Again I was flying on my own as the family I was in paris with had booked themselves on to BA (I was only on AF as they were cheaper when I booked) so I left the hotel at disneyland at 16:10 on the VEA shuttle back to CDG which conveniently for me drops all of its passengers between terminals 2E and 2F (I was flying from 2E)
Hoping that this fight would be better than my outbound I proceeded to check in and to drop my bag to place in the hold.
I was seen quickly at the check-in desk by a man who checked me in (but didnt ask if I had packed my bag myself
) in what must have been record time. 
Security at CDG was slow to say the least. First you go through passport control (and see a man I a glass box who again didn’t speak
) and then the usual scanners after waiting for a Que. Of people ahead undress and sort their bags and then wait at the other end for your bag to emerge from the scanner as there is a backlog of people getting dressed at the belt (really annoying )And through to the spacious terminal 2E which like LHR's T5 has glass walls looking out to the runway.
(see picture looking from gate 42 towards the centre)
Boarding was delayed for 15 mins as the aircraft was late in to CDG and was managed a lot better than the outbound at LHR with a proper Que. System in use
As my boarding pass was scanned at the gate I was wished a pleasant flight by name
(I do have a flying blue number but only the bottom level) through this check passports were checked by a security agent half way down to the air bridge I was here again wished a good flight by name As I was halfway down the glass air bridge to the A320 there was a Que. Of pax who were stopped from boarding by the first officer as there was a technical problem (apparently) being fixed before they would let anyone onboard.
This flight was slowly boarded and then taxied out to the end of the runway where we were held by London air traffic control due to heavy traffic over London.
After we were airborne the crew started the inflight service which again was a little slow.
During the flight there was a little bit of turbulence over the channel but nothing too bad
After 2 laps of croydon we were descending in to LHR over central london.
We landed and taxied to our gate and arrived in to passport control to a Que. Similar to that reported on the bbc news from terminal 5 link to article
The electronic gates were moving quickly (mainly thanks to all the pax from mumbai being removed from the Que.) but again my passport (which does have a chip) did not work so I was quickly seen by a person at a desk who had to type my details in manually.
As a summary this flight was a lot better than the outbound with a crew who all got along and did all they could including a captain who regularly updated everyone with our progress from the delay in boarding to approaching LHR. So a good flight from AF as an alternative to BA.
Chris H
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