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Papeete Faa'a International Airport
We walked from the terminal 2 to the international terminal of Faa'a airport. Thanks to rcs85551 being Flying Blue Gold member and flying in Business Class, I was lucky and could also use the Business Class check in facilities. Our passports were checked and it seems rcs85551 was not on the passenger list. He had discovered the day before, that his flight was not accessible in the Amadeus system, but could accessed on the homepage
of Air Fance. So he had his printed e-ticket receipt ready to show to the agents and they finally let him pass. It took a few minutes before it was our turn and an agent became available to check us in.
We both were asked to check our second piece of hand luggage, due to security regulations. Not really the thing rcs85551 and me wanted to hear. Rcs85551 was annoyed, since he was flying Business Class and this usually means two pieces of hand luggage. Off course discussing did not help and we checked the luggage – and discovered later, that there were quite a number of people who had large amounts of hand luggage and even more than
two pieces. They were either French or Tahitian. This two class mentality is really not nice to see and for someone holding elite status with another alliance a reason not to switch alliances. With this attitude, which is somehow not uncommon for “La Grande Nation”, you drive other nationalities away from your airline.
Anyway, we went to immigration, where a few people were queuing. Only two officers were on duty and therefore it took a few minutes until it was our turn. Luckily we were early, because the line became longer and longer in the time we were waiting there. Being members of the European Union, immigration did not take as long as for other nationalities and we were through immigration in less than a minute. After immigration was the security checkpoint. Again it was laptop out of the bag, shoes off and luggage hand
searched. As we had passed the checkpoint, we headed straight for the lounge.
There is only one lounge in PPT which is used by all airlines departing in Papeete and also a Priority Pass contract lounge. Thanks to the invitation of rcs85551 there was no need to use my Priority Pass
We took a seat and used the wi-fi passes. The system was not working properly and you had to type the address of the provider manually in your browser. While I could access the internet, rcs85551 had some difficulties to get a connection and picked up another wi-fi pass at the front desk which finally worked. I checked my e-mails and did a few things in the internet before it was time for me to head for the gate.
The Airbus of Air Tahiti Nui arrived while we were in the lounge
Boarding had already started with the rows 35 to 48 and First and Business Class Passengers. There was another security check after passing the boarding gate. It was quick check of the hand luggage. After this was done, I walked to the waiting Boeing 777-200 and climbed the stairs to the plane.
09 January 2010
PPT – LAX
[Papeete – Los Angeles]
AF 674 (Air France); Boeing 777-200 (F-GSPC)
Gate 50 / 51
08:20 – 18:10 [effective 08:19 – 18:08:]
Economy Class
Seat 35 J
I was friendly greeted at the door and headed for the exit row. I had decided to play safe side and bought an exit row for 50 EUR. This seems to be a reasonable price for a flight of 8 hours or so. Although the flight was not fully booked, having no status this usually means you are the last one who have a free seat next to yourself. And also the experience on the flight a week before had convinced me, that 50 EUR are worth to be paid
for the extra amount of service. I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment above the seats.
The plane filled with passengers. Later during boarding a young lady approached one of the flight attendants standing at the exit row and asked it the window seat was available and she could move there from her assigned seat 37 J. He agreed after he checked the seat was available. Okay, so much for using charm instead of paying the extra fee for exit row – but I doubt I could have been that charming.
The safety demonstration was done on the screen while we pushed back at 08:19. We taxied for the runway and headed toward the end of the runway where we made a U-turn. The captain, who had welcomed us on board earlier pulled the handle and the engine rowed and we accelerated and soon had left Faa'a International Airport at 08:31.
Once in the air, the usual announcements were made about flying time and that this was a non-smoking flight. The screen of the inflight entertainment system did not work properly. But this doesn't matter, as I made use of my mp3 player I brought with me.
After less than 10 minutes in the air and therefore really early, the flight attendants jumped into action and prepared the first beverage service, distributed the headphone and the small amenity kit as well as the menus. We were still climbing and had not yet reached our cruising altitude.
The first beverage service started after approximately 45 minutes in flight. Air France still serves champagne in economy class – as French Airline I think they have to. With the first beverage service were given some crackers. I opted for Tonic Water instead of the champagne. From my exit row aisle seat however I could see that quite number of people went for champagne. Like on US airlines I got the whole can as I ordered the Tonic Water.
Time to have a look at the menue 
(click on the icon for the menu)
Soon later the items from the first beverage service were collected and twenty minutes later the meal service started, I went for the lamb curry and had white wine with it. Funnily the flight attendant asked me only for my choice of wine – red or white wine. I was not offered any other sort of beverage. The vegetable and corn salad with chicken was a bit tasteless, especially the chicken. The curry however was good, while the rice was a bit dry and had not much taste, but mixed with the sauce of the lamb it was
okay. Rolls were offered with the meal. The white wine was okay. Later coffee and tea were offered and soon later the trays were collected. The collection of the trays were started the row I was sitting in and I used this opportunity for another quick visit of the lavatories.
I spend the next hours updating my trip report and doing a little bit work on other reports, I have to publish on my homepage. I also listened to my mp3 player, since the music in the AVOD system was not my taste with the exception of several pieces of classical music like the comparison of the two recordings of the Goldberg Variations by Glen Gould. However, I much prefer to hear them in a more quiet surrounding and have this recording also at home. So it was Billy Joel from my mp3 player for me …
The crew did several rounds offering water which I happily accepted.
Approximately 70 minutes prior to landing the light were switched on and it was time for another light snack. I skipped the snack, which was some sort of quiche lorraine with a salad and yoghurt. The trays were collected soon later as rcs85551 approached and told me to get my belongings with me and head over to the Business Class cabin for the last three quarters of an hour, so we can head off the plane together and he did not have to wait at the baggage carrousel. He had spoken with the purser and since the
Business Class Cabin was not fully booked, the purser had agreed that I moved up front to Business Class Cabin.
The Business Class Cabin was really nice and the seat did not look bad. Rcs85551 told me, that AF used three series of the Business Class seats and this was the second series, on the flight to PPT week before it had been the third series, which has a better table and a bigger screen.
The crew prepared the cabin for the descent into LAX also and the purser came around and thanked everybody for flying with AF and wished a good onward journey. He addressed the passengers by name.
We could see the lights of the greater LAX area and touched down at 17:59 on the runway opposite to terminal 2 used by AF among a few other airlines, so we had to taxi for quite a few minutes before we finally reached our gate at 18:08. The second door was used and seconds later we were on our way to the main terminal for immigration. There were no lines and we passed immigration quite quickly, but had to wait for our luggage. This did not take long and according to the tags on the luggage, the priority tags
worked quite well, as the first pieces of luggage had all priority tags on it. Rcs85551's trolley was the first to appear, while mine arrived a minutes later. Through customs and then to the pick up point for the courtesy shuttles to the Westin hotel, our home for the last night on this trip.