I was invited as a member of the Medium-haul Lead Customer Clubyesterday by Air France to test the new Smart & Beyond cabin, which is being gradually deployed as of April 1, 2015 on the entire Medium-haul (CDG) network of the French national airline.
With 5 other customers, we flew to Toulouse, then transported the aircraft to Paris Charles-de-Gaulle with 90 Air France staff in a rather festive atmosphere.

A new chic and pleasant medium-haul cabin: Flight AF4019/TLS-CDG

The boarding of the convoy flight was delayed for about twenty minutes, the time for the journalists to take the necessary pictures in the aircraft. We boarded at Toulouse in gate 20, which is equipped with the Self-boarding automatons that we had the pleasure to try:

The impression upon entering the cabin is excellent. In addition to the delightful, pleasant smell of new leather, the elegance of the color combination and the quality of the leather are immediately apparent when you sit down. The differentiation in signage between Business and Economy is directly perceptible:

The 6 guests and the top management were placed in the Business section of the cabin, with the middle seat left free. Excellent impression that continues, with the quality and strength of the plastic materials used for the tablet and its solid aluminum mechanism.
On the other hand, I was a little disappointed with the pitch, which was too weak for my taste, especially for long medium-haul flights such as Tel Aviv, Moscow or Amman.

Once boarding was complete, the festive atmosphere continued and discussions were in full swing, notably with Alain-Hervé Bernard, General Manager of Medium-haul and Carole Pettavin, Director of the Medium-haul product.

Before the closing of the doors, the captain invited 4 of us to attend either the takeoff or the landing in position, nice attention! Then, Olivier Dulat, the A320 chief pilot made his announcement, visibly moved because he is invested in the project.

The flight, although turbulent, went normally, except for the fact that we had Champagne on a domestic flight!

Very nice landing then on Charles-de-Gaulle, accompanied by the salutes of the firemen, and the welcoming committee on the runway, composed among others of Frédéric Gagey and Alexandre De Juniac, respectively CEO of Air France and Air France-KLM:

A necessary move upmarket to align the medium-haul product with the new long-haul cabins

The recent move upmarket on long-haul routes, with the BEST cabins, and in particular the Business seats which are now full-flat and full-access, made it necessary to review the cabin and services on medium-haul routes.
Let’s hope that the recent abolition of the Premium Economy cabin on these flights will allow us to improve the service in the Business cabin, which would allow us to compete with airlines such as Turkish Airlines or Aeroflot on long-haul flights, such as Moscow, Tel Aviv or Istanbul, which offer a service worthy of long-haul flights.