[Ab0dache]

Hello tworoose,

All flights now operated on a AF metal from/to the regional cities of France are under the “base de province” concept.
I have not experiment them. But Servair (the AF catering subsidiary) does not have the same supply as in CDG. It might be that flying from CMN gives more opportunity for the catering. But you will tell us maybe later.

I have the feeling also that the “base de province” planes ara all economy seats without premium eco or business area like for the domestic services. Someone else may know better than me.

Your flight time is also under 2:30 minutes where AF has a change in the type of catering. So I am not sure really what you will get: a biscuit or a sandwich but I doubt that will be even a plastic box in economy.

Alexandre de Juniac does not seem to be enthusiastic about the “base de province” business plan. A decision seems to be made next september or october about those “bases de province”. It could be that AF cancel them maybe before next spring. Or maybe not. Anyway in that case, AF will probably re-route you for free via CDG. Well then you might expect a better catering in my opinion (at least on the CMN-CDG sector).

I hope I am not too much negative in my assumptions. And that maybe next spring you report to us something different.

[tworoose]

thanks to all for the replies – i will update after our flight (many months still in the future) – we are flying in Y (very unlike me, but it is a fairly short flight)

[tworoose]

they’ve cancelled our flight CMN/TLS – AF offered a few options but we had to fight to get rerouted RAK/TLS – fingers crossed they don’t cancel that one as well…

[Ab0dache]

Sorry tworoose to hear that.

Alexandre de Juniac does not really like those “bases de province” concept because it does not provide a sustainable annual additionnal revenue I believe.

AF also uses the same domestic configuration planes (all economy anyway with more seats than the european fleet) in the regional bases.

Hopefully the flight might be light loaded so you might end to have no-one in the row.

However I am surprised they proposed you only to flight from Marrakech, and not via CDG from Casablanca or Rabat (RBA) where the flight are operated on an european configuration with a cold meal (still economy style) at lunch and diner time. Of couse it is a longer journey then.

I have the fealing you will be served only a drink service from RAK.

[tworoose]

they did in fact offer routing via CDG or ORY, but as u say the travel time would have been much longer (and i didn’t fancy a xfer at either airport) – so we asked for (and eventually got) their nonstop flight from RAK albeit a day earlier – so back to my original question i guess i will not get to taste ANY food (delicious or otherwise) on my 1st AF flite? if the drink service includes champagne i may survive…

[Ab0dache]

Hello tworoose,

AF offers champagne in economy only on long-haul flights. They have a range of different drinks anyway. At least they serve small bottles of French wine which allows you to pamper yourself with two glasses of red or white. That’s your choice for the red or the white. AF even served rosé last summer. Not the greatest wines but really adequate for economy. I can say I enjoy drinking them every time. So you will not have champagne to drink but you should have some pleasure with the small bottle of wine.

Now I was worrying if I haven’t been too much pessimistic on the food service. I checked the AF site for a booking on RAK -TLS. I have been wrong. The flight duration is announced two hours and an half. I though it is was quicker than that. This is interesting because this is the limit from when AF serves a lunch tray to economy travellers on medium-haul flights. And it is clearly stated you will be served a meal as your flight is scheduled on lunch time. It is a cold one and not a big one but still with a starter, main dish and a dessert and maybe a cheese portion. And a final service of tea or coffee.

That’s better news. I am very sorry I may have put you on the worry side. Yes you are going to taste some food for your first AF flight, and hopefully it should be good. So finally a pleasant flight and a nice AF experience after this disappointment of the CMN flight cancellation.

AF seems to deploy an A319 aircraft (domestic configuration: 142 seats) on this route. You cannot choose your seat if you bought a mini rate ticket. You can if you bought an ordinary economy rate. Avoid last row 25 as this row may not have windows. That’s the case on the last row of the A318.

I hope you are more happy now. I wish you really enjoy your first AF experience next spring. There is still for such short flights an atmosphere of some “chic à la française”. I am interested to know how you will feel it. So please let us what was your experience after your trip next spring.

[tworoose]

we did take the flight on 20 April – sadly my beautifully crafted (of course) reply that i submitted yesterday disappeared due to a system error – so i will try to recreate
firstly we had a big problem with AF to get any bags added to the booking – we knew that we had a Mini fare but there was a system problem to the point where they actually told us that we could not take any baggage even if we paid extra – eventually with the help of a Parisian friend who called them in excellent French we thought we had ironed it all out – only to be told at checkin at RAK that our printed vouchers meant nothing and we had to pay 200 Euros+ to check in our bags – fortunately a kind manager found the one agent who knew how to process the vouchers, but it was a bad start
the flight was not branded as Hop! but instead as AF4377
the flight had no alcohol at all and only a plastic-wrapped sandwich – my friend told me that it actually was very tasty with excellent fresh bread
the service was friendly especially considering that almost every seat was filled
the weather at TLS was raining and awful – when the announcement was made that the temp was 10 degrees, the entire plane went crazy moaning and screaming – then the pilot very amusingly told us that the flight had landed by mistake in Mulhouse (explaining the bad weather)
the departure was delayed so we had to run to catch our train to Carcassone and never got to enjoy anything in Toulouse – maybe next time!
so – my first AF flight was not terrible, but also not particularly great and no sign of French chic – not sure if i will try them again, but glad to add them to the list of airlines i’ve tried

[Ab0dache]

Hello tworoose,

I was waiting for your feedback! As I had the hope you would have felt some French chic atmosphere… indeed not on this flight apparently.

I am surprised you were only served a sandwich instead of a lunch (which probably will not have been a big one but still a lunch). Sorry to read that.

Those ‘based in the regions’ operated flights do not offer clearly all of what you would have get on a flight to CDG. At least that was a more direct and quicker flight to get to Toulouse.

The weather is not one of a full spring in France now, so not a nice arrival.
You may know that Toulouse is the ‘roose’ city ;-), I hope you will have the opportunity to enjoy it later in your life. Carcassone is something to see also. I hope you will enjoy it or have already enjoyed it. And also the canal du midi…

Thanks very much for your report.

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