La Compagnie is the all business class transatlantic airline that started flying in mid-2014. Their first route was between Paris and Newark, and I was able to review that flight within days of when they launched operations. For a while the airline also flew between Newark and London, though they ended up canceling that route.…
Continue reading: La Compagnie Orders Two Airbus A321neos
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Hi lucky, im new here i dont know where to contact you, so i decided to leave a comment since i know you reply often.
Im a young reader of yours heading into high-school next year. Me and my uncle both love aviations and flew Cathay Pacific from JFK-YVR in april. He taught how to search up for reward flights. So last week i was on Alaska Airlines website, because they are known to release great mileage for JAl first class from JFK-NRT. i might be crazy, but i sware i was able to find a first class seat on JAL #3 for only $1,430, assuming your buying the miles. They have a great deal for 35%,40%, or 50% more miles through October 5. I just thought this was a great deal, including that they released 2 seats for select dates. i just wanted to put that out in the air (pun not intended). Again im a new to this, so this might not be new info. Thanks for your time anyway 🙂
Wow! This is a surprise. I too did not think they were doing well financially. A true lie-flat seat would be a big help. A 757 is not a time machine to the '80s; their current product is all premium ecconomy not really all business class. How good a premium economy product it is would be a matter of opinion, but on a trans-Atlantic flight no one should call anything shy of lie-flat a business class product (even though it looks like Air Canada wants to do that with the 737 MAX 8).
Having a single cabin with far fewer seats already allows for a quieter environment than a typical 757.
I'd love to see what kind of seats they're planning to use and what level of density this will entail.
I've said that before, La Compagnie needs to fly from Paris to Miami/Fort Lauderdale, this is a profitable route and prices for business class seats much higher than NYC/Paris .
I find the Paris-NYC market fascinating.
You've got the usual suspects of AF, DL, UA, AA.
But then you also have BA's subsidiary OpenSkies (which I think only flies ORY-NYC?), La Compagnie (business class only), Norwegian, and XL Airways (which I don't know much about).
@FabinhoBP - I doubt either plane would be able to cover that distance though.
@Quest: "their current product is all premium ecconomy not really all business class."
Compared to the best premium economy I've flown (Turkish Airlines), La Compagnie's product is far better. The seat reclines much farther, is much wider, and is far more comfortable. (The seats are similar to what used to be standard business class, e.g. United's recliner seats back in the 90s and early 2000s - which in some ways are more comfortable than many lie-flat seats, particlarly when "lounging" as opposed to sleeping because the seat could be adjusted exactly the way you wanted it.) La Compagnie's food is slightly better. And passengers get lounge access - although the lounges are kind of crummy, it's better than no lounge access at all.
For the price I paid, I thought La Compagnie was a very good deal. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to fly them again at that price point (~$1600 RT). I'm really glad to hear that they're ordering new aircraft, as it indicates that they're doing well enough financially to get a loan to buy them.
@MACH81: Yes, the claimed range of the A321neo is 4000 nm, which would put CDG-MIA at the very outside edge of its range. (757-200 range is a little less, 3850 nm.)
It's likely LaCo will be able to get substantially more than 4,000 miles range from their 321 NEOs; they haven't released the seat count or type, but with for example 64 Thompson Vantage XL seats in a 1 - 1 config, they will be carrying 8 - 10 tons less pax & baggage weight than a ~180 seat 321 configured with J & Y class, even allowing for the increased weight of all biz seating. They also haven't said if this is the LR version, but I'm gathering not? - Lucky, any further details on seat count & type, & which variant?
I am very surprised that they lasted this long.
I am glad to see their future plans and hope it all works out well for them.
Not really that surprising, they got very lucky and started the airline just as the price of oil went down.
Probably meant that their startup funding lasted a lot longer than what they had planned.