Air France Airbus A350-900 economy review

Quick take: A comfortable experience that you can often get at a great price with points and miles.

Pros:

• You can often find transatlantic flights starting at 15,000 miles each way.
• The plane was clean and comfortable with modern features.
• The service was friendly.

Cons:

• The boarding process is inefficient and somewhat chaotic.
• Inflight Wi-Fi was spotty at best, and the USB outlets didn’t work for large devices.
• One of our bags got delayed.

I took advantage of one of Flying Blue’s Promo Rewards to fly to and from Europe for only 15,000 miles each way, plus taxes and fees. My return journey was a direct flight from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Denver International Airport (DEN) on Air France’s Airbus A350-900.

It was a great deal — but do you get what you pay for? Seated in economy class for roughly nine hours, here’s how my experience went.

How to book economy on Air France

Flying Blue miles are a great way to book Air France tickets. You’ll often find the best and most frequent deals in economy class, especially if you keep an eye on Air France’s monthly Promo Rewards.

You can transfer Flying Blue miles at a 1:1 ratio from all the major credit card programs: American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards. Plus, you can stretch your points even further if you take advantage of a transfer bonus.

My flight from CDG to DEN cost 15,000 Flying Blue miles plus $169. I opted to pay extra to choose seats for myself and my husband; our standard seats cost roughly $30 per person.

Seeing as the cash price of this flight was $841 at the time of booking, I got a stellar value of 4.5 cents per mile ($841 minus $169, then divided by 15,000 miles). That’s more than three times TPG’s February 2025 valuation of 1.3 cents each for Flying Blue miles.

Related: Why Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue program has become my favorite SkyTeam loyalty program

Checking in to and boarding economy on Air France

Since my husband and I left from Brussels on one of Air France’s Air & Rail tickets, we checked in online and headed to the Air France desk in the Brussels South/Midi Train Station (ZYR) to check our bags and print our boarding passes. Then, we took a train to CDG.

A 1 1/2-hour connection in CDG barely gave us enough time to get through airport security and find our gate. I caught a glimpse of Air France’s economy check-in line as I power-walked past. It looked reasonable, but I’m glad we didn’t need to stand in it before heading to our gate.

However, we did have to wait in line for a few minutes at immigration and passport control, then take an airport train to the L and M gates in Terminal E2.

In CDG, there are several security checkpoints for different gates. Thankfully, the line for M gates was relatively short, and the screening process only took about 10 minutes. We had just enough time to snag a to-go breakfast from one of the shops before heading to our gate, where boarding had just started.

We had to show our passports or boarding passes at several stages throughout the airport, including at the shop where we bought breakfast.

Our economy tickets put us in the Zone 4 boarding group. I had hoped to get in the front of the Zone 4 line (and thus get better, less crowded photos as I boarded the plane), but I quickly gave up that dream. The line was long and winding, and it seemed to be an amalgam of multiple boarding groups. The line stretched well past the gate area, and we stood in the concourse for a solid 10 minutes before the line even started moving.

While we waited in line, an Air France employee came around to check everyone’s passports and boarding passes (by now, we had learned to keep them handy). We had to show these again a few minutes later when we crossed the threshold to enter the jetway.

It was an inefficient and somewhat chaotic process to get on the plane.

Related: Is Air France premium economy worth it to Europe?

How comfortable is Air France economy?

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

Our flight was on the Airbus A350-900, a relatively new addition to Air France’s fleet. The carrier mostly flies this aircraft on long-haul routes between Paris and various international hubs like New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Sao Paulo.

The economy seats are arranged in a 3-3-3 configuration, with 266 seats across two cabins. We were seated in 42J and 42K, a middle and aisle seat near the back of the plane.

Number of seats	266 economy, 24 premium economy, 34 business class
Economy cabin layout	3-3-3
Economy seat pitch	31 inches
Economy seat recline	118 degrees
Economy seat width	18 inches

The seats looked and felt clean and modern. Each was waiting with a blanket, pillow and over-ear headphones, all individually wrapped in plastic.

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

Our flight wasn’t very full, so we (and several of our neighbors) had a row of three seats to ourselves. This definitely made the trip more comfortable.

These seats have a pitch of 31 inches — comparable to a Boeing 777 or 787. I’m 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and I found the legroom pretty comfortable; but my husband, who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall, was a little more cramped. Thankfully, there was plenty of overhead bin space to go around, so we stashed our backpacks overhead to make full use of the legroom. It also helped that we could adjust the headrests to cradle our heads and move the armrests up and out of the way.

One area where this plane got it right was storage. The seatback pocket opened far enough to fit my bulky water bottle and then some. There were two small mesh pockets on the front, handy for storing lip balm and other small items that could get lost in the bigger pocket. There was also a fold-down cupholder ring in the back of the tray table as well as a small hook for cords and cables over the seatback screen.

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

The USB outlet and headphone jack right below the screen were easy to find and use. Charging worked well for my phone, but my laptop required a standard outlet, so I wasn’t able to charge it. If you’re bringing a large electronic device, it’s a good idea to charge it before you board or bring a power bank.

Like on most planes, there were three overhead reading lights — one for each seat. However, there were no adjustable air vents like I’ve seen on other flights. I found I didn’t miss them, because the temperature was quite mild and consistent throughout the flight. Even my husband, who naturally runs hot, was comfortable the whole time.

If I’d been cold, the abundance of blankets would’ve helped, but if I’d felt hot, I would not have been able to adjust the temperature.

Related: Reviewing Air France’s incredibly hard-to-book La Premiere first class

Amenities in Air France economy

Entertainment

The seatback screens seemed close to new, without any of the scuffs and scratches I usually see on older planes. The touchscreen worked quite well; the 3D map feature was extremely responsive and let me zoom in to considerable detail.

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

The wide selection of entertainment options included movies, shows, games, sports and comedy features. There was also an audio section with music and podcasts, as well as a wellness section with seated yoga, meditation and background noise.

You could scroll through all films or search by category. This plane offered nearly 300 films in total, including recent releases like “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Blink Twice” and “My Penguin Friend.” It was nice that you could filter by genre, audio language and subtitle language; you could even save movies in your own favorites list.

Wi-Fi

After several tries (and error messages), I finally reached the inflight Wi-Fi menu on my Android phone. However, I was never able to get it to work on my Mac laptop, and my husband couldn’t get it to work on his iPhone, either.

From the Wi-Fi menu, you can activate the free Message Pass to send texts only; I used this to successfully send a text to my mom. Otherwise, you can purchase a Surf Pass for basic internet browsing. It costs 10 euros (about $10) or 2,000 miles for one hour, and 22 euros (about $23) or 4,400 miles for the full flight. A Stream Pass for streaming content or sending and receiving large attachments costs 38 euros ($40) or 7,600 miles for the flight.

I opted for the one-hour Surf Pass, which required my booking confirmation number (which I found on my boarding pass) and Flying Blue number. Luckily, I had the latter saved. Otherwise, I might not have been able to find it (since it wasn’t on my boarding pass and I didn’t have Wi-Fi to pull up the Air France app). Once the pass has been purchased, you can choose when to activate it and return to the app to see how much time you have left — a handy feature.

I ran a quick speed test with disappointing results: 1.37 Mbps download, 0.11 Mbps upload. I tried scrolling through my news feed and found images not loading; when I opened an article, it would take a minute or so for the words to appear.

Another free feature: You can pair your phone to your seatback screen via the Wi-Fi, allowing you to control the screen with your phone. My husband eventually got this set up once we were in the air, but it never worked for my phone. With the touchscreen working so well, I didn’t really miss it.

Lavatories

This plane had six lavatories: four in between the two economy cabins and two in the rear of the plane (near our seats). I never noticed a line to use the facilities, but it could get more crowded on full flights.

I never thought I’d say this, but I was actually impressed by the lavatory, which felt downright spacious by economy-cabin standards. Perhaps it was just the rectangular layout that made it feel bigger, but it seemed roughly twice the size of the postage-stamp bathrooms I’m accustomed to.

It was also extremely clean when I went in about an hour after the first meal. It was still clean when I returned a few hours later, except for a couple of bits of paper on the floor (which disappeared before my third visit). This must have been no small feat for the crew, considering the bathroom I was using was in the far back of the plane, where at least five babies were seated in close proximity.

My only grievance was the nonintuitive faucet. The motion sensor’s location under the faucet made it impossible to see, and your hands must be very close to activate it. I spent a few minutes waving my hands around and pressing the temperature buttons on top — and covering the faucet in soap in the process — before I figured it out.

In such a modern plane, I was also surprised to see what appeared to be an ashtray unfold from the bathroom door, right beneath the no smoking sign.

Related: Cool things you can take off a plane

How is the food in Air France economy?

Our flight, which departed around 10 a.m., offered two meal services. The first was served about 1 1/2 hours after takeoff.

I requested a vegan meal online ahead of time. Note that it can be hard to find the meal button in your Flying Blue account, and you have to order your meal after booking but before checking in. Having learned this the hard way in the past, I made sure to submit my request during the correct window of time.

My vegan meal consisted of vegetable risotto, tabouleh, a ciabatta roll with vegan margarine, applesauce, and pineapple chunks.

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

The standard meals offered a choice of chicken and rice or cheesy pasta. My husband opted for the pasta, which came with the same tabouleh side dish, bread and butter, a cheese wedge, and some kind of brownie pudding dessert.

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RACHEL CRAFT/THE POINTS GUY

Both meals included salt, pepper and a small bottle of water, plus our choice of nonalcoholic drinks. (We opted for orange and apple juice.) They also came with wooden cutlery and paper containers for the hot dishes — perhaps Air France is trying to cut down on its plastic waste.

Of course, the bar is set fairly low for inflight meals, especially in economy class; in my experience, vegan meals tend to be even more disappointing than standard airplane fare. But on this flight, both my husband and I rated our meals above average.

The flight attendants walked up and down the aisles frequently after the meal, giving us plenty of opportunities to toss out trash and offering leftover food to anyone who was still hungry.

They came around again with breakfast bags a couple of hours before we landed at 12:35 p.m. Mine included a pack of nuts and dried fruit, vegan yogurt, and a surprisingly tasty vegan muffin. My husband’s contained a yogurt drink, a muffin and a disappointing cheese-and-mustard sandwich that was mostly bread.

Related: The best snacks in the sky: Here are a few of TPG’s favorite airline treats

Overall impression of Air France economy

After flying across the pond in business class a few times, I’ve grown to dread long-haul economy flights. However, this one exceeded my expectations with its comfort, cleanliness and storage space. Plus, at 15,000 Flying Blue miles each way plus taxes and fees, you can’t beat the price of my ticket.

The biggest downside was the technical issue with charging and Wi-Fi, as it could pose a problem for travelers trying to work in flight. Also, several passengers on our flight (including my husband) experienced baggage delays. Their bags were left behind at CDG and didn’t arrive until the next day.

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