Last month, Simple Flying flew roundtrip from Los Angeles to Paris at the invitation of French bee, a French a-la-carte airline. Founded in 2016, French bee is France’s first long-haul low-cost airline and operates a fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft. The airline serves several destinations in the US, as well as Tahiti and Reunion Island.
For the outbound leg from Los Angeles International Airport, French bee booked us in Premium. On the return, we flew in Economy, and the full review can be read below.
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Flight Review: French bee Airbus A350-900 Economy Class From Paris-Orly To Los Angeles
At the airport
In typical fashion, I arrived at the airport 80 minutes before my flight. I cut it close whenever I fly in the US because I am a CLEAR member and have TSA PreCheck, and on this trip, I was flying only with a carry-on bag. Frenchbee only recently joined PreCheck, but for whatever reason, the PreCheck logo was not available on my boarding pass. By the time I arrived at the check-in desks, no staff were there, and I had to proceed to the regular checkpoint.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
Fortunately, once I went to the CLEAR kiosk and it scanned my eyes, it said I had PreCheck, so the staff member escorted me to the other checkpoint. The staff member then explained the situation to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent, who asked for my passport to verify that I was a PreCheck member. Their system confirmed I was a member, and I was allowed to go through. It took me less than four minutes to go through security, and I was airside within eight minutes of being dropped off at the airport.
By the time I made it through security, French bee had already begun the boarding process. One might think it strange to start so early, but that’s because its planes are configured with 411 seats, and it takes some time to board that many passengers. My departure gate was 207 in the midfield satellite concourse for the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT). I got to my gate at 18:56, and by 19:02, I had boarded.
On the ground
I was seated in 7K for this flight, a window seat just in front of the engine. The Premium cabin has a 2-3-2 configuration with five rows, totaling 35 seats. Every seat had an inflight entertainment screen, a USB port, and a footrest. The seats offer plenty of space, 18 inches of width and 36 inches between seats.
Before departure, the crew offered pre-departure beverages, including orange juice and water. I do not recall if champagne was served, but that did not matter to me as I do not drink alcohol. At about 19:41, we pushed back from the gate, and those of us on the plane’s right side were treated to an incredible view of the sunset.
As we began our taxi to runway 25R, I kept my eyes glued to the window like any avgeek. The first aircraft we passed, parked at the gate next to us, was ANA’s R2-D2 livery on its Boeing 787-9. A few gates down was Condor’s gold-colored Airbus A330neo, and later, I saw two more Airbus A350s, one belonging to Air France and the other to Finnair.
After nearly 20 minutes of taxiing, we lined up and rolled down the runway bound for Paris.
In the air
By 20:29, the crew began its inflight service with a hot towel for passengers to clean their hands. Despite this, it took a long time for the meal to be served, almost 45 minutes later. I chose pasta with tomato sauce and some chicken. When I was served the complete tray, I did a double take as there was something on there I did not expect. The pasta came with a side of two sushi rolls. I found this very peculiar as this was not a flight to Asia, and sushi was nothing similar to what I was eating. My tray also came with a small piece of cheese and a strawberry, a brownie, a Ghirardelli chocolate square, and a bag of some crackers. The food was decent but subpar compared to most airplane meals when considering flavors.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
After eating my meal, I went to the lavatory to brush my teeth and get some sleep. I managed to get about six and a half hours of pretty good sleep before I woke up for the meal service that happened just under two hours from landing. As our arrival time was shortly after 15:00 in Paris, we were served a light snack (I would call it), a small vegetable sandwich, and some grapes. Once again, this was subpar, but I was glad to have a bit more food in my stomach. I have been served better pre-landing meals/snacks on other long-haul carriers and believe French bee could work with its caterer to improve this.
Photo: Lukas Souza | Simple Flying
As we prepared for landing, the crew checked the cabin to ensure seats were upright and all passengers had seatbelts on. Additionally, they asked every passenger to open their windows for landing, something not usually required in the US, but I have experienced it on several airlines overseas. At 15:08, we touched down at Orly Airport, and within minutes, we were at our gate. Getting through immigration and customs was smooth and took 20-30 minutes.
Summing it up
Overall, my experience with French bee was a good one. As mentioned in my other review, I would consider flying on the airline for a future trip across the pond. Its a-la-carte model is perfect for any passenger, as the experience is completely customizable. As I did not use WiFi during the flight, I am not able to speak about connectivity. I also did not use the entertainment system for anything other than the live camera feeds or the inflight map.