Last week French all business class airline La Compagnie launched service between Newark and London Luton.
I flew them when they first launched service between Paris and Newark, and ultimately found them to be an exceptional value, though they definitely offer a sub-par business class product. But for ~$1,500 roundtrip in business class, you can’t get much better value than La Compagnie.
La Compagnie certainly had a rough start when it came to operational reliability, though it seems to have gotten better over time.
However, reader Skyaddict just pointed out something interesting about La Compagnie’s May flight schedule. They’re supposed to operate nonstop flights between Newark and London as well as between Newark and Paris, though on many dates they’re instead operating a New York to London to Paris flight. That’s right, on some dates they’re basically consolidating both flights onto one.
They don’t actually disclose this on their website, because quite sneakily they only list the flight’s departure time, and not the arrival time.
But when you pull up the flight on ExpertFlyer, you’ll see the one stop service many days.
I suppose there are a few possible causes for this:
- One plane is undergoing maintenance certain days, so this is their creative solution for only offering one flight (that seems unlikely, given that one of their planes is brand new)
- These are dates where they have very few bookings, so they figure they might as well just consolidate two flights as one to save on operating costs
- This is part of their expansion plan, and soon they’ll launch service to Washington, Boston, and Amsterdam as well 😉
I do hope they disclose this stop to customers in advance, because I’d certainly be pretty miffed if I booked a nonstop flight from Newark to Paris, only to have a stop in London.
This doesn’t impact the schedule every day, so if you’re booked on La Compagnie, be sure to see if it impacts your flight. Here’s to hoping these are isolated incidents and not a new pattern on the airline’s part.
Then again, I’m not sure why anyone would book La Compagnie right now, when you can book business class on American or OpenSkies for even less.
@James
I am with you now.
I did not previously understood La Compagnie doing a short hop LTN-CDG as it still only have one aircraft to juggle between the two routes as Nancy says.
Yes that is a good opportunity to fly them or have a good real business class seat on a short route like London-Paris, if this is possible.
@ Bob -- For what it's worth, they're not selling seats exclusively between London and Paris.
@Bob
Yes, I am aware about EZY, but was wandering about this one, in order to try it.
oh wait disregard my last comment
Why is there a four hour stop in London and why does it arrive at Heathrow but leave from luton?
UA frequently makes a stop during winters while flying 757-200 EU-US and I don't see the DOT saying anything about it.
James:
easyjet fly Luton-CDG I think
Nancy:
Ah! Interesting... so it seems it is all about La Compagnie itself...
Lucky, I called them yesterday because I am flying them in early June and am more than a little concerned. As I understand it, they haven't taken delivery of the second aircraft as yet. They hope to have it by mid-May. They've been juggling one aircraft between the two routes, consolidating some flights; canceling others. I don't know how they thought they would get away with this. They should have just delayed the launch.
@ Nancy -- Ouch! Freaking ridiculous!
August followed by may are the two weakest months for the economy in France.
France is on holidays during May.
There are four (4) bank holidays outside the week-end days this year for May in France, all around of course the week-end days. That means 3 week-ends of 3 days (2 fridays/ 1 monday) and one week-end of "obviously" 4 days as one bank holiday is on thursday.
So:
Friday 1rst...
August followed by may are the two weakest months for the economy in France.
France is on holidays during May.
There are four (4) bank holidays outside the week-end days this year for May in France, all around of course the week-end days. That means 3 week-ends of 3 days (2 fridays/ 1 monday) and one week-end of "obviously" 4 days as one bank holiday is on thursday.
So:
Friday 1rst may
Friday 8 may
Thursday 14 may
Monday 29 may
Of course lots of people take the bridges (as said in France) or les ponts du mois de mai, some also known as viaduc...
It costs few days-off (only 4) to have a ten days holidays from the 1rst to the 10th.
This may be the reason.
Air France must also have some domestic/european flights cancelled during may. but probably not the long-haul ones.
Would it be possible to book LTN-CDG on its own?
@ James Ukich -- Nope, not as of yet.
Not disclosing a scheduled stop before purchase? Do they WANT to be fined by DOT?