As I was currently residing in Vitoria, Spain for work for the last week, it was time for me to return back home. While Vitoria does have an airport of their own, the airport has a very limited network with just one or two daily passenger flights to destinations like Malaga or Mallorca, so the best options are to take a bus to Bilbao or to catch a train to Madrid.
As Bilbao is the closest to Vitoria and has five daily flights to Amsterdam (3x KLM and 2x Vueling), the KLM flights were extremely expensive with prices being around 1.000 EUR (as tickets were bought the day prior) and Vueling offering flights that were either way too early or too late as I was unable to catch the first flight at 7 AM.
In the end I saw that Air France was offering a reasonable price (300 EUR) at a reasonable time with a short connection in Paris to Amsterdam and decided to book that one. Given that I had only 45 minutes in Paris, I decided to travel with cabin luggage only and upgrade my first leg to business for about 70 EUR extra as that would confirm my luggage to be with me in case I would need to run in Paris.
Once the itinerary was confirmed, I decided to book myself on the 8 am bus from Vitoria to Bilbao Intermodal for about 15 euros (quite a scenic busride) and grab another bus (4.5 EUR) from Bilbao Intermodal to Bilbao's Airport that would bring me over there around 10 am.
As I managed to catch the bus in Bilbao's main station, it meant that I was dropped off at Bilbao's airport right on time.
The terminal does have a nickname ''La Paloma'' as the terminal is designed in an iconic birdsized terminal, yet the terminal from the inside had so much more potential to make it feel more spacious, yet the tiles they used and the way they placed some furniture made the terminal feel a bit cramped at certain locations.
As I didn't want to check in my luggage, I simply passed by the two check-in counters that were used for both the KLM and Air France flights. I understand that they are combining the check-in counters as it is basically the same airline, however two counters for two flights is simply not doing it for me as waiting times can be up to 30 minutes before one is able to drop off their luggage and usually takes longer as there is always one passenger that does not have the correct paperwork and/or needs it to be sorted out with the airline, which is increasing the wait even further.
Security itself was busy, yet I was lucky that one of the stations just opened right in front of me and managed to bypass a large number of passengers, so it took about five minutes to clear. Once you've passed security, you are kinda forced to walk through those infamous duty free shop where one is able to buy 85% of goods you can buy at any location in any other airport anywhere in the world, but at least they've added a Spanish regional section to it where one is able to buy some regional spirits and wines.
The way the airport is designed makes it also a bit confusing to your gate section as there are three levels being used for gates divided in Floor A, B and C. Though it comes with a great view over the apron, the airport's design makes it so that there is by far not enough seating available.
Despite the early start of my day, the brain was not functioning properly and decided to head to the 'Sala VIP Nervión' lounge through my Priority Pass, while not realizing that I could have entered the better ''Sala VIP Urdaibai'' lounge through my J ticket with Air France….. Guess I'm too used to use my Priority Pass at most airports….
By the time I arrived in the lounge, it wasn't overly busy and did provide plenty of seating for the passengers that were present (though it became more cramped later on). The biggest issue I have noticed here though over one hour of sitting is that staff wasn't pro-active with their cleaning service and were more focused on restocking their products rather than cleaning the tables too.
The other angle.
Food and drink offering was reasonable with a reasonable selection of wines, spirits and some snacks like popcorn, crisps and nuts.
Plenty of choice for juices, fizzy drinks, water and beers with a regional beer on offer. A few sandwiches and desserts were on offer too.
The kitchen isle offered some cheeses and meats, toast and pastries, though no hot items were on offer.
About five minutes to our scheduled boarding time I decided to leave the lounge to head downstairs as we would be departing from a bus gate. The problem was that there was seating available by the time I was down here as there is simply not enough like I said before.
In the end I just decided to queu behind the row for zone 1 and 2 as I would need to stand somewhere anyhow.
Boarding was called about fifteen minutes later than intended to and boarding went by zones despite it being useless as the airline did not provide you with a separate bus, so passengers of zone five were still mixed with us when boarding the aircraft.
Spotted this Airbus A320 of Aegean though who just arrived from Athens, Greece and was preparing for it's return leg.
Once the bus left it didn't take us long to spot the aircraft that was going to bring us over to Paris.
F-HBLN is a 5.9 year old (at time of flying) embraer 190 that was newly delivered to Hop! in september 2019 and is configured with 100 seats. While Hop! is currently busy configuring their E190 fleet to carry 112 seats, this specific bird has not received that update as of yet. Today's load was 100% with 4/4 in J & 96/96 in Y. Hop! does not provide you with a blocked seat in J on their E-Fleet.
Upon embarking the aircraft we were being greeted by a flight attendant that was very cheerful and was going to be the superstar of this specific flight despite her clumsiness, though I was not aware of that by now obviously :).
With just a few steps I found my seat 01A which offers plenty of legroom.
The view from my seat and by now I was hearing a conversation between the flight attendant and the dispatcher where the flight attendant was actually pushing the dispatcher a bit more to work faster as the pace was too slow for her and they wanted an on-time departure.
Doors were closed as soon as possible and the flight attendant came by to provide us with a cold refreshing wet towel.
Pushback was engaged about two minutes past our scheduled departure time and while taxiing out to the active runway, you can clearly see the unique shape of the terminal building.
About ten minutes past our scheduled departure time we were rolling down the runway for a very scenic departure to our destination and I'm definitely going to return one day to explore Bilbao as it seems that the city itself and the area around has plenty to offer.
Once at a safe altitude, the flight attendant jumped out of their seat and decided to provide us with a bottle of water.
The table is stowed in the armrest on the left, however must admit that I'm not a huge fan of these style of tablets as they tend to be a bit floppy and it did not provide me with that much clearance as I do have a few extra pounds on me, though the table was clean.
The flight attendant who was very cheerful asked whether I wanted to have my lunch or could please me with just a drink. I kindly requested her to provide me with the meal which is designed by a two michelin-star awarded chef Michel Roth. The main dish was a shredded cod dish with summer vegetables and a pasta with black olives served with a tiny cheese platter of French cheeses and a lemon tartlet as dessert.
The flight attendant seemed to cheer up a lot when she asked whether I wanted to have a glass of champagne with my meal and here the first clumsy act of her became a fact as she placed the glass of champagne with a bit too much force on my table where the champagne decided to foam up and spill all over the table (luckily enough it didn't hit me though) and within seconds she came back with so many tissues to clean and decided to top my glass up.
Decided to try the dishes by now and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the cheeses and the shredded cod, while the lemon tartlet was more like a meh….
About 25 minutes the flight attendant returned to us to clean up as she finished her round in economy and kindly asked whether I wanted to have another drink. As I still had to drive home and didn't want to drink more champagne, I asked for a cup of coffee which I received instantly and the flight attendant seized her opportunity to top up my champagne glass again.
Before finishing my second glass of champagne, she decided to top me up for the one last time and this time I decided to slowly drink it while enjoying the views outside when I started to notice our descend into Paris.
Decided to quickly pay a visit to the lavatory in front before it was too late. The toilet itself isn't overly spacious and rather on the cramp side, however the toilet has been clean and was barely used by passengers.
By the time I returned to my seat, the flight attendant had cleaned my table and were preparing the cabin for landing.
Almost forgot the mention but the aircraft is equiped with individual air vents and a reading light.
By now we are well into an approach to Runway 26L giving us a nice view over Paris Le Bourget and Paris Charles de Gaulle itself with a touchdown at three minutes past 1 pm resulting in us being 17 minutes ahead of schedule and giving me a bit more time to make my connection to Amsterdam (which turned out to be longer as the second flight would have been delayed).
I must admit that I think that the livery of Air France on their A350 looks fabulous.
Though the livery does look dull on their 777.
And a line up of some Skyteam Members with Westjet being the oddball in the line as that one is just a strategic partner of Skyteam.
Docking at our stand about seven minutes ahead of schedule and probably at the closest gate possible to the transit stop to get from Terminal 2G to Terminal 2F.
Despite the hard product being even worse than the standard euro J class as the first row of seats have reduced width and no blocked seat next to you, the meal itself and the flight attendant made well up for the lacking of the hard product. It's been a pleasure F-HBLN!
In the terminal follow the yellow wall which by now was just less than a minute walk in order to transit to Terminal 2F.
And now it is just a waiting game for the first bus to arrive. It would be helpful to have a screen informing you when the next bus will arrive rather than promoting that the ride itself just take 9 minutes on itself. Would be a tremendous help if you actually knew the arrival time as the 9 minute ride doesn't mean anything if you wait an additional 10-15 minutes for the bus to actually arrive.
Thanks for stopping by and will see you on the onward flight to Amsterdam.
Enjoyed this review, thanks for posting.