Air France’s new business class cabins, introduced in May 2022, are among the best in the world. Until now, if you wanted to fly them from the US, you’d be limited to a few specific flights from JFK, Newark, DC, Boston, or Houston. Thankfully, Air France has just announced that this summer the new cabins will be available on flights to a few more US and Canadian cities.
Background on the new business class seats
The new business class cabin is available on two planes, the Boeing 777-300ER and the Airbus A350-900, both featuring reverse herringbone seats in a 1-2-1 configuration. The 777-300ER is equipped with Safran Versa seats, while the A350-900 features STELIA Opera seats. In terms of comfort, both are relatively similar to the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats with doors that you’ll find in British Airways Club Suites.
The big differentiator between these suites and other reverse herringbone products, however, are the bulkhead seats, which offer space akin to what you’d get in many first class products. On the 777-300ERs, these seats are in rows one and nine (1A, 1D, 1H, 1L, 9A, 9D, 9H, and 9L) and on the A350-900s, these seats are in rows one and 10 (1A, 1D, 1H, 1L, 10A, 10D, 10H, and 10L).
Flying Blue Gold and Platinum members have exclusive access to these seats until 72 hours before departure, after which the remaining seats become available to all business class passengers. Given nearly 20% of seats are bulkhead, there’s often many of them left for non-status passengers to book.
New routes
According to an Air France press release, the new business class cabins will begin flying to Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles this summer, though a specific date wasn’t provided.
They’ll also begin serving Toronto, Vancouver, Papeete, Mexico City, and Tokyo-Narita.
Currently, the new cabins are available only to and from the following destinations:
- New York-JFK
- New York-Newark
- Washington DC
- Boston
- Houston
- Rio de Janeiro
- Bangkok
- Dakar
- Tokyo-Haneda
- Hong Kong
- Seoul-Incheon
- Shanghai
- Johannesburg
This is great
Needless to say that as a Chicago resident, I’m pretty stoked. These cabins are miles better than the old product, with some even calling the bulkhead the best business class seat on earth. I’ll keep you updated as we get more details on specific dates.
