Live well. Eat well. Travel well.

First time I have heard about French Bee was earlier this year when I was trying to book flights to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. I usually book for my group and the request is to have at least premium economy, but preference is business class with lie flat seats. The budget is below USD $2k for one way ticket.

I have tracked business class flights for months since 2023 with no luck of finding anything within the budget that arrives less than 24 hours with a minimum of only 1 stop.

When I changed filters to premium economy, French Bee showed up as a nonstop flight that was below USD $1k. The group was ok with that.

As I started booking, we were already expecting a budget airline experience that although booking for premium economy, they charge for everything extra. Then, to my surprise there was an option for “bed seats”.

Apparently, they don’t have business class but they do have premium economy with bed seats option! the Premium Economy ticket was EUR 722.80 the bed seat option was an additional EUR 350. For a total of EUR 1,072.80 for a one way ticket Premium Economy lie flat seats, we consider that super worth it!

Checkin Process

About 24 hours before departure, French Bee sends out an email reminding you to checkin online.

We had issues checking in on line so we had to check in person, plus we have luggages to check anyway. There is a separate line for Premium Blue passengers and when we arrived, there wasn’t any line at all. However, I can’t say the same for Economy. We had to ask the ticketing lady to add our TSA Known Traveler # so we can take advantage of the TSA Pre-check line, which French Bee now participates at SFO.

It was a smooth process for our group of 4. Although French Bee does not have offer any lounge access, we have Priority Pass and Centurion Lounge choices. In order to accommodate the 2 in our group that didn’t have access to these lounges, we opted for the newly opened The Club at SFO since we can use Priority Pass with up to 2 guests per cardholder. The lounge experience will not be covered in this post but I’d say it is comparable to The Centurion Lounge space wise.

Boarding Process

About 45 minutes before we were scheduled to fly, the boarding process started. Premium Class passengers from rows 1-8 were boarded first.

The body is an Airbus A350-900. There are 3 rows with bed seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, so a total of 18 bed seats. While rows 4-8 are in 2-3-2 configuration.

Pre-departure Experience

As soon as we got situated in our seats, a pillow and a blanket were on our seats. We were offered pre-departure drinks of our choice, which includes alcoholic beverages. I opted for a champagne.

We were then given an amenity kit. The kits they were handing out have a variety of colors but the contents were all the same.

It includes a pair of socks, eye mask, toothbrush and toothpaste, headset, and ear plugs.

In-flight Experience

We were set for a nonstop flight to Paris, landing at Orly Airport for a little less than 11 hours.

What I like about the IFE is that it has a camera view. My favorite entertainment is watching the flight path and the current status of our flight.

We weren’t able to choose any selection or add another meal online, so I was already expecting only 1 meal for the flight as mentioned in our tickets. About half an hour after takeoff, we were served beverages. This time, I chose red wine.

Another half hour or so, dinner was served. No menu cards were served, we were just asked a choice of pasta with seafood or rice with meat. I opted with pasta with shrimp and I think it was delicious.

The meal came with: warm bread with butter; strawberry slice with brie cheese; small plate with feta cheese, walnut, sweet red pepper, with some greens; slice of blondie or butterscotch brownie; and a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate.

We were asked if we wanted more drinks during the meal service. I got a white wine to go with my seafood pasta. Then a 1664 lager as a finishing drink.

Tip: If you don’t want to run out of choices, best to pick the first or second row seats!

I was stuffed after dinner service and was ready to relax. I had a good 4-5 hours of sleep with lie flat bed seat. It was comfortable enough for me. Although, if you are a bigger person, you might find yourself weirdly positioned, the one situated closer to the window (I am on row 2), was higher up compared to the aisle seat beside it. It might be awkward if you don’t know the person beside you.

When I woke up, they were about to start serving breakfast. I was surprised for another meal! It was a light breakfast of croissant and yogurt with a beverage of your choice. For sure, I appreciated having a light meal before landing.

Verdict

Highly recommend! My expectations were really low for this airline after researching, reading reviews, and watching channels that covers French Bee experience. There was little to no information at all of how the bed seats are. A lot of what I read and watched mentioned to not expect a fully lie flat seats and about having not much room if the person in front of you reclines… this was not the case at all! It definitely exceeded my expectations after flying them!