La Compagnie is the all business class airline offering flights between New York and France (they used to just fly to Paris, but are also now seasonally operating flights to Nice).
Up until now the airline has just used two Boeing 757-200s for their service, featuring angled seats in business class. In September 2017 the airline announced plans to refresh their fleet, as they ordered two A321neo aircraft.
As I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, the plan was for La Compagnie’s A321neo to enter service as of June 6, 2019. However, there’s some good news on that front — the A321neo has entered service earlier than that, and is currently operating its first transatlantic flight. This should delight some passengers.
So if you’ve avoided La Compagnie in the past because of their angled seats, you may want to consider them again.
La Compagnie’s A321neo business class
La Compagnie’s A321neos feature a total of 76 fully flat business class seats in a 2-2 configuration. La Compagnie selected B/E Aerospace Diamond seats, which are an efficient use of space thanks to the footwells being to the side of the seats in front, which allows them to fit in more seats.
La Compagnie’s A321neos supposedly feature high-speed Wi-Fi and 15.7″ touchscreen monitors at every seat.
This represents a massive improvement over their old business class product. While there are no doubt better business class seats out there, I do think this configuration strikes the perfect balance between offering a good product while also allowing the airline to offer a product efficient enough for the economics to work.
After all, La Compagnie’s business class fares are significantly lower than what you’ll otherwise find in the markets they operate.
Here’s a (rather odd) video showcasing the cabin:
La Compagnie’s A321neo routes
While the plan was for La Compagnie’s A321neo to enter service as of June 6, 2019, it’s actually operating its first transatlantic flight now. Here’s the tracker for La Compagnie’s A321neo, which has the registration code F-HBUZ. As you can see, the plane is currently over the Atlantic.
In summer and fall, La Compagnie typically operates twice-daily flights between Newark and Paris, while in winter they operate only one daily flight. As of now:
- All Newark to Nice flights are operated by 757-200s
- With the exception of June 2-4, one daily Newark to Paris flight is generally scheduled to be operated by the A321neo
While La Compagnie has two A321s on order, as of now the schedule just shows one of these planes. That’s to say that for the summer and fall I see one daily A321 and one daily 757, and then in winter there’s just one daily A321. The second A321neo is scheduled to join their fleet later this year.
La Compagnie’s business class fares
If you want to fly La Compagnie, they pretty consistently have great business class fares. The La Compagnie special deals page will show you their best values.
At the moment it seems like La Compagnie’s best deals are for one-way fares, especially those originating in Paris. You can fly one-way business class from Paris to Newark for just 600EUR.
Bottom line
While La Compagnie had some growing pains when they first launched operations, they’ve matured quite nicely. They’ve continued to offer exceptional value, and have developed quite a loyal following of people flying between New York and Paris.
The A321neo should take the airline to the next level, both in terms of operating costs, and in terms of the passenger experience. I’m happy to see that La Compagnie has put the A321neo into service earlier than expected.
I can’t wait to give La Compagnie another try on this plane, given that my experience on their 757 wasn’t amazing (in fairness this was back when they launched several years ago).
Does anyone have plans to fly La Compagnie’s new A321?
Fuming while wating for my La Compagnie flight out of of Orly to Newark, now 3 hours delayed with no indication when it will depart. I received an email message at midnight last night indicating the flight would be delayed because of weather in Paris. But only la compagnie is delayed. All other flights are arriving and departing on schedule.
I am going to miss my connection out of Newark and will never fly la...
Fuming while wating for my La Compagnie flight out of of Orly to Newark, now 3 hours delayed with no indication when it will depart. I received an email message at midnight last night indicating the flight would be delayed because of weather in Paris. But only la compagnie is delayed. All other flights are arriving and departing on schedule.
I am going to miss my connection out of Newark and will never fly la compagnie again. Do yourself a favor and avoid this airline.
Anthony, AA just re-introduced direct service to Dubrovnik (from Phila. only for now). Look into it if you're still planning.
I was onboard last night, the 321neo was awesome. The seats were extremely comfortable and well thought out. LaCompagnie excels in both the hard product and the soft product with the new plane, I was very impressed. For the fares that they have, it is an absolute steal. I highly recommend.
According to FlightStats, there were no cancellations of their EWR-ORY flights from March 15 through May 15 and 88% were on time. Average delay for those not on time was 40 minutes.
Saw the a321neo leave EWR last night. I’m generally wary of their reliability. Maybe when they’re mostly a321 I’ll revisit them for a quick weekend to Paris. For now, I’ll stick with AA or UA or Level.
Many thanks for the link to the tracker. Wasn't aware of that.
Ahh... The NCE flight is indeed spotty. It seems to go five times a week, and the days it doesn't fly change; that's where they are canning flights at the moment.
I’m scheduled on this flight this evening. I noticed the seat map changed to the 321neo two days ago. It looks like the 321 is flying this weekend, before changing back to the 757 for a couple days, then back to the 321 permanently.
La Compagnie operates to and from ORLY airport(South of Paris)which i much prefer to CDG (North of Paris) because its smaller but i read that they ll also fly direct from Newark to the French Riviera/Nice (with a 757) that's nice...
Anyway it is pretty easy when going to Europe to check the Easyjet France website as it has tons of French & European destinations from Orly or CDG.(100% Airbus fleet)
Rich - just took them a few days ago. The flight attendants wear shorts - it’s actually very endearing and unique.
Downsides? They cancelled our flight (direct EWR-NCE) with one days’ notice, and only two options were leaving two days later or that night (5 hours notice) and we also had to connect through ORY to NCE on a easyjet flight. Seats were ok, food was fine, amenity kits were good. Would fly again if they got more reliable.
Does anyone have any data on their cancellation rates? Every time B0/DJT gets mentioned, the same people complain about their random cancellations. But when I pull up the last two weeks of flights, I don't see any. Data or it don't count.
Of course, I wouldn't expect IRROPS with them to be any fun.
A few questions:
1. Do FAs actually wear shorts like the video?
2. Is the WiFi actually useable?
3. How many pilots would an airline of this size have? Are they full time employees of the airline?
I’d love to fly with this airline but eventually they serve four cities which makes the choice almost inexistant. Their prices for such a product is stunning to say the least. But what’s the use of it if it serves only France, Monaco and a single destination in the US?
@ margo h: compensation in Europe is regulated. the airline does not need to offer it; they are forced to do so. You just have to complain in writing, using their website, about the delay or cancellation.
I haven't avoided La Compagnie because of their angled-seats but because their present planes are FILTHY. Come to think of it, the only planes more worn-out were the (also) 757s of Openskies which thankfully are gone.
I am willing to give them a chance with the new A321s, but they are no match for one-way or RT Business Class fares on TAP via Lisbon. (but no such flights OW or RT originating in the US).
I hope this is successful so the legacy carriers are forced to start offering my lie flat seats!!
Easyjet fly (to different destinations) from both ORY and CDG.
Similarly MXP and LIN.
And TXL and SXF.
We leave on the 9th of June...then fly to England. We have flown once before on La Compagnie, and all went well. We booked about 6 months ago, so I am not sure we have drawn the luck of the draw with getting the new plane...hope so. But we actually had a good experience on our last trip, so I am keeping my fingers crossed!
Booked summer trip to Europe a few weeks ago, and made sure to choose the legs operated by the A321neo. Fingers crossed no cancellation in sight (and no usual strike of French air traffic controllers, either). ;)
Yeah, might have good to mention they fly out of Orly and not CDG...
Going to Paris ORY (La Compagnie does NOT go to CDG, so transferring there to EasyJet is probably not a good idea) on La Compagnie on Tuesday, for one week. Have used them before, without problems. Knocking on wood that all goes well, because in all the other ways it is so much less stressful than UA!
Me and my bf will fly the A321 from EWR to ORY in August, then take a cheap-ish flight to Dubrovnik the next day for a relaxing vacation in Hvar for my birthday (and then return to Paris at the end of the trip for some much needed shopping). There aren’t any (efficient and well priced) options for travel from NYC to Croatia, let alone any with a good business class product, so I’m hoping...
Me and my bf will fly the A321 from EWR to ORY in August, then take a cheap-ish flight to Dubrovnik the next day for a relaxing vacation in Hvar for my birthday (and then return to Paris at the end of the trip for some much needed shopping). There aren’t any (efficient and well priced) options for travel from NYC to Croatia, let alone any with a good business class product, so I’m hoping this creative routing works out well. If it does then La Compagnie may be the best kept secret for getting from NYC to Europe in a lie-flat without breaking the bank in high season.
I’ll report back. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
La Compagnie has gotten so unreliable. We had our flights cancelled a few hours before, with no offer of compensation -- and not even an apology. Apparently, if you look in the forums, it happens all the time. The customer service is awful.
I loved the concept of LC, and I used to love other options like Silverjet. But La Compagnie is atrocious.
TK717 from Delhi to Istanbul had to make an emergency landing today in Tehran. Apparently a passenger had a medical emergence. Unfortunately the passenger died shortly before descent :(.
I wonder if the passenger could have been saved if the plane didnt have to make large delays both incoming and outgoing due to closure of pakistani airspace.
http://m.airporthaber.com/havacilik-haberleri/thy-ucaginda-uzucu-olay-75915.html
@ Qofmiwok
It may be possible to self-connect with eaysyjet at CDG.
Try to check the eaysyjet website for that.
How do you connect from other cities? Do they have partners?
Booked during their Valentine’s Day sale for travel this July. Will report back after my trip!
Not related to this article, but possibly an even better premium cabin airfare deal - via Google Flights, for some reason, I am consistently seeing one-way business class flights from Lisbon to Sao Paulo via Madrid on LATAM and Iberia for $600 one way. I am not sure if this is a mistake fare or what, but it certainly is an amazing deal for a 10-hour flight in business class!
Planning to review them again?
La Compagnie is getting worse and worse with cancelling flights and not meeting their commitments. It's absolutely absurd that you are basically rolling the dice when you buy a ticket as to whether you'll get to the destination.
Although I love this type of flight, I've had it with them. It's time to let this company go bankrupt.