Air France Lay Flat Business class on points

As I write this article, I’m sitting in my first international business class flight. I struggled to take long international flights due to my own insecurities and worry over comfort.

I have always dreamed of flying in first class to Europe. Finally I have arrived! But I did not pay for these $5000 seats with cash. I paid for them with points.

To learn how I got enough points, visit my article “How buying Tesla Solar paid for my $20k Trip to Europe and more”

How many points and cash

I booked 3 one way tickets. 2 business class and 1 short economy ticket.

58,050 points + $297.27

The reason for doing one way tickets was I wanted to have full control and I found that the day the tickets open, the point cost is low. In order to wait for a 3 week round trip ticket to open up, the number of points will go up. And in some cases, the reward flight availability may be gone as well.

SFO-CDG business class one way non stop: 71,000 points + $197.60 per ticket

CDG-VCE economy class one way non stop: 9,000 points + $34.30

FCO-SFO business class one way with layover in CDG: 58,500 points + $297.20 per ticket

Air traffic controller strike: Easy cancellations and changes

Well, the day before we were to fly out of SFO to Paris, there was a National strike (including air traffic controllers) issued for the day before our flight from Paris to Venice. Yikes. I didn’t want to be in the airport the day after a strike, where at least 30% of flights were to be cancelled. So we decided to not take the 3 nights in Paris and just go straight to Italy.

Usually this can be very difficult if you have economy tickets paid by cash. The ticket I needed to change was the economy ticket from CDG to VCE. So, I called up and it was easy. There was a penalty of $56 to cancel. But the full points and cash paid was refunded. Then I just transferred more points from Chase Sapphire (taking advantage of the 25% bonus). The point cost per ticket went from 9,000 points to 24,000 points. Worth it. I made the change to the tickets then it was a bit of work to rework our hotels.

Cancelling the hotel stays also were easy as we paid for them with points. But I couldn’t get into the originally booked hotel since reward rooms weren’t available. This is really the downside of reward travel, especially with Hyatt. Get the room when it opens up, about a year in advance. Anyways, I went to the regular players: Hyatt (no reward rooms available), IHG (there was a room but it was 20 miles inland, not convenient, Hilton (several high prices point stays available and one reasonable one that was 3 miles inland, and Marriott.

I wound up going with Marriott and instead of 2 nights in Venice, I made it 3. I paid for one night in cash ($230) and two nights in points (81,000 total). I could have gotten a cheaper room at Hilton or IHG, but this hotel is only a mile or so to the water taxis to get into Venice and Murano. Fingers crossed that the hotel is nice.

We still have 2 days free without reservations between Venice and Como. We decided to just go with the flow. We will have a rental car and will make our way towards como, stopping when and where we want. Who knows what we will find or where we will stay! (I did verify there are dozens of hotels with rooms available along our route). I am not sure if we will be able to use points for these two days, time will tell.

So, how was it?

I’m only about 30 minutes into the flight right now. So far it is extremely comfortable. The benefits and extras for business class on Air France:

First boarding group
Lay flat seats with large space
Extra cubbies for storing your personal items
Large TV screen with headphones
Pillow and blanket
Sanitizing wipe
Bottle of water
Eye mask, socks,
Ability to double your carryon and accessories.
Champagne pre flight
Dinner choices
Alcohol and other drinks.
Appertif served during drink service
Much larger bathrooms

Some interesting or things I didn’t know

The two midle seats do not have a barrier between them.
There also isn’t a barrier to the walkway. I’ve seen other airline pictures where you can be completely closed off.

Cubby to hold your items during takeoff and landing

Tv and plenty of room to stretch out with your feet up

The menu

This was the menu from this flight. Note that the chicken served wasn’t what was on the menu. I’m sure it changes depending on the flight.

Food coma

One thing is certain, there was more than enough food for an 11 hr overnight flight

I ate the cheese and pepper. This was the first offering.

Starter for the dinner. On the right is this delicious crab salad on toast. To the left is a soft white cheese with cured meats and tomatoes. Then there’s a garden salad with balsamic dressing and ciabatta roll with butter.

Rack of lamb with mushrooms, au jus and mashed potatoes

Chicken with mashed potatoes, a cheese sauce (it separate), and a vegetable mixture.

Dessert 3 ways: macaroon, raspberry bar and chocolate ganache on brownie

Breakfast was yogurt with choice of jam or granola, fruit salad, croissant, and a spinach omelette.

Overall the food was very good. The shining star was the lamb chops, and I’m not a fan of lamb. The chicken was a bit dry and the sauce was not that appetizing. Everything else was good but not amazing. It was the sheer volume of food that surprised me.

Final thoughts

I am hooked. I will want to do business class on all my international travel. I don’t know if I will be able to amass enough points, but I sure will try!

To learn how I got enough points for this 23 night trip, visit my article “How buying Tesla Solar paid for my $20k Trip to Europe and more”