New Air France La Premiere First Class Coming Soon: Some Hints

In mid-2022, Air France formally announced plans to introduce a new first class product. Details were fairly limited at the time, though it’s no doubt one of the most exciting first class products on the horizon.

As is the case with so many new airline products, Air France has experienced delays with rolling this out, in part due to supply chain issues. However, the airline will be unveiling this product in March 2025. Thanks to some new clues (intentional and unintentional), we also have reason to believe that this new experience may enter service sooner rather than later. Let’s talk about what we know so far.

What we know about Air France’s new first class

Air France is working on introducing an all-new first class product (known as “La Premiere”). The new first class experience will be unveiled in March 2025. As of several months back, Air France claimed the new first class would enter service in the 2024-2025 winter season, which would be by late March 2025. We’ll see if that timeline sticks, but it might not be too far off, as I’ll explain below.

What do we know about this new first class cabin?

• The new first class will be “the longest cabin” on the market, with each passenger having five windows
• The new first class seat will be fully private; we’ll see if that comes in the form of curtains (as Air France currently has) or a floor-to-ceiling wall
• The new first class seat will have a modular design with three entirely private living spaces, including a seat, a chaise lounge, and a flat bed
• The new first class seat will have two video screens, as well as a wireless tablet for controlling seat functions
• Air France will introduce first class on a greater number of aircraft, though we don’t know which; it could be that more 777-300ERs are reconfigured into a four-class layout, or it could be that some Airbus A350s get the cabin as well (possibly some of the A350-1000s that Air France has on order?)
• According to Air France CEO Anne Rigail, “we aim to position it as the best in the world”

Below are a couple of slides from a 2024 investor day presentation, mentioning the new product.

Furthermore, below is a slide from a 2022 investor day presentation, which contained an artistic rendering of the new La Premiere seat. My guess is that this was just a possible concept, and not necessarily the product that Air France will go with. Note that the timeline for the product has shifted since then, because at the time the plan was for it to be introduced in the 2023-2024 winter season.

Here’s another interesting point. Up until recently, I’ve been under the impression the cabin would go from having four seats to having three seats. That’s because the carrier’s investor day presentation indicated there would be a “new cabin with 3 modular and totally private suites.” To me that suggested there were three suites, separate from the fact that each suite has a modular design with three private living spaces.

However, as it increasingly looks like Air France is revealing which routes will get the new cabins (as I’ll cover in the next section), it seems likely that there are actually four seats, as is currently the case.

Air France first class is currently available on select Boeing 777-300ERs. The current first class product, which was introduced back in 2014, features curtains that offer full privacy. It’s a phenomenal cabin, and personally I rank Air France as having the third best first class experience in the air, and the best first class experience on the ground (and that experience recently got even better).

Air France’s new first class should enter service soon

We have reason to believe that Air France is not only unveiling its new first class product soon, but is also putting it into service soon. Why? Well, some eagle-eyed FlyerTalk members note how Air France is starting to not only restrict first class award space, but also offer fewer seats in the lower first class fare bucket, progressively and on select routes.

Specificially:

• As of April 2025, there are no longer first class awards on select CDG-JFK frequencies, AF3/4 and AF5/6
• As of June 2025, there are no longer first class awards on select CDG-LAX frequencies, AF22/23
• As of July 2025, there are no longer first class award seats on the CDG-SIN route, AF256/257

While Air France restricts first class award seats to Flying Blue Platinum members, at least there have historically consistently been first class award seats (though at very high redemption rates). So it sure seems to me like this blocking is largely intended to reflect the routes on which the new first class is planned.

It would make sense that New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore, would be the first destinations to get the new product. And the timeline also makes sense, and would reflect the airline essentially reconfiguring one jet per month.

It’s possible this is some strange coincidence, but that seems unlikely, as it otherwise tracks. It’s worth noting that even on these flights, there continue to be up to four first class seats for sale, which is why I believe the cabin will have four seats.

It’s disappointing if Air France chooses to restrict first class award seats on these flights, though I also can’t say I’m surprised, given how the airline chooses to position this product.

That brings me to another question — if Air France introduces its new first class in the coming months, presumably the first plane will be reconfigured pretty soon. Does anyone know where this work will be done, or where Air France historically reconfigures the interiors of its jets?

Among the four-class 777-300ERs, two are currently not in service. The plane with the registration code F-GSQF was flown to Frankfurt Hahn (HHN) on January 22, 2025, while the plane with the registration code F-GSQC was flown to Paris Orly (ORY) on January 26, 2025.

In terms of timing, it would make sense if one of these is the first planes to be reconfigured, since I could see it taking about two months to reconfigure the first jet, as it takes a bit more effort. I would assume it’s more likely that this work takes place in France, but who knows?

My initial take on Air France’s new first class

Air France simply does an amazing job with its first class experience, and I’m thrilled to see that the airline has recently even further improved the ground experience, and will now elevate the inflight experience. We’ve been waiting quite some time for the details, so I’m looking forward to the big reveal, and hopefully the imminent introduction of the product.

We now have reason to believe that there will be four seats rather than three seats in the new first class, which makes me wonder how exactly this product will be. I’m expecting Air France’s new first class to be absolutely amazing, though in a 1-2-1 configuration, that seems a bit challenging.

Nowadays the cutting edge products seem to all be in a 1-1-1 configuration. This is really a trend that was kicked off with Emirates’ new 777 first class, and it’s now something we’re seeing with Japan Airlines’ new A350 first class. Yes, Cathay Pacific’s 777s also have three seats per row, but that’s because they’re angled, so it’s partially a space saving technique.

While Lufthansa’s new A350 first class also has three seats per row, that’s because the airline has (a really poorly thought out) double suite in the center of the cabin, so it really has the capacity for up to four guests.

So I’m curious, will Air France be able to introduce something amazing if there are four seats in one row, or does the airline have some super innovative trick that I’m missing?

I’m happy to see that Air France has plans to not only reconfigure its existing Boeing 777s, but also introduce first class on more aircraft. I’m curious to learn the details of that, and just how many additional planes will get first class.

All that being said, I’m disappointed that Air France appears to have plans to block first class award redemptions with the new product. I mean, the airline restricts these redemptions to top elites, and charges 300K+ miles one-way in many markets, so you’d think the airline could make some seats available. Oh well. I guess we can hope it’s just a temporary measure?

Bottom line

Air France’s new La Premiere first class should be unveiled in March 2025. While it hasn’t been officially confirmed, it also seems likely that the product will actually enter service not long after that, based on how inventory has been updated on these flights.

I can’t wait to learn more details, including what the product will be like, and which aircraft it will be expanded to.

What do you make of Air France’s first class plans?