For several years now, French low-cost, long-haul carrier has had direct service to the U.S. West Coast from Paris’s Orly Airport. Originally founded in 2016 as French Blue to provide a link to France’s various overseas departments, regions, and collectivities for budget-conscious travelers. Initially operating with a single Airbus A330-300 leased from Air Caraïbes, the carrier subsequently rebranded as French Bee in 2018 with the commencement of service to San Francisco as a stopover between Orly and Papeete. After a brief suspension of services due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, French Bee came back with a vengeance, adding Los Angeles to its network at the end of April 2022. Unlike the ORY-SFO route, ORY-LAX does not continue on to PPT, as the route is already served by Air France and Air Tahiti Nui on the CDG-LAX-PPT routing. I’ve seen French Bee’s A350-900s at LAX a number of times in the past several months, and while I’ve had a flight plan ready to go for a few months, specifically the June 5th service, I’ve kept getting sidetracked. Well, the wait is over now, as I present BF731 from the City of Angels to the City of Lights!
Server: Solo
Airline: French Bee
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Destination: Paris Orly Airport, Essone and Val-de-Marne, France (ORY)
Flight Number: BF731
Route: KLAX-LFPO
Seat: 17A (Economy)
Time En Route: 10 Hours 25 Minutes
Waiting to board our aircraft at Gate 206. After a long walk under the apron to the Midfield Concourse, we’ve finally been able to sit down for a bit. Our aircraft today is one of French Bee’s five A350-900s. BF is one of three airlines connecting Los Angeles and Paris and the only one serving Paris-Orly from LAX, which makes this a rather unique flight for us.
Taxiing to Runway 24L for takeoff as a Southwest Airlines 737-700 rolls by as it leaves LAX for a destination somewhere on the West Coast. Much like our premium economy trips earlier in the week, we’ve managed to pick up a bulkhead seat for our flight to Orly tonight. So far, we’re getting a good impression of our seat. While the seat is about as comfortable as one would expect for a low-cost carrier in economy, they are, on the other hand, equipped with a USB outlet, a headphone jack, and an IFE system, while also offering 32 inches of legroom, identical to the economy legroom offerings for the U.S. Big Three and even more for a bulkhead seat like ours.
Departing Los Angeles on a somewhat foggy evening. As we lift off into the lower extremes of the Marine Layer, we can see the road traffic on South Pershing Drive and Vista Del Mar, along with the thin, rocky strip of sand that is Dockweiler State Beach. With no seats in front of us, we’re already starting to stretch our legs out and settle in for an estimated flight time of ten and a half hours. Hopefully, it’s going to be as relaxing as it gets for a long-haul, low-cost airline.
After circling around Palos Verdes and returning to the land over Huntington Beach, we can see the lights of Los Angeles sprawling out below us, including those of LAX, as we climb over Buena Park and the I-5 Freeway. Once we got on our generally easterly heading, with no further sharp turns expected, the cabin crew passed out a thin blanket and amenity kit. While it was rather spare, it’s the thought that counts, after all. Now, as we head for the Mojave Desert on our way north and east, we’re waiting for the dinner service to begin.
Getting ready to try and get some sleep over Minnesota, south of Minneapolis. While our experience so far on French Bee has been roughly equivalent to a flight in economy on, say, American Airlines, the hot meal that we ordered wasn’t. It wasn’t bad, but neither was it particularly what we would call good, and the fact that it erred more on the “lukewarm” side of the spectrum didn’t help much, either. However, given that we’re one of the few passengers who’ve stayed awake long enough for dinner, it doesn’t seem to be as essential to one’s overall experience as it would on a daytime flight, which somewhat lessens the impact of the airline food equivalent of a plastic water bottle from a convenience store that’s sat in one’s car for most of the day or one’s dinner after returning to it from an extended trip to the bathroom.
Over the Eastern Atlantic about two hours out from Orly. Sleeping was okay in our seat, though the provided blanket could have kept us warmer and a personal air vent would’ve been nice. However, we’ve gotten quite a decent amount of comfort for a very reasonable price, so we can’t complain too much. Since we didn’t purchase a second meal, all there is left for us to do is sit back and look out the window or find something to watch on the IFE system.
Descending over the Pays de la Loire region as we near the Paris area. While we did not get a second meal, we did have a rather nice snack to hold us over until we’ve landed, deplaned and are able to seek out a restaurant. The flight over France has been very smooth, with no turbulence encountered along the way. Additionally, the weather in Paris is supposedly gorgeous this afternoon, so our arrival should be picturesque, too.
Landing at Orly in the afternoon on Runway 25. Due to some crosswinds on final, we had a pretty bumpy touchdown. However, once all of the wheels are down, the actual deceleration itself is smooth and swift. In less than a minute, we’re approaching taxi speed and getting ready to exit the runway and head to our gate at Terminal 4.
Taxiing by Orly’s Terminal 3 on our way to the gate. We haven’t been here since we took the last Air France flight out of here earlier in the year, but the change is substantial. Where once Le Tricolore was near-ubiquitous, there is now a void only partially filled by the several European low-cost carriers that patronize ORY. We’ll get used to it in time, but it’s still somewhat unsettling.
Deplaned at Gate C6. As it had been a while since our last flight with French Bee, our recollection of how economy class aboard its A350-900s is rather hazy. For the most part, we were pleasantly surprised by our experience on this flight, with the hard product being similar to that on the major U.S. airlines. The food was a take-it-or-leave-it deal, while the service was actually better than what we expected from a low-cost airline. Overall, we’re satisfied by our flight aboard French Bee and we’ll bee, erm, be keeping them in mind for future travels to popular leisure destinations.