French Bee

✅ Trip Verified | The flight to Paris was mostly ok, except it was delayed for about 45 minutes while police came to remove an unruly drunk passenger. However, the return flight was by far the worst experience we've ever had with an airline. We had purchased extra leg room on the bulk head, and upon getting to the seats there was a large service dog that took up the space in front of my wife's seat (and even part of the space in front of my seat). Not just the extended leg room portion which we purchased, but alk her leg room (see picture). French bee should have a policy that if a service animal is over a certain size, the passenger must purchase two seats. I essentially paid for this guy's extra space for his service dog! (Again, my wife had to move to a seat without extra leg room). When we pointed out the problem to the flight crew, although at least 3 different members came over to look at the situation and all did the "hmmm, I see the problem" thing, none of them did anything about it. My wife eventually just moved to an open seat on her own. When we asked for a refund on the difference in price between the extra leg room and economy seat (an extremely reasonable request), we received the following response: "First and foremost, we regret the inconveniences you had to face as regard your flight BF720 on 04/30/2023. Service animals are trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Therefore, passenger seated next to you was allowed to have his dog outside a cage. In this instance, we must respectfully deny your request." Needless to say, we will not by flying with French Bee again. Buyer beware.

✅ Trip Verified | I did a round trip between Newark and orly. After reading what reviews are out there I didn’t know what to expect. The economy seat, I’m 6’1 and 260 lbs and I fit just fine. It may have been a little bit less room than on one of the major carriers but it certainly wasn’t torturous I felt just fine. This is why reviews that exaggerate and say oh unless you’re under 100lbs you won’t fit are not helpful! The seats had a good recline too. The crew both ways were extremely professional polite and very friendly. My recommendation would be to order the chic bistro meal ahead of time on their site they provide a nice meal. If you don’t order the bistro meal (which is an additional charge) you will get a standard meal if you book the smart fare and this also entitles you to check in a bag. If you choose the basic fare however no meal or checked baggage is included. Snacks and drinks are also available for purchase on board. The seats all had seat back entertainment with movies music games etc.. French Bee is owned by the same company that owns the airline Air Caraibes and in fact our outbound flight from Newark to Paris was physically on an Air Caraibes plane while our return was on a French Bee plane. I think they May sometimes swap out the planes (all the same type A350s) between the two airlines. The only real complaint we had was that if you check a bag , the bag drop isn’t really a bag drop it’s more a you print out your luggage tag at the kiosk and put it on and then you wait online to see an agent anyway to give them your bag and go through the whole check in process all over again. This moved kind of slowly especially at Newark . Like I started off saying I didn’t know what to expect but I found them to be a nice little airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Excellent comfortable flight with great staff. Incredibly good value for money. Tasty meal included with ticket, water free but other drinks chargeable. Would be happy to use them again.

Not Verified | I was a little worried after I’d read all the reviews but honestly, it’s not as bad as everyone is making it out to be, I have flown with worse airlines. I had as good as experience I could have had on a 10 hour flight. I’d recommend to pre purchase your meals. We didn’t, but we’re able to purchase some on the flight and I will say, it’s some of the best airline food I’ve ever had!

✅ Trip Verified | Flyer beware. This is a bait and switch airline. They will provide many excuses beyond the customers control for not being able to deliver what’s on their web site like; it’s labor issues, mechanical issues with new modern planes, really? How is that the customers problem. We arrived late to the USA because they changed to a smaller plane which didn’t have the same amenities as our outbound trip. When I contacted French bee about the differences I was offered $20/pp off a total fare of $3,400 for our group of 4. What a joke. There really is no value to airline. I will pay more on my next trip on another airline.

✅ Trip Verified | This airline is fine. My family of four (2 adults 2 kids) flew Miami-Orly and back for spring break. We checked in online and were all seated together. We didn't check bags, so I can't speak to that experience, but no one was weighing carry-ons on the way back. The boarding process is a little chaotic, but everyone got on the plane eventually. We did pay extra for meals (and checked bags if needed, but because it was unseasonably warm, we were able to manage with carryons), and the food was slightly better than average. Flight attendants all nice. International economy flights are always kind of unpleasant because they're so long, but there was just nothing exceptional about this experience. Seats seemed like the usual size to me--I'm on the small side, but my husband is over 6' and said seats were okay. He feels a bit cramped in any economy seat, but he found French Bee seats no worse than average.

✅ Trip Verified | I was asleep most of the flight. I must add, there was a lot of turbulence during the flight, more than I’m used to and I’m an experienced flyer. I also would like to add, please come at least two and a half hours before the flight, since it is international. I saw a lot of negative reviews based solely on not knowing this piece of information and the crew not making exceptions. The crew are really nice. One of them spilled water on me, I’m unsure if she apologized or not because it woke me up from my sleep. But she handed me some napkins to dry myself off, so I’m assuming it was an accident. The aircraft was very spacious. I had a lot of leg room, the seats actually reclined, and you’re able to view the plane from different angles via the camera that are set up on it. I’ve never seen a feature like that before and thought that was pretty unique. All and all, if I’m ever going to Europe again, I’m flying with them for sure.

Not Verified | Left from Miami with my family including a baby (5 people in total) paid for special seats for both ways, from Miami to Paris the flight was fine. On the way back from Paris we were obligated to pay to bring the baby carseat back 100 euros (I never had to pay to bring a carseat on any airline not even on the way in) and they also changed the airplane and left us in coach seats and all separated including my children. We tried to complain and explain that we had paid a different class of seat and that we had a baby and little kids on the plane they didnt care about at all. The worst flight ever. Horrible plane with no tvs, flight delayed we were in the plane with kids for 12 hrs with no outlets, Tvs. Just garbage.

✅ Trip Verified | Terrible check-in process. Staff in Paris are not motivated and each employee makes their own rules. Security agents also make their own rules and you end up with chaos and staff yelling at passengers in every direction. French Bee is not family friendly. They do not allow strollers at the gate. You have to check in and will not have your stroller with you. We had 2 very young kids and a pregnant wife. The staff did not care and refused a wheelchair. With an infant on our lap and a pregnant woman we were almost last in the plane and asked to put our bags under our seats. This is when we raised our voices and told the airline to have some common sense. Once in the plane we asked for water as my wife felt unwell after all this chaos. We were told to wait for take off. Ended up waiting for 2h for a cup of water. Once in Newark our wheelchair took 45 min to reach the plane. The staff was begging us to move so passengers on the next flight could board. We did not move otherwise we would never get the wheelchair.

✅ Trip Verified | I wasn't quite sure what to expect, having read mixed reviews, but I needed a cost-effective way to move myself, my daughter, and our two small dogs from the US to the UK via France (it's much easier to get a dog into the EU than it is to the UK, and then cross the border from there) and French Bee seemed to fit the bill. Very pleasantly surprised! All the staff we encountered, both at the airport and on board, were extremely pleasant and helpful. The gentleman at Newark who checked us in- two stressed people, two stressed dogs, and a metric ton of luggage. The flight was packed to the gills with rude people and slightly delayed, but it was the holidays. For the extremely reasonable price (I was able to get two people, two dogs, and six checked bags to Paris from New York for less than $1500, the week before Christmas), the plane was comfortable. This is one of the few flights I have been able to sleep on, so I did not make much use of the entertainment system, but it seemed robust. I did pay for breakfast in the morning, which was nothing over the top special, but not bad and much cheaper than buying something in the airport. The overhead bins were huge and seemed to accommodate a lot more luggage than normal. And for a budget airline, the experience wasn't much different than what you would get from a large legacy carrier, Most importantly, my dogs arrived safe and relatively unbothered by their adventure, though I had serious concerns about them flying in their crates (they are too large to fit in carriers under the seat). Thank you to the staff who handled them so well and kept them safe!