TRIP REPORT: Belgrade - Madrid - Belgrade via Paris in business
Good morning everyone and welcome to my trip report.
Since I am not a big fan of traveling during holidays, in mid-January I decided to spend an extended weekend in Madrid visiting some friends. From the start I knew I was not going to fly nonstop since Air Serbia has an odd schedule with rather inconvenient times. I mean, leaving on a Wednesday and coming back on a Saturday didn't seem all that appealing.
In the past, Lufthansa would have been my airline of choice. However, ever since they trashed their service and went woke I started avoiding them. I feel that their pricing doesn't match the product they are offering. Basically it's an unreasonably expensive LCC these days.
Since our company has a corporate agreement with AF-KL I decided to check what they were offering. I don't know why but somehow KL is never my top priority when traveling. I've never flown with them but ... don't know. I avoid them for some reason so Air France it was.
I decided to try something new so I booked a business class ticket via Air France's website for a JU-AF combo. I was really excited since Air France is sending the A220 to Madrid, it was going to be a new model for me.
I arrived at the airport roughly two hours before my flight. What I found particularly idiotic is that at that time (05.00) only one coffee shop was open, the small ghetto one downstairs. Anyway, we sat and enjoyed our unreasonably expensive Americano coffees before I headed upstairs to the security control.
I am not exaggerating, there were at least 500 people waiting in line which stretched all the way to the staircase. Business class line was non-existent so I passed in a matter of minutes. At the same time, I suppose to speed things up, they were letting families with children use the priority lane.
I decided to walk around and to see what was new at the airport. Not much has changed since I flew to LCA in late November. Pictured above is where the old stairs to the passport control used to be. Personally I don't know why this area is still like this... one thing I really dislike about BEG is how low the ceilings are. At times you feel like you are in some sort of a bunker.
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| Breadline |
I've flown quite a few times from BEG since the new extension was opened but I have not yet had the chance to fly from that area. I was quite annoyed to see that my CDG flight was boarding from C02 that morning.
Pictured above is YU-APO which would bring me back to Belgrade a few days later.
View from my seat (2A). Next to us was YU-APF which was heading to Amsterdam. On the other hand, our flight to Paris was operated by YU-APM (ex Adria A319). Here was the first fail of the JU-AF cooperation. While booking my flight via AF, I was not allowed to select my seat on the flight that was operated by JU. I could only do it once check-in opened. I had to do it via JU's website and my seat to Madrid was randomly assigned by the system.
We were pushed back on time and headed towards the runway. On the way there we passed the inserted runway.
Once Dan Air A320 took off in the opposite direction, we were cleared for take off. Sorry if the quality isn't the best but my window was quite dirty. Our flight had previously arrived from Moscow so I suppose they didn't have enough time to properly clean it.
On the remote stand you can see JU's ATR, Austrian Airlines' E95, Lufthansa's A320neo and Wizz Air's A321.
Before take off, a younger member of the crew passed around the business class section handing out menus. Shortly after that she came around to take our order including our drink which was brought to us with the meal some 20 minutes after take off.
I ordered the omelette and it didn't taste all that well. What I didn't like is that the presentation wasn't the best. I remember in the past JU didn't serve drinks in plastic cups.
After the meal was finished, the purser came around asking us if we wanted some coffee or tea. Coffee wasn't actually good and it was a nice touch that they brought it on this tray. That said, I am not too crazy when it comes to the colour.
Our flight today had a very good load factor. We were 5 business class passengers: two Serbs, a Turkish lady who connected from IST, an American lady and a French gentleman. Economy class had 122 passengers and it seemed like most of them were O&D.
As you can see, YU-APM still features the Lufthansa style seats that were used by Adria. One thing I disliked is that there was no curtain between the two classes. There was just a small one between the second and third row.
The French gentleman in front of me reclined his seat so I tried doing the same. Unfortunately that was not an option that day. In addition to the malfunctioning seat, the lavatory in front was no longer working. There was an issue with the sink. At least 10 economy class passengers were sent back as they couldn't use the toilet in the front of the plane.
The rest of the flight was more or less uneventful. Crew passed around a few times to ask us if we wanted something else. They also offered newspapers (Vecernje Novosti, Alo and Informer ... lol).
Roughly two hours after we took off, it was time to land. We reached our gate after a 15 minute taxi session.
I walked to the Air France terminal where their recently opened, state of the art lounge can be found. It has two floors with the upper one being quieter and having a very nice view of the action outside.
In my opinion, Air Serbia should have something like this onboard their planes. I doubt it costs that much.
Even though the lounge was amazing, the food selection wasn't the best. Even though Lufthansa has really gone downhill, their lounge always had very decent food, at least that's the impression I got.
I headed early to the gate which was a wise move since boarding started some 45 minutes before take off. While standing in line, I noticed two Spanish passengers holding Air Serbia boarding passes.
Parked next to us was this Air France bird headed to Lyon.
This Air France A220 cabin was amazing to say the least. Business class stretched across the first six rows in a 1-2 seating configuration with a total of 13 passengers. From what I heard, in the back there were just 10 empty seats.
I have to admit that it was really strange how quiet this plane was, I'd say even too quiet. Regardless of this, it was a true pleasure to fly on!
There were no menus and no selection of meals on this flight which was ok as it wasn't that long. Our flight that day lasted a bit over 100 minutes.
Air France doesn't have any IFE but it does have wifi which you can connect to. Once there you text free of charge (WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram messages...) or you can buy your access to the internet.
Once we reached southern France the sky cleared so we could enjoy some spectacular views from above.
We took off from CDG at 13.27 and landed in Madrid at exactly 15.07. It took forever to reach our gate which was ok since MAD is a very busy airport. What I noticed is that most passengers on that flight were Spanish. What was funny is that each time we stopped, all passengers jumped to get their luggage from the overhead bins. The crew had to ask everyone to take their seats since we had not reached our parking position. In total this happened three times.
On the way back, Air France replaced the A220 with an older A319. Despite its age, the plane inside was in a fantastic condition and the seats were very comfortable. Once again the crew was amazing and the purser was very engaging and interracted a lot with the passengers.
On both flights boarding was beyond chaotic due to a large amount of hand luggage. Crew helped with the process but there was only so much they could do. On the way back, we were delayed by 40 minutes due to this issue since several bags had to be taken downstairs.
The MAD-CDG flight had 127 passengers in total out of which 16 were in business class.
Our Air Serbia flight was delayed which meant I had more time to move from one terminal to the other. The A320 arrived with 153 passengers while on the flight back we were just 96 passengers, 2 of us sitting in business class. The other passenger was a Turkish guy continuing his journey to IST.
Overall, I found Air France to have a very good business class product. In my opinion both flights had a great soft and hard product. Crew was definitely their biggest asset. Food was tasty and well presented and you can see that they paid attention to every single detail.
CDG might not be the most beautiful airport around but I found it to be much nicer than, for example, FRA.
Air Serbia on the other hand wasn't as impressive. In my opinion it seems as if they put minimal effort in order to make sure their product stands out. My personal opinion is that what they are offering is just not worth paying for. The food was bland in both directions, the crew was not overly motivated while they were disappointing on the flight back. There was a younger FA who interacted with us for a little bit but then he and the purser spent most of the flight behind the curtain gossiping about their flight schedules and some disagreements they had with their colleagues.
The few times the purser did show up, she was pleasant enough and that was about it.
I'd say Air Serbia should improve their meal presentation and the selection of newspapers. I think it's better not to have any rather than to offer trash like Informer. Their crew is hit or miss and this is something they should really work on.
In the comment section here I read that they are currently fighting for better pay. Even though I support their cause, paying customers in both business or economy should not be the ones to experience their exhaustion or lack of motivation.
The worst part of all this was that Air France could not issue my boarding pass for CDG-BEG in Madrid. They told me to contact the ground crew once I am in Paris. I did that and they directed me to the exit after which I was supposed to go to the JU check-in and get the boarding pass there. I managed to avoid all that by showing everyone my reservation which got me to the terminal. I had to wait for the JU gate to open before I could get my boarding pass. Ground staff started calling out several names to contact them. I suppose they also needed their boarding passes to be issued.
I am actually curious to know if my case was a one off or if this is a regular occurrence when connecting from AF onto JU. What really annoyed me was that I couldn't choose my seat and no one had any clue what I should do. Air Serbia and Air France seem to have a good relationship and if this is the norm, then they should really work on fixing it.
I know this might sound odd but I personally enjoyed my JU economy class flights much more than the two in business class. I suppose it has to do with one having greater expectations when flying in a premium class. Hopefully JU will improve their premium product now that they are growing, becoming more relevant and actually making money.
Anyway, thank you for reading my report, hope you enjoyed it!
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