Air France La Première provides an excellent in-flight and ground experience. Air France also tries to distinguish La Première with its on-board amenity kits. Note that this review covers a kit I took home from the 777. However, the A380 features identical kits.
Welcome to another installment of our amenity kit review series. As in previous reviews, I will be reviewing this amenity kit on a scale from 1 to 5 (being the best) and will rate it based on five categories:
- Bag/container: design, quality and reusability/collectibility of the bag.
- Product: quality, size and variety of the facial and body products.
- Comfort items: eye masks, ear plugs, etc.
- Miscellaneous: pens, tissues and everything else.
- Extras: additional items that make your flight just a tad more comfortable including pajamas, slippers, etc.
Note: this post is part of my trip report series about my recent First Class experience to Barcelona. Click here for the trip report index and introduction.
Air France La Première Amenity Kit
Bag/Container
My first thought was, this sure is a good-looking but sort of strange kit. It looks kind of like a leather-bound book. The La Première “unicorn” logo is cool, though. I also questioned just how sturdy the kit was, as it used just a magnetic lock to hold in the contents. Turns out, it IS pretty secure after all. Even held upside down, the lock holds the contents securely in place.
The kit’s interior is red, with a single compartment on the bottom.
I guess I struggle a little with the reusability factor. You can stick a wallet, a set of keys, or a TSA liquid bag inside. But for a frame of reference, it’s a couple of inches longer than the Delta and jetBlue kits. It does take up a fair amount of space in a roller bag. Score: 4.
Product
The kit contains products supplied by Carita, a French luxury beauty products line. Products include a face masque, anti-aging cream (the circular container), skin regenerating cream, and hand lotion.
Carita products certainly are pricey – a small tube of masque retails for $60, for example. Ouch. Almost makes me afraid to actually use them. However, compared to other First Class kits, there just isn’t much here. Even the much-maligned British Airways includes shave gel, deodorant, and lip balm. Score: 3.
Comfort Items
Air France provides an eye mask, earplugs, and a nifty wooden comb with unicorn logo.
But again, some items seem conspicuously missing. No socks is a major demerit. Score: 3.
Miscellaneous
As you can see in the above picture, the kit includes earphone covers, a nice touch you don’t see often. It also includes a very nice pen.
But I once again noticed what was missing. Where are the tissues? Or the toothbrush and toothpaste? Yes, those are available in the lavatory, but an extra in the kit would be nice. Score: 2.5.
Extras
Air France does come through with an excellent pair of pajamas. They are high quality and comfortable, and come in a stylish bag. If anything, the pajama bag might be more reusable than the amenity kit bag itself. And of course, you get to wear the cool unicorn logo.
Passengers also receive a card for a free 45-minute add-on to a one hour face treatment at the Carita spa in Paris.
Of course, as expensive as the products are, I shudder to think about how much the treatment costs… Score: 5.
Air France La Première Amenity Kit Overall Score
The Air France La Première amenity kit comes in at 3.5/5 overall. If that seems like a “meh” score for a First Class amenity kit – you’re right, it is. While there are some really nice aspects to the kit, such as the pajamas and the quality of the beauty products, there are simply too many missing pieces overall. It’s one of the few disappointing aspects of La Première.
