Need to know re: AirFrance business class seats

This is fairly common with intra-Europe flights. You'd find the same with many other European legacy carriers. Some of the airlines will block off the middle seats (Air France, British Airways, SAS until a couple years ago) to give you a little more space to spread out and not have to compete for an armrest. Further, you could get benefits in things like priority boarding, security screening, etc. But the seats themselves are not different. Indeed, this allows the airlines to play around with their business class a bit, designating more or less rows intra-Europe business class depending on demand.

It's important to note that intra-Europe business would be very different from long-haul business class, where you would usually see lie-flat seats, a different premium cabin layout and configuration, more seat pitch, etc.

I have not seen the article, but encountered a situation similar to what you describe on BA flights I was on from LHR-MXP.

The biz class was essentially coach seats with the middle rendered unusable. A bit more leg room and of course , much better service than coach. It was on single aisle planes for relatively short flights.

I suspect one gets 'real' biz seats on the long haul flights

Check seatguru while shopping

This is now becoming the case even for trans-Atlantic flights via Delta. Delta has a product that they are calling business class which is really just a wider seat that reclines a bit more, but if you want to really lay flat, you have to book their ludicrously expensive Delta One.

Maggie, thanks for drawing our attention to this.

Yes when flying AF or KLM within Europe business class is as described - front seats with the middle seat blocked.
I'm a pretty regular Delta/AF flier and to my knowledge Delta has (and I think it's airplane dependent - Boeing V Airbus on how they are named)
Basic Economy
Main Cabin
Delta Comfort +
First Class
Delta Premium Select (premium economy)
Delta One (business)

They have little icons above each description to indicate whether it's recline, little more recline or the most recline or lay flat

This is how it works on all European airlines as far as I know. When flying business within Europe you get the exact same seats as if you were flying economy, although some airlines will give you a few cm extra legroom. What you are paying for is better service, food, luggage allowance, flexibility etc.

Maggie I read the article which you summarized well. The point of it was that some of AF's international flights (not the within Europe flights to which people are referring) flights did not have the business class features that were expected. In the example case someone had booked a flight from the US to Tel Aviv on AF, connecting in France. The first leg was fine, with lie-flat seats, but the Paris-Tel Aviv leg was basically front-of-economy. But the real point was that AF did not describe their business class for international flights accurately since they only described the higher level of service. The surprise would be for someone who paid for business class all the way, expecting the same level of service.

So I dont think someone who is flying daytime from Paris to Dusseldorf would expect or need lie-flat comfort for that short flight, but they might expect it on other long international flights. Not that it will impact me, as I'll never afford business class to begin with.

Stan, thanks for that extra clarification....yep, that's exactly what the questions/concerns were by those who had contacted the columnist.

Thought sharing this would be a good learning opportunity for many folks, as I sure would have thought it would have meant business class all the way, UNLESS the carrier had one of the warnings of "class of service may not be available on all flights" (or whatever it is those warnings say) which I seem to remember seeing on United or Air Canada or some other airlines' web site when searching for international flights in the past. THAT warning does give a heads up to ask for more info and to not expect Business Class or First Class for each leg of the journey (especially when one of the legs of the journey does not show a seat map for seat selection).

Again, thanks for the extra clarification, as it will help others reading this thread. I would have attached a link to the article, but often links will not open for non-subscribers.