Vacation shouldn’t start when you land at your destination. Self-care should begin the moment you board the plane. La Compagnie—a 100% business class airline—agrees. Why arrive jet-lagged and red-eyed in Paris when you can show up fully rested from a long nap on a flat, six foot-long bed? Why risk missing a tight connection to Nice when you can fly straight there from New York? Why not hit the ground running in Milan with a full belly and a relaxed mind instead of hungry and stressed out?
On each flight, La Compagnie has 76 fully-reclining seats, gourmet food and drinks, free wifi, and carefully curated amenities to keep you comfortable. Its aircraft are greener too, using 30% less fuel than the average plane. With roundtrips from Newark (EWR) to France and Italy starting at just $2,300, here are six ways the innovative airline makes business class travel more accessible, and kicks off your vacay before you’ve even left the runway.
On La Compagnie, you’ll never end up sandwiched between two giant dudes or doomed to multi-hour power struggle over a shared arm rest. Each row is just two seats across and the divider between them clearly defines whose space is whose. The set-up doesn’t just make watching movies on your personal 15.6 inch screen more comfortable, it assures that you’ll never wake up from a nap to find your neighbor using your shoulder as a pillow.
Most airlines have turned their boarding system into a kind of class warfare where platinum, gold and silver members get priority over everyone else. But not La Compagnie: Boarding is remarkably egalitarian when everyone has head-of-the-line business class privileges. Every passenger also has access to the airline’s stylish lounges, each of which is stocked with drinks, refreshments, and free wifi. The lounge at EWR even has two shower rooms if you need a quick refresh before your flight.
Every single one of the 76 seats on La Compagnie reclines into a flat, six foot bed. Every. Single. Seat. That alone would make it easy to get enough shut eye to land fully refreshed in Paris or Milan, but the all business class airline isn’t messing around with their amenities, either. Passengers are offered cushy anti-allergenic pillows and soft blankets that are long enough to actually keep both your feet and upper body warm at the same time. With all that coziness, plus a travel care amenity kit complete with hydrating products from natural beauty line Caudalie or [comfort zone], no one will ever know you just spent the last eight hours in the air.
La Compagnie prides itself in its French bistronomy. With Chef Christophe Langrée at the helm of the food and beverage program (and contributions to the airline’s monthly rotating menus from other renowned tastemakers), indulging in gourmet cheeses, rich desserts and dishes like chicken breast with foie gras, morel and shitake mushrooms, and gnocchi won’t have to wait until you land. A selection of organic wines and champagne have been carefully curated to pair perfectly with the light dinners served on flights from New York to Europe, and the four-course lunches served on the way home.
On La Compagnie, unlimited high-speed wifi comes free. Stream whatever floats your boat—er, plane—or dig into the news and magazines available from the airline’s web portal right on your phone. Need a bigger screen? More than 40 films from new releases to classics are available on every flight, along with the MK2 Cinema Club, which screens a new set of five short programs and classics every two months. If you’re in need of something a little more relaxing, a meditation channel created in collaboration with Petit Bambou will keep you breathing deeply from take off to landing.
You don’t have to be a member of the 1% to actually afford a flight on La Compagnie. With attractive and competitive fares—roundtrip flights start at $2,300—the company is revolutionizing access to luxury travel to and from Europe. Plus, unlike many of their competitors, tickets are flexible up to the last minute. If your plans change, you have until two hours before your flight departs to reschedule (just note that fare differences may apply and promo tickets are nonrefundable).
