Review of Air France Hop flight from Stuttgart to Paris in Economy

Hello Flight-Report community and welcome to this new review.
A very basic flight on the program, a return flight from Stuttgart to Paris CDG, operated by Air France HOP Embraer 170. The service is NOT identical to the HOP domestic flights - this one is more aligned to Air France mainline operations in Europe.
I had the choice at the time of the reservation between the TGV (3h05 for the journey if there is no delay/repairs) and Air France (about the same from door to door of the RER B is working normally in Paris). As a avgeek I decided for the flight for about the same price of 120€ return. On top with AF the Platinum benefits, mainly a free check-in bag and the lounge access always nice.
… And I was wise to make that choice. One day before the still ongoing public transportation strike started and most of the trains were cancelled. Hopefully my flight was not affected even if air traffic control was cancelling around 20% of the departures out of french airports.

Reservation was made on the KLM.de site as there is a cashback of 4€ on european flights if you reserve via shoop.de. Cashback was available even before the flight departed. Added to the huge mileage earning of 504 miles (including 100% Platinum bonus!!!) and the 118 miles I received over payment via Amex FB credit card, it is equivalent to a total flight price of 118,77-4-2,52-0,59=111,66€ for this trip (considering 1 mile equivalent to 0,5cts as per my own rewarding scheme not fully optimized I know).

Immediately the flight appears on your profile in both mobile apps KLM or Air France.

I started my trip taking the S-Bahn to the airport. It takes around 25min for some 3€ since the simplification introduced last April. The best option I would say. Roads are subject to congestion in Stuttgart, the S-Bahn is normally running well if you accept the classic 5min delay at the end of the line as for the airport.

The airport has already the Christmas decoration. The design is similar to others in Germany as Hamburg and I pretty like it. They are two main terminals T1 and T3 all connected on both land and air side, so clear security wherever the queues are the shortest (except for the T4).

The T1 has a new beautiful departure display.

The T2, reserved to Lufthansa passage airlines (LH, LX, OS).

And the T3 were e.g. AF/KL/DL are all 3 departing.

Check-in was very quick at the Sky Priority desk. The lady at the desk was however not spending much consideration to the passengers: no indication of the Fast Line, no word about the lounge… of course I know STR very well but for others…?!
The Fast Line is for example completely hidden in the T2 and I'm sure that most AF/KL non STR based passengers are queuing in the general area.

STR is one a the unique destinations with an Air France lounge without any mainline flight. FRA is now the second after the route has been given to HOP. The attendants are however from a third company, not in Air France uniform… and are far in my opinion from the Air France standards, or even industry standards. They don't show much care of providing a good service, only a very young lady who I've seen a few times makes some effort and hopefully she will stay.
The views

Inside the lounge, count with around 100m²

From the center ;)

There was a warm offer which is fine at lunch time and given the limited size of the lounge: pasta with paprika/cream sauce and vegetable balls (very dry). Nothing special but ok. Unfortunately everything was empty at 1pm and the ladies needed more than 40min to recharge it :(
My flight was announced on time.

Priority boarding respected but with 15min delay - they could at least inform the passengers of the delay!

Look at the nice weather in Stuttgart. After crossing the Rhine it became another story…

Estban moment (you have to consult the French part of the blog to understand it^^)

My E170 looks modern, the seats are however not as comfy as on the E190.

Good pitch for the flight length

We had to wait 20min on the ground before we had no slot to start from french ATC, but finally pushed back for a departure directly to the west.

We taxied to the east end of the airport

.

.

Rotate in front of the tower

The US air base at the far west end

STR west surroundings

The night has been pretty cold. Areas without sun over the day remain frozen

It's a pity I was not able to take a clear picture but the dark horizon are the Alps and I had a clear view of the Swiss part of them.

Crossing the Rhine it started to become dark (because of the clouds) and bumpy. The airport of Lahr (in front of SXB) was the last clear view I had on this flight.

I decide therefore to explore the Air France fleet. The A350 are arriving, the A380 start to leave, the HOp fleet continues to shrink

The service starts now in the Economy after business class passengers are through. Afternoon flights receive a full beverage service and a sweet snack. We have today famous french "Berliner" - I love them :)

With jam… and even better without neighbor (I was one of the few only)

Close to landing, minimum visibility, it's a week end to better stay in Stuttgart^^

We landed from the west, on time after 55-60 minutes in the air (bloc time 1h25). Rollback to the 2G which means all departure gates of the 2E, e.g. the narrow body area and the… A380 area. In 2 years will be a A350 area :)

.

We have less than 5 minutes delay at the gate but it took a while to install the stair :(

CDG 2G is a hangar which looks like a temporary construction, not the best image of Paris. It is also far away from the rest of the platform with bus connections (pretty well organized I must say) to the other terminals. At the end you will not need much more time than connecting from 2F to 2E. Going to the RER station howver takes much more time, especially when as today all access ways to the airport are blocked because of everyone trying to reach the airport by car… :(

It took 20min for the luggage to arrive, which is way too much for such a small aircraft.

Strike or not - I had decided to take the RER B to Gare du Nord. There is a service every 30 min which remains ok. Also on strike days no need to pay - a merry 10€ saved :)
At the beginning everything started fine, the train was… empty!

Unfortunately we stopped after Parc des Expositions due to an emergency, waiting for the rescue team 30min, Then the driver recommended everyone to take the next train arriving. This one was overcrowded and it was the end of the comfy journey to the center of Paris.
Arriving at Gare du Nord it was even worse. They were thousand and thousand of people waiting on the platform to try to catch this train back to the North of Paris. We coould barely not excape the train, people were screaming everywhere as crushed in the crowd (especially women). Welcome to France!