View of NGO building and Comfort Inn



Walkway from hotel to the airport terminal

NGO-CDG: AF 295 (JL 437)
06 July 2007
Aircraft: B777-200
Seat: 21A
Dept. time: 1005 (Japan Time)
Arrival time: 15.30 (EU time)
Load: J: 70% Y:60%
I arrived about 2.5 hours before departure time to check-in with JAL. It was lucky that I arrived earlier, because they had problems locating my e-ticket number after changing my travel date. In the end, everything was sorted out after I called the AMEX travel service and they provided me with the ticket number. I had some problem with my baggage as it was overweight and because this was JAL, I had some problems that was solved in the end.
I proceeded to security, passport control and did some last minute shopping for gifts and souvenirs. Than I proceeded to the Sakura lounge. Pictures of this can be found on my report at short-wkend-adventure-nw-ngo-nrt-sin-vv ... 22075.html
Some other shots from the lounge on today’s activity




My ride is the second JAL tail as seen

This time I was lucky to get the free head and shoulder massage in the lounge. It was 10 mins and of course ended too fast. Boarding time was at 0935.

On my way to the gate I grabbed my last Green Tea frappucino at StarBucks. The Lufthansa crew were also getting some last minute caffeine. When I arrived at the gate, boarding had already started. I used again the Elite line, this time using my OW status. My seat was the first row after the Business cabin (with JAL Sleeper Shell seats).
View of cabin and interior.


View of seat area
Literature pocket



Menu card

We were parked next to the Vietnam Airlines

Soon, pushed back

Seen through nose-camera



Some view of the activities while taxing to the active runway. It was a busy morning and we had about 15 mins traffic delay.

ANA taking off

KAL



JAL MD-80 arriving


JAL




Continental

SIA


ANA

ANA, CX and TG following behind us


Soon, it was our turn to depart




LH back to FRA


Directly after the sign was given for service to start, the FA’s got into action. For the first time I saw that they had this sign for the curtain between Biz and Econ to remind passengers that the toilets for Economy are at the back and middle of the aircraft.

This was followed shortly by lunch (I took the beef with rice)


It was a very good lunch and really good Japanese food.
After lunch, water bottles were distributed

The Personal Magic TV

Surprisingly, they showed the Zwarteboek. This was the movie which I did not manage to watch in detail and finish during my KLM flight last year. 3-continents-3-alliances-3-classes-of-s ... 20512.html. In total I watched nearly 4 movies again with the last one with lots of ffwd.
View of back section of Economy inflight

Interestingly, they had a colourful and informative map posted near the snack bars on our route (I got this copy from the FA). Wish all airlines have such things.

Strange that the front economy cabin was very lightly loaded, but they placed most passengers in the back cabin. During the flight, our front cabin left the window shades open, while at the back, they were all in darkness. Strange. During the entire flights, the FA (mixture of Japanese and European) walked frequently throughout the cabin with liquid and snacks offering.
Anyway, about 2 hours before landing in CDG, we had breakfast (Japan time).

Soon, the cabin was prepared for landing. Approaching CDG, we flew next to this B747 of AF

Landing at CDG and aerial view of CDG






While landing I saw this Sri Lankan A330 taking off back to CMB



Other activities at T1



Unidentifiable aircraft at T1 (Anyone knows?)


LH Regional arriving


Arriving to T2 with AF B747 taxing to runway




We landed in T2F. Since I sat in the first row of the Economy cabin, and Business was not that full, I was still one of the first to leave behind the passengers in Business. I went through immigration and baggage came out about 10 mins after that with again priority tags working with mine being one of the first out the belt. Proceeded again to recheck-in since I wanted to clear immigration in CDG rather than in AMS. I again had some problems with my e-ticket number which took nearly 1 hour to solve. Luckily my connection time was long enough.
CDG-AMS- AF2240
06 July 2007
Aircraft: A320
Seat: 33AA
Dept. time: 1830 (delayed until 19.15)
Arrival time: 20.15
Load: J: 100% Y challenge: 100 % Y:100%
I did not take any photos at this point, because
a) I was tired
b) I think this is a very normal route
I was not happy that the flight was delayed. It was also fully packed from nose to end. There was a short drink service and we were able to catch up a bit from this delay and arrived back to a rainy AMS with about 30 mins delay. It was clear also that the crew for this flight was tired and rushing through the service for this short flight.
Conclusion:
JAL service: Very good and I would no doubt go for them anytime. Good catering and inflight entertainment.
AF: Normal AF expectation, though the crew on this flight looked tired and service was a rush due to the high load on this Friday evening.
Of course as usual, any comments are welcomed.