Off to Paris

This morning, Mrs. SFO777 and I are off to Paris for Christmas week.  We've rented a two bedroom apartment in the 7th and will be spending most of the week with our Denver son and daughter-in-law.   Although we are flying Air France La Première home, we're on Delta today and their new Delta One Suites.  Not only was timing better but the price was certainly right at only 55,000 Flying Blue miles each.  I dropped Mrs. SFO777 off at Terminal 2 while I parked our car in the T4 garage, as we would be arriving back at the Bradley Terminal.  The zoo that is LAX...

Twenty minutes later, I'm back in T2 to pick up Mrs. SFO777 at the Delta One check-in lounge.

Surprisingly, we were escorted from the Delta One check-in lounge to the PreCheck entrance.   There was no one at the PreCheck line and we were at Gate 21A (aka the bus gate) a couple minutes later.   The TBIT bus departed as soon as we boarded.

Business Class was invited to board after the usual handicapped, families with small children and those needing a little extra time. 

The new Delta One closed door suites.

Mrs. SFO777's suite 3A...

... and my Suite 4A.

OK so it's not First Class, but for Business Class, it's a very nice product.  

Today's menu...

With lots of pleasant and normal (compared to AA) sounding menu items.  

Once in the air, our excellent cabin crew started 10 hours of terrific service.  What a difference from American and such a pleasure to interact with genuinly friendly, service oriented staff who seem to love their jobs and airline.

The starter tray with onion soup, proscuitto with mozzarella and caesar salad.

Mrs. SFO777 enjoyed the vegan Baked Rigatoni option, with mushroom bolognese and Parmesan cheese.

My Marinara Braised Meatballs were delicious, with tomato, garlic bread and Gioia ricotta.

My cheese plate and a glass of port.

Limited snack basket station in the galley area at the front of the cabin.

Neither Mrs. SFO777 or I slept much as we both thought the bed, without any mattress, was just not very comfortable.  I did manage three hours of so-so airplane sleep and then took the breakfast tray mostly for the photo op.

We landed early but then taxied forever around rainy CDG...

... to a lovely remote tarmac position.  Ugh.

Where we waited 10 minutes for the stair truck driver to show up.  And when he did, he chose the uncovered stairs instead of the adjacent covered stairs.  OK, we not in La Première today.  :D

Our packed to the gills bus to the terminal.  Fortunately, we were one of the first ones on the bus and snagged two seats at the back of the bus.

The Priority lane was manned and we saved a lot of time bypassing the masses... for now.

Since it was winter with uncertain weather, we checked a bag but it came off the carousel pretty quickly.  And then there was the ordeal of trying to exit customs with a lot of brain dead zombie travellers who just stood there with the luggage blocking the way for anyone that wanted to get out.  We eventually escaped, found our driver and were on our way.

Bottom line.  Delta One is an excellent Business Class product with the best and most consistent service of the US3.   At the right price, I would definitely fly them again.  Then there is Mrs. SFO777, who was not as kind.   After starting off the day by commenting how friendly all the Delta employees were and noting that she was happy to be flying nonstop Business instead of First Class via Frankfurt, Mrs. SFO777 had done a complete 180 just 10 hours later.  She was now adament that "I never want to fly this Delta plane again" and "I'd rather fly First Class and connect in Frankfurt".   LOL.  That's the princess I know and love.  :)