Flying from Bristol Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle - KLM,Air France or Easyjet?
If you are flying out of Bristol you have three choices to take you between Bristol airport and Paris - KLM, Air France and Easyjet.
Which is best KLM, Air France or Easyjet?
Air France - The Air France flight, which has recently been reinstated, flies direct to Paris CDG in about an hour and twenty minutes. When you book just a few days before it can be very expensive - up to five hundred pounds. If you book a few weeks before it can be as low as 120 - 150 pounds. The flights from Bristol leave at 06:30, 10:40 and 17:45. So can be handy if you need to catch a flight after work. The same flights comes back from Paris daily at 09:35, 14:00 and 20:40.
The aircraft they use, I’ll find out the exact details in a later post, is quite a ramshackle looking thing. The first few flights it didn’t even have an Air France logo just the logo of Linnair a Hungarian carrier. The leg room isn’t noticably spacious but for one hour it is fine. They serve a simple snack, salted crackers, and a drinks service.
Annoyingly you have to take a bus to the plane as it is parked outwith walking distance over the tarmac. Air France are part of Flying Blue so you get lounge access with a business ticket or a gold Flying Blue card and air miles
KLM - You can also fly with KLM but the flights will be indirect via Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. This can often be a lot cheaper than the Air France flight. I often book just a few days before and have to take the KLM flight because it so much cheaper than the direct Air France one. Even a few days before you can often pay less than 200 pounds for the indirect KLM flight.
The flights leaves from Bristol to Paris CDG at 10:55 and 17:45 returning at 6:40, 9:00, 9:40. The total flight time for the two flights is about 4 hours. Obviously it is much better to take a direct flight because this can eat up a whole morning or evening.. but you do save money.
The flight itself includes a simple snack (sweet or salt) and a drinks service. There is a bus to the aircraft which adds to the inconvenience of the journey.
KLM are part of Flying Blue so with a business class ticket or gold card you can access the ServisAir lounge. You also get air miles on Flying blue.
Easyjet - Easyjet have only recently starting flying this route and it has pleasantly suprised me. The flights don’t seem to leave at set times on set days. Week days there seem to be flights from Bristol to Paris at 07:05 and 18:35. At weekends they seem to be in the afternoon. Coming back they have flight at 09:55 and 21:25. Flights vary in cost between 35 pounds, booked a month or in advance plus taxes, and 170 pounds.
Obviously you don’t get lounge access at Bristol and there are generally long queues to check in at the Easyjet desk (check in online to avoid this). At Paris CDG the easyjet flight leaves from terminal 3 which is kind of bare and functional again with no lounge access. The flight does not use a bus to get to or from the aircraft. You can just walk to it. This is a really small but meaningful advantage to me. I think this saves about ten minutes and just removes a little but of discomfort from the journey. There is no drinks service on the flight, all the seats are three abreast without noticably spacious legroom.
LivingBristol.co.uk recommend Easyjet
Overall, I’d recommend Easyjet. For the short flight it is fine with no real discomfort, check in online to skip queues and enjoy the lower prices and ability to walk directly to the aircraft.