French Bee Takes Discount Flying à la Mode

This is not your standard discount airline.

Well, of course it’s not; it’s French.

Ryanair, Wizz, Pegasus, AirAsia, and others are all excellent ways to get around a continent or two for the price of a bus ticket from Montreal to Toronto, and we know what to expect: trading frills like checked luggage, attentive service, and any sort of aesthetic design.

All of which is fine, and I would have been perfectly happy to continue Wizzing around Europe and beyond, treating the flights like short pauses in my active enjoyment of travel.

However, I then decided to take French Bee up on their invitation to try their new direct route from Montreal to Paris-Orly.

The thing that’s going to catch your eye, of course, is the low economy fares. Just over $200 one-way YUL-ORY. And that is a great price. The 3 x 4 x 3 configuration is cramped, and the aisles on their A350s are slightly narrower than even your average discount airline. (Pro tip: try to get your clients 36 A & C or H & J, and they’ll have all the legroom in the world.) If you’re accustomed to those other discount airlines, the seating will be familiar, and unless you’re 190cm, it won’t be that bad.

(Photo Credit: French Bee)

But what you won’t be used to, and this is the same in Premium Blue as in Smart, is the service and design.

Especially the design.

As the hotel chains of the world are realizing the power of good design in brands like Citizen M, Moxy, Alt, and 25 hours, airlines are making their economy cabins uglier and more dire to feed the insatiable maw of premium travel.

French Bee decided to go another way. They serve their wines in test tube-shaped bottles. Their IFE screens are black and sleek with stylish blue-accented buttons. The onscreen communications, including the menus, are typographically and compositionally thoughtful, playful even. The drinks on offer - a maudite pomme, a Canadian mule (thanks for the hat-tip guys), a vodkapple among many others - give you the sense you’re meant to enjoy this trip, not just endure it.

(Photo Credit: Bert Archer)

The airline gave me premium seats, so I can’t comment on the service levels in Smart, but in premium, it was as good or better than premium service usually is on legacy airlines.

But here’s the thing : depending on when you travel, Premium Blue costs about the same as standard economy on a legacy airline. Worst-case scenario, it’s a couple of hundred dollars more (versus thousands more for legacy premium). And it is simply better. For clients with economy budgets but premium tastes, there’s not much on offer out there these days. We’re lucky enough to have Porter, but it’s slim pickings otherwise. French Bee is maybe France’s answer to Porter. Except cheap.

There are no points to be earned (at least not yet), and if you like your legacy, for that or any other reason, I’m not going to be able to convince you of the charms of French Bee. There are, much to my surprise, Canadians who don’t like Porter for some reason. 

Chacun son mauvais goût, I guess.

 

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