[icenspice]

I arrived at Kansai T1 at 0830 for the 1100 departure to CDG. I spent most of that time in various queues, but did manage to grab an iced coffee and have a couple of puffs airside.

The 3-class B772 has a big Business cabin and a small Premium Economy one.

I was travelling in PE, configured 2-4-2 across 3 rows. I didn’t do an exact headcount but I reckon of the 24 seats, 12 were occupied. I was in 20E (aisle middle row) and F and G were empty. Happy days.

The seat: comfortable with a large pillow, noise-cancelling headsets conveniently located at the side, an individual reading lamp and a bottle of evian in a handy holder. There is no recline. At first I thought this was very strange but on reflection I seldom put my seat back.

Champagne and pretzels followed by Japanese-style chicken and rice. Rather tasteless but as I hadn’t had time for breakfast…

Crew: invariably pleasant. Mid-flight I visited the galley to find a well-stocked snack bar with tasty little sandwiches, chocolates etc.

Second meal before landing was better (penne with Bolognese sauce). The plastic cutlery was of premium standard! The crew member working in J then passed through offering each of us an espresso. She also asked how Mr icenspice was doing and presented me with two little boxes of gourmet French cookies!

After 11 hours 30 minutes in the air, we landed well ahead of schedule at an inclement CDG and parked at T2E.

8 out of 10.

[MrMichael]

Great review Icenspice, and very glad to hear you got the premium plastic cutlery. The recline on AF seats was removed as the Unions were demanding extra money for ensuring seats were in an upright position prior to landing. To avoid more industrial action AF removed the recline therefore negating the very reasonable union demand. 🙂

[icenspice]

Good morning MrMichael ?

I was chatting with a crew member in the galley during the flight. She has been working for AF for almost 20 years and appeared very happy in her job. I wasn’t going to comment on the complete lack of recline but she made a point of asking how I found my seat, so I did. She gave me a look which I took as ‘no, I can’t quite fathom it either’.

I don’t know if it’s the same across the entire longhaul fleet.

[FDOS_UK]

The seats are fixed shell and a change of angle substitutes for the backrest reclining

See this at 2:35 in the video below

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=767806]Great review Icenspice, and very glad to hear you got the premium plastic cutlery. The recline on AF seats was removed as the Unions were demanding extra money for ensuring seats were in an upright position prior to landing. To avoid more industrial action AF removed the recline therefore negating the very reasonable union demand.

[/quote]

I think you are confusing AF with BA, where the union refused crew being asked to close window blinds post pax de-planing, to keep the cabin temperature lower, without a formal safety assessment.

http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/08/09/is-bassa-an-unruly-child-for-unite-in-british-airways-row/

Note this is a post from the Wall Street journal, which has a reputationfor quality reporting.

[icenspice]

Thanks for that clip, FDOS. A fair reflection on what to expect.

The seats in the video look as if they have been refurbished and on my flight it was trolley service for the two meals.

As for the seat sliding mechanism, either it didn’t work or more likely I couldn’t figure out how to work it!

[Author]

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