A good day! I just found a third trip report buried deep in my laptop that I hadn't got around to posting. I know someone put up a report on this sector recently, but seeing as I had already written it I thought I'd put it up anyway.
Hope you enjoy it.

Air France
Date: 24 April 2007
Routing: Bangkok - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Aircraft: Airbus A340-313X
Registration: F-GLZU
Loading: J Class: 80%. Y Class: 50%.
Estimated Departure Time: 13:15
Actual Time of Departure: 13:16
Estimated Arrival Time: 14:40
Actual Arrival Time: 14:32

It's mainly photos as I feel photos tell more than text can in a lot of ways. (In fact, why post a TR without photos? Seems pointless to me, but anyway...)

I had to travel from Bangkok - Saigon for work. The cheapest fare was on Bangkok Airways, however this was sold out on their promotional fare. The next cheapest was on Air France, booked on line. I had never flown Air France and decided to give them a try. I also figured that considering the flight routing was CDG-BKK-SGN that the BKK-SGN sector would be lightly loaded. Turned out I was right. ^

I booked and paid by credit card on line, and received an e-receipt. However, when I got the check-in desk, they told me to go to the ticket counter and pick up a paper ticket. Seems to defeat the purpose of booking on line and not sure why they do this. Still, it only took 5 minutes, so no major inconvenience. The check in area was pretty much empty, and it was a joint check-in with AF and KLM.

After checking in, there were only 3 people in the immigration line ahead of me, and I decided to have a snack on F concourse, which was where the plane was leaving from - gate F5.

There is a range of food options here, and I went to the @Bangkok Cafe and Bar and had a nice roast beef sandwich and a 7-Up.





Here are some shots of the Bangkok Terminal, departures level:





I then made my way to gate F5 (at the end of the "F" pier - a long walk!) The Air France A340-313X was already parked and being serviced.




Boarding was quick, and the load was obviously light. I was allocated a window seat in the first row of economy class, right behind the bulkhead. It was a great seat, and the interior was recently refitted, so very comfortable and in good condition.






One thing I found totally bizarre (and annoying) was the the seat pockets weren't sewn at the bottom, so you would put a newspaper or book in there, and it would immediately fall straight through on to the floor...weird design!

We pushed back right on time. The crew seemed quite friendly (except for one old French bint who had a face like a bulldog licking piss off a stinging nettle, and should have packed it in years ago). The announcements were made in French and then English, but the accent of the chief purser and the Captain were very strong, so quite hard to understand.

Here are some shots of our taxi in Bangkok. A lot of A330's around today, and anyone know what an EVA Air MD-90 was doing in Bangkok?? Never seen one of those there before!














There was very little departing traffic at this time of day, so we taxied onto runway 19R and just kept rolling!

I hadn't flown on an A340 for a few years, and I had read reports of its incredibly long take-off runs and poor climb-out performance, but as we were so lightly loaded, we took off in no time at all, and the climb performance seemed to be similar to other aircraft. There was some cloud about, but no turbelence experienced at all.





The crew then handed out immigration forms for Vietnam, and then started the meal (snack) service as we passed over Rayong, near Pattaya.



There was a menu left behind from the CDG-BKK sector. Quite attractive!
Reading material consisted of the inflight magazine (articles in both French and English) and the safety card!






I was really pleasantly surprised by the snack! It was quite substantial for a 1 hour 15 minute flight and consisted of a nice sandwich, yoghurt, cake and choice of drinks - soft drinks, beer, red and white wine in small bottles.
Then they came around with tea of coffee.




We ended up cruising at 37,000 feet and levelled-out just after crossing into Cambodia.





I went for a wander and took a photo from the back of the economy cabin.


Before too long, we started out decent into Saigon. There was some fantastic cloud formations, and we were banking left and right and avoiding the storm cells. There was also fantastic condensation coming off the wing during decent too - quite spectacular!





Coming into Saigon, you really notice how densely packed the city is.
It's like flying in over Lego town!!

We landed very smoothly on 25R and rolled out to the end of the runway.
There was a Vietnam 777-200 waiting for us before she took off.









We taxiied to the gate, and passed a Vietnam Airlines A320 and an EVA Air A330 waiting to head back to Taipei. We parked at a remote stand and bussed over to the terminal. Immigration was painfully slow, as usual!
Luggage was there when I arrived at the belt which was a bonus.





Overall Impressions
I was impressed by Air France - even on a short hop like this one.
I would definitely try them long haul. The aircraft was clean, the snack substantial, and the service (apart from one flight attendant) very good. I normally fly Asian carriers, so its good to see a "western" airline still maintaining good levels of service. Tres bon!