Flying: Air France A318 Economy Class Zurich to Paris 2015

Arriving from St Gallen on the 6:48PM train, time was tight as I got off the train at Zurich Airport at 7:41PM.

As I had selected my seat online, it would have been more convenient to collect the boarding pass at the self service kiosk. However, I made a silly mistake of entering my frequent flyer account wrongly and had to get that corrected at the counter instead.

Air France 1315
Zurich (ZRH) – Paris (CDG)
Friday, Apr 03 2015
Depart: 8:55PM
Arrive: 10:15PM
Flight time: 1hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus 318
Seat: 18D

Since there is no immigration passport checks for Schengen travel, it left me with a fair amount of time to roam around the terminal. As I was really tired after a longhaul flight on my flight from Singapore to Zurich via Helsinki in February, this was the first time I managed to examine Zurich airport in greater detail.

I was pretty attracted to the black marble tiles and soft lighting, which somehow managed to add a classy touch to the decor.  

It was a quick walk to gate B34, hence I had some time to charge my phone before boarding and snap some photos.

The Airbus 318 really looked minuscule as compared to its A320 sister that I was so used to in Asia.

We boarded at 8.25pm, and were greeted by the purser and the copilot.

Seat
Looking sideways the seats are razor thin. In fact, the seats looked thinner even when compared to budget carrier Ryanair. Nevertheless, there is a good amount of support at the back when I sat down, and the thicker padding at the neck area, together with a reasonable (though not fantastic) amount of legroom made the seat comfortable enough for a shorthaul flight.

Boarding was completed quickly but due to an absent passenger, the crew had to offload his or her checked-in luggage, which took a a few more minutes. Soon the purser announced that we are ready to go. The cabin door was shut and we pushed off from gate B34 at 8:54PM.

During the safety demonstration, we paused at the apron for a few minutes, supposedly waiting for permission from the tower to taxi and takeoff. We continued to taxi for another 10 minutes or so before taking off at 9:11PM. 

Food
After a short climb the seatbelt sign was turned off and service began. Since it was a shorthaul flight, only a light snack consisting of tomato mozzarella sandwich and drinks was served, though Air France did better than many other airlines by serving alcoholic beverages even on an one hour shorthaul flight.

After the snack service, we began the descent and landed at 10:04PM. After a quick taxi, we arrived on time at gate F52 at 10:15PM.

Conclusion
While most European cities are fairly well connected by rail and air travel might not always be the fastest way to get you to your destination, the revenue management on some of the high speed trains can make the airfare look competitive in some cases.