Surprise! - Monday, 8 June

Surprises aren’t always a friend of the traveler. Sometimes they’re pleasant, and sometimes they’re just, well, surprising.  They do keep one alert, though!

First pleasant surprise: Uber!  I had been a bit skeptical, but I thought I’d give them a try (rather than a cab) to get to the airport this morning.  Very efficient (the car was at my house about 6 minutes after I requested it on their app, which used GPS to accurately determine my location), comfortable smooth ride, directly billed to my credit card on file (nothing to run through a machine, nothing to sign, no tip required), the driver was very pleasant and helpful, and it was free since this was my first use! Hecuva deal. That will pay for my first Kir Royale in Paris!

Second pleasant surprise at the departure gate: Delta’s new carry-on preload program.  An agent came up to me and offered to put my carry-on on the plane early, directly above my seat. So, no dragging the bag down the aisle and finding someone to help hoist it up. Such luxury. I think I should always travel with a valet! In retrospect, though, I’m not sure that I like being separated from my bag. I was able to preboard, so my bag and I weren’t separated for long, but if I had boarded later there would have been the risk of some other passenger tampering with it, moving it, etc.  It turned out well for me, but who knows whether this will become a “thing!” Info on the program here: USAToday Article

Then surprises just got surprising.  I had saved $300 by booking a 1-stop via Boston vs. my usual Delta direct flight, but was it worth it?

Well, I got some exercise and sweated off a few pounds and learned a thing or two to start with!

First I flew MSP-BOS, giving myself a nice long layover in case the first flight was delayed or I had a longish gate change. When I deplaned, I looked at my Delta app to find my next gate, but there was nothing there, just "--". Odd. So I went to a monitor and saw a slightly earlier Paris flight leaving from gate A16. It's downstairs, then through a tunnel, then back up. Not too bad.  And there's a handy Dunkin' Donuts close by (but, sadly, pretty poor). The fact that there's no flight info is still bugging me. So I look up my flight number in another section of the Delta app, and it says gate E2A. Huh?  I don't remember seeing a Terminal E sign at all.

So I trudge back through the tunnel to the more central portion of Terminal A. I look for a map. Nothing. Signs. Nothing. Delta help desk – unmanned. So I ask a TSA agent. He had to call one of his colleagues who figured out that it was officially an Air France flight (not a Delta flight operated by Air France) that did indeed depart from Terminal E. And he could actually tell me how to get there - down this hallway, take a right at the end, go through sliding doors (aha! there's the Terminal E sign!), take a left, then a right, through a long skyway, past the parking garage, through another couple skyways and past another parking garage, and voila!  But again, the poor or non-existent signage was less than helpful. And some moving sidewalks and escalators weren't working. And because parking garages intervened, one had to go through security again, and WHAT A LINE!  My feet were screaming at me.

Happily, once I got to the departure gate an agent saw me with my cane (and probably with a pained look on my face!) and took me right up to the boarding desk, then through a secured area to an elevator that took me right down to the jetway.

The plane is a Boeing 747-400. The video safety announcement is quite funny. A female flight attendant is delivering it, with the back-up of four women dressed in red skirts and French sailor sweaters, miming and interpreting what the flight attendant is saying. When she talks about the importance of keeping your seatbelt buckled, she observes that it does accentuate the waist nicely! The whole thing kept your attention without going totally over the top!

I don't remember booking a seat next to the bulkhead, but surprise, that's where it is! There’s a nice articulated arm on the inflight entertainment system, making the screen much easier to see. But when I switched the system on, I found that the standard background musical entertainment is classical – Mahler 4 at the time I turned it on, followed by other warhorses. If they bored me I could pick through about 50 classical albums. I watched part of a movie, but otherwise just stuck with good tunes! Yaay, Air France!

I usually skip the meal on these flights, but on the hope that I would be pleasantly surprised, I went with the chicken.
It didn’t even taste like mystery meat! And all of the accompaniments were tasty, including the coffee mousse cake!  And the coffee was probably the best I've ever had on a flight.  See, it is possible!  Go, Air France!  (BTW, I’ve never seen so many special meals delivered before the cart comes down the aisle with the regular stuff. Lots of people requiring dietary and ethnic meals on this flight!)

And the final surprise: the plane got a much more advantageous gate at Charles deGaulle than the Delta direct flight gets, with a much shorter walk to passport check and a baggage carousel near the exit.  Well done, Air France!  Also, the agent in the passport check area motioned me over to the fast line (normally for first-class passengers and crew) when she saw my cane – I never cease to be amazed how gracious they are to those with mobility issues here.