After a long flight, even if you scored an upgrade, your body can feel crammed into a carry-on all night. Stretching helps, but you may still have droopy eyes, dehydrated skin and ruffled hair. Not ideal, especially with a long layover ahead and an important meeting at your destination with a CEO who might buy your company. You’ll want to look and feel your best.
Foggy-brained, before the plane descends into Paris you ask the Air France flight attendant for an espresso and savor it slowly. Then you make a plan: during your long layover you won’t work — you’ll focus on self-care and treat yourself to a spa session. You hurry off the plane toward the nearest Air France business-class lounge at Charles de Gaulle, aiming for the one closest to your next gate. In Terminal 2F’s Schengen departure hall you find a modern, two-level lounge with a Curved staircase and one of four Clarins spas offered across Air France’s business-class lounges. The collaboration between Air France and Clarins provides complimentary treatments for business-class travelers — a lifesaver for jet-lagged frequent flyers.
© Clarins Spa
Inside the lounge you relax in the chic surroundings. The 2F lounge feels contemporary and welcoming, like a popular restaurant where tables are booked well in advance. Knowing the Clarins Spa appointments fill quickly, you ask your travel partner to watch your bags while you check availability. Sometimes you’re lucky and can walk in for a treatment, but not today — so you add your name to the waiting list. On the way back to your seat you stop at the lounge’s DeTox area, where healthy snacks, teas, infused waters and fresh juices are laid out. With an hour before your appointment, you explore other wellness features of the lounge, including ten shower suites — transformative after an overnight flight — and, at some Air France lounges at CDG, gender-separated saunas. The Terminal 2F shower suites even include Dyson hairdryers. Refreshed and with salon-ready hair, you treat yourself to a fresh croissant from the buffet and, naturally, a flute of Laurent Perrier Champagne, a lounge staple.
At last it’s your turn. While your partner naps in a private relaxation pod, you check in at the Clarins Spa reception. A knowledgeable attendant guides you to a calm treatment area where an experienced aesthetician assesses your skin. Clarins and Air France have developed three short, traveler-focused facials tailored to business-class passengers.
These complimentary treatments, lasting 15–20 minutes, use Clarins’ plant-based products and hands-on techniques. Options include Jet Lag Relief, Detox Time and Eye-Must. Designed for both men and women, the facials aim to promote relaxation, ease tension, stimulate circulation and refresh the skin. (In the La Première lounge at Terminal 2E, Air France’s first-class space, guests can choose longer services by Sisley, including body treatments and facials ranging from 30 to 90 minutes.)
© Clarins Spa
Clarins, a family-run, carbon-neutral French cosmetics company founded in Paris in 1954, has been pampering Air France business-class guests for nearly two decades. To support travelers at every stage of their journey, Air France offers free access to Clarins spas in its lounges at Paris-Charles de Gaulle (terminals 2E — halls K, L and M — and 2F) and at New York’s JFK. Treatments are typically available daily except Wednesdays, from early morning until evening. Onboard, business-class passengers receive Clarins comfort kits with travel-sized products such as Hydra-Essentiel Cooling Gel and Hand and Nail Treatment Cream. Business-class restrooms offer Eau Dynamisante spray — an energizing aromatherapy mist — and the Clarins Soothing Toning Treatment is available to refresh skin before landing.
An unexpected and much-appreciated perk for business-class travelers, the complimentary Clarins Spa treatments can turn a hectic travel day into a restorative self-care pause — almost worth the ticket price for the benefit alone.