Luxury Travel

French Bee A350 Premium Economy (San Francisco to Tahiti)

November 16, 2022

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Wednesday newsletters all the time function a resort or flight evaluate.

Today: Review of French Bee A350’s Premium Economy Class (San Francisco to Tahiti)

Last September, I flew in Premium Economy with French Bee from San Francisco to Tahiti. French Bee is a French low-cost, long-haul airline based mostly at Paris Orly Airport (though the service refers to itself as “smart-cost” as a substitute of “low-cost”). It operates flights between France and worldwide leisure locations (e.g. New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Tahiti, La Reunion, and the Dominican Republic). French bee is the primary airline on this planet to have a 100% Airbus A350 fleet. The A350 combines subsequent era engines, superior aerodynamics, and light-weight supplies, which end in a 25% discount of gas consumption and working prices in comparison with competing aircrafts of the earlier era, making low-cost long-haul flying viable. The A350 additionally reduces CO2 emissions by 30% making French Bee the airline that emits the least quantity of CO2 per seat and per mile on this planet.

French Bee presents two cabin lessons of service onboard its A350 planes: Premium Economy Class (referred to as “Premium Blue”) and Economy Class (referred to as “Eco Blue”). There isn’t any Business Class. As a low-cost airline, French Bee expenses extra charges for companies and facilities provided, akin to for seat choice, onboard catering, and airport companies like lounge entry and expedited safety queues. Premium Economy Class tickets although embrace a number of complimentary companies and facilities, akin to meals, juices, delicate drinks, alcoholic drinks, an amenity equipment and checked/maintain baggage (just like the Premium Economy Class cabins of legacy carriers).

My general expertise with French Bee was nice and I used to be pleased with the onboard service. The seat wasn’t lie flat in fact, nevertheless it was fairly snug and I might advocate this product in the event you’re making an attempt to get to any of French Bee’s locations on the lowest fare attainable. One specific factor that stood out throughout my expertise with French Bee was the wonderful customer support. The day earlier than my flight, whereas making an attempt to check-in on-line, I seen that there was a mistake with my date of beginning on the ticket. I used to be getting ready myself for a prolonged wait with the airline’s name heart (as is the case with most airways), however that turned out to not be the case: I used to be assisted inside minutes through the chat choice on French Bee’s official web site by a really pleasant journey agent (and I even acquired a follow-up cellphone name).

Have you ever flown with French Bee? If so, what was your expertise? Leave a remark.

French Bee options in my high 10 listing of the finest low-cost, long-haul airways on this planet.

Trip: San Francisco (SFO) to Pepeete (PPT)
Airline: French Bee
Aircraft sort: Airbus A350-900
Aircraft registration quantity: F-HREV (in-built 2018)
On time departure: Yes (12 am)
On time arrival: Yes (5 am; + 1 day)
Miles: 4200
Flight time: 8 hours
Seat: 8G
Class: Premium Economy (Premium Blue)

In this evaluate (extra info & pictures under my YouTube video):

About French Bee
Cabin structure
Premium Economy Class seat
Amenities
Meals
Entertainment
Onboard web
My verdict (rating)

1. ABOUT FRENCH BEE

Here are some attention-grabbing & enjoyable details about French Bee:

Founded in 2016, French Bee is a sister airline of Air Caraïbes. Both airways are owned by Groupe Dubreuil, a family-owned group with a variety of actions within the distribution and air transportation sectors.
French Bee was initially named French Blue. However, In November 2017, whereas the airline as “French Blue” was making use of with the United States Department of Transportation for a overseas air service allow to start service to the nation, US-based JetBlue raised objections to a different airline serving the nation bearing the phrase “Blue” in its identify. In response, the airline was briefly renamed to easily “French”, earlier than the airline introduced on 30 January 2018 that it was rebranding as “French Bee”.
The firm is a associate of the Airbus Fello’ Fly mission. This mission includes flying long-haul planes V-shaped very shut, like migratory birds. These formation flights make it attainable to benefit from the wake phenomenon: the planes positioned on the rear, fairly shut , will benefit from the groove created by the plane in entrance to propel themselves utilizing much less vitality. This flight observe might cut back general gas consumption by round 5-10% per journey.
French bee and its sister firm Air Caraïbes have been the primary airline corporations worldwide to be Green Pilot® licensed. Green Pilot is a brand new label rewarding airline corporations which have developed a stable program to scale back carbon emissions of their operations and have actively concerned all their workers of their inexperienced coverage.

2. CABIN LAYOUT

French Bee’s Airbus A350-900 options 411 seats:

376 Eco Blue (Economy) seats organized in a 3-4-3 structure. Some rows towards the rear of the plane configured in a 3-3-3 structure.
35 Premium Blue (Premium Economy) seats, unfold over 5 rows in a 2-3-2 structure. Premium Blue is positioned in a non-public cabin on the entrance of the plane

French Bee additionally operates the A350-1000 variant which contains a complete of 480 (!) seats: 40 Premium Blue seats in a 2-4-2 structure and 440 Eco Blue seats in a 3-4-3 structure. This makes it one of many highest density plane layouts on this planet. To be clear, this structure isn’t disproportionately dense in comparison with French Bee’s A350-900 planes. The A350-1000 is only a bigger aircraft, so it is sensible that there are extra seats. In comparability, British Airways makes use of A350-1000s with a most seating capability of 331 passengers, whereas Cathay Pacific makes use of A350-100s with a most capability of 334 passengers.

For a seat map of French Bee’s A350-900 click on right here.

FRENCH BEE PREMIUM ECONOMY — FRENCH BEE A350 PREMIUM ECONOMY CLASS CABIN

3. PREMIUM ECONOMY CLASS SEAT

French Bee’s Premium Blue (Premium Economy) seats provide 36 inches (91 cm) of pitch and measure 18 inches (46 cm) huge. Each seat is provided with an adjustable leg, foot, and head relaxation in addition to an influence outlet. The recline on French Bee’s Premium Blue seats are snug, however can encroach on the area of the passenger within the row behind.

For comparability; the Eco Blue (Economy Class) seats provide 32 inches (81 cm) of pitch and measure 16 inches (41 cm) huge, with two energy shops included with every set of three or 4 seats.

4. AMENITIES

French Bee’s Premium Economy Class passengers obtain a fleece blanket and a fluffy pillow. A consolation equipment is offered as nicely; it contains a watch masks, socks, headphones, toothbrush and ear plugs.

5. MEALS

Meals are included when flying in Premium Blue. During this flight from San Francisco to Tahiti, a supper and breakfast had been served (the menus had been displayed on the leisure display screen):

Supper was served on one tray shortly after takeoff. It comprised 4 plates: hummus with pita bread, candy & bitter rooster with fried rice, camembert with strawbery, and chocolate cake.
A light-weight breakfast was served 90 minutes previous to arrival in Tahiti. It consisted of yoghurt and a few bread rolls.

Economy Class passengers should buy onboard meals gadgets & drinks. They also can reserve pre-paid chef-prepared meals (together with kosher, halal and vegan menus).

6. ENTERTAINMENT

Each Premium Economy Class seat is provided with a 12- inch HD touchscreen. The inflight program contains 20 motion pictures, TV exhibits, video video games, and music. The leisure’s spotlight is the aircraft’s tail digicam, which permits for excellent views of the A350’s fuselage, particularly throughout takeoff and touchdown. Another enjoyable function is With Sudoku in solo or multi-player modes, which permits passengers to strike up in-flight friendships.