La Compagnie A321Neo LR Review: Newark to Paris

La Compagnie is a French boutique airline whose planes feature all business class, flying only to Paris, Nice and Monaco from New York (Newark). Thanks to a promo sale, we flew the brand new La Compagnie A321Neo from Newark to Paris for $1,500 roundtrip. We were not able to use points or miles for this flight, but since it was so affordable for a business class flight to Europe, we wanted to experience it and share our La Compagnie review with people eager to see how it compares to their B757. We were pleasantly surprised and think La Compagnie’s new Airbus A321 Neo LR offers a great option for those seeking luxury travel for less. Read our La Compagnie A321Neo review for all the details on this comparatively cheap business class flight to Paris.

La Compagnie A321Neo Business Class Review EWR to ORY

**Our WTA score represents our own views based on our personal experience with the entity being reviewed.

La Compagnie A321Neo Business Class

Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – La Compagnie Business Class A321Neo LR

La Compagnie A321Neo LR Business Class Cabin

Booking La Compagnie Boutique Airline

We made our booking online during a promo sale to purchase our business class tickets for $1,500 roundtrip from Newark (EWR) to Paris Orly (ORY). We’ve seen as low as $1,000 roundtrip for those with flexible travel dates, but our dates were firm. Roundtrip business class to Paris can sometimes be found on sale for as low as $2,500 on major carriers,  but are often closer to $8,000 in high season. So we were happy with the relatively cheap business class fares during the promo sale.

Check-in at Newark

La Compagnie check in desk is located at Terminal B level 3 in Newark International Airport. We arrived just over 2 hours prior to our 7pm flight, which is La Compagnie flight 101. We didn’t have to wait at all to check in. Online check-in is available 24 hours prior to the flight and closes 2 hours prior to the flight. Airport check-in begins 2.5 hrs prior to the flight and closes 50 minutes prior to departure.

La Compagnie baggage allowance is generous. Each passenger can carry on 1 bag plus one personal item, such as a purse, camera bag, or laptop bag. Each passenger can check 2 pieces of luggage weighing no more than 70 lbs each (32kg) and having a total size of 62 in. (Height + length + width).

In addition to checked luggage, each guest can also check one piece of sports equipment for free, such as skis, surfboards, golf bags, or bikes. Additional or oversized luggage costs $250 each, which is very expensive but considering each passenger can check 140 lbs, cannot imagine needing any extra luggage.

Art and Lounge at Newark

After checking in but before crossing through security, passengers of La Compagnie have access to the Art & Lounge VIP lounge in Newark. The lounge is conveniently located near the check in desk, which made it easy to find. The lounge is also a Priority Pass lounge, but was closed to PP members due to high occupancy for La Compagnie passengers.

The lounge was crowded prior to our 7pm flight, but there was a separate section partitioned off for La Compagnie passengers so we didn’t have any problem finding seats. Champagne, wine, crackers, and cheese were available for La Compagnie passengers in addition to the food and beverage available to all other lounge guests.

The food available prior to our 7pm flight included pasta and meatballs, chili, bread, salad bar, chips and salsa, cookies and brownie bites. Drinks included beer, wine, water, tomato juice, soda, tea, and a coffee machine. We enjoyed a glass of champagne to kick off our kid-free romantic getaway to Paris and the Amalfi Coast, plus some pasta and meatballs which were full of flavor.

Expedited TSA Checkpoints

Passengers who fly La Compagnie airline enjoy expedited TSA clearance with the premium access line for business class travelers. We are used to passing through TSA quickly with our TSA Precheck and CLEAR memberships, but La Compagnie doesn’t participate in TSA precheck and Newark airport doesn’t participate in CLEAR. With the expedited line, we didn’t have to wait but it wasn’t quite as convenient since we had to separate laptops and cameras, which we don’t need to do with TSA Precheck.

Airbus A321Neo Cabin

After clearing security, we made our way to the boarding gate. The all business class Airbus 321 Neo has 76 diamond seats from Collins Aerospace in a 2-2 configuration. Each seat reclines to a fully lie-flat position, making it ideal for an overnight flight.

The only problem with the A321’s cabin design is that people in the window seats have to straddle the person in the aisle seat when the seat is fully reclined in order to exit their seat. As a married couple, this wasn’t a problem for me. However, I’d be less enthusiastic about straddling a complete stranger to go to the bathroom, especially since I was wearing a skirt.

Inflight amenities were already available in each seat, including a pillow, quilted blanket, amenity kit, noise-cancelling headphones, and a bottle of water.

The Airbus A321 interior features cabin colors of light blue, grey, and white, which were calming and reminiscent of the sky. The overhead lights can also change color to alter the mood of the cabin.

Airbus A321 Seating

We selected seats 3A and 3C, which were conveniently located near the front restroom and exit. The Airbus A321 best seats are in rows 1 and 9, which provide extra legroom. Unfortunately these seats were already taken when we selected our seats.

Each seat has a small storage space underneath the footwell, where I stashed my purse for easy access during the flight. We kept our carry-on suitcase and camera bag in the overhead storage bin.  There’s a small space where the headphones hang that you could also store something small, but not during takeoff or landing. A shelf under the IFE screen is also available to store a few small items, such as a tablet or cell phone.

Each seat is equipped with a power station and USB port, a small light, remote control for the inflight entertainment system, and panel to recline the seat on the middle console. A dining tray extends from the middle console.

Our seats were very comfortable, especially when fully reclined for sleeping. As a 5’4 woman, I had plenty of space to stretch out all the way to sleep. I was comfortable both lying flat on my back and sleeping in the fetal position.

Bertaut, on the other hand, at 6’6 could have used some extra room in the lie-flat position. He had to sleep with his knees up, resting on the middle console. However, he was still able to get a solid night of sleep before arriving in Paris. Tall passengers should select seats in row 1 or exit row 9 for more leg room.

One quirky feature on the A321 that we didn’t love was the decals on the windows. We like to take photos and videos out the windows, but the decals were in the way. I’m not sure why they added the window decals, but I heard they will be removing them soon.

Inflight Entertainment System

The seats come equipped with a RAVE inflight entertainment system from Safran. Each seat has a 15’7 touchscreen imbedded in the seat in front of you. Guests can enjoy a selection of movies and music and can even interact with the crew from the touchscreen. The touchscreen also displays flight information, menus, and videos about the new Airbus A321Neo. We didn’t watch any movies because we wanted to sleep, but there was a decent selection of 45 movies including several French films with English subtitles.

Free high-speed Wifi

We were surprised to find out that our flight included unlimited high-speed wifi for free. The B757’s don’t offer wifi, so the A321Neo offers a huge improvement over the older aircraft. Since La Compagnie is geared for business travelers, they wanted to make sure passengers would have everything they’d need for a long-haul business flight. The free wifi is a huge perk in our books, especially for such an affordable business class ticket.

Menu

One of the best parts about flying business class, at least in our opinion, is the quality food and top shelf drinks. Since it is a French airline, we had high expectations for the inflight meal and were not disappointed.

We started off with a welcome drink of Piper Heidsieck champagne, served in a small plastic cup prior to takeoff. The other option was orange juice, but we opted for the bubbly to celebrate our kid-free romantic getaway to Europe. Cheers to that!

Drink options during the flight included red wine, white wine, rose wine, and a selection of digestives and aperitifs. Since the liquor selections and cocktails weren’t listed on the menu, we didn’t think to order any and stuck with champagne. Other beverage offerings included juice, coffee, tea, and soda.

The menu offered for our Newark to Paris flight included a light dinner and breakfast. We laughed at all the spelling errors on the menu. Apologies for the terrible photo of the menu. It was on the IFE screen and I couldn’t get a photo without the reflection.

Before meals were served, the flight crew passed out hot hand towels to freshen up. Food and drinks were served from a meal cart pushed down the aisle which we’ve ever only seen in economy cabins, but given that the entire plane is business class, it made sense for this flight.

For dinner, we received sweet potato and coconut soup which was delicious. We had a choice of salad- either seared tuna with quinoa or grilled artichoke hearts with burrata cheese. We both opted for the tuna and thought it was very good.

The cheese plate included blue cheese, cheddar, and one single grape. Dessert was apple pie crumble, which was decent but not good enough to finish. We also received fresh baked bread to enjoy with our dinner, and had more champagne to wash it down.

All courses were served together to expedite the meal so passengers could sleep, which we appreciated. However, La Compagnie doesn’t offer dining on demand like most of the other business class flights we’ve experienced. Normally the crew serves dinner as soon as possible after reaching a cruising altitude, but we didn’t receive our meal until well over an hour after takeoff. When we asked what time dinner would be served, the flight attendant explained that they were delayed due to the medical emergency during taxi.

Breakfast was served about an hour and a half until 50 minutes prior to landing. For breakfast, we could choose between Nutella French toast and chorizo and avocado omelette, both of which were served with fresh fruit and a croissant. I ordered the French toast and Bertaut ordered the omelette, which came with breakfast potatoes and roasted tomato. Drinks available included hot tea, coffee, and juice. Breakfast was good, but not quite as tasty as dinner.

Bathrooms

The cabin had 3 bathrooms, one at the front and 2 at the rear. They were small but clean and had the essentials of soap and hand lotion. No other extras were provided in the lavatories, as often is the case in business class cabins, such as extra toiletries. Those were provided in the amenity kits.

Amenities

La Compagnie amenity kits were basic but provided the essentials. Each canvas bag held eye shades, ear plugs, socks, toothbrush, toothpaste, a drawstring bag to store shoes during the flight, pen, and a few cosmetics by Caudalie including energizing eye cream and moisturizing sorbet made from grapes. The moisturizer came in handy by the end of the flight.

Each seat also had a fluffy pillow and quilted blanket, which we found to be comfortable. Noice-cancelling headphones hung next to each seatback, along with a bottle of water. We didn’t use the headphones since we went straight to sleep after the meal, so can’t speak to their quality.

Service

We found the service to be very friendly but somewhat distracted initially during our flight due to a medical situation with a passenger just before takeoff. During taxi, a passenger had a diabetic seizure and leaped out of his seat. The flight crew rushed to his assistance and the plane returned to the gate, prepared to get the passenger medical assistance. However, after returning to the gate, the crew announced that the flight would take-off and the passenger did not leave the plane. We were very surprised that given the situation he remained on the flight, but the crew reassured us that the passenger was fine.

As a result of the medical emergency, the evening meal was delayed and our flight arrived about 40 minutes behind schedule. Given the circumstances we completely understood. We were thankful that the passenger was ok and had no other problems during the flight.

Fortunately we didn’t need to make any changes to our reservation, but we’ve heard numerous complaints flights being cancelled or delayed.

La Compagnie Loyalty Program

La Compagnie operates its own loyalty program based on a points system. Points earned by flying with La Compagnie can be redeemed for free flights or services. Points are valid for 3 years for the time they are credited. A free one way ticket requires 20 points with Min. availability but 40 points with Max availability.

The number of points earned per flight depends on the type of ticket purchased with the Promo ticket yielding the lowest number of points. Besides flying with La Compagnie, one of the ways to earn points is to invite friends to join the program and fly with the airline. We made sure to create our accounts in order to earn points for an eventual redemption.  For our one way flight to Paris we each earned one point.

Last Words on La Compagnie A321Neo from Newark to Paris

In the end, we were very pleased with our flight on the brand new La Compagnie Airbus A321 Neo from Newark, which they call New York to Paris. The cabin was spotless, the seats were comfortable, the food and drinks were very good, and service was friendly. With its business class deals to Paris, La Compagnie offers an affordable alternative to travel hacking when you want to experience luxury flights for less. If you don’t have miles, its not easy to find cheap business class flights to Europe. We like how La Compagnie’s Business Class flight deals have made flying business class more accessible.

We flew their older aircraft, the Boeing 757 from Paris to Newark, and it wasn’t nearly as comfortable. We definitely recommend flights on their newer aircraft for more comfort and WiFi. However, aircraft cannot be guaranteed since our return flight was supposed to be on the A321 but ended up being on the B757. Nonetheless, La Compagnie offers a solid option for luxury travelers on a budget who don’t have enough miles to fly business class to Paris. If you’re looking for fun things to do in Paris, check here for tours and activities. **Disclosure- this is an affiliate link so if you purchase any tours/activities through our link we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

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