The French (Air and Rail) Connection

[allanorn]

It was a lovely autumn evening in San Diego, where your correspondent was mindlessly scrolling through social media on his cell phone. A short video piqued my interest, because it looked interesting and yet familiar at the same time. I couldn't place it but it looked like somewhere I'd been before. So I click on it and watch about twenty seconds of a video about how amazing Strasbourg, France will be in three months - December, during the Christmas markets.

I was in Strasbourg in September, 2023 for a day. It's a nice town! I'd recommend a day there to explore, and it's a good base to explore the rest of Alsace. After reminiscing on that trip, and thinking how awesome it would be to visit the Christmas market - something I've always wanted to do - I put the phone down and, just on a whim, opened up the laptop to see how bad airline tickets are. I had booked a couple of days off for Thanksgiving, but I had about a week of vacation time in the bucket for the year. I wasn't expecting much.

My first stop was Air France, where I put in some information and found that I could get to Strasbourg no problem. Economy tickets were about what I'd expect, but the Business class ticket in that direction was slightly cheaper than Premium Economy. That's... unusual. I've apparently hit a sale! Unfortunately the return is regular price, so I'd have to sit in the back of the bus going home. That's a little disappointing, but not unexpected - I can easily manage for what is a day trip. I stay up late to build a quick itinerary in a couple of hours with a rental apartment and a couple of hotels, then decide to sleep on it and ask the boss in the morning if I can disappear for a week.

Fast forward to a foggy, chilly (for SAN) Thanksgiving morning. Well before the crack of dawn, I get into a ride-share car and head to the airport. It isn't long before I'm in an airport lounge with a cup of coffee, a few bites to eat, and saying a quick hello to some of my family to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and I'm on the way.

 

[allanorn]

Thursday, 28 November 2024
Delta 367 (A321neo) - seat 4A
San Diego 07.00 - New York JFK 15.29

It appears Delta has stepped up their game in the first class cabin for their newer domestic planes.



Delta is calling this a "mini-cabin", and it certainly feels like one. There is quite an armrest separating you from your neighbor, and the wings next to the headrest have an isolating effect. Sound seems to be dampened a little, and while you can see your neighbor if they're in the seat next to you, you have to poke out from the wings to see their head. In fact, you really can't see much except the large screen in front of you. It's a nice touch - though I might wonder how the leather on the wings will hold up over time. The seat is otherwise comfortable, and I didn't have any problems having my feet touch the floor being about five-foot-eight with a normal leg-length.

Our purser and first-class flight attendant was a sharp-dressed bald man that exuded New York - the accent, the rose-tinted glasses that matched the uniform, and the demeanor. Everyone was well taken care of during the flight.

Breakfast on board for me was an omelette with potatoes, fruit, and a couple of links of sausage. It's not going to be as good as a three-egg omelette in a dining car, but I'd say it was equivalent to a good Flex dining attempt.



I read for a few hours before we eventually descended and landed at JFK more or less on time.

 

[allanorn]

Because I'm flying Business class this time, I have my choice of airport lounges at JFK. I should have spent some time at the vaunted Delta One SkyLounge in Terminal 4. However, I only had a couple of hours and I needed to make a couple more calls to family while I was on the layover. I have never been in a foreign carrier's lounge before, so I decided the best use of time was to head over to Terminal 1 and Air France's lounge.

A word about Terminal 1 at JFK: it's not great. It's in dire need of a refresh, especially compared to Terminal 4 and 5. So I won't bother with too many terminal photos. However, switching terminals at JFK means you must re-clear security, so it was another scan and a TSA line that wasn't moving fast at all. I chatted to the person ahead of me, who was headed on the nonstop flight to Auckland, New Zealand - he was in 1A and his mother was in 1B. Good on them!

Once I finally clear of security, I made my way to the Air France lounge. After exchanging pleasantries and verifying my ticket, I headed to the second floor and had a look around. What immediately drew me in was the food and ... the open bar.






It would be disrespectful to decline a flute of Joseph Perrier and a couple of plates of food. Everything I had was delicious, but you probably want to save room for meals on the flight.

The rest of the lounge is standard fare for an airline lounge. I think what surprised me the most was the cordoned-off "La Premiere" area, for First Class:



For as much as La Premiere tickets are, I would find that disappointing. Most airline lounges with a true first-class offering usually have something more discreet, or even a VIP section.

The bathrooms in the lounge are a little old but very well maintained, and a shower is available should you feel so inclined.

Eventually the flight is announced in the lounge area, and everyone gets up and gathers their belongings to head over to the gate.

 

[allanorn]

Thursday, 28 November 2024
Air France 5 - seat 5A
New York JFK 18.30 - Paris CDG 07.50 (+1)

I boarded a Boeing 777-200 that has seen some use, and had the delight of turning left to get to the forward Business cabin. My home for the next eight or so hours was quite nice:



It was a very comfortable seat. The only annoying thing to me was that it is on a 45-degree angle. I've only flown in Business class over the ocean once before, and the seats were parallel like Amtrak roomettes. It just felt odd to look forward but not in the direction of travel. The seat was otherwise good. I didn't make much use of the entertainment system as I wanted to keep reading, plus I wanted to avoid too much screen time before taking at least a nap.

Dinner was served an hour after takeoff. No turkey was on offer - to the French, it was a Thursday evening - so I made sure to have some sliced turkey meat back at the lounge. I was surprised to get two decent-sized courses for dinner.




The appetizers were a salad, a little cold filet of boeuf, an asparagus salad, and some dried fruit and nuts. The main was chicken thigh with a tomato sauce and quinoa - perfectly fine. I passed on dessert as I was full and they didn't have anything that was gluten-free. Between the lounge food and dinner, I didn't need more food.

I was able to rest up for a few hours, though I don't think I actually slept more than a few winks. I hadn't been up for terribly long, and I was still excited for being on vacation and being able to go on this trip. If I get such an opportunity to fly over the ocean overnight in Business class, it might be better if I flew from a west-coast gateway instead of an east-coast one. We were in the air about seven hours in total; it's enough time for a nap but that's about it.

About an hour before arrival, I was handed breakfast with the best French omelette I had ever tasted:



About twenty minutes later, one of the flight attendants handed me a gluten-free roll. Apparently it had rolled off the tray and was at the bottom of the food cart. Hence the empty spot on the lower left-hand side.

The landing was as smooth as I've been on, and we eventually made it to our gate after about ten minutes. Once we left the plane, it was the usual walk to customs and immigration. By usual, I mean it went on for about ten or twenty minutes. Charles de Gaulle is a massive airport, and they process huge numbers of people every day. I usually avoid flying into CDG for that reason alone - the last time I was in Paris, I landed at 8am local and spent an hour and a half in line to clear immigration.

The customs area this morning was deserted. Perhaps it was because not many people are flying over during Thanksgiving. I was able to use the priority lane, and found myself all alone in one line just as the person ahead of me finished with the immigration officer. After exchanging formalities, my passport was stamped, and I was officially in France. Total time to clear customs and immigration: 45 seconds.

The downside was that my luggage, even though it was marked as priority, was still somewhere deep in the bowels of the terminal, and it took about 30 minutes before my bag arrived on the carousel. I paused to get everything rearranged, then headed out for the next step: determining how to get to Strasbourg, as Air France sold me a ticket to a place it doesn't fly to.

 

[allanorn]

Let's answer the question: how am I getting to Strasbourg, a place where Air France does not fly, on an Air France ticketed itinerary?

The answer is simple: by TGV.

You might be saying that SNCF (the operators of the TGVs in various brands) is not Air France, and that is correct. However, Air France sells combined air and rail tickets - as do a lot of European airlines. It doesn't matter what class you fly in either.

KLM offers a combined ticket to Brussels using Eurostar. Austrian Airlines uses ÖBB from Vienna, and Swiss partners with SBB to offer a combined ticket to a few destinations within Switzerland and one in Austria (Bregenz). Lufthansa uses Deutsche Bahn to get you to a number of places via Frankfurt - you can see them offered on Google Flights if you look around for a bit. Lufthansa even runs buses from Munich's airport to Innsbruck and Nuremberg. But Air France has the most extensive combined air and rail network - you can book to Brussels using Eurostar, to destinations in Switzerland via Geneva's airport, and a number of destinations in France via TGV.

Back in the day, Amtrak partnered with Continental Airlines for a similar service via Newark. United kept the service for a while after it acquired Continental, but discontinued the partnership in late 2020.

To be fair, you don't have to book a combined ticket to do this itinerary. It might also cost a little more to book a combined ticket with an airline than booking separate airfare and train tickets. You get more control that way. However, there are definite advantages to a combined ticket. First, it's only one itinerary to manage. Second, Air France guarantees the connections. If you misconnect because the other form of conveyance is late or has an issue, Air France will put you on the next flight or train. Third, if it's important, you can gain airline miles on the train segment.

The most advantageous reason for this particular itinerary is because you avoid transiting Paris. Paris has a number of large train stations, and while it's kind of straightforward in the age of Google Maps - it's not very easy to do. You have to first use the RER to get to Gare du Nord, then use the Metro or RER to get to your train station. (You can walk to Gare de l'Est from Gare du Nord in about ten minutes though.)

On one end of CDG Terminal 2, there is a train station with two sides. One side is for catching the local RER services to head into Paris. The other side is the TGV station.

If you get a combined air-and-rail ticket and your train leaves from CDG, you have to collect your ticket at the train station. It's about an eight-minute walk from the Terminal 2 baggage claim to the station. Once you're there, go down two floors (one is a mezzanine) to the ground level. Currently you'll need to look for a blue ticket machine:


Look for it near the SNCF and Eurostar service counters. I remember there being only one, but there might be a second somewhere else.

Once you get access to the machine, change the language to English and follow the instructions to enter in your Air France reservation locator. Once it's validated, it'll spit out your ticket. The most frustrating aspects of this experience are a) changing the language to English; and b) waiting for confused Americans who are trying to buy a ticket or retrieve a ticket when the machine is in French.