As you may have seen from my posts over the past couple of days I recently was lucky enough to fly Air France First Class from Los Angeles to Paris on their A380.

I’ve kept the oddest part of the report to last. The previous posts looked at the service on the plane and on the ground at Paris. But the oddest part was before all of that started – ground services at LAX and the lounge.

Ground Services

I had received a text message that the plane was a little late but wanted to see the new Thomas Bradley Terminal so arrived fairly early. The First Check-in is roped off until the agent confirms that you are travelling in First and is then opened for you to go and see the staff. A minute later and with my self-printed boarding pass thrown away, I was being escorted to the lounge by their fearless Air France employee.

Off we went to the North side Security line, and when it was closed as there was no queue at the other side (why do the TSA do this at TBIT I do not know, it’s a good 10 minute walk to the other side by which time things have probably changed), she opened the barrier and ushered me through. Quick stop with TSA and then to the front of the security line, past other passengers already getting ready for the machine.

The British part of me which would have normally expected to have waited was brushed aside as the ‘being told what to do’ part took over. The TSA had one of its ‘everyone stops for tea’ moments when suddenly and for no apparent reason all the belts stopped moving. Once I had managed to get all my stuff we were off to the lounge.

Air France uses the OneWorld lounge for their A380 flights which leave from Thomas Bradley rather than the normal Terminal 2 at LAX.

The lounge is quite nice and I have reviewed it before. However, this is really where the oddness started!

There are plenty of seats in the lounge with very passengers at that time of day. However, one man totally dominated the room. Every phone conversation, in Spanish I might add, was shouted at the top of his voice. He moved around the lounge so that there was no peace and even when we all ‘Shushed’ him at the same time he didn’t take the hint. He then became the self-appointed lounge attendant. Going round to everyone to tell them if their flights were late.

Anyway, back to the lounge.

A long bar adjacent to the food area:

Hot and cold offerings:

The pasta was excellent:

Plenty of spirits and wine on offer:

Cookies and Marshmallows:

About half an hour before the flight a very elegant lady and her teenage son turned up. It appeared that their connection in Paris was cancelled or delayed and this apparently was not acceptable to Madam. Lots of shouting and flouncing. Her son, as I mentioned in another post had an unaccompanied minor pack around his neck and so I assumed (wrongly) that she was worried for her enfant, being lost in CDG. When we got on the plane this all turned out to be so that she could blag an upgrade to sit with her son in First Class, when she was ticketed in Business and only he in First.

It was not long before my escort came to collect me and we walked to the plane, where I was handed over to the crew and settled in to my seat.

So, a nice lounge but with some odd people!