover in France so I could stuff my face with more butter. Butter outside of the States seems to be on a whole other level, even on an airplane.

For my entree, I chose the stone bass which came with a side of pumpkin, mushrooms, and matelote sauce. For airplane fish, it was cooked nicely and well-seasoned and the matelote sauce was chef’s kiss.

I think many of us have been traumatized by the movie Airplane when it comes to ordering fish. It certainly sticks out in my mind every time I look at an airplane meal menu! I’m happy to report there were no incidents.

My husband chose the beef tournedos, which was served over a butternut squash puree with a whole roasted tomato and green beans (coincidentally, these are two of his least favorite vegetables).

The meat was good, but he actually preferred my fish dish more.

Cheese, Dessert & Fruit

After eating in the lounge at the airport and getting through our entrees, I was actually pretty full by this point. But for the sake of experiencing everything to the fullest, I persisted and dove into my cheese plate.

The cheese plate came with some really sizable pieces of cheese, each very delicious. However, they were a little too rich for me to finish after everything I had consumed so far. A half portion would have been much more doable.

For dessert, we had a chocolate torte and it was very decadent. The chocolate was also very rich, but each bite paired perfectly with a bite of fruit and a sip of cognac. Top marks for dessert.

Fruit gripe: I wish there were more berries in my fruit dish as I’m not a fan of honeydew or cantaloupe. In fact, I actually hate those melons and won’t touch them and am constantly annoyed that they seem to be airlines’ fruit of choice.

In addition to the whiskey, my husband did also try a French beer with his dinner – a NEIPA with a relatively low ABV of 5.6%. The flavor profile was pretty good though! We also found cans of this in the Air France lounge at CDG.

Hot beverages included espresso, coffee, cappuccino, hot chocolate and a variety of teas. We didn’t take advantage of the warm drinks and I’m kind of wishing I would have tried the hot chocolate. If it’s anything like hot chocolate in Paris, I’d be in heaven.

Breakfast

Breakfast was a little rough for me, but not because of the selection – it was because I hardly got any sleep and my body felt like it was way too early to eat. However, I knew I needed to at least try to get something in my stomach since it would be a couple of hours before we would be eating again.

The breakfast mains were an omelette with sautéed spinach and potato croquettes or a cold cut tray with cheese. I couldn’t bear to look at eggs in that moment, so I went with the cold cuts (we both did, in fact).

Breakfast also came with yogurt, fresh fruit (yay, no melon!), and a croissant with more delicious butter. Everything was really good despite not being able to eat much!

And that concludes our first Business Class experience ever! All in all, we had a really great flight minus the slight discomforts with no mattress pad, cabin temperature, and the mishaps with the seat controls.

Overall rating, 8/10. Can’t go back to economy now, can I? A monster has been created.

Air France Lounge at CDG Terminal 2G

With our Business Class tickets booked all the way through to Spain, even though it was Intra-Europe Business Class on a Hop plane, we also got access to the lounge at CDG in Terminal 2G.

Terminal 2G isn’t anything fancy – it’s a small terminal for regional flights that requires a shuttle to get to. Thankfully, it does have an Air France lounge!

The food selection here wasn’t anything to write about, but they did have several different bottles of French champagne. Fizzies and a little bit of alcohol actually brought me back to life after that red eye flight (that and a plate full of pickles).

It was a nice spot to kill a couple of hours on a layover because customs at CDG was actually a breeze.

Biz on Air France Hop

Business Class on our Hop flight was intra-Europe on a small regional Embraer 190 in a 2-2 seating configuration. Thankfully we had bulkhead seats because those seats were tight! It was just a two-hour flight that went by fast so it wasn’t too bad.

Our Hop flight included a meal, which I’m really thankful for because this was essentially our dinner for the day (and better than any of the food that was offered at the Terminal 2G lounge at CDG).

This meal was actually super tasty and included cold chicken, pasta salad, and sugar snap peas with a creamy Caesar-style dressing. Also on our tray were two large chunks of cheese, more bread and butter (yesss!), and a lemon tart.

I proceeded to continue my French champagne streak with a glass of Pommery, which was my favorite of all the champagnes I had on our flights and in the lounges.

Kaixo, Bilbao!

And with that, we landed in Bilbao, Spain after our long journey from San Francisco to Paris and then onto Spain.

Is Business Class the life for me? After this flight, let’s just say I’ll be striving to fly in style whenever I can (and whenever our credit card points allow).

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