End of last month work sent me to Air France Industries, and since the engine shop is located at ORY, I rather wanted to fly there than CDG. For the departure airport I usually check BDL (home base) and BOS (closest bigger airport) first, and then JFK. This time the company's travel portal didn't offer any reasonable routing with Star Alliance or SkyTeam, which you would expect to be at the top of the list due to the airports involved, in terms of total travel time (many options were well over 20 hours) and pricing from these airports. Hence I ended up shifting my attention to EWR - I already had La Compagnie on my mind, always thought it would be cool to try this somewhat "mysterious" airline, but did not expect them to be an option as they are a foreign carrier and not affiliated with any US based airline through an alliance.
Surprise, surprise, they were the top offer when sorting by price from low to high - done deal.
Took a rental car down to EWR, and since I haven't flown out of there in quite a while I wasn't aware that the rental car return has been relocated to a new parking garage next to the new Terminal A. From there it's about a 10 minute walk (including down and up a few escalators) to the AirTrain station. In general, I don't mind the walk, especially after the 2.5 hour drive down from Hartford, but it's not something to look forward to when traveling with more than a carry-on. This shall be resolved with the new AirTrain, which will be built as part of the expansion plan.
Check-in (bag drop) in Terminal B was very smooth and didn't take long - as to be expected with potentially max 76 pax to be checked in. They don't have an app, but after you have checked in on the website you get an email with an option to add the boarding pass to your phone's wallet.
La Compagnie currently does not offer lounge access at EWR as the lounge they had partnered with shut down in July this year, so they handed out $30 vouchers for any restaurant after security - I only found out later, that there are only two, and I have probably had the worst burger and fries in my life at the Belgian Beer Cafe. There wasn't much "Belgian" about this place either ...
In the end, it didn't really matter, as they started boarding very early, about 45 minutes before departure time. Subsequently doors were in flight soon after and we left 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
The airline currently operates only two LEAP powered A321-251NX - F-HBUZ and F-HNCO, the latter was my ride - both equipped with 76 lie-flat seats in a 2+2 setup.
The flight was about 90% full. My seat was 19A, which is in the second to last row, and I scored one of the empty seats next to me.
The seat turned out to be very comfortable and much more spacious than I anticipated in this 2+2 arrangement. For instance, Lufthansa's 2+2 in the 747 upper deck or in the A340s feels much tighter. I'd definitely like to see how the seats of the other operators compare, which also use the A321NEO on transatlantic routes and also offer a 2+2 layout (JBU, TAP, Aer Lingus).
The food was exceptionally good (French cuisine all the way). As usual several dinner and breakfast options were available.
Service was in a solid B+ to A- range, at times one flight attendant was a bit clumsy, but perhaps she was new and had just finished training. No big deal, just an observation. They were all very welcoming and attentive.
Wi-Fi is free of charge and it was by far the fastest and most stable connection I have ever experienced on a flight.
After a very bumpy ride we arrived in ORY well ahead of schedule.
Except for the turbulences this was probably one of the top 3 flights I had in business class so far. Although I couldn't find much sleep (due to the turbulences), the seat was one of the best I have had yet. The low number of passengers and hence very spacious feel made it a very comfortable, quiet and relaxed trip. The boutique style is a great product in my opinion.
