Air Côte d’Ivoire First Class: The World’s Most Mysterious Airline Cabin?

Forgive me, please, but I’m back on the “I need to fly Air Côte d’Ivoire first class” train. Let me explain why, and then I’m curious if anyone has any ideas…

Air Côte d’Ivoire offers first class from Abidjan to Paris

For a bit of background, Air Côte d’Ivoire is the national airline of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. The carrier’s wide body fleet consists of two Airbus A330-900neo aircraft, which fly between Abidjan (ABJ) and Paris (CDG).

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These planes are in a super premium four cabin configuration, with just 242 seats. This includes four first class seats, 44 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 173 economy seats.

As I noted when the airline took delivery of the plane, in terms of quality, first class looks more like a “business class plus.” That’s because there’s not even a curtain between first class and business class (then again, the same is true on Starlux, and that doesn’t stop the airline).

Heck, if you check out the carrier’s 3D tour of the A330-900neo cabin and look at the front row of seats, you’ll see them described as “BC+ Suite,” which sure sounds to me like “business class plus suite,” perhaps a real reflection of the quality of the product.

Anyway, Air Côte d’Ivoire is the first airline in years to introduce an international first class product, and that certainly intrigues me. What interests me even more is that even though this product has been in service for nearly a year, there’s almost nothing about it online.

The airline has a webpage about its “La First” first class product, and it contains very little information about what actually sets it apart from business class (other than a very high carry-on allowance), despite the huge price premium.

It’s possible I’m missing something, but I don’t think I’ve seen a single report online from anyone who has flown the product. And I’m not just talking about “reviewers,” but also just a random person who flew the product posting a few pictures of their experience on social media. Well, I’m excluding the below video published by the airline, with a politician flying in first class…

What’s the actual experience like? Is there a special first class ground experience? Is the inflight service actually hugely elevated? Is there better champagne and caviar, or is this (as a certain drama king would say) “a scam?”

What’s the best way to fly Air Côte d’Ivoire first class?

In late 2025, I had a couple of extra days in Paris, and I posed the question of whether I should spend a fortune flying Air Côte d’Ivoire, with one direction in first class and one direction in business class. I ultimately decided against the side trip, since it just didn’t seem like it was worth the money.

I’ve had a change of heart in the meantime, and that’s because I’m a bit of a completionist. I’ve reviewed nearly every first class product in the world, with the exception of the cabins on Starlux Airlines and Air Côte d’Ivoire.

While both have been on my radar, there has been no practical way to actually fly them, short of paying a very expensive cash fare. Fortunately in the case of Starlux, that recently changed, as the carrier’s loyalty program has started selling points, so that’s a way to fly first class for roughly half of the retail cost (assuming there are no further sales).

So I plan to fly Starlux imminently, and that leaves just one first class product in the world that I haven’t reviewed. Even if it costs me a pretty penny, at this point I feel like I should just rip the band-aid off and do it. It would make me (to my knowledge) the first person to fly every first class product in the world… or at least to document it, and that would be pretty cool.

But still, I want to get as good of a deal as possible, so I’m trying to figure out the best way to do that.

However, I’m finding that Air Côte d’Ivoire has unusually straightforward pricing, in the sense that there aren’t many opportunities to position to another city to get a better deal. Pricing is pretty similar whether originating in Paris or Abidjan, and roundtrip fares are more affordable than one-ways.

Often there’s an opportunity to book one direction in first class or business class and one direction in economy (so that you can just throw away the return), but that’s not even an option here, at least not in a way that’s useful. If you select a first class or business class fare on the outbound, the cheapest economy fare can no longer be paired with that, and you end up having to pay an economy fare that’s close to the business class fare.

The premium for first class over business class on Air Côte d’Ivoire is also huge, despite it being questionable how much better it actually is.

For example, if you’re originating in Paris and are flying to Abidjan roundtrip, you’ll find the fares below

However, if you select first class on the outbound, you can’t simply mix & match fares, as the business class fare suddenly becomes more expensive. So you’re looking at over €7,000 for a roundtrip first class ticket, or over €6,000 for one way in first class and one way in business class. Ouch.

If you reverse the trip and originate in Abidjan, you’ll find virtually identical fares. Meanwhile if you fly one-way from Paris to Abidjan, you’ll find fares of over €6,000 in first class.

Meanwhile if you originate in Dakar and fly to Paris, you’re still looking at a fare of over €5,600.

With the complexity of airline pricing, I have to imagine that there’s some trick that I’m missing here. But maybe not, given how small the carrier’s network is?

Has anyone found any good fares that include a segment in Air Côte d’Ivoire first class? Are travel agents somehow able to ticket first class in one direction and economy in the other direction, while combining lower fare classes? Alternatively, does anyone know if the airline offers paid upgrades from business class to first class at check-in? Or is there some other creative option I’m missing?

One thing is for sure — first class demand certainly isn’t robust. Looking at flights from Abidjan to Paris on Air Côte d’Ivoire, below are the dates where all four first class seats are still for sale. As you can see, over the course of two months, there are a total of five days where a single seat has been sold (or at least blocked… who knows whether it’s being paid for, or just blocked for government officials, or whatever).

Bottom line

Air Côte d’Ivoire has now been flying to Paris for nearly a year, using its new Airbus A330-900neos. The planes feature four first class seats, making this the first airline in many years to introduce an international first class product.

I’m very close to having flown every first class product in the world, and in the coming weeks, this will be the only first class I haven’t flown. Therefore in the interest of being a completionist, I’m determined to fly this product, even if it costs me, since I think it would be pretty cool to be one of the only people out there to have flown every first class in the world.

For that matter, I’m utterly intrigued by the existence of this product, given the lack of firsthand experiences. Airline products don’t get much more mysterious than this.

What do you make of Air Côte d’Ivoire first class? Any tricks I’m missing, or reviews that have been published that I missed?