Flying to Europe for a small ship river cruise, big ship sailing in the Mediterranean or some other amazing place, prices are coming down.  Now, patient travelers using today’s buying strategies are finding flights over the pond for not all that much more than a flight from Florida to Seattle.  Better yet culinary offerings on those long flights are improving too, highlighted by a recent redeux of Air France’s long haul menus.

Air France, KLM, Delta and 17 more SkyTeam airlines fly more travelers to and from Europe than anyone else.  Right now Air France and KLM alone offer their customers access to a network covering 316 destinations in 115 countries. With a fleet of 546 aircraft in operation and 87.4 million passengers carried in 2014, Air France-KLM operates up to 2,200 daily flights from its hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol, both common connection airports for North American cruise travelers headed in either direction.

Air To Europe: Price Down, Cusine Up Up Up

Air France is continuing its move upmarket on its long-haul network by offering first class La Première and Business customers an à la carte meal option. With the à la carte dishes, available on all Air France long-haul flights^, passengers can enjoy new delicacies with the theme “Asian delights”, topped off with a seafood basket.

Customers can book the dish of their choice between 90 days and 24 hours before their flight departure. They can book an à la carte meal when purchasing their ticket or in the ‘Manage your bookings’ section online at www.airfrance.fr, at Air France ticket offices and call centres, or when they check in online or on their smartphone.

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Six dishes in the La Première cabin and six others in the Business cabin are now available, in various culinary categories offering more freedom and pleasure during flight. These include:

• Traditional Chinese;
• Flavours of India;
• Thai cuisine;
• A taste of Korea;
• Japanese delights;
• There is also a “seafood basket” to complement these tasty and varied à la carte options.

 

Tableware to enhance the fine dining experience

Every detail counts in La Première and Business. To make mealtimes truly unique, Air France asked Jean-Marie Massaud, a famous French designer, to create the new tableware. With champagne flutes, fine porcelain Bernardaud plates and Christofle cutlery, Jean-Marie Massaud has designed a complete service of more than 40 original pieces for the La Première cabin. The legendary winged seahorse, a symbol of Air France’s La Première brand, adds a refined touch as a watermark on this made-to-measure collection.  In the Business cabin, each piece has been carefully designed to evoke lightness and flight, concepts close to the designer’s heart. The materials chosen are delicate, Guy Degrenne porcelain, thin glass and steel Christofle cutlery make up a large part of this comprehensive collection.

 

Air France and fine French dining

By using real taste stylists to draw up the menus in its La Première and Business cabins, Air France is confirming its role as ambassador of French fine cuisine and lifestyle. The Company invites renowned French chefs to create certain dishes on the La Première and Business menus on board long-haul flights departing from Paris.  Joël Robuchon, Guy Martin, Michel Roth, Thibaut Ruggeri, Régis Marcon and Anne-Sophie Pic have already endorsed this role of ambassador of French cuisine on board Air France flights, by offering one of their gourmet creations among the hot dishes on offer.

Most recently, Savoie-born Guy Martin created new dishes in the La Première cabin.

 

Of Special Interest To River Cruise Passengers
Air France has a new Fast Track Fare for travel to Budapest, a popular place to begin or end a river cruise on the River Danube, giving travelers a chance to take advantage of its best fares to one of the most beautiful capitals in Europe.

Budapest offers a wide range of things to do such as a Danube excursion-cruise, visits to the Hungarian parliament building (one of the city’s most famous landmarks) or the Matthias Church and its Romanesque style. Book a trip from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, DC with special offers starting from $791.

These fares are valid for travel between August 23, 2015 and October 31, 2015.