It’s easy to get spoiled and think of business class as being very “bleh,” given that many of us are able to redeem miles primarily for international first class travel on foreign airlines. But it’s also important to keep things in perspective. In my case, I booked an $1,100 coach ticket from Tampa to Shanghai via Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in both directions, and confirmed upgrades for all flights. I’ll earn well over 40,000 elite qualifying and redeemable miles, so I’d be a happy camper even if my flights weren’t great.

But frankly, my flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai (that I just off of) was actually fantastic.

A few things to note in particular (I’ll save many of the details for the trip report):

• Headwinds are strong going west right now! The flight was blocked at 13hr50min (usually block time is about 30-45 minutes longer than the anticipated flight time), but our flight time was 14hr10min. As a result we arrived about 45 minutes late, though there were no lines at immigration, so I guess it balanced out in the end.
  
  
• Angled flat seats suck. They’re awesome when you upgrade from coach, but it really is pretty tough to get any “real” sleep in them. They didn’t used to bother me all that much, but I’m finding it harder and harder to sleep in them. Can’t wait for American’s new business class product.
• Empty flights are awesome. I’m so used to business and first class on US airlines being full due to how easy it is to upgrade, get award tickets, and the ease with which non-revs can fill the cabin, but as I posted about yesterday, this flight was pretty empty. Even after lots of non-revs cleared,  business class was only half full, and I had two seats to myself (window and aisle). This isn’t just useful for the extra space, but it also makes it easy to grab a couple of pillows to at least make the seat a bit more comfortable when trying to sleep.
  
  
• Who said service on US airlines can’t be awesome? Since the flight was so empty the service was attentive and quick. But beyond that, the flight attendants were awesome. The flight attendant working my aisle was Chinese, and I mean “authentic Chinese.” I mention this because I honestly felt like I was flying an Asian airline. She spoke very slowly because her English wasn’t great, but she was constantly smiling and so friendly. She provided a “Singapore Girl” level of service.And the “senior mamas” (I use that term endearingly)  — who all had 35+ years at American — working the flight were awesome as well. I accidentally pushed my call button once in the middle of the flight (was trying to turn on my light), and one of the flight attendants I hadn’t previously interacted with appeared in less than ten seconds, smiling and asking what she could get me. Kudos to the crew. If only I could have them on all my flights.

Anyway, now it’s time for me to fall asleep in the clouds… literally (the joys of a hotel on the 90th floor in smoggy Shanghai).

To take advantage of American’s double elite qualifying miles promotion for the month of January I’m off to Shanghai today for a mini-vacation (aka mileage run of sorts). My upgrades cleared for all flights, so I’m quite the happy camper on an $1,100 fare where I’ll be earning over 40,000 elite qualifying miles and redeemable miles.

I’ll be taking American’s fairly new Los Angeles to Shanghai flight, and can’t help but notice how darn empty it is in first and business class. I’m used to empty premium cabins on foreign carriers that don’t make upgrades and award tickets easy, but I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a flight on a US airline this empty up front.

No seats are assigned in first class (the two seats that are blocked are pilot crew rests):

And only 14 of the 37 business class seats are assigned:

As always, seatmaps aren’t necessarily an accurate indication of loads, but in general if a seatmap is empty, the flight is empty.

I’m curious how full the flight ends up after non-revs. Shanghai in January mid-week probably isn’t too hot of a destination for most non-revs, so maybe first class will stay empty and the crew will have an especially pleasant flight.

I also have to mention how awesome Admirals Club agents are. When I checked in at the San Francisco Admirals Club this morning the agent said “now Mr. Lucky, are you already registered for the double miles promotion we’re running through the end of the month?” Entirely minor, but at the same time it’s nice to see an employee that actually cares about customers (which is more common than not at Admirals Clubs).

As I posted about a couple of weeks back, American is running a double elite qualifying miles promotion through January 31. I posted a strategy at the time by which residents of California and Illinois could earn top tier (Executive Platinum) status for under $2,000 in just a few days.

Now, I’m neither a resident of California or Illinois, nor am I in desperate need of elite qualifying miles, given that I already have a bunch of international travel planned for 2012 on American, confirmed in first and business class thanks to the eight systemwide upgrades I get annually for being an Executive Platinum member.

Still, just to boost my beginning of the year balance, I decided to plan a fairly quick trip to Shanghai. Since flying American I haven’t really done all that many pure mileage runs, but rather just mini-vacations. In this case I’ll be going to Shanghai for four days.

The fare wasn’t spectacular — I paid $1,129 all-in, though I did manage to route the ticket from Tampa to Shanghai via Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in both directions. That’s a total of 22,322 base elite qualifying miles, or 44,644 elite qualifying miles through this promotion (not to mention I’ll also earn 44,644 redeemable miles for the trip). Best of all, the long segments are all confirmed in business class.

And that’s exactly what I love about top tier status with American. Even as a leisure traveler I never have to mileage run, but rather can just take a few fun international trips a year upgraded to business class.

I now have two trips planned to Spain (in business class), one to Shanghai (in business class), and one to Japan (in first class), all on American.

And I hate to say this, but let me make my big, baseless airline prediction for 2012, given that American is in Chapter 11 — I suspect they’ll add fare restrictions to their systemwide upgrades, so that they can no longer be used on all fares. I’m certainly hoping I’m wrong…

I need to fly in January. Not because American is offering double elite qualifying miles, but because I’ve gotta get the heck out of here. Change of scenery, please! Well, the double EQM promo American is running certainly doesn’t hurt in justifying it either. Fortunately I am almost booked for Executive Platinum requalification for next year, including two trips to Spain (confirmed in business class) and one trip to Japan (confirmed in first class).

Unfortunately other than that, airfare is awful. I just pulled up the fares out of Tampa for January using FareCompare’s new map tool, and with the exception of flights to Las Vegas, there’s not a single flight to the west coast for under $300.

This is all pretty ironic, given that the one route that seemed to be cheap was also the one on which they were offering triple elite qualifying miles, out of both Chicago and Dallas. So on one hand you have those that locked in Executive Platinum status for under $2,000, and on the other end of the spectrum you have those of us overpaying to fly.

I have to book something, though I haven’t decided whether to just take the bad fares or sweat it out a bit and wait for them to drop. After all, January is a slow month for travel…

I do intend to visit the InterContinental San Francisco and Andaz West Hollywood sometime during the month, though.

Thanks for listening to me gripe. I’m happy to reciprocate.

Farecompare.com used to have a really handy web page at farecompare.com/flyertalk, which would display the cheapest fares out of any city of your choosing.

It used to look something like this:

Now going to the page just gives you this:

I’m not sure whether this is just a temporary thing or they got rid of the page forever, but it was the first and last webpage I checked every day, since it was the easiest way to see if there were any fare sales out of my home airport.

Obviously I’m not the only person that loved Fare Compare’s city search tool, since over the past couple of days I’ve constantly been asked where to go to find low fares, especially in light of American’s double elite qualifying miles promotion.

While it’s by no means a replacement, I think the next best option is using ITA Matrix. It requires a bit more work, though it kind of sort of does the trick… kind of.

Step 1

Go to matrix.itasoftware.com.

Step 2

Enter your home airport in the “Departing From” field, and then in the “Destination” field enter every possible city that could have a cheap fare, separated by semicolons or commas. Typically you’ll want to look for transcon fares, so out of Tampa I might type in something like:

SFO;LAX;SEA;SAN;SNA;PDX;MRY;PSP;LAS;PHX;BUR;ONT

Step 3

In the section immediately below the origin and destination field, select “see calendar of lowest fares.” Then select the first date you’re willing to travel, as it will show you a month-long calendar for dates after that. Lastly, select how long you’d like to stay at your destination for.

Step 4

After selecting the dates, be sure to uncheck the box which says “allow airport changes.” If you don’t uncheck it, the search may return results where you’re flying into Las Vegas and out of Los Angeles, for example, which isn’t very helpful for mileage running. Once you’ve done that, at the bottom of the page, click “Search.”

You’ll now get a page with prices listed by date on a calendar. The dates with the cheapest fares will show up in orange.

You can then click on any date of your choosing and see the comparison of fares across various airlines.

But of course as you saw, the prices on the calendars were based on the cheapest fare of any airline. Lets say you wanted to fly a specific airline. To specify that you would go back to the home page and modify the code.

To specify you want to fly a certain number of segments on a certain airline, you type the airline’s two digit once for each segment you want. If I wanted to know the cheapest mileage run with two segments in each direction on American out of Tampa, I would type the following:

TPA:: aa aa
SFO, LAX, SEA, SAN, SNA, PDX, MRY, PSP, LAS, PHX, BUR, ONT:: aa aa

As you’ll see, this creates a new field where the airline codes display.

As displayed above, this is saying I want to fly from Tampa to any of those airports on American Airlines in two segments in each direction.

Once you click “Search” you’ll get a new calendar which will have narrowed down the options per your specifications.

Like I said, it’s not a perfect fix. ITA used to supplement Fare Compare very nicely. Though without Fare Compare, it’s the next best option, as far as I know.

Anyone else know of any tools for planning mileage runs?

If you don’t want to read the entire post, at least read the “Double dipping for triple elite qualifying miles” section, where I show you how you can achieve top tier status on American for under $2,000 in just over four days.

I get an email at least once a day from someone saying “OMG, you’re the coolest person ever, how do I get into mileage running?” Okay, maybe the first part isn’t true, but the second part is. And as much as I’m a mileage run “evangelist” and think they’re awesome, my answer for the past year or so has been the same — “are you really sure you want to get into mileage running?”

The issue is that over the past couple of years we haven’t seen any great promotions, airfare has been on the rise, and routing rules aren’t nearly as generous as they used to be. In other words, in the past I could fly from Tampa to San Francisco via Washington, Orlando, Denver, and Portland in each direction, for $240 roundtrip. Now I’m lucky to fly from Tampa to Chicago to San Francisco for $300 roundtrip. Obviously that almost doubles the cost per mile.

So for those of you that are completely new to the game and have asked me when to start mileage running, the answer is January 1 on American. American announced a double elite qualifying miles promotion yesterday, which is valid through January 31, 2012.

First let’s go through the basic benefits of why you would mileage run. If you’re going to go for it, you really should aim for Executive Platinum status, which is American’s top tier.

What are the benefits for achieving Executive Platinum?

• Unlimited domestic upgrades, which will almost always clear (I’ve missed one upgrade this year)
• Eight systemwide upgrades that can be used to upgrade any revenue fare. This is where the real value is. You’re literally getting four roundtrip international business class tickets for the price of coach per year. So far I’ve upgraded roundtrip tickets to Barcelona, Delhi, London, and Madrid, all on $700-1,000 coach fares.
• International first class lounge access when traveling on an international longhaul flight. Most airlines give you business class lounge access in those instances, though by being a OneWorld Emerald member you get access to first class lounges in those cases. That includes lounges like the Cathay Pacific Wing in Hong Kong, British Airways First Class Lounge at London Heathrow, Los Angeles Flagship Lounge in Los Angeles, etc.
• 100% redeemable miles bonus when traveling on revenue tickets
• No phone booking fees or award booking/redeposit fees when using miles out of your account for yourself
• Amazing phone customer service. The American Executive Platinum desk is hands down the best in the industry. These are supervisors that are actually empowered to make exceptions for you, and their value can’t be underestimated. In my experience, more so than at any other part of the company, they appreciate your business.

So how do you qualify for Executive Platinum status?

Qualifying for Executive Platinum takes one of the following in a calendar year:

• 100,000 elite qualifying miles (EQMs)
• 100,000 elite qualifying points (EQPs)
• 100 segments.

So while the double elite qualifying miles promotion is already in full swing, since status is based on a calendar year, you’ll want to wait till January 1 to start mileage running, unless you think you can earn 100,000 elite qualifying miles in the next two weeks (which, trust me, you don’t want to do).

It’s worth distinguishing between elite qualifying miles and elite qualifying points. Most airlines only have elite qualifying miles, so this makes American a bit unique.

American awards one elite qualifying mile per revenue mile flown, be it “cheapo” coach or full fare first class. This is the balance that they’re doubling during the double elite qualifying miles promotion. This means that to qualify for Executive Platinum through the double elite qualifying miles promotion you have to fly 50,000 miles, be it in discounted coach or full fare first class (unless there’s an extra promotion you’re stacking on, as discussed below).

American’s elite qualifying points are based on how high of a fare class you’re booked in. If you fly a deeply discounted coach ticket you’ll only earn 0.5 points per mile flown, while if you fly full fare first class you’ll earn 1.5 points per mile flown.

So completely ignore elite qualifying points for the purposes of this promotion, because they’re not being doubled. A lot of people prefer to mileage run on discounted first and business class tickets, and while that’s great, this promotion won’t help you with that goal in any way, since you’re not earning bonus elite qualifying miles for a paid first or business class ticket.

American’s Status Challenges

American offers status challenges whereby you can pay a fee to essentially be “fast tracked” to an elite status tier. They only offer challenges for the Gold and Platinum tier, which must be completed within 90 days, and not top tier.

The Gold challenge requires 5,000 elite qualifying points (10,000 miles flown in discounted coach), while the Platinum challenge requires 10,000 elite qualifying points (20,000 miles flown in discounted coach). You only get the status after completing the challenge, and the cost for the challenges are $120 and $200 for Gold and Platinum, respectively. Chances are this won’t be worth it for most of you.

It takes 20,000 flown miles in discounted coach to complete the Platinum challenge. After having flown 20,000 miles in discounted coach you’ll have earned 40,000 elite qualifying miles through this promotion, so you would only be 10,000 elite qualifying miles (5,000 flown miles through January 31) short of outright earning Platinum status. If you are planning on going “all in,” it’s worth noting that it can take a few weeks for the double elite qualifying miles to post, though the status from a challenge should post right away. So if that’s a factor for you, be sure to keep that in mind.

What routes to fly

Keep in mind that you don’t have to go all the way to Executive Platinum in January. You can take things slow if you want. I will say that flying 50,000 miles in a month isn’t nearly as tough as it sounds. I’ve done it many times before, and it really isn’t that bad (though admittedly if you’re just getting started, much of it will be in coach). If you live on a coast, you’re generally best off sticking to transcontinental flights that you can route through Miami. It shouldn’t be too tough to fly 6,000 elite qualifying miles per weekend (for a transcon routed through Miami), which translates to 12,000 miles through this promotion.

If you were to take just one of those trips each weekend in January, you’d already be right at the cusp of Platinum status. Then you’d have 11 months to fly 50,000 miles, which really shouldn’t be that tough.

You can also conceivably do same day turns, so if you’re self employed or don’t have a traditional schedule, how about a trip every Tuesday and Saturday for the month? You could still be home five days a week, and you’d be right at the cusp of Executive Platinum status. That’s basically Executive Platinum in eight days with minimal spend.

Double dipping for triple elite qualifying miles

If you live in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, you’re as lucky as they get. American is currently offering double elite qualifying miles for travel between Chicago/Dallas and Los Angeles/San Francisco, for residents of Illinois, Texas, and California (meaning those with an address on file with AAdvantage in one of those states). Here’s the real shocker — the two promotions are combinable, so you can earn triple elite qualifying miles for travel between these cities. Let’s break that down a bit further. A roundtrip between San Francisco and Chicago is 3,692 miles. Through this promotion those miles would be tripled, so you’d be earning a whopping 11,076 elite qualifying miles per roundtrip.

Best of all, fares are presently $99 one-way between San Francisco and Chicago, so a roundtrip costs $219 including tax. Given that you need nine roundtrips to achieve Executive Platinum, that’s top tier status for $1,971. As if that’s not sweet enough, they’re also offering double redeemable miles between San Francisco and Chicago, so you’d be earning a ton of miles as well.

Even better, you can conceivably do two roundtrips a day, meaning you could achieve Executive Platinum status in just over four days.

Enjoy effortless requalification

This is what I love about American. While getting to Executive Platinum might be a pain, once you have it I don’t think there’s an easier airline to keep requalifying on. This is because you can almost completely requalify on international trips in business class. Just take four “fun” trips to Asia a year, and in many cases you’ll already be sitting at 80,000 miles for the year. Then just do a few domestic trips and you’ll be all set for requalificaiton, and will have earned eight more systemwide upgrades and another year of Executive Platinum status. With Delta and United, on the other hand, there are fare restrictions on the systemwide upgrades, so it’s not even nearly as practical to travel internationally for fun getaways/mileage runs.

Any questions?

I’ve written several times about the all around great service I usually receive on American, though a few nights ago I had a (comically?) bad crew. I’ve taken the San Francisco to Miami redeye a handful of times in September, and most of the crews have been spectacular. I even had the same purser twice, and she was among the best I’ve had (she even addressed me by name upon boarding the second time).

And then there was my most recent redeye from San Francisco to Miami. During boarding all four flight attendants stood in the forward galley though didn’t serve any pre-departure beverages. Shortly after takeoff the drink service began. I’ve posted about American’s redeye catering in the past, and as I’ve mentioned I really like the soup, though they only cater two of them for a 22-seat first class cabin, so they tend to be gone pretty quickly.

As the flight attendant offered me hot nuts and a drink I jokingly said “who do I have to bribe to get soup?”

She looked at me shocked and said “how do you know about the soup?” I responded that it was usually on the redeye menu, to which she responded “oh, we don’t usually hand menus out, it takes too long.” She went on to explain that the crew usually just eats the soup because there are only two of them. She nonetheless offered to try and make an exception and see if she could get me one.

Minutes later the purser returned with the soup and said “shhh, don’t tell anyone about this.”

The purser proceeded to spend the rest of the flight on her laptop with the galley curtain closed. The only other time I saw the flight attendants in the cabin was for the final safety checks before landing.

But I do love the logic. Have a menu item that’s in high demand? Pretend it doesn’t exist and eat it yourself.

Given that my trip reports revolve primarily around my travels in first and business class, I’m often asked “how often do you actually fly coach?” Well, like everyone else I occasionally get stuck in coach on regional jets without first class. Aside from that, though, I don’t remember very many flights where I’ve been stuck in coach.

I flew in coach from Buenos Aires to Mendoza earlier in the year on Aerolineas Argentinas, though that’s a fairly short flight. Truth be told I don’t remember the last flight before that where I was in coach. I know, I’m incredibly fortunate and I don’t for a second take it for granted (though it’s easy to when your upgrades clear 99%+ of the time).

Anyway, this afternoon I was flying from Chicago to San Francisco and my flight was already sold out in first class at my upgrade window 100 hours out, so I figured I had no shot at the upgrade. At the gate at O’Hare I was number three out of 21 people on the list with first class checked in full, so it goes without saying that I didn’t get the upgrade.

But my flight was actually surprisingly pleasant. Yes, I have a sore rear thanks to the lack of padding, though other than that I was actually surprised by how pleasant coach is. Every last seat was taken on the flight so I didn’t have a whole lot of shoulder space or an empty middle.

Executive Platinum members get complimentary snacks and drinks when they fly coach, though it seems to be very inconsistently offered and can also lead to an awkward conversation for flight attendants that don’t know the policy (“but I’m an Executive Platinum, isn’t it free?”).

In tonight’s case I thought the execution was phenomenal. As we taxied out the flight attendant walked through the cabin with the manifest and stopped at the seats of a few Executive Platinum members seated in coach and discreetly explained that they could have complimentary snacks and beverages if they wanted to, and to just let her know during the drink service. Very classy!

I was served by the other flight attendant (not the one that stopped by my seat), so when I ordered the turkey sandwich and was about to show him my boarding pass, he said “don’t worry about it Benjamin, it’s on us.”

So while I didn’t have all that much personal space, coach wasn’t half bad. And it’s good to fly it once in a while to appreciate first class a little bit more.

Now I might not be so optimistic if my upgrade from Chicago to Delhi doesn’t clear next week…

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I did a direct turn mileage run yesterday on American from Tampa to Miami to San Francisco to Miami to Tampa. I didn’t have more than an hour at any airport. Given that I was flying on a Saturday, there was a guy that I remembered from the outbound flights, since he was wearing a suit and tie the entire flight (he never took the tie off, and was the only one in first class even remotely dressed up). Then on my return flight from San Francisco to Miami an hour later, there he was again.

He was in first class for all segments. On the surface I was actually mildly creeped out, but then it occurred to me that he probably kept giving me weird looks because he probably wondered why the hell I was on all four of his flights as well, and not because he’s JOSH.

Sir, are out out there? You’re a champion for wearing a suit for over 20 hours and not once taking your tie off, even on the redeye. I don’t know why you did it, but you’re a champ.

So is the guy out there? Or along the same lines, does anyone else mileage run in a suit (and voluntarily wear a tie for 20+ hours straight)? I’m fascinated. It just comes to show you that you can’t profile a mileage runner. If I had to guess one person on any of yesterday’s flights that didn’t “look” like a mileage runner, it would’ve been him.

Trip Report Index

After walking through an endless number of corridors I found myself at the transfer center, where I boarded a bus bound for terminal 5. While I usually do everything I can to avoid a connection involving a terminal transfer at Heathrow, I was quite excited to see the infamous terminal 5 firsthand.

Terminal transfer bus

The bus ride was quite enjoyable, much like the car ride from Lufthansa’s first class terminal… minus the luxury sports car and person that carries your luggage for you.

I got to see quite a bit of cool traffic, including a Cathay Pacific 747 and Qantas A380, which I had flown just a week prior from Melbourne to London.

Cathay Pacific 747

Qantas A380

Once at terminal 5 I followed the “flight connections” sign for what must have been a mile until I reached the security checkpoint.

Heading to security…

Security was surprisingly quick, so I found myself in terminal 5 with plenty of time to spare.

The terminal itself is quite grand, almost similar to Hong Kong Airport.

Terminal 5

Terminal 5

I headed to the South side of the terminal to visit the first class lounge, where I was admitted by a cheery agent after presenting my inbound American Airlines first class boarding pass.

Escalator to the lounges

The lounge itself was huge and with plenty of seating, though lacked the first class “feeling” if for no other reason than how full it was. The lounge is a nice business class lounge at best. Not a nice first class lounge, and not even a really nice business class lounge.

Admittedly this probably has something to do with the fact that OneWorld Emeralds are permitted access to the first class lounge, which really doesn’t make it all that much of a first class lounge. Instead, British Airways first class passengers have access to the Concorde Room, which is the “real” first class lounge.

First class lounge

First class lounge

First class lounge

First class lounge

Business center

The food selection was really lacking. They had crisps and cookies, but that was the extent of the self serve selection. They also had a menu with more substantial dishes, though not once did I see a server roaming around to take orders.

Self serve bar

Self serve bar

Menu

My selection

After spending some time catching up on email I left the lounge at around 10AM. My departure gate was A11, which was only a few minutes away, so I got there before boarding started.

Departure gate

I was happy to see they had a dedicated fast track boarding lane, which made for a rather easy boarding process. At 10:15AM boarding began.

Fast Track lane

British Airways 308
London (LHR) – Paris (CDG)
Friday, June 3
Depart: 10:45AM
Arrive: 1:00PM
Duration: 1hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 7A (Club Europe)

At the door I had to show my boarding pass, as usual. I always find it funny how they say “that’s lovely” when you show them your boarding pass.

The business class cabin had seven rows, and I ended up in the last row this time around. I had pre-selected 2C, but due to my ticket being canceled the night before my trip, my seat assignment on this segment was wiped out.

Club Europe cabin

Since I had all three seats to myself I took the window  seat. As is usually the case in intra-Europe business class, the seats were really only coach seats with a blocked middle, so not especially comfortable, particularly after coming off a transatlantic flight.

Cabin shot from my seat

Legroom

View out the window

Around departure time the captain made an announcement advising us of congestion at Heathrow (there’s a shocker!), and saying it would be about 15 minutes before we pushed back. However, she advised us that our flight time was only 40 minutes, so we should still arrive right on schedule (pronounced my favorite way, of course — “shed-jewel”).

As expected we pushed back right on the hour. Nothing beats the variety of traffic at Heathrow, so I quite enjoyed the views as we weaseled our way out the alleyway.

Tough choice between Dallas Debbie and Washington Wilma!

We ended up holding at the end of the alleyway for about 10 minutes, which turned out to be quite an interesting front row seat to some emergency. Something seemed to be going on in the cargo hold of a British Airways 747,  as I counted at least nine fire trucks surrounding it.

Something’s going on!

Once we were out of the alleyway it was just a quick taxi before we were airborne.

Heavies, heavies, and heavies

View after takeoff

As soon as we climbed through 10,000 feet the service began. Brunch was being served on this flight, which was a cold plate consisting of cheese, ham, fruit, and Gerber baby food… or something like that. Unlike British Airways’ dreadful Club Europe breakfast service, this was actually tasty.

Given how short the flight is, one flight attendant distributed the trays with food on them, while the other flight attendant came around with drinks.

Brunch

We were well into our descent before the flight attendants managed to clear the trays.

View on approach

After touchdown we officially reached the halfway point in our journey, given that taxiing at Charles de Gaulle can take longer than the actual flight from London to Paris.

Stop trying to show off, Air France!

Huh? That’s an airline?

Cathay Pacific 747

After disembarking I followed the signs towards the train I’d be taking to the city, which turned out to be at least a 20 minute walk.

Terminal

Walkways galore!

While London and Paris are probably my two least favorite airports in the world, the flight was pleasant, and as usual the meal service on a 40 minute flight on a European airline is impressive to see when you’re used to US airlines.