French Bee

Customer Reviews

No Skytrax Rating
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Seat Comfort 12345
Staff Service 12345
Value for Money 12345
Customer rating from 92 reviews
3/10
No Skytrax Rating
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4/10

"I won't be flying French Bee again"

(United States)

Trip Verified | The flight and service on the flight was as expected for a budget airline. The food is extremely overpriced and service is minimal (bring your own food if possible!). The seats were more comfortable than I thought, which was probably the biggest surprise. My big complaint is that our flight was delayed three hours, which caused my family to miss our connecting flight and spend the night in a hotel. I asked several times to get compensated for this hotel stay but they did not do so. I guess $130 is worth losing customers for life. I won't be flying French Bee again.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RoutePapeete to San Francisco
Date FlownJanuary 2024
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"You could end up stranded"

(United States)

Trip Verified | My daughter took an outbound flight from LAX to Paris on December 17th, 2023. Everything went well on the outbound flight. However the return, scheduled for February 9, 2024 to go from Paris to LAX is a different story. On January 5th I received an email from French Bee stating they were cancelling all flights between Paris and LAX until March 31st, 2024. Consequently, I had to purchase a one way return flight on another carrier to get home which ended up being more expensive. This is completely unacceptable. They did not even offer to put my daughter on another carrier, only that they could either reimburse the full cost of the return ticket, or get a voucher plus 20% for future flights (there is no way I will ever use this airline again). When I try to access my booking online to request a reimbursement the system says "an error has occurred". When I try to call the company for 4 days straight in a row, no one answers and the call disconnects after about 1 hour. I have contacted my credit card company and am now disputing half of the charge for this flight as they are clearly making it as difficult as possible to get reimbursed! True, their fares are very enticing, but it is not worth it to fly on this airline. You could end up stranded and have to pay a lot more at the last minute to get home!
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteLos Angeles to Paris
Date FlownDecember 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

“No help. No apology”

(United States)

Not Verified | NEVER been treated so badly. Worst airline ever! Cost us several thousand dollars. Arrived in Paris from Madrid flight (different airline) on our way back to US and had to self transfer our luggage between airlines & terminals. We were checked in with French Bee and just needed to print luggage tags and drop luggage (had prepaid 2 x $110 per 50 lb bag so $220!). We arrived 80 min before flight and kiosk said check in was closed. We asked a couple of employees and both said, check in was closed for the flight. We said we were checked in and just needed to drop 2 bags. They refused to help and sent us to the “help” desk who told us we were too late and luggage had to be dropped 90 min before flight, so at 80 min there was nothing they could (would) do. Told us to buy another flight and next one was in 2 days. There were at least 3 other passengers at the help desk in the same situation. All screwed. No help. No apology, just snotty, entitled attitude. With losing our hotel in Newark, Uber to other Paris airport, new flights, plus over $1000 paid to French Bee for fares and baggage for 2 of us, ended up costing us apx $3000, hours of major stress trying to get home and 2 brutal days of travel, all because we couldn’t drop our bags 80 min before the flight. I’ve flown numerous airlines domestic and international, dozens of times and never experienced anything like this. Absolutely disgusting way to treat customers or people in general. They screwed us over unbelievably and not the slightest bit of care from a single employee. I’d recommend anything other than using them.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteParis to Newark
Date FlownNovember 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"I had my flight cancelled"

(United States)

Not Verified | We arrived literally seconds after they decided to close the gate meaning we still had time to board. Getting go the gate was a mission unto itself as nothing is listed. We get to the gate and the manager immediately begins to talk to me and my partner in a rude manner. Says our carry on was over the limit, yet when we came in from Newark they allowed it with no problem. He then proceeded to try and charge us $100 per bag. Reluctantly I was going to pay as I needed to get home, I tried to negotiate with him to just charge us for both bags since we were strapped for cash. So I’m offering my Apple pay since that’s where the money was and he refused to charge me, ironically everywhere else I’ve been we used Apple Pay with ease. He refused our entry and we were stranded in another country. I then call customer service to try and rectify this and they say that I’m blacklisted. No rhyme or reason. So now they won’t even return any of my money and I had my flight cancelled. If anyone reads this and they are thinking of flying with this company, I urge you to look elsewhere.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteParis to Newark
Date FlownOctober 2023
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"unequivocally the most horrific flight"

(United States)

Not Verified | I booked a return trip on French Bee from Paris to New York in June 2023 on booking.com. First time with that company, but I have been flying hundreds of times across all continents for 59 years, from a Breguet deux Ponts in 1964 as a toddler, to A380 Emirates first class as a corporate executive in 2018. My weight of 83kg is normal for my height of 1.86m. I was excited to fly the A350, in my first transatlantic flight since the end of the pandemic. French Bee was unequivocally the most horrific flight experience of my entire life. FIRST, arriving at Newark, I had to choke up $200 on top of the ticket price for our two midsize luggage. SECOND, I had booked and paid extra for extra legroom on an emergency exit row. The actual layout of the cabin was entirely different from the booking map, and when I asked to be relocated so I could fit my leg in length, I was told by the crew to suck it up or get off the plane. The crew also blamed Bookings.com for the wrong cabin layout? THIRD, French Bee crams an extra seat in width in economy (10 seats across instead of the standard 9 seats of the A350), so not only I lacked legroom, but also the width of the seat was reduced by about 1/9 to fit that one extra seat in width – by the way, thank you to Airbus for enabling that. FOURTH, I am not going to comment on absent service, dehydration in flights, and so on. Just imagine the worst you can fathom. I will never ever again fly French Bee, I would rather stay home than subject myself to ten hours of torture and insults. QUESTION: at what point will the regulators step in for minimum comfort standards, so that some airlines stop carrying passengers like cattle to the slaughter house ?
AircraftA350
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteNew York to Paris
Date FlownJune 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"never been charged that amount of money for bags"

(United States)

Not Verified | We were arriving in San Francisco from Cleveland when our flight was delayed. We still arrived an 1 hour and 45 minutes before our scheduled flight with French Bee. United let us off the plane before anyone else to catch our flight with French Bee. I immediately started trying to check us in online (I was unable to previously because the website was not working), when I found out I was still unable to check us in due to the website. I then started making phone calls to the check in desk at the airport. I called nine times while waiting for my bags. No one ever answered at the French Bee desk. I grabbed my bags and ran as fast as I could to the French Bee counter (still with 1 hour and 30 minutes left before my flight). When I arrived, the counters were shut down and there was no one there. I inquired with AeroMexico where they had gone, and they only could tell me they shut the counters down. We arrived with plenty of time to catch our flight but there was no one to check is in. I begged and pleaded with anyone who could help me find a French Bee attendant and couldn't find help. Security told me that I would have to rebook my flight even though I was on time. French Bee only flies to Tahiti every couple of days. So, I had to purchase an Uber and a hotel room in San Francisco for the night. I then had to buy a whole new ticket with United for the next day or I would have missed three days of my trip versus one. I called customer service with French Bee multiple times and didn't get an answer until the next day. Customer Service told me they couldn't help me and I could only file a complaint by email. I had never heard of this! Not even customer service to help me? Fast forward to the end of my trip. I had tickets to fly home to San Francisco with French Bee again. Once again, I tried to check in online ahead of time but the website was down. Arrived at the French Bee counter in Tahiti and I was told I would have to pay $330 for three bags because I didn't check in ahead of time. The lady at the counter who worked for French Bee was so terrible to us, we couldn't actually believe that someone could treat us so horribly. I have traveled to over 40 countries with the same exact bags and never been charged that amount of money for bags. When I asked why, she said because I didn't check in online. She didn't want to hear it when I told her that the website wasn't working. She didn't believe me.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteSan Francisco to Papeete
Date FlownSeptember 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
2/10

"window for check in luggage has closed"

(United States)

Trip Verified | The ground crew had the worse customer service ever. Even I have my boarding pass and seat confirmed, they required us to be at the airport 4 hrs prior in order to check in our luggage. We arrived slightly before the 2 hrs prior of our boarding time, they refused us checking in our luggage because the window for check in luggage has closed. The crew kept pointing us to the long line and wasted our time instead of helping us to get the luggage checked in. Finally we were at their customer service counter and we realized the long line has the same issue like us - denied of checking in the luggage. They gave us 2 ridiculous option: 1) Fly without our luggage (since we had our boarding pass and ready to go) or 2) change to the next flight by paying a fee (our initial flight is still in the airport and boarding time is still 1 hr later). We are forced to pay an additional fee to get the next flight so we can fly home with our luggage. They refused to waive the fee. I understand if we came late where boarding is going on but we are talking about 2 hrs prior. I felt being scammed by this airline.
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteParis to Los Angeles
Date FlownJuly 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"Absolutely awful customer service"

(United States)

Not Verified | Awful airline. Do not fly with them unless you want a train wreck of an experience! They cancelled an entire return flight without telling anyone. No message, no email, they just let everyone arrive at the airport so that they could tell people one by one that the flight is cancelled and to come back the same time 24 hours later. Absolutely awful customer service.
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteParis to New York
Date FlownAugust 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
5/10

"seats were not very comfortable"

(United States)

Not Verified | Everyone was very nice, the food was good, the seats were not very comfortable it felt small. Both trips were an hour late which was hard. The second trip they kept us standing in a really warm room for an hour. I think that really did it for me. My fare was not really cheaper than other fares…being in that hot room was very uncomfortable. I feel like they charge too much for the dinners and breakfasts. There was no WiFi.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypeEconomy Class
RouteLos Angeles to Paris
Date FlownAugust 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
1/10

"My husband said he’d rather take a boat"

(United States)

Trip Verified | The plane was more than two hours late and the communication for what we could have expected as passengers would have been appreciated. We bought the second tier of Wi-Fi (the social package) and it stopped working for both of us within 20 minutes of the flight. The first meal is provided but anything other than water (juice, coffee, snacks etc) you have to pay for. I expected to have to pay if you wanted alcohol or specialty items, but juice and coffee? That seemed ridiculous to us. Speaking of which, we did try to order champagne but the card reader couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi so we couldn’t buy anything anyways. The plane also ran out of water which is unacceptable for an 11 hour flight. I would never fly this airline again. If it was the only option, I’d find literally any other way. My husband said he’d rather take a boat from America to Europe before flying French Bee again. I will say the flight attendants were very nice, but that doesn’t really count for much with everything else the airline is lacking.
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Seat TypePremium Economy
RouteParis Orly to San Francisco
Date FlownAugust 2023
Seat Comfort 12345
Cabin Staff Service 12345
Food & Beverages 12345
Inflight Entertainment 12345
Ground Service 12345
Wifi & Connectivity 12345
Value For Money 12345
no
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