Sometimes, you choose the flight, and sometimes, the flight chooses you. In this case, it was the later. We stumbled upon a rewards flight that was so good that we booked a one-way flight from 200 miles away with no other travel plans. Fortunately, it’s hard to go wrong with Air France Business Class to Paris.
This post has everything you want in a flight review: amazing credit card points redemption, a wild travel story with a lesson, and a glowing seat review from a 6-year-old. So fasten your seatbelts and relax as we fly the Airbus350 from Boston to Paris.
Booking Air France Business Class with Points
We booked three Air France Business Class seats from Boston to Paris for 175,500 points and $906 — which is 58,500 points + $302 per ticket. The cash rate for that exact flight at the time we booked was $2,284 per ticket. That equates to about 3.4 cents per point, which is a great value. (Anything about 1.5 to 2 cents is generally considered a good redemption in the biz.)
How did we do it? A lot of reward booking comes down to luck, availability, and persistence, plus the airline’s going rate. However, there are were a few things that we did that were helpful to securing this reward redemption.
The first thing we did was keep our route and dates flexible. This isn’t always an option, but it is often key to landing rewards flights. We are based out of New York and knew we wanted to go to Europe this summer. There were a few different cities we were open to, and we even kept our departure airport pretty flexible.
Next, we checked rewards availability early and often. There are a few different tools for this, and NerdWallet does a great job of reviewing the current best ones. (We personally used Seats.aero this time.) In our case, we booked our late-July flight in mid-February.
Another thing we did was look at all of our booking options. Instead of going straight to Air France, we looked at all the different airlines and points options. (Which you can do with the tools linked above.) This Air France flight had a codeshare with VirginAtlantic. We booked the flight through VirginAtlantic, but the flight itself was operated by Air France.
Lastly, we transferred points. This is one of the key things to know about when it comes to rewards redemption. We were sitting on quite a few Virgin Points from a previous flight change, but not enough to cover the full flight. However, we were easily able to transfer some Chase Ultimate Rewards points into Virgin Points and then use our Virgin Points to book the flight.
Ultimately, we got a great deal on business class seats to Europe, which is what we wanted. The best deal was to Paris, which was one of our top choices. (We have business there called “Disneyland Paris” for our sister site MouseHacking.) This flight was out of Boston (we live in NYC), but even with the extra train tickets, it was still a great value.
Getting to Boston Logan International Airport
Honestly, this section isn’t relevant to the flight review, so feel free to skip ahead. However! It reinforced a very important travel lesson, so I wanted to share.
Our flight from BOS began boarding began at 9 PM and departed 9:45 PM. We wanted to get there by about 8 PM. We live in NYC and planned to take the Amtrak to Boston. There are tons of options on the route with trains arriving at roughly 5, 6, and 7 PM, which all seemed reasonable.
My husband booked the train that arrived at 3:30. This seemed excessive, but we figured we could go to my favorite Boston chain for lunch (shoutout Tatte) and hang out in Boston Common for the afternoon.
We were about 40 minutes from Boston at 2:50 PM when our train screeched to a halt. Shortly after, there was an announcement that our train had been involved in an accident and we would be delayed for an extended period of time to conduct the investigation. Flights to Europe feel pretty trivial when something like this happens, and we all waited patiently with heavy hearts.
Pretty quickly after the announcement, the woman behind us was on the phone to book her own flight. At that moment, I was incredibly thankful for my extra cautious husband. By the time we started moving, got to Boston, transited to the airport, and arrived at our terminal, it was 7:30 PM.
So let this be a reminder to never cut your connections too close, whether it’s a rail or flight connection. Always give yourself more time than you think, because travel days rarely go as planned.
Departure From BOS
Air France flies out of Terminal E at Boston Logan. At the Air France service desk, there is a dedicated SkyPriority queue for Business Class passengers, and there was no line when we arrived. We already had our boarding passes and did not need to check a bag, so we proceeded to security.
At BOS, there is an expedited SkyPriority security lane, which is a shorter queue but requires the full standard security protocols. We opted to skip that queue in favor of TSA PreCheck, which has a short queue and an easier security experience. We were through security in 6 minutes. (This was at 7:45 PM on a summer Tuesday.)
Air France Lounge Access at BOS
Our Air France Business Class ticket included access to the Air France Lounge at BOS.
This lounge is also accessible with Priority Pass, and unfortunately it felt more like a Priority Pass lounge than a true business class lounge. It’s fine, not great. There is plenty of seating, moderate outlet access, clean bathrooms, a nap room, and light snacks and drinks. There’s also a bar with complimentary beer, wine and liquor.
Because of our lengthy train delay, we had only eaten snacks all day and were starving. However, we knew we’d be getting meals on the plane, so we kept it light here. Our kid ate more of a dinner though, because we were planning to have them skip the meal on board in favor of more sleep. We killed our little bit of extra time before boarding, and then headed to our gate.
Despite access to free coffee in the lounge, we couldn’t help ourself from ordering coffee from a robot on the way.
The flight was on time and boarding went smoothly.
Air France Business Class Experience — BOS to CDG
Ok! We’re 1,000 words in, let’s finally talk about the Business Class experience on Air France. (I am who I am, okay?)
The Seat — Air France Business Class on Airbus A350
TLDR: Roomy, comfortable lie-flat seat with moderate storage. Configuration is great for couples and parents. My 6-year-old loved it.
We boarded the flight and quickly made our way to our seat.
Air France Business Class seats on the A350 are a fairly typical business class seat. It features a comfortable oversized seat inside a roomy pod with a functional door (about 4-feet high.) There is an adjustable faux leather headrest and stationary footrest, which doubles as the foot of the bed when in lie-flat mode. The seat also has an adjustable footrest attached to the seat for lounge seating.
Upon arrival, there was a pillow, blanket, mattress pad and slippers on each seat. There was also a hanger. The flight attendants immediately offered to hang any outerwear, and then swiftly removed the hanger if not needed.
There is a limited amount of storage accessible from the seat. (I am always screaming for more in-seat storage. I want to have my backpack accessible, is that too much to ask?) The largest space is above the footrest, which was enough space to stow the provided pillows and blankets during takeoff. (No storage below it.)
There are also two small bins on the console, one near the footrest and the other above the table. The upper console compartment has a mirror and light inside, and comes stocked with noise-reducing headphones and a bottle of water. And of course, there’s ample overhead bin space for larger bags.
The business class section is arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The middle seats are angled toward each other with an adjustable privacy divider. The two seats are still separated by a large console, but it’s still relatively easy to see and chat with a seat mate in these two seats.
Note: If you are a parent with a child, you cannot easily reach the child without unbuckling. So if they happen to be wearing noise-cancelling headphones, you will have to stand up and really reach over to tap them to get their attention. Speaking from experience…
My kid absolutely loved this seat. They couldn’t stop talking about how nice and comfy it was. It was very sweet. (They are spoiled — I know! — but at least grateful for mom and dad’s work.)
In-Seat Tech
TLDR: Functional, but a little glitchy.
There is a fair amount of technology involved in the experience, so let’s run through it.
The seat itself is all electronic and controlled by the buttons on the console. These worked fine and were very clearly labeled.
The console was equipped with wireless charging, which was cool while it worked. These are always spotty for me, and I’m not sure if it was my case our what, but this worked sometimes. For more reliable charging, there was also an AC outlet and USB and USBC ports.
The seat-back screen is a respectable 20 inches. It’s set at an angle because of the seat positioning, but it can pop out and be viewed straight-on outside of takeoff and landing. The entertainment selection was fine, I think. I liked that there was picture-in-picture for the flight tracker.
It’s a touchscreen system, but because the seats are so spacious, you can also control the TV with the provided tablet. I had quite a few issues with my tablet. It was glitchy, slow and the buttons on the side didn’t work. I also didn’t like that the favorites I saved on the tablet were not accessible from the main screen navigation. Overall though, these are probably small potatoes.
My biggest potato was the headphones. This was surely a one off, but my headphones did not work. They emitted the most egregious static at random intervals. I tried adjusting everything I could, but they were ultimately unable. I resorted to sound in one-ear from my crummy disposable wired pair. (FYI, there is a headphone port buried in that console cabinet, you just really have to look for it.)
Wifi was available for purchase, but Business Class does not include complimentary free wifi.
Air France Inflight Service
TLDR: The flight attendants are kind and attentive, and the food was just okay.
After fully scoping out my seat, I got my pre-departure beverage. The selection included juice, water and champagne. (I chose the later, obviously.) This drink service came a little late for my preference, and it was a rush to finish it before they cleared the glasses for takeoff.
They brought the menu at the same time, and the flight attendant took my meal and drink order before takeoff. I didn’t pre-order a vegetarian meal this time, because the menu was posted in advance and had vegetarian entree listed. (Unfortunately, it didn’t list the non-vegetarian starter, so I just didn’t eat that. What can you do.)
The meal service was pretty slow. The flight departed around 10 PM, and the meal didn’t arrive until just after 11 PM. It was close to midnight before I was done and my place was cleared. (They do offer an express meal option if you want to go to sleep sooner.)
The food itself was fine. The salad was fresh, and I liked the bread and cheese. My entree itself was mediocre — it was a potato base with grilled veggies and a red sauce. Not my favorite. The dessert was a rich, chocolate cake. (It tasted like flourless, but I cannot confirm that and it wasn’t listed as such.) I also really loved the box of cheesy crepe snacks.
Drink service was offered a few times, including before the meal, wine service during the meal, and coffee service after the meal.
I opted to be woken up for breakfast — for research of course. After a scant 3 hours of rest, breakfast was delivered just shy of 3:30 AM New York time. This was a good, basic breakfast of fruit, yogurt, bread and coffee.
Overall, the service was great. As far as long-haul flights go, this one is pretty short. They do their best to get meals handled quickly and then it’s lights out for a few hours before a quick breakfast. There’s not much more you can do. In the moment, I described the service as very attentive, and everyone was very kind.
Sleeping in Air France Business Class
TLDR: The hard product is great for sleep, but this particular route doesn’t leave much time for it.
If you’re lucky, you might be able to get some sleep on Air France Business Class. On the BOS-CDG route, there’s only about three hours between meals. If you skip your meal like my 6-year-old-did and go right to sleep, you might be able to get twice that much.
Before takeoff, the flight attendants distributed amenity kits, which included some useful items for bedtime. They included socks, a very nice velvet-backed eye mask, disposable ear plugs, dental kit, lotion and eye creme.
The seat converts into an 80-inch bed using the buttons on the console. I struggled to get my seat completely flat, but I eventually figured it out. The adjustable footrest extends and meets up with stationary footrest to complete the bed. The mattress pad did a good job of covering up all the bumps and cracks. The light comforter was welcome in the chilly cabin, and the pillow was a pillow.
The lights are dimmed for takeoff and are kept low during meal services. Between meals though, the lights were further lowered and the cabin got quite dark. Flight attendants also closed the pod doors for privacy if you hadn’t already done so.
I’m not a great plane sleeper and this flight is short, but I got a few hours of rest. I think it’s just important to keep in mind how little time there is for sleeping on this particular route, especially if you plan to eat meals. You’ll definitely want to factor that into your decision to upgrade or not.
Bathroom
TLDR: The bathrooms were nice.
I never have a bathroom section in these posts, but I actually had two things to say about them on this flight so here we are.
First, the bathroom had a motion sensor trashcan and it was a game. CHANGER. Airplane bathrooms always have the closed trashcans that you have to push the flap to open. No one wants to touch them and they are always overflowing and gross. This just seemed so obvious and so needed and so perfect.
Second, there was this little fold down table thing which was different than the changing table (which they also had.) The table makes so much sense on on a long haul flight when you might have an amenity kit to set down or pajamas to change into. I don’t know if this is on more flights (or if that’s even what it’s for), but it made getting ready for bed a breeze.
Way to go, Air France.
Arrival at CDG
We arrived in Paris as scheduled; it was about 4:30 AM in New York and 10:30 AM in Paris. Deplaning was simple and we quickly moved through to immigration. We did not see a priority or business class immigration lane, but the queue was very short.
Luggage claim is on the other side of immigration. Business Class passengers get a priority tag and their luggage should arrive first. We had no checked bags, so I can’t personally confirm what the wait time was.
Air France does not have an arrivals lounge at CDG.
After a quick stop at Starbucks, we followed signs to the train station located at the airport. We bought our tickets from the kiosk and then it was off to Disneyland Paris.
Closing Thoughts
This flight was great. I tend to judge a premium cabin based on friction, and this one was about as smooth as could be. From comfortable and functional seats, to proactive but not overbearing flight attendants, Air France Business Class created a pleasant and elevated experience from start to finish.
If you are looking for a premium product with the chance of a great points redemption, be sure to keep your eye on Air France (and Virgin Atlantic, which code-shared this flight.)
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