The Details

• Flight: AF1463
• Aircraft: A319
• Class: Euro Business
• Seat: 2A
• Route: Stockholm Arlanda (ARN)-Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
• Distance: 1,009miles
• Duration: 2hrs 38min
• Departure: 6:15AM
• Arrival: 8:53AM

The Preflight

After a wonderful week in Sweden with my father, it was time for me to fly back home to Indianapolis. My journey started at 4AM in the morning when I took the first Arlanda Express train ride from Central Station to Terminal 2 at ARN. The check-in area was busy. When I arrived, the Sky Priority lane was being used to check in a very large tour group forcing me to wait 15 minutes before I was able to get my boarding pass.

Air France partners with the airport to give passengers access to the Fast Track security lane. I was through security in about five minutes. Unfortunately, given the early hour, no lounges were open. The one lounge in the terminal, The Aurora Lounge, opens at 8:30AM. Boarding began at 5:27AM with business and elite members invited to board first.

Our A319, registration F-GRXK, was delivered to Air France in March 2003 making her almost 17 years old.

The Flight

As standard with European carriers, Air France offers a 3-3 business class configuration with blocked middle seats. While business class could have a maximum of 40 passengers (up to row 10), today’s flight was just two rows. I was seated in seat 2A.

Air France features B/E Aerospace Spectrum seats on their A319s. I did appreciate the well-padded leather seats. There was also a four-way adjustable headrest. Each seat was 18″ wide with an armrest that had a USB port built-in. The seat recline was about three inches.

Air France did have a below-average 29″ of pitch upfront on their aircraft. Most other European carriers offer 30″ of pitch in the first few rows on Airbus aircraft. I definitely felt how tight the legroom was. The seatback had a coat hook, tray table, as well as a flip-out cup holder.

The tray table was very generic. Again, I found the legroom to be very very tight.

Upon boarding, our fantastic purser for the flight came by to pass out bottles of water as well as a refreshing towel. I appreciated this small gesture of a pre-departure beverage as many other European carriers do not offer anything while at the gate.

Boarding took 31 minutes and at 5:58AM the doors were closed. We pushed back seven minutes later for an on-time departure at 6:05AM. The taxi to the runway took 10 minutes.

Thirty-five minutes after takeoff, breakfast was served. It was extremely carb-heavy with a cold bread roll, three cold sandwiches, two pancakes, and a croissant. There was a side of fruit as well. Breakfast was definitely light on protein.

I decided to have a screwdriver with the meal. Throughout the flight, our purser ensured that my glass was never empty.

An hour after breakfast was served our purser passed out a small chocolate and cookie box.

We began our descent into Charles-de-Gualle at 8:09AM but due to rain storms in the Paris area, we were forced into a holding pattern.

After 30 minutes of flying in a holding pattern, we received clearance to land. We landed at 8:53AM just three minutes later than scheduled.

On our way to Terminal 2F, we passed by the Air France Concorde on display.

Thanks for the ride!