Boutique Business Class: Our Honest Review of La Compagnie from Newark to Paris
With E celebrating a milestone birthday we started looking at how to best celebrate -- without the twins -- about 9 months before her big day.
Traveling without the twins can create all kinds of emotions, fears and concerns. But fortunately, we each have willing grandmas to come and watch them for extended periods of time.
We looked to book our trip a few weeks after E’s big day -- so that the kids could be settled into school for the year and allow our parents to be able to have school as a relief valve for the 10 night trip.
E loves the beach -- so she chose a trip to southern Italy -- Amalfi coast and Sicily. We booked for 10 nights -- enough to almost feel like two weeks, but also only one weekend away to make it easier on E’s mom who was coming to watch the twins. We also wanted to be near major airports so we can could easily get home if something unexpected occurred back home.
Booking
Now getting to southern Italy is not easy from Nashville. Sadly, there was just one transatlantic flight to London Heathrow from BNA on British Airways -- though more transatlantic flights have come since with IcelandAir and Air Lingus adding service recently. Taking BA from BNA would require a connection on the other side of the pond. I always find it best to connect stateside to avoid a long day of travel and jet lag on a redeye. So the BA option isn’t one we wanted to pursue.
We started looking at options other than starting from Nashville. On our previous Euro trips from Nashville, we have found it easier to reposition before crossing the pond. Often JFK and Newark in the New York region have the most choices and cheapest prices. We will then find a cheap flight to get to New York from Nashville and pick up the transatlantic flight.
But also since this was a milestone birthday, we also wanted to explore business class lie flat options across the pond.
We started looking at options about 9 months prior to departure -- and I was looking to redeem a significant number of Chase Sapphire Reserve points I had accumulated.
I found a few decent options on Delta (around $3,500 each RT) but the times were not ideal. It was either a very late redeye -- getting us to Europe later in the day. Or it was Delta’s CDG day flight that would get us into Europe late in the evening with limited time to reposition from Nashville that morning.
As I was searching, I found some discounted business class fares on an airline I hadn’t been familiar with -- La Compagnie.
La Compagnie is a small airline -- they own just three planes -- that is entirely business class. 76 seats total. They fly Airbus A321neos in a 2x2 lie flat configuration. They fly to Paris Orly, Milan and Nice from Newark.
For the dates we were looking at in September, it was cheapest to fly to Paris, a few days after the Paralympics ended and gave us a good excuse to spend a night each way in the city of light. We were able to lock in RT flights for ~$2400 each -- and I booked through the Chase Travel Portal to use those accumulated points at a 1.5 cent value per point.
Getting to Newark
Since we booked ~9 months in advance, I kept an eye out on options to EWR from BNA. BNA has direct flights on United to EWR. I would search every week or so to find affordable options, and was able to find first class seats for $199 each.
The United flight left BNA at 6am, arriving in Newark a little after 9am, giving us about 10 hours to kill before our flight to Paris on La Compagnie at 7pm.
I bought a United Club pass as United lets you use the lounge after arrival. So we parked at the United Club at A27 for a long time before the lounge for La Compagnie opened around 5pm. It is important to note that these day passes are often not honored if the lounge is at capacity. Luckily, we landed early before the rush and were able to get in without an issue.
The United Club was fine. We saw both breakfast and lunch in the lounge. And we enjoyed some wine and beers. Nothing spectacular but was a good spot to get some work done. And we even saw our La Compagnie plane parked on the tarmac while we waited.
Around 4:30 we decided to leave the A gates to head over to La Compagnie at gate 55. Sadly, this meant we had to leave security as we took a bus to the C gates but the drop off was in different gate areas which required us to leave the secured area and reenter it to access the gate for La Compagnie.
Check in
Since La Compagnie is a small airline, it does not have an app. But it does let you check-in online. Online check-in was straight forward and I received mobile boarding passes. La Compagnie does participate in TSA Pre, so I did not have access to TSA Pre when going through security.
Also, when we arrived at security, we were told that our mobile boarding passes were invalid, and needed to go to the check-in desk. There was a line at La Compagnie check-in desk when we arrived, but it moved quickly. We probably waited 10-15 minutes for an agent who checked our passports and issued us printed boarding passes. Not a huge inconvenience but not ideal since we didn’t have any bags to check. La Compagnie could make it clearer that a desk check-in may be required for mobile boarding passes.
Lounge - EWR
We arrived at the La Compagnie lounge about 2 hours prior to departure. The lounge was only a short walk from the gate and there was a British Airways lounge next door to the La Compagnie lounge, which is called “Lounge & Co” with the “Co” to signify La Compagnie.
This is a unique lounge in that it is only for La Compagnie passengers. So it is only open for a few hours. It is a little different than other international carrier lounges who are open throughout the day and participate in the Priority Pass network.
This lounge used to be the Virgin Atlantic lounge and you can see those influences in the color palate on the walls and in the bathrooms. Think reds, grays, and blacks.
With that said, this was a very very very sad lounge. There was no music on when you arrived. Just a room with tables. Wifi was not working either. There were no windows. Just a walled in room, with little atmosphere or ambiance.
There was a single bartender behind the bar, with waitstaff to take your food order. We received laminated menus as the food is a la carte versus buffet. A nice idea to not have a buffet, but the waitstaff could not take drink orders and you needed to walk to the bar. There were limited self serve options -- some fruit and chips was all that I found.
The bartender moved quickly, though a line would regularly form.
The food was okay. Nothing exceptional and not what you would expect from a business class experience. Especially a french airline that focuses on its on board catering as a differentiator. I got the burger and the wedge fries were the best part. E got a pedestrian greek salad.
The stand alone lounge is unique to La Compagnie. They used to offer food vouchers in the concourse prior to taking ownership of this lounge. And honestly, that might have been better -- though the food option in this part of the C terminal was limited to an Irish Pub.
If La Compagnie wants to promote itself as “smart business class” it needs a smarter lounge. It needs better catering and a more inviting experience upon arrival. This was a miss for this trip.
Boarding
Boarding was fast with just 76 passengers.
Since La Compagnie has just 76 seats on board, boarding was easy. There was not a rush to the gate or gate lice waiting to board. They began boarding on time -- 30 minutes prior to departure and we were quickling on the plane.
We got situated in our seats and went through our amenity kit. Complete with the usuals. Eye mask, some unique socks, a shoe bag, lotion, toothbrush and toothpaste. My favorite part is the bag that shows icons for France and New York given the routes they fly. The twins loved these as a gift when we got home as well!
We were offered a pre-departure beverage of champagne or orange juice, which was nice, though the size of the glassware was the same for pre-departure and once in flight which was a bit small. Given there were 76 seats, the flight attendant had a tray to bring these pre-departure beverages on board.
Seat
The plane is a 2x2 configuration, so it is ideal if you are with a travel companion. Otherwise, you may have to climb over a stranger to get to the aisle. It is doable as E climbed over me while I was in lie-flat mode. There is a nice gap between the two seats to make that possible.
The seat was not as wide as other business class seats I have flown -- it was 19 inches wide, but even for me at 6’2, it got the job done. Given the limited width, it was a little challenging to shift sides while lying flat.
I wish there was a mattress pad or something on the seat as it was very firm. The duvet was all the extra padding provided that was feasible on this configuration.
The seat controls were self explanatory, able to easily move from a seat, to a recliner to a lie flat by holding down the controls.
The footwell was a bit small for me, but I was able to make it work. No different than other lie flats I have flown on American, Air France and others. I have large feet so that makes it harder to squeeze in. There was a nice area for shoes at the bottom of each seat on the left which helped. And the socks the amenity kid were put to use.
Each seat came with a full sized pillow and comfy duvet which made for a comfortable ride while lying flat. I was able to sleep for a few hours -- which was solid for me as I usually struggle to fly on planes, even when lying flat.
In-Flight Entertainment
First, the safety video was quite the production for a small carrier like La Compagnie. Lots of actors. Featuring relaxing music and yoga to get you ready for flight.
There was a decent amount of movies to choose from, though not as many as our United flight earlier in the day offered with their IFE. I counted about 90 films available -- with a mix of American and French films available. There were some new releases and plenty of classics.
Noise canceling headphones were provided and they were decent enough that I didn’t pull out the Bose headphones to connect to the IFE.
Wifi is included, and it was easy to connect. There is a QR code on your IFE screen that gets you to the wifi in no time. It was a pretty decent connection. I was able to stream Monday Night Football on my phone until we left U.S. airspace. I was also able to catch up on some work.
Service
Again, with 76 seats, service was prompt but also limited compared to other long haul business class flights I have flown. There were just 4 flight attendants serving 76 people. And while this was okay, the service was not as frequent as other flights I have been on.
This is because there are more people to serve per flight attendant than other legacy carriers. The flight attendants also used a beverage and meal cart to serve from given the number of people on board.
A warm towel was provided shortly after takeoff. I started with red wine once in the air and awaiting meal selection. You are unable to select a type of red or white that you want, simply one option while on board. In addition, while the menus are available online prior to departure, you are unable to make a selection until you are in flight.
Since it was a French carrier, the wine was good. And as I mentioned, the glassware is small on La Compagnie. So you only get about a 2 ounce poor in these narrow glasses. After my first glass, I was told they had run out of red wine -- this should be illegal on a French carrier. So I shifted over to white wine. I’d recommend that for the sake of passengers and the crew, that larger glassware be used. It will result in fewer refill requests from passengers. A win win for passenger and crew.
On both our outbound and return flight, after service the flight attendants did not set up an area in the galley where passengers could grab a refill or a snack. Most business class flights I have been on -- and even some long haul economy flights -- have offered this to passengers.
Food
Given this is a french carrier, the food was excellent. Shortly after takeoff, we were offered a choice of dinner and I got the tuna. It was delicious and came with a cheese plate and light desert.
La Compagnie offers a lighter dinner on its east bound flights given many are ready to get to sleep to be rested upon arrival.
About 90 minutes before arrival, the crew came through with a light breakfast as well.
Arrival
We left on time and must have had a decent headwind as the in air time was only 6:30. Thus we arrived about 45 minutes early.
Arrival was easy at Orly. La Compagnie had a representative at passport control shuttling passengers to a priority line which made getting through a breeze. From the walk from the plane to the cab was probably only 10 minutes as we didn’t check bags.
Was it worth it?
The seat was comfortable. The flight was on time. The complimentary wifi was fast. And the price was certainly right. I would consider flying La Compagnie again with that in mind -- primarily due to the cost savings compared to legacy carriers for business class.
With that said, there is work to be done with the lounge and the glassware needs to be bigger.
La Compagnie recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary, and judging by our largely full flight, hopefully this unique business only flight concept continues. It provides a great option to cross the pond.
4 out of 5 stars.
