“Would you fly French Bee again?” The question my father-in-law asked me upon our return from Paris; in short, YES! The long answer is still an absolute yes, but the big reason for the question requires a much more detailed explanation. If you’re reading this and haven’t read any of our other posts, I suggest you read “Christmas in the City of Light” to hear about how we planned our Christmas Holiday in Paris with our two kids, ages 4 and 7. It will explain the planning and layout of the trip, from how, why, and where we booked tickets and planned the days. My wife’s follow-up post on how the trip went can be found here (spoiler, it was amazing). As one can imagine, Christmas in Paris is a very exciting trip, but one aspect I was really looking forward to was our maiden experience with French Bee Airlines. If I haven’t said it before, I absolutely love Paris (j’adore Paris), but it can be expensive to fly there with a family of four as often as I would prefer to go. Enter my discovery and the reluctance and excitement of French Bee.
In my earlier years of travel, budget airlines were necessary and tremendously helpful for our pockets; essentially, we were looking for cheap flights. We have flown with Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier in the less expensive group. While each provided an opportunity for travel that otherwise would not have been possible, being stranded in Georgia by Frontier did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. However, a budget-friendly airline that doesn’t fall short on comfort or amenities seemed too good to be true. So what convinced me to take a chance and book four round-trip tickets with French Bee? One part was HOPE; what if they are what they say they are? What if this goes well, and we can go to Paris two to three times a year for the price it would cost to go once with Delta or American (based on price searches at the time)? It’s worth a shot, right? Well, hope will only get me so far, and it most certainly does not pay the bills. So during my research, I came across an always trustworthy source, The Points Guy, who wrote a review about his experience; you can read it here. So armed with the reassurance of a trusted source, I said let’s take a shot! We booked four tickets to Paris, round trip, on an Airbus 350-900, but the transportation strikes created some travel changes that damaged our plans.
Our journey to Paris…
When we arrived at Newark Airport, there were some changes to the trip; the big one was that French Bee would not operate our flight. Instead, it would be Wamos. Have you heard of Wamos? It was new to us, mainly because you can’t just book regular flights with them; it’s more of a for-lease service. Oh, and our flight was delayed! After a few rounds of lining up to the board and sitting back down to wait, we finally boarded our flight. Now we are no strangers to airport delays, it happens, and although disappointing, the situation was better than most, considering the recent travel circumstances. The real disappointment came when we got on the actual aircraft as it was undoubtedly not an A350-900, with nice comfortable seats, a 3-4-3 arrangement, and seat-back entertainment. Instead, it was an A330-300 (see pics) with a 3-3-3 arrangement!…AND of course, no seat-back screens for entertainment. I’m sure at this point I’ve painted a picture of a pretty miserable experience for our maiden voyage; you might also be thinking, no way am I going to fly French Bee…Don’t decide just yet; let’s give the company a chance; hear me out….
Our in-flight experience:
Were our seats four across in the row we wanted and paid for? No, but they were all together and relatively close to the general location on the plane. Was there seat-back entertainment? No, but there was wifi with entertainment that you could connect to on your device. Did we pay for the meals and snacks for this trip? No, but they gave it all to use the whole time anyway. Did our flight get canceled like so many other airlines? No, French Bee got us to Paris for a wonderful family experience. We were a few hours late and did miss some planned things, but that can happen with any airline; anyone who travels has experienced delays, and this one was alright. We flew the same A330-300 from Wamos on the way home, so the accommodations were the same, but there were no flight delays. We actually had an extra empty seat next to us.
Reflections:
When I think about how this went overall, I am not disappointed. French Bee took action despite the circumstances. Now I know some people are wondering, what about the seats you picked and paid to ensure you received? Well, French Bee took action for that too. The process was easy, go to their website, scroll down to where it says “Contact-Claims” and file your claim. They said to give them 48 hours to reply, and they did exactly that and were very generous. While we are on the topic of accommodating travelers, let me say that while Newark Airport is nothing to write home about, Orly is very accommodating when traveling with kids. There was no shortage of play areas for the kids to occupy while waiting to board.
Final Thoughts:
I persuaded you to go for it if you were on the fence about giving French Bee a chance. If it helps, we already booked four tickets back to Paris with French Bee for June, not even with the credit they gave us! Curious about the changes to our itinerary due to the front-end delay? Read my wife’s post on how our trip went. It’s already posted as mentioned above, and we hope it may influence you to experience Paris if you haven’t yet…Take the kids, too; it’s worth every minute.
I love to travel to Europe and I hadn’t heard about this airline before so thank you for your review of it! Happy Travels!
I hope it works as well for you as it did for us! Let us know!
This made me want to travel around Europe (which I must put on my bucket list). I think when I finally return home to the UK I will make a point of doing just that; and French Bee sounds like it offers a decent flying experience!
If you’re hopping around Europe, let us know if you fly Ryan Air and how it is…We will be trying some new airlines this summer, but still taking French Bee over there from the US.
I have not heard of either French Bee or Wamos airlines. Sounds like it is definitely worth checking out French Bee for flights to Europe.
Although we had some bumps on our travel, we definitely believe the airline was worth it for the cost!
I love to travel to Europe for study purpose and I hadn’t heard about this airline before so thank you for your review of it!
Do you study anything in particular? Studying Europe sounds amazing!
I has to google French Bee to see if it was the real name of an airline. I honestly have not heard of it until I read your blog. You are definitely my go to blogger for everything Paris. Another interesting recall of your travel experiences with your beautiful family. catch you on your next travel blog.
AHH! So excited that we may be your Paris go-to! It makes me feel like we made it! Haha! Thanks for the comment.
I have not heard of either French Bee airlines. Sounds like it is definitely worth checking out French Bee for flights to Europe.
Sounds like quite the experience!
This was great! I haven’t flown with French Bee yet. Thanks so much for the great info! I’m prepared with lots of details for when I’m ready to fly with them 🙂
I haven’t heard of French Bee nor Wamos, but it’s nice to know you recommend them even with the slight problems you had.
I think problems will always happen, how a company responds to the problems means a lot to us.
I read Christina’s post on the trip to Paris (very jelly indeed!) and read all about the delay & all the things they did change for you. But reading your experience as still a positive one, I’d definitely give them a shot!
Nice breakdown here. I am new to this airline. We flew out of Newark one month ago to the day, from EWR to Athens. Cool-looking new terminal there.
Ryan
Thank you for this write-up! We are booked on French Bee from Newark to Paris in early September (’23) and I’ve gotten concerned about the negative reviews I’ve read. I am curious how your trip in June goes. Please post about it!
Good luck with your trip! We do think the experience was worth the price. They were also very generous in their compensation.
I have not heard of either French Bee or Wamos airlines. Sounds like it is definitely worth checking out French Bee for flights to Europe.
Thank you for the information. I had never heard of this airline and was reluctant to book with them. Now I am looking for flights with them! Thank you so much!!
I haven’t heard of French Bee before, but thank you for sharing your experience of this airline.
Lauren
The experience mentioned has instilled in me a desire to embark on a journey across the continent of Europe, and I feel compelled to add this goal to my personal bucket list of things to do in my lifetime.
I am glad we could inspire you! I hope you get the chance to go!
The experience mentioned has instilled in me a desire to embark on a journey across the continent of Europe, and I feel compelled to add this goal to my personal bucket list of things to do in my lifetime.
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I have not heard of either French Bee airlines. Sounds like it is definitely worth checking out French Bee for flights to Europe.
We truly feel the value is worth it!
Great experience, I also love to visit Europe with my family. It is helpful for my family travel trips.
I am glad you found this helpful! I hope you have some great upcoming trips!
Thanks for sharing this honest review about the airline. It will help travelers a lot in choosing the comfortable flight for their next trips.
Glad it was helpful!