My 2023 trip began on January 6, 2023. Mom and I left the house around 6:15pm and headed to Detroit Metro Airport. Check-in was a breeze. Passengers flying Air France can check in at the standard Delta check-in counters, or at the designated Air France check-in counters, and there was no line at the latter (for Sky Priority or for general passengers). Note that the Air France counter was also staffed by Delta employees. The woman asked multiple times if I wanted to check any bags, perhaps she thinks my bag may be too large...

Security was also a breeze thanks to TSA PreCheck. The TSA officer even wished me a happy birthday! I descended into the concourse and headed up to the Delta Sky Club to grab a bite to eat and a drink. SkyTeam Elite Plus passengers flying on an international flight operated by Air France get free access to the Sky Club, and this is set to continue after February 1, 2023, when Delta's passengers will cease to receive said access if flying on a Delta-operated flight.

The food was pretty good: cornbread, roasted broccoli, mac 'n cheese, and barbecue chicken were on offer. I also took an opportunity to print out a couple of documents I forgot to print at home, but one document I tried to print had a strange error that caused the printer to start spewing out dozens of pages. I tried to stop it and accidentally caused a paper jam 😬. Luckily I was able to get someone to help me un-jam the printer.

Around 8:20pm I walked to the gate. By the time I got there the flight was already boarding. I was in Zone 1 so I just walked right on. The flight, AF377, was on a Boeing 777-200, which Air France has equipped in a 3-4-3 configuration. At the last minute I switched my seat to 46A, all the way in the back of the plane, in the hopes that no one would end up seated next to me, and luckily this gamble paid off. Also, seat 46A is what Air France calls a "Duo Seat," which means that it is a window seat with no corresponding middle seat. One disadvantage of 46A is that it was slightly further away from the window due to the shape of the fuselage, so I was not able to lean against the window comfortably.

Shortly after take-off a meal was served. I opted for pasta, which was a simple penne with tomato sauce. I also drank a glass of Champagne and a little bit of white wine. Shortly after eating I fell asleep. I decided to try to lie down across two seats with my feat next to the windows, which was not very comfortable, but I was still able to sleep for almost 2 hours in this position, before sitting up and sleeping for a few more hours in this chair. About 90 minutes prior to landing, a snack was served consisting of a dinner roll and a very hard blueberry muffin. Finally we landed in Paris around 10:30am local time.