Introduction
I cross the square in front of the railway station and board the line 50 bus to Basel airport. The last two days it‘s been surprisingly warm in Switzerland, but today we‘re back to the freezing cold.
Just as the bus turns the corner and the station vanishes from sight, it dawns on me that I‘ve done it again and forgotten my passport at home. So I alight at Brausebad to take the tram back home to get my passport. I don‘t know why I keep doing this…
Check-in
Eventually, I arrive at the airport just after 9 in the morning. In the French sector they‘re checking in an Air Arabia flight to Casablanca and my flight to Paris.
Air France has seven counters open, with two of them, on the far right, for SkyPriority passengers. I drop off my suitcase and head one floor up to security, where there is a separate entrance for SkyPriority passengers, but no separate queue – there‘s only the one line open.
However, as soon as they see my red La Première folder with my boarding passes, one of the security agents comes up to me and then leads me to the head of the queue, which is rather nice and earns me the stink eye from everyone else in the queue.
From the French checkpoint, I take a left and then a right and go past the centralized security checkpoint to reach the lounge.
The Swissport ASPIRE Lounge
The lounge at Basel airport has been rebranded as an ASPIRE lounge. This year they‘ll be renovating parts of it. From what I understand, in future passengers will have access to either the lower or the upper level of the lounge, depending on the airline and the type of ticket they‘re travelling on.
The lounge is busy, mostly with a large group of American businessmen who, apparently, were in Basel for a management event with one of the big pharmaceutical companies based in Basel.
I check the whereabouts of the inbound from Paris on flightradar, only to find that the flight has been delayed to leave Paris from 09:00 to 10:00. The return to Paris is expected to have a twenty minutes delay, which seems a bit optimistic to me. But we shall see… at least the lounge clears once the Americans leave to catch their flight to Frankfurt.
Eventually, my flight from Paris arrives at the gate at 11:00, running over an hour late.
Boarding
The Air France app shows a departure time at 11:34. At 11:15, just as the last bag comes off the belt from the inbound flight, boarding begins. There‘s a bit of a hold up, as one passenger forgot his mobile in the lounge. However, the issue is quickly taken care of, so that the guy is reunited with his mobile before the doors close.
The Cabin
I‘m the last to board, and much to my surprise, the whole overhead bin is still empty. I‘m on 1A, and 1B next to me is empty. I place my things in the overhead bin, and that‘s when the cabin crew tells the passenger on 2C that it‘s okay and he may now place his thing in the overhead bin too.
There is a pillow at every seat in Business Class, which is a fairly recent addition to the service on the regional flights.
The Service & Crew
There are three young ladies working the cabin and they‘re great. As I step aboard, the maître de takes my coat and says, „pour Dubai, c‘est ça?“. Given that we‘re running an hour late, I make a joke and say, „oui, esperons“, hopefully. She looks at me like I‘ve gone slightly mad and says, „mais monsieur, vous êtes en Première. L‘avion partira pas sans vous!“, they won‘t leave without you.
The doors close and the crew hand out bottles of still water.
And then we push back.
Our flight time to Paris is announced as fifty minutes.
The Snack
As soon as we‘re airborne, the inflight service starts. Without even asking, the cabin crew hands me one of each snacks available and asks what I‘d like to drink. I have a hot chocolate. The snacks are caramel sablés with salted butter, salty sablés with Beaufort cheese and nutmeg, and a packet of mixed nuts and dried fruit.
Arrival in CDG
Our descent takes us over a beautiful, snow covered landscape that is elegantly veiled in a thin layer of haze.
We touch down and make the long schlepp over to Terminal 2G. As we pull onto our stand, the black Porsche Cayenne taking me to Terminal 2E is already expecting me. I have fifty minutes before my onward connection.
La Premiere eh?——— this will be interesting!
… and very pleasant!
Sorry for delayed reply William. So,of course LP looks very good and it will be interesting to see the new[rumored] six seat cabin complete with 2 screens. The only thing that doesnt ‘grab’ me is the lounge in Paris—-far too PINK!!!!!. What do you think of the Lufthansa Allegris debacle?—–3 seats in F down from 8 and that centre seat is quite ridiculous! Can you imagine the kerfuffle if one occupant [the furthest from the door]needs to get up mid flight?.——-and then they are proposing to keep the old[current] biz class upstairs on 744’s and charge different prices for different seats in the new biz class—–Madness!
Regards,Peter.
Hi Peter, I see what you mean about the lounge. But I really do think it works very well as an ensemble that looks very classy because it‘s so striking. I think you need to visit to see for yourself.
As for Lufthansa, these things happen. I just cannot fully understand why they couldn‘t wait until they had a finalised design and a defined timeline for the implementation before they went public to announce their new product.
Other than that, what I like about Air France is that they are very consistent and solid in the presentation & branding of their onboard products & cabin, whereas others are not.
Have you been on LH longhaul recently?
Hi again William——- Only just noticed this this morning.No i havent—-in fact ive only flown long distance twice,once each on Air france and BA—— toJo’burg where one of my two older brothers lives. You may remember that i was going to go to Sydney,partly with LH, as a birthday present too myself for Feb 22nd—– this has had to be put on ‘Hold’—————– hope fully things at the front of the plane will be settled[and good!] when i choose to go. I’m planning a couple of weeks burning the rails in Switzerland this summer——i love trains almost as much as planes,but am NOT a ‘trainspotter’!!—– Might need a recommendation for somewhere to stay for a couple of weeks—— a restaurant with rooms or a cosy 3,4,5 star hotel. Are you off to anywhere interesting soon? Something else that didnt ‘grab’ me was the look of the food in that Geneva restaurant——wont say what it looked like!. Best,Peter.
Hi Peter,
If you’re interested in trains, perhaps you might want to consider spending a few days in Kandersteg at the nothern portal of the Lötschberg tunnel that separates the Bernese Oberland from Canton Wallis.
From Frutigen the train gradually winds its way up the mountain to Kandersteg. When you the exit on the other side of the tunnel at Goppenstein it starts its descent into Brig. On a clear day it’s quite spectacular.
Thanks for this William.I actually have travelled on this line—–The’old’ line, now that the lotschberg tunnel route has opened.As you say it is spectacular I’m thinking of getting a ‘Swiss Pass’ staying somewhere central and then heading out each day.I would say that Switzerland is my favourite european country!
Hvew you been to Brienz? It’s at the other end of the lake from Interlaken and the station for the railway up to the Brienzer Rothorn. That would be very central and a lovely location.
Hi William——- ive passed through Brienz on my way back to Interlaken a few times.Yes it looks a nice place to unwind. i need to find somewhere,where i can depart earliesh and return back in time for dinner[hopefully with a lakeside setting!!!. i havent explored the appenzeller region and there is a mountain setting that looks interesting—-Ebenalp. perhaps i should find a cute hotel—- not be obsessed by cramming as much as i can see in 2 weeks, Relax, go for walks——Murren and surrounds would be great for this and just get a half fare card and travel on certain days——— we’ll see! all the best Peter