Air France A320 Business Class Review - Booked with Virgin Points - Budapest to Paris CDG
- Sam
- Aug 2, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 14, 2025
This journey was part of my six flights, in 72 hours, all booked using points series. This was the 2nd flight of that trip, part of a connecting itinerary that had me connecting in Paris Charles de Gaulle before heading on to Athens. For this part of the journey, I'll be reviewing Air France's Business Class aboard this Airbus A320. How does it stack up against the competition? And should you go out of your way to fly Air France?
Booking
Did you know that your Virgin Points can also be used to book an Air France flight? Well, if you didn't, now you do! All you have to do is search on the Virgin Atlantic website as you would do if you were trying to book a Virgin flight!
For a one way ticket from Budapest to Athens, via Paris CDG, I paid 26,000 Virgin Points, plus $62.80. Why I had to pay in USD for a flight within Europe, I do not know. If you know, leave a comment at the bottom! For the $62.80 I paid this using my Hilton Honors Plus debit card. With an earning rate of 3 Hilton Honors points per £1 spent on foreign transactions, this transaction earned me 135 Hilton Honors points. Not much, but every little helps!
You may know that Virgin Atlantic rewards passengers who book flights using points by giving them Tier Points towards status. But did you know that only flights on Virgin Atlantic receive Tier Points, and not flights on other airlines who you have booked using Virgin Points? Do bear this in mind if you're expecting to hit your next tier on a KLM flight booked with Virgin Points.
The Flight
This flight was scheduled to depart Budapest at 12:40pm. With this ticket I was able to access the Skycourt lounge here in Budapest. A full review of that lounge can be found here, but lets just say I escaped to the Platinum lounge instead using my Priority Pass…
Boarding commenced at 12:24 PM with passengers marshalled into five distinct boarding groups, allowing for a smooth boarding process.
As we boarded, a thoughtful touch greeted passengers immediately upon entering the aircraft: sanitising wipes were readily available in a basket on the right side of the entrance, a welcome gesture that shows attention to passenger wellbeing. I found my seat for the day, seat 1A, a bulkhead seat within the Business Class section. The legroom of this seat was fantastic, with ample room to stretch out. And with the middle seat guaranteed to be free in a European Business Class cabin, there was no chance of me feeling hemmed in. If you're used to flying British Airways Club Europe you may notice one thing missing, the tray table. I don't quite realise how much I use this until its not there. With this being a front row, the tray tables are built into the armrest, having to lift up the cover to bring the table out. Admittedly, this is what me and the passenger in 1C did with the middle table to provide a drinks space, but if you were in any of the other rows in the Business cabin, bringing down the tray table would restrict the window seat from getting out.
The boarding process concluded efficiently at 12:49 PM. Passengers in the Business Class cabin were each handed a scented towel a couple of minutes after boarding was completed. However, these towels were not cleared away pre-departure, and so lingered in seat-back pockets.
The flight departed at 1:13 PM, climbing out over Budapest offering impressive views of the Danube out of the window. During the climb out, with the seat belt sign still on, some passengers had decided that they would instead like to use the toilet. A member of crew swiftly grabbed the tannoy to instruct them to sit down immediately, and then proceeded to read the riot act to the plane about the use of seatbelts. Quite honestly, I’m all for this from the crew. Too many passengers treat the rules aboard an aircraft with the same disdain as a “no ball games” sign. All you have to do is look at the recent example of the evacuation of an American Airlines plane where passengers are fighting to take their luggage with them, to understand why Türkiye have decided to fine passengers for standing up as their plane is still taxiing to the gate.
Maybe with this in mind, the seatbelt sign stayed on for a whole 17 minutes post departure, as punishment for this indiscretion.
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Service and Hospitality
Shortly after the seatbelt sign was switched off, the meal service for Business Class began. There was no choice of meal served, unless you ordered a special meal everyone was served the same. Lunch was “Shrimp with Espelette chilli pepper, quinoa and snow peas, raspberry vinaigrette”. Served cold, but absolutely phenomenal. Whilst dry looking, hidden underneath the quinoa was a creamy beetroot and sultana sauce, which gave the entire dish that boost that took it to the next level. If I'm being honest, I was a bit underwhelmed with not being given a choice of meal, but if this is the standard of Air France’s food, then colour me impressed!
The rest of the meal was just as good, an excellent mix of cheeses, and a molten chocolate cake oozing as you cut into it. A subtle part of the service quality was this dessert. Usually, if I’m served a cold main meal, then I’d be expecting the rest of the meal to be served chilled too. But with the individual heating of the desert, this shows that the choice to not provide a hot meal was not due to cost cutting, but instead a commitment to providing great food, regardless of serving temperature. I must apologise to Air France for my pre-judgment based on other airlines corner cutting.
When it came to the service, the crew embodied that distinctly "French" service style - professional yet somewhat aloof. While exceedingly competent, they lacked the proactive hospitality one might expect in business class. Other passengers found themselves having to request beverages outside of meal service, rather than being regularly attended to. This assessment was made in flight, but a small gesture on the ground changed my interpretation of this...
And with that we started our descent in to Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport. Notoriously both gorgeous architecturally, and hard to transit through, the public's relationship with this airport is testing at time. Once the jetbridge connected to the plane, and we were exiting the aircraft, the crew stopped me to thank me for flying with Air France, and to inform me that my connecting flight to Athens would be leaving from the same terminal. Very helpful, considering Air France operate from three terminals at CDG. This meant that all effort dedicated to finding my new terminal could instead be channelled into finding the gorgeous Air France lounge. More on that to come...
Air France A320 Business Class Review - Was this worth it?
Would I fly Air France Business Class again? Yes, absolutely. Would I go out of my way to fly Air France Business Class? No. Whilst nice, nothing truly makes it stand out above the rest. If I was flying within Europe I would always prioritise flying direct to minimise my travelling time.
But then again, I would follow this rule regardless of airline on offer in Europe. You see, European Business Class with its blocked middle seat, instead of a bespoke recliner, offers very little in the way of differentiation from the Economy product on offer. An exit row seat, food brought with you from home, and bottle of wine from the trolley quite often beats any experience an airline can provide you.
Sam
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