There are many cities to connect through when travelling from North America to Europe. This particular flight would be my first experience departing Europe on a Skyteam carrier. This would allow us to experience the Salon Air France Lounge located in Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2E. It’s always neat to experience a flagship lounge for a flag carrier and we’d come to appreciate this lounges wine program as one of it’s best qualities.

---

This post is one chapter on our trip to Malta, Italy and Germany. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and credited to Alaska Mileage Plan and Air Canada’s Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

---

---

Review: Salon Air France Business Lounge, Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2E – Concourse L, Paris, France.

---

Connecting at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport:

We were off our Air France Business Class Munich – Paris flight without incident. Our impressions of the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport continued. It’s a strange terminal that puts design over function. The first impressions were of a slightly odd design that had lots of space. When we rounded the corner, we ran into bottle necks everywhere. It had lots of different outbuildings with computer monitors allowing travellers to check to see what gate area their flights were departing from.

Unfortunately, the traffic flow for these areas appeared to criss cross in an X pattern, with computer terminals inconveniently situated close to exits and other secure intersection areas making for several bottle necks.

We passed through the mess of the maze for the EU exit border customs with a priority line that was totally clogged up by other passengers. The line was enforced by a bouncer but there was absolutely no passenger control and the terminal was a mess. I have to say that nobody in this line on the right looks happy. Even MrsWT73 was opining for the Munich Terminal 2 transfer experience with its large spaces and the convenient and luxurious first class lounge”

We made our way through the exit area towards the lounge area in Terminal 2E, Gate Area L. We witnessed several, err French behaviours. The first was at the EU exit border line where a line dragon was insistent that a family of 6 (consisting of a mother and father and baby, taking care of a parent in a wheel chair) separate from two persons over 65; sending the 65 year olds to the back of the economy line (pictured above) that was probably over 30 minutes long. There wasn’t any compassion that the family get screening all together and I genuinely got the impression that this wasn’t an family attempt to circumvent a line. The other was at the duty free store when, despite a line of more than 5 people in queue waiting to pay, the manager decided to close her till leaving her co-worker to complete the work for us remaining in line and instead wander around straightening up the store. Of course, this isn’t a commentary on Air France since it’s not within their control, but rather a comment on the attitudes one may experience when connecting through Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Locating the Air France Salon Business Lounge:

After eventually finding our terminal, we were encouraged to use the lounge that was closest to our gate. The Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport has several Air France Lounges spread out in separate concourses. As a result, there were multiple Air France Lounges in Terminal 2E. Since our flight was departing from Concourse L, we ended up at this outer concourse location.

The Salon Air France Lounge is located via several elevator access points near the central retail area of the concourse. We found our way up one level to the lounge via the elevator.

Accessing the Air France Lounge:

The Air France access rules are as can be expected for class of service and similar to the other airline alliances.

Guests travelling in Business Class are afforded access with no guests. Guests travelling in their La Première First Class are permitted to bring in one guest. Premium Economy and Economy guests travelling on Air France can gain access by paying a visit fee of 25 – 30 € in Europe, 30 – 50 $ USD in the United States and South America and 30 – 50 $ CAD in Canada.

Frequent travellers in the Air France Flying blue program at the elite level of Flying Blue Platinum or Gold are permitted to access the lounge in any category of travel with no guest privileges.

We were admitted without issue based on class of service on our departing Air France Business Class boarding pass.

Inside the Air France Salon Business Lounge:

After being admitted, we traveled down a long entrance hallway and past reception into the main lounge area.

The Air France Lounge Terminal 2E concourse L is a large rectangular space with food and beverage areas spread throughout the lounge. The lounge was very busy and we didn’t find any space to sit other than at the tables. Relaxing and tranquil were not adjectives that I’d use to describe the environment. It was packed, short on available space for seating, lots of bags in the walkways, and strangely full of grumpy looking people.

There were a few segregated areas, presumably reserved for Air France La Premiere (First Class).

Food and Beverage:

A Light Breakfast and Great Wines

The lounge offered some breakfast snacks, and several types of wine. It was perhaps the most redeeming quality of the lounge that made it stand out from any other. While the food was just average, the French wines were the most interesting feature of the lounge.

The wines featured included St Emillon Grand Gru, Champagne and white wine available on free pour. I was impressed by the decent wines as it isn’t all to often that you can get actual French Champagne on offer at a business lounge. It was so good, MrsWT73 decided to have an impromptu wine tasting in the lounge on our brief connection.

The lounge had lots of natural light, with floor to ceiling windows running the entire length of the lounge. However, the lounge was hidden behind glass slats and mesh window coverings, which made it hard to get in any great photos of the French freeway system outside.

My Thoughts on the Air France Salon Lounge:

All in all, the Salon Air France Lounge was a more than reasonable lounge in a large scale similar to any large upscale airport. The best feature of the Air France Lounge was the terrific caliber of wines that were made available, including free pour champagne, which isn’t offered at the business class level all that often. Despite this, I can’t imagine purposely wanting to connect through CDG Paris over MUC Munich or even FRA Frankfurt. The experience was one of total disorganization and the airport authority staff (and tenants) don’t seem all to hospitable or interested to serve.

---

If you fly Air France / KLM in Skyteam, how do you find the flagship hub lounges compare to One World and Star Alliance ?

---