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

Introduction

The day prior to this flight I was notified by operations that they will position me back home from Gothenburg as I was finishing my three week's duty and asked whether I had any suggestion for a flight back home. Given that KLM was asking an exorbitant amount of money for a short flight to Amsterdam which would have costed around 570 EUR for a one-way direct flight to Amsterdam. Knowing this and that operations would prefer a cheaper flight if possible, I kindly asked them to book me on Air France with a stopover for three hours in Paris Charles de Gaulle with a price tag of about 240 EUR and this also gave me a chance to fly Air France for the very first time.

About an hour later I received my tickets on my mail and realised that operations misspelled my name. After verifying this mistake, I told them that I will contact the customer service of Air France to change my surname and was done so very quickly for no additional charge. Air France did an excellent job on this and was very responsive, so well done.

So the route for today is as followed;

Flight

Given that the flight is quite an early flight and I was staying at the Landvetter Airport Hotel, I decided to grab a minor bite at breakfast, which starts at 3.30 AM, before heading out to the terminal, which is about a 5 to 10 minute walk. They do however also offer a 24/7 shuttle service in case you require it, but I found it not worthy to use it for the short walking distance to be fair.

Arriving about 90 minutes to departure, the airport was quite deserted with about two taxi's dropping off some passengers.

Yet the terminal itself is a bit more lively with about six or seven flights departing around the time. Two Lufthansa's, Air France, KLM & SAS.

Took one of the kiosks to print my boarding pass and luggage tag. System wasn't the fastest, yet it was simple and easy to go through.

While the line for people trying to check in via one of the manned counter was quite busy, the luggage drop off was deserted and it only took seconds to drop my luggage by scanning your boarding pass & luggage tag.

Security took about 10 to 15 minutes to clear which to be fair wasn't way to crowded, yet required us to take out every single item that is liquid or electronic. Due to some construction work and the opening hours of the lounge which I can use with my priority pass, I did not opt to use it.

Instead I did some plane spotting with this Lufthansa Airbus A320neo occupying the stand next to our aircraft with a departure to Frankfurt as LH821.

Another A320neo of SAS that would depart to Malaga as SK2907 about 20 minutes later than our flight and an ATR 72 of Braathens in the background that would depart to Stockholm Bromma.

On the other side of our aircraft was yet another Airbus A320neo of SAS that would depart an hour after our departure to Stockholm Arlanda.

And here is our flight for today. F-HBLR is a 14.5 year old Embraer 190 that was newly delivered to KLM Cityhopper in November 2009. An aircraft I have been on when it was flying for KLM Cityhopper as PH-EZI and even made a report about it, which you can find here.

Boarding was scheduled to start at 5.30 AM,  but boarding was called around 5.42 AM. Boarding though went quite speedy and was completed well in advance of our scheduled departure time. Upon entering the aircraft, we were kindly greeted by one of the flight attendants.

Legroom wasn't great nor bad. I guess it was sufficient for a 2 hour flight to Paris, however the cabin wasn't really the cleanest and heavy signs of wear and tear on the seat.

Cabin wasn't really properly cleaned either despite it being like four to five hours on ground with coffee or other stains visible.

So apparently someone thought it was a wise decision to dispose their chewing gum on the safety card, which to me felt like it has been there already for a while….

Window view from my seat.

Cabin view while boarding was completed.

Pushback was performed a minute ahead of our scheduled departure.

About ten minutes past our scheduled departure we were rolling for departure from Runway 03 in a northerly direction before turning to the right to find our way southwesterly to Paris.

The literature in the seat pocket contained only of a sickbag and a safety card.

The lad next to me decided it was time to sleep and considered that he needs more space for his legs by spreading them so wide that the aisle and my side were both reduced in width. This was so unnecessary of him as he was shorter than me and I had plenty of legroom. I didn't bother much about it as it was a short flight, but don't be like this guy….

View of the cabin in-flight. One of the flight attendants requested the lady who sat in front of me to be swap seats with the bigger guy as she did not believe that the lady was strong enough to handle the emergency door. She didn't object to it, but was visible not pleased with the request.

By this time we were served a biscuit with coffee/tea or juices. I opted for a cup of coffee with a biscuit, while the friendly flight attendant kindly asked if I wanted some juice or water too. I politely declined.

In the descent to Paris.

The airspace around Paris was very active with many aircraft around us.

While lining up our approach for Runway 08R, we spotted this Boeing 777-300ER of EVA Air in parallel approach for Runway 09L

On short approach.

An Airbus A350-900 of Air France just landed on our runway while we were waiting to cross 08L.

With a very short ride to our stand next to an Embraer 170 of Hop!

Disembarkation followed soon after and was quickly done with the last view of our aircraft that brought us over.

Now it was time to position ourself to Terminal 2F for our next flight with about three hours to kill.

To go to the other terminals as a transit, you will need to use their bus shuttle service which runs every 9 minutes according to the tv screens.

Thanks for stopping by and will continue the next report upon reaching Terminal 2F.