Background
This flight was the first flight on my way home from a Europe Trip. I routing would look like this: MSY-JFK, JFK-TXL, VIE-CDG, CDG-JFK, JFK-MSY. The first two flights on the way there would be on Delta and so would the last flight on the way back while the other 2 would be on Air France. This was my first flight on Air France, and only my second flight on a foreign carrier (my first being Vueling).
at the airport
I arrived at the airport at 7:49 A.M. When I reach the Air France and KLM check-in counters, the line was extremely long. I didn't get to check my bag until about 8:30 A.M. The Vienna airport seemed very clean and nice, a lot nicer and more modern than the airport I flew into, Berlin-Tegel.
After the quick passport control area you walked through a duty free area.
Security was quick and painless and I was out in 3 minutes. I proceeded to walk to my gate, C38.
The gate area had lots of seating and USB outlets below some of the seats, but none of them seemed to work. I had my camera so I was going to do a bit of plane spotting if I had time. However, by the time I got to the gate, I didn't have much time and the views of the planes around me seemed obstructed. This disappointed me because there was an Air Baltic a220-300 next to my gate and I could not see it.
Boarding
Boarding began at 9:25 A.M. I was in group 5 so I had to wait a little while. Boarding was rather confusing since I could not understand the boarding calls. Since I was seated in the back of the aircraft, I boarded on air stairs. This was unexpected but also a nice surprise since It gave me a chance to get a good view of my aircraft and the Air Baltic A220 next to us.
on the aircraft
I was seated in 21F, a window seat in standard economy. My window was very dirty so that when I tried to get shots out of it, they all came out rather awful. The seat came with an adjustable headrest and a cup holder in the tray table. I know that this feature is common on Air France but I have never seen an American airline do this which I thought was a nice touch. The legroom for me on this flight was rather tight.
We finally pushed back behind schedule at 10:00 A.M. and we had a long taxi to the runway. We were in the air at 10:17 A.M.
Drinks and snacks were served 45 minutes inflight. I was offered biscuits and crackers I decided crackers, which were poppy and pepper crackers. I did not enjoy these but I guess that they are common in Europe. They did not have ginger ale, which is my go-to drink when flying, so I opted for a Coke. Europe doesn't usually have ice in their drinks so my coke was chilled instead.
Air France safety card
Due to our delay and some rerouting, we now had an estimated arrival at 12:25 P.M. This worried me a little because I had to catch another flight that would be departing from 2E at Hall M and I knew that we were arriving in 2F and the transfer between the two terminals would take some time.
During the flight, we encountered some moderate turbulence. Flight attendants didn't pick up the trash from the snack and drink service until we prepared for our descent at 12:00 P.M. We touched down at 12:08 P.M. and we arrived at the gate at 12:16 P.M.
Thanks for this FR.
Usual decent service on AF, those crackers are a pretty small snack for a 2 hour flight, I guess you only get a sandwich on flights at meal time.
Hope the transfer from 2F to 2E-M was smooth.