The fella moving your seat was excellent customer service, suitably apologetic and did well to sell you on the moves. This kinda stuff doesn’t cost but makes a huge difference. .
Absolutly right, the sound was terrible and the booming music dreadful. I wouldn't like the window seat if you have to climb over a stranger to go to the loo !
Another great video. I wanted to thank you Noel, my eldest son died very suddenly he was 21. The first anniversary is tomorrow and I’m not in a good place. Since the day he passed I’ve not been interested in anything just going with the daily flow of things but your channel makes me smile and I look forward to Sundays. Keep doing what you’re doing and stay safe. Take care 😊
@@techspeak5801 is this due to chances of being delayed more than on time? Or is it the bathrooms that haven’t been cleaned in five years or maybe the really rude staff? Unless of course I’ve never flown out of terminal B terminal C is totally OK. It’s not great, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with it terminal B and the old terminal a it’s just a mess. There are better airports, in Third World countries.
I know they have to ask but asking Noel "are you able to assist in case of emergency" did make me chuckle, considering he would probably be able to pop into the cockpit and fly the thing to Milan by himself :)
As a former flight attendant I started my career on the good ol' B707 in 1982, one of the last attendants trained on this aircraft with my company. So, long haul flights on a narrow body aircraft was absolutely normal for me. And at that time for many passengers as well. But, no inflight entertainment, at all! If someone wanted to be entertained, we did it 😂 But very soon the 707 was phased out, and I was trained on the B747. What a difference! Not as cosy and intimate as the 707, but on the other hand better working conditions for us, the cabin crew, and more space to stretch out for the passengers. I worked on the 747-200, -400 and -8 for more than 3 decades, but sometimes still missed the elegant and sleek Boeing 707. I think using narrow bodied aircraft will be used primarely to serve smaller cities, or when demand is very low.
My very first flight was on a 707 from New York to London. Of course that was before the 747 had started. I did not go on a commercial airline again for another 16 years. That was a 757 from London Gatwick to Greece The narrow bodies were just fine for me, especially the 757.
@Schrottkralle I was thinking the same and then I read your comment. I remember long-haul flights on 707 when I was a child, mostly on Sabena in my case. Lovely, sleek planes, yes, and quite comfortable compared tò DC-9. I miss them a bit. No entertainment on board, no problem at all. We were just used to it. You FA were so kind and caring but I think that was just another "era" and aviation was conceived and performed on different basis and spirit, to some extent.
I agree this one was a bit difficult to hear you, lots of background noise. However, I am especially pleased to see your NP lanyard instead of stretching out your t-shirt collars. Thanks for the vids!
I think what puts people off taking a narrowbody flight long haul is they think it's going to be 9 hours on a Ryanair flight. Arrivederci is also goodbye.
NO. I prefer the smooth quiet A380, thank you. After that, a B777 or even an LH B747 will do for me. Bigger is better and quieter with a smoother flight, less bumpy for me. Which is fine. I'll let you take the small aircraft leaves more room for me in the big aicraft.
Noel - crushed it again! Seriously considering taking the exact route. I've never been to Newark, but flew to Milan decades ago. Glad to see they still do the hard stand arrivals/departures. Makes it that much more memorable. Cheers!
The transpacific is the limiting aspect. Fiji Airways is the key, from Australia (Adelaide and the odd Melbourne flight) to Nadi, then one of their flights through Kiribati to Honolulu. Or the United island hopper from Guam. There are also the odd Nauru airlines etc, but they won't get you all the way to Honalulu/USA
@@justthatguy9946 Yeah, I think Fiji is the way to go. There are plenty of NB flights from Asia to Guam and from Hawaii to the US, but I don't see any NB passenger flights between Guam and Hawaii. So the southern route looks like the only option.
3:50 as someone who's home airport is EWR, Terminal B is absolutely abysmal. However, the brand new Terminal A that opened last year just won the Skytrax award for best new airport in the world and it truly is quite amazing. If you ever come back around the NYC area, try taking a flight that leaves from Terminal A. Can guarantee you'll have a much more enjoyable experience
I took Norwegian's Boeing 737 Max 8 from Providence to Dublin back in 2019. The narrow-body layout didn't affect comfort, and the interior was very stylish for a budget airline, but the seats were as hard as a rock. It was literally just leather on plastic. By the time I made it to my "cozy" Ryanair flight to Krakow, I slept like a baby.
Noel me and my fella have been subscribed to your channel for a long time now and just feel the need to tell you that you really are one of the most genuinely nice people(vloggers) we have had the pleasure of watching.so thank you 😊 👍
Great video Noel, I am struggling however to hear your voiceover in places. Have you ever considered doing some content in the smaller Greek islands? Some very interesting approaches! Would love to see that!
Waaay too many people in the lounge for my liking. Aside from that, La Compagnie look like a nice enough airline though. Another great video Noel, thanks for making them each week, a lot of work goes into these I’m sure. Always appreciated mate! 👌🏻
Yes this was another interesting one. The problem with an all-business airline will probably be that the lounge needs to be bigger too. Reminds me of a conclusion of one of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera songs: "... to this conclusion you'll agree; when everyone is "somebody", then no-one's anybody"!
La Compagnie looks like a quality airline. Hopefully they find themselves a good spot in different markets too, so you can travel many destinations in what looks like a splendid setup, business class only. Keep’em cumin’ Noel, always nice to see your reviews.
I will always chose wide body over narrow body in any kind or distance of a flight. The reason for me its simple but maybe not that important to many : bigger airplanes are more stable in bad weather or when the ride is not optimal. Ive been many times in the 777, 787, A330, etc and how the handle turbulence is better than smaller airplanes.
Great view from the plane and the sunset really was stunning. I love the look of the plane as well, I would enjoy a flight like that. Thank you again for a great video.
Just to 2nd the motion on the beauty of the sunset. Too bad the faux "champagne" interfered 😃 Do they serve normal French diet as well (3 glasses of wine per day) ?
Beautiful departure footage! My longest narrow body flight - SFO to HNL in 1970 on Pan Am. Back then everything was narrow body... I tap the plane too, top of the door opening.
The only time I ever flew out of Newark was on the late, not so great People's Express (People's Distress?) in the 1980s. It was about the most disorganized flying experience I have ever had. Noel would have loved it. ;-)
I have to say that Terminal B at Newark airport is extremely confusing. I flew home to Heathrow this Tuesday from Newark, having flown from Phoenix to Newark for the weekend. I got totally lost and ended up at security rather than checkin and had to be re-directed after not being able to find the BA check in desk. Everything was okay in the end and I managed to get the flight, which was a delightful 6 hours rather than the 10 hours from Phoenix, although we were delayed for a hour before taking off due to high winds!
I got your videos in my feed as I was logged into Miami Airport WiFi for a few hours. It's actually a great support, travelling alone on trips that total more than a day through airports that are way past their best isn't easy until I see the ordeals you go through!
to each their own, but I'm one of those who very much prefer to be on a widebody, in whatever class. I did take the TAP narrowbody from JFK to Lisbon in business a few years ago, and it was OK (although JFK was particularly bad - it was just post-covid and the Lufthansa Lounge - the only one open - was a disgrace). But I much prefer to have the sense of space that a widebody provides.
United airline has a separate terminal C which is much nicer than the terminal B, also Newark has a new and open terminal A as well. Terminal B is the only one that is really small.
13:33 this right here! I took TAP from Newark over to Lisbon that had us over the Atlantic for 7 hours, and man I was impressed. The flight was on a A321neo LR, and it was such a comfortable flight. I honestly think this is The Future, especially with airlines retiring their older wide body planes like the 747 and 767, plus with the A321neo LR becoming more and more popular.
I took a 6 hour flight on an A320 recently, BA six hours to Egypt. Absolute hell! No IFE, uncomfortable ride when compared to a wide body, and crap service. Narrowbody AC are fine for short haul, but 5-6 hours is the max, speaking for economy flying anyway. Put it this way, if you said fly this BA A320 LHR-JFK or this A350-1000, I’d take the latter without a moments hesitation.
Even the Loo Review was bad. I hope that the sound mixing gets fixed soon. Maybe it’s a new editor who just wasn’t aware they didn’t turn down the background levels?
Thank you for the fresh perspective on long-haul narrow-body flights! As a pilot as well as a long time traveler, I have always been in support of the longer flights over 5 hours being on a wide-body. But I see now the benefit of a business class model for narrow-body long haul flights. As long as it is affordable for the airline, I wish more airlines would adopt this model rather than cramming as many people onto a smaller plane. Especially with a middle seat!
the women next to you on flight would not stop picking her nose when you was showing the amenity kit and at points could see her rubbing her fingers and flicking her boogers and at 1 point she looks directly at your camera after flicking an smiled/grinned 🤣...keep up the good work lol
I did the United wide body version of this flight from Newark last month on the 777-200 in coach (window seats in rows 51 & 52 are where it’s at, no middle seats). Not bad, and as you noted, the flight is so short you barely have time to sleep anyways. Longest narrow body flight I did was PHX-KOA on Southwest 737-MAX8….pretty comfortable for a 6 hour flight in coach! I do miss the seat back IFE on narrow body flights, though!
Hi Noel what a great video loved the airline looked very good your are correct less people better service keep up the great work you are doing for aviation. Paul in Kent
A narrow-body flight always gives you a more intimate sense of what flying means. More turbulence? Yay. A bigger chance of a window seat? Yay! On narrow and wide bodies, you get the exactly same comfy (or cramped) seats.
Probably 20 years ago I flew non stop with continental on a 757 from ewr to anc. That was every bit of 9 hours and change. Love the videos keep it going!
I always tap the outter skin of the plane when boarding too. Ever since I was a little kid. Superstition and for luck. And I’ve never had a negative flight experience. It works.
In some ways this A321 layout is better than a Concorde. The Concorde flew higher and much faster but that was about it. How many wealthy people only flew Concorde once for the experience & then went back to flying first class on B747s?
Nice flight. Nothing special other than the entire plane being business class I suppose. I’m glad you enjoyed your flight. My best wishes to you and your family. Keep on traveling Noel!
It’s much more convenient for me than JFK. The new domestic terminal is nice too. Only bad part is that they have no lounges for Priority Pass members.
Noel, I'm with you about the virtues of the narrow body for long flights. After all, that is all there used to be. Think of the Lockheed Super Constellation, and the Boeing 707. I flew to Europe twice on a 707, and found it very nice indeed.
Continental had 757 flights from Newark to Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. They were maximum range for the 757 and around 8-9 hours. The lavs or loos as you called them, used to get really smelly as the flight progressed but that was eventually solved by upping the blue water ratio.
The 2x2 config is the major selling point here as you mentioned. Having done a few 6+ hr flights on narrow body airframes I’d say that’s about my limit lol
Errrr … back in the day, before the Boeing 747 and McDonell-Douglas DC-10 came on the scene, ALL airliners were narrow-bodies. And they flew right around the world. I don't seem to recall having any problems back then flying in those narrow-body, first-generation jet airliners, including Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jetliners on long flights. And there was no inflight entertainment back then either. We simply took a good book or two with us to pass the hours while awake.
All true, but then we had no choice, it doesn't mean that wide body is not preferable to narrow body. It clearly is. Also, you gotta remember back then the airlines gave economy passengers a lot more legroom than now, and meals were included and pretty decent.
Great review Noel. I wouldn’t agree with your conclusion about narrow bodies. Not because the size of the plane but because what the airlines try to squeeze out of them. I took a 6.5hr A321NX overnight last week on an LCC and it was awful. All designed to pack in the sardines. Thin uncomfortable seats, no folding headrest to act as a pillow. Came back on a full service 787 and it was chalk and cheese.
My wife and I recently flew on a JetBlue A321 core/economy AMS-JFK, flight time was just minutes shy of 8 hours. We were lucky, we had a window and aisle with nobody between us but despite this being a long flight on a single aisle aircraft, this was by far one of the best TATL flights we’ve ever had. I’m sure the empty seat between us helped but even without that it would have been perfectly fine. My conclusion is that it’s the airline, seat and service that makes the flight, far more than how many aisles the aircraft has. Yes, there can be a line for the lavatories as the ratio isn’t as great on a typical narrowbody but I’d counter that by saying exiting the aircraft can be 5-10 minutes faster from the back of the plane when compared to a larger widebody. To me, the compromises aren’t a big deal at all.
Looks like a nice, cozy flight! It kind of reminds me of a flight I took with my wife from Newark to Omaha when her father passed away. We flew Midwest Express on a 717 which was in a 2/2 config and all the seats were wide 'first class' seats. That was probably the nicest flight I was ever on. It's a shame most flights now just shove you in like cattle and expect a premium to be paid.
Paul Lucas always taps the fuselage of the aircraft before he boards. You and Paul are my 2 favorite avgeek bloggers of all time. Do you know Paul personally?
Noel, per the other comments about the volume in your voice-over, I urge you to please do what you can in the edit process to amplify your voice overs, if you can do so. Thanks, Mate!
La Compagnie isn't an airline to be counted on. They have a reputation for canceling flights for no reason. It's very much a luxury airline with a bad French attitude. If you are flying for business purposes, go with one of the big airlines.
My longest narrow body aircraft flight was from California to Okinawa, Japan (refueling stop in Honolulu). A year later, Okinawa to San Diego (refueling stop in Anchorage). Both flights were on Boeing 707-320 series aircraft. 1969 and 1970.
We flew TAP Portugal on an A321 XLR from Dulles to Lisboa. It wasn’t bad being on a narrow-body aircraft. Personally, I like the bigger jets, but whatever gets me where I need to be works just fine.
Chicago - London with a stop in Montréal on a 707. Airtime 7.5 hours eastbound, 8 hours westbound, not counting time on ground in Montréal. (Revealing my age with this.) Booked onto a narrowbody Washinton DC to Milan a few years later, but when an engine got sparky after takeoff, came down in Boston, and we were all salted into a 747 for Rome, then a domestic Italian flight to Milan with no English or French language newspapers available.
Really interesting Noel. BA used to fly A318s to New York via Shannon out of LCY with 32 all Business class config. They had the old Concorde flight number designation 001 . They have been scrapped now. I used to work on them at Gatwick
I think you should do a British Overseas Territory tour series. An aviation enthusiast that hasn't been to St Helena and Gibraltar? Iconic airports!! Pfft.
I've often noticed comments mentioning how much faster it is to exit an aircraft if you're seated in X, Y or Z or the aircraft is body. Unless you are hand-luggage only, it doesn't matter how fast you exit the aircraft because you still need to wait on baggage reclaim. Having worked back-of-the-house at BHD, depending on how many personel are available and how many aircraft need unloading, I found that more than once we prioritised an aircraft not because it was first in, but because something on that aircraft had to be removed fast. Departures were always given priority. That was 25 years ago and since then I have never been in a rush to deplane.
Main disadvantage for narrow bodies is cruise speed. They cruise at circa 50kts slower than wide bodies. So on a flight of this length would be about 45 minutes slower
2 month ago I flew with TAP Air Portugal from Lisbon to Newark on the Airbus A321neo in business class and I can say that it feels much more exclusive flying a long flight on a narrow body aircraft rather then in a wide body like b777, so I would totally do it again!
Longest narrow-body flight I've done is Amsterdam-Kano with a stop in Tunis, on a DC-8 in Air Suriname livery (!), flown by KLM. I think it was about six or seven hours including the stop. (The flight from Montreal (Mirabel!) to AMS was on an L-1011! Only time I was ever on that plane.) Not the longest distance in the world, but the start of a two-year stay in Nigeria from 1981-3 while my parents were teaching there. I turned 13 on the way home in Scotland, as we took a couple weeks to get back to Canada.
I have to agree….though I love widebodies, it is easier on a narrow body. Boarding and deplaning is faster as is service. I’ve done the Cleveland to Dublin run in economy and that was great. Also have done low cost Play airlines Boston-Iceland-Paris and that was also awesome. As a child I did the Boston-Frankfurt many times on the Lufthansa 707.
Love your content but one day you may lose everything if you continue not to blur people's faces like every other aviation TH-camr. This is not public space, it is private space and people have been sued before by someone who didn't want their face shown on a plane etc. It is not a joke!
My longest flight on a narrow body flight was in September 1972 in a stretched DC-8 from Yokota Air Base Japan to Travis Air Force Base, CA, USA. Oh, BTW it was 15 hours with all seats economy (six across). And it was nonstop at that.
I absolutely touch the outside of the plane every single time I board. Every time, without fail. I laughed when you brought that up and have honestly wondered if you do that as well 😂
I absolutely love Newark terminal B. That's where I take the morning flights to Singapore and there's just so little people early morning that's it's very smooth. Amenities wise it's really nothing to write home about but I find it easy to fly from there 😊
Great video as always!! Didnt know they operated to Nice and Milan, only thought it was Paris as the sole destibstion from Newark. Longrst flight on a narrowbody ive travelled on is the united flight from London Heathrow to Washington Dilles. Hope all is well, take cRe
Been watching your trips for a few months now, very enjoyable. Im doing a long haul in a few days time. Melbourne - Singapore - Heathrow - Dundee - Sumburgh, 34 hours including stopovers. Originally from Shetland, but live in Australia.
People forget that well into the 1970s, long-haul flights were typically flown on the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, which were narrow-bodies, and nobody complained. Before that, it used to be even longer flights (in terms of duration) on even smaller Constellations and DC-6s. And you do have a point in the quicker embarkation and disembarkation times, less congestion, and swifter service on a narrow-body. Hey, I miss the 727's rear stairs, which helped to fill and empty the plane in a heartbeat. That said, there is something comforting and less claustrophobic in a wide-body cabin. For sure, it's purely psychological and has all those tradeoffs you mentioned, but it may mean a slightly less stressful experience to many passengers. It must also be remembered that a typical economy-class seat on a 707 was much roomier than today's average. It also depends on the plane model: I HATED my only flight on a 757. It was just a 2:30-hour hop (DFW-MIA on American), but I arrived exhausted, as if I had flown 10 hours. That very long cabin of the 757 made service slow, the flight very stressful, and access to the lavatories difficult. Since the A321 has similar dimensions to the 757, I'd expect a similar experience. But to each one's own, and it's good to be able to choose. As for La Compagnie, it looks like it was a nice flight, but I found it too expensive and bad value for money. You can certainly find much more modern business-class products across the Atlantic for $1900 or less one-way, especially if you buy your ticket well ahead, and you can also accrue and use alliance loyalty miles, which you can't at La Compagnie.
![⭐️( ลอยกระทง 2024 ) Ver. แดนซ์ Remix BY [ ดีเจกิต รีมิกซ์ ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rMWOLhgXUHc/mqdefault.jpg)
The fella moving your seat was excellent customer service, suitably apologetic and did well to sell you on the moves. This kinda stuff doesn’t cost but makes a huge difference. .
That agent was really great...everything about his manner was spot on...
Very accommodating
Was gonna come and say this. Makes me want to fly with them just because of this interaction. Oh, if all ground staff were this brilliant!
It didn't make any sense because what he said and where you sat didn't match.
Well he had the fortune of being able to offer something better than what was previously had.
The volume of some of your voice overs in this cideo were really low and could barely hear them over the noise of other things in the video.
Was about to comment on this. No good.
His audio mixing has been hit and miss for awhile. Sometimes I'll have to turn up the volume to hear him then BOOM stock music playing at max volume.
Yeahh i have to really strain to hear it
Its unfortunate, would have been a great vid otherwise.
Absolutly right, the sound was terrible and the booming music dreadful. I wouldn't like the window seat if you have to climb over a stranger to go to the loo !
Another great video. I wanted to thank you Noel, my eldest son died very suddenly he was 21. The first anniversary is tomorrow and I’m not in a good place. Since the day he passed I’ve not been interested in anything just going with the daily flow of things but your channel makes me smile and I look forward to Sundays. Keep doing what you’re doing and stay safe. Take care 😊
Thank you for your kind words & my sympathy to you & your family.
"It's really not the best" -- probably the nicest description of Newark airport I've ever heard!
Imagine flying for any length of time only to arrive at Newark.
I personally love EWR!
@@techspeak5801how it’s a disaster
A coworker of mine once said "There's Eww and then there's EWR" 😅
@@techspeak5801 is this due to chances of being delayed more than on time? Or is it the bathrooms that haven’t been cleaned in five years or maybe the really rude staff? Unless of course I’ve never flown out of terminal B terminal C is totally OK. It’s not great, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with it terminal B and the old terminal a it’s just a mess. There are better airports, in Third World countries.
I feel like the background noise overpowers your dialogue in a few parts of the video.
As many others have commented (see @chinaberg below), very poor sound quality for this vlog. I have no idea why. I'm sure you can fix the problem.🙂
@@markjones2781 could it be the airplane is noisy? some aircraft are quite bad (a350/380 are quiet)
I didn’t have a problem hearing it
Yeah, the sound mixing was ofc throughout the entire video.
Nothing wrong with the sound then I’m using noise cancelling headphones.
I know they have to ask but asking Noel "are you able to assist in case of emergency" did make me chuckle, considering he would probably be able to pop into the cockpit and fly the thing to Milan by himself :)
As a former flight attendant I started my career on the good ol' B707 in 1982, one of the last attendants trained on this aircraft with my company.
So, long haul flights on a narrow body aircraft was absolutely normal for me.
And at that time for many passengers as well.
But, no inflight entertainment, at all!
If someone wanted to be entertained, we did it 😂
But very soon the 707 was phased out, and I was trained on the B747. What a difference!
Not as cosy and intimate as the 707, but on the other hand better working conditions for us, the cabin crew, and more space to stretch out for the passengers.
I worked on the 747-200, -400 and -8 for more than 3 decades, but sometimes still missed the elegant and sleek Boeing 707.
I think using narrow bodied aircraft will be used primarely to serve smaller cities, or when demand is very low.
To right young people don't know good they have got it and this flight is all business , what's hard about it.
My very first flight was on a 707 from New York to London.
Of course that was before the 747 had started.
I did not go on a commercial airline again for another 16 years.
That was a 757 from London Gatwick to Greece
The narrow bodies were just fine for me, especially the 757.
@Schrottkralle I was thinking the same and then I read your comment. I remember long-haul flights on 707 when I was a child, mostly on Sabena in my case. Lovely, sleek planes, yes, and quite comfortable compared tò DC-9. I miss them a bit.
No entertainment on board, no problem at all. We were just used to it.
You FA were so kind and caring but I think that was just another "era" and aviation was conceived and performed on different basis and spirit, to some extent.
Thanks for sharing. I never go anywhere anymore. Used to fly for work yrs ago.
Yes, indeed. We used to fly on DC-8s and (AA) 707's from Auckland to the US west coast, (via HNL) back in the 70s !!
I agree this one was a bit difficult to hear you, lots of background noise. However, I am especially pleased to see your NP lanyard instead of stretching out your t-shirt collars. Thanks for the vids!
I think what puts people off taking a narrowbody flight long haul is they think it's going to be 9 hours on a Ryanair flight. Arrivederci is also goodbye.
haha, that's like the "do svidaniya" in Transformers. "That means goodbye".
I suspect that might be a joke by now. He's done the same in Italy before.
Don't give Ryanair any ideas. Please.
@@halfbakedproductions7887 You can already do sort of long haul on Wizzair if you have masochistic tendencies.... ;)
NO. I prefer the smooth quiet A380, thank you. After that, a B777 or even an LH B747 will do for me. Bigger is better and quieter with a smoother flight, less bumpy for me. Which is fine. I'll let you take the small aircraft leaves more room for me in the big aicraft.
Noel - crushed it again! Seriously considering taking the exact route. I've never been to Newark, but flew to Milan decades ago. Glad to see they still do the hard stand arrivals/departures. Makes it that much more memorable. Cheers!
You should fly around the world on only narrow bodies it’s possible I think
Don't think any narrow bodies are crossing the pacific
The transpacific is the limiting aspect. Fiji Airways is the key, from Australia (Adelaide and the odd Melbourne flight) to Nadi, then one of their flights through Kiribati to Honolulu. Or the United island hopper from Guam. There are also the odd Nauru airlines etc, but they won't get you all the way to Honalulu/USA
@@tomstravels520 Fiji airways fly the 737 max to Hawaii I think
@@justthatguy9946 Yeah, I think Fiji is the way to go. There are plenty of NB flights from Asia to Guam and from Hawaii to the US, but I don't see any NB passenger flights between Guam and Hawaii. So the southern route looks like the only option.
I have found RTW routings in only 737s. It’s very doable on the A320 series as well.
3:50 as someone who's home airport is EWR, Terminal B is absolutely abysmal. However, the brand new Terminal A that opened last year just won the Skytrax award for best new airport in the world and it truly is quite amazing. If you ever come back around the NYC area, try taking a flight that leaves from Terminal A. Can guarantee you'll have a much more enjoyable experience
with the A321XLR coming, we could be seeing more of these types of flights
Already very common with the current 737 and A321. The XLR will just add range. You might see longer, smaller city pairs connected.
I took Norwegian's Boeing 737 Max 8 from Providence to Dublin back in 2019. The narrow-body layout didn't affect comfort, and the interior was very stylish for a budget airline, but the seats were as hard as a rock. It was literally just leather on plastic.
By the time I made it to my "cozy" Ryanair flight to Krakow, I slept like a baby.
737 max 8 on Norwegian from SFO to FCO with 2 adults and 3 kids 7-12 in economy. Good flight
Noel me and my fella have been subscribed to your channel for a long time now and just feel the need to tell you that you really are one of the most genuinely nice people(vloggers) we have had the pleasure of watching.so thank you 😊 👍
Thank you for your kind words.
Glad to know it’s not just me that taps the plane before I board. Great vid Noel!
My wife makes fun of me when I tap the plane before I board 😂
Travel video presenter, Paul Lucas does this in his videos also.
Thanks! 👍
It seems there's a whole lot more of us than I ever imagined.
Glad to know I'm not alone!
The random currencies used in the conversions are the best part of these videos!
Great video Noel, I am struggling however to hear your voiceover in places. Have you ever considered doing some content in the smaller Greek islands? Some very interesting approaches! Would love to see that!
Thanks Noel. See you in London on Saturday, I'm really looking forward to it
Waaay too many people in the lounge for my liking. Aside from that, La Compagnie look like a nice enough airline though. Another great video Noel, thanks for making them each week, a lot of work goes into these I’m sure. Always appreciated mate! 👌🏻
Yes this was another interesting one. The problem with an all-business airline will probably be that the lounge needs to be bigger too. Reminds me of a conclusion of one of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera songs: "... to this conclusion you'll agree; when everyone is "somebody", then no-one's anybody"!
@@briangentle5515 I very much like that quote, I agree with the sentiment too. Very good.
taking my first business class flight in October with Gulf Air to Thailand. Can not wait!! thank you for your great videos Noel
La Compagnie looks like a quality airline. Hopefully they find themselves a good spot in different markets too, so you can travel many destinations in what looks like a splendid setup, business class only. Keep’em cumin’ Noel, always nice to see your reviews.
I will always chose wide body over narrow body in any kind or distance of a flight. The reason for me its simple but maybe not that important to many : bigger airplanes are more stable in bad weather or when the ride is not optimal. Ive been many times in the 777, 787, A330, etc and how the handle turbulence is better than smaller airplanes.
That is an urban myth.
@@chrismckellar9350 No, it's absolutely true. Larger planes are more stable in turbulence.
@clapanse depends. The back of an A340-600 gets quite annoying in turbulence
@@clapanse - I have to disagree. Regardless of size, any commercial aircraft will have issues in turbulence.
I think it's pretty obvious the bigger the plane the smoother the turbulence anyone that's ever flown in smaller planes knows this
Great view from the plane and the sunset really was stunning. I love the look of the plane as well, I would enjoy a flight like that. Thank you again for a great video.
Glad you enjoyed it
Just to 2nd the motion on the beauty of the sunset.
Too bad the faux "champagne" interfered 😃 Do they serve normal French diet as well (3 glasses of wine per day) ?
Beautiful departure footage! My longest narrow body flight - SFO to HNL in 1970 on Pan Am. Back then everything was narrow body... I tap the plane too, top of the door opening.
The only time I ever flew out of Newark was on the late, not so great People's Express (People's Distress?) in the 1980s. It was about the most disorganized flying experience I have ever had. Noel would have loved it. ;-)
I have to say that Terminal B at Newark airport is extremely confusing. I flew home to Heathrow this Tuesday from Newark, having flown from Phoenix to Newark for the weekend. I got totally lost and ended up at security rather than checkin and had to be re-directed after not being able to find the BA check in desk. Everything was okay in the end and I managed to get the flight, which was a delightful 6 hours rather than the 10 hours from Phoenix, although we were delayed for a hour before taking off due to high winds!
"The pineapples don't mean anything" hahahaha. Awesome video!
Best line, gotta 💛 Noel + 🍍
I got your videos in my feed as I was logged into Miami Airport WiFi for a few hours. It's actually a great support, travelling alone on trips that total more than a day through airports that are way past their best isn't easy until I see the ordeals you go through!
Done Newark a fair few times - transition to Portland ME. Spent 11 hours there once due to constant delays.
to each their own, but I'm one of those who very much prefer to be on a widebody, in whatever class. I did take the TAP narrowbody from JFK to Lisbon in business a few years ago, and it was OK (although JFK was particularly bad - it was just post-covid and the Lufthansa Lounge - the only one open - was a disgrace). But I much prefer to have the sense of space that a widebody provides.
United airline has a separate terminal C which is much nicer than the terminal B, also Newark has a new and open terminal A as well. Terminal B is the only one that is really small.
13:33 this right here! I took TAP from Newark over to Lisbon that had us over the Atlantic for 7 hours, and man I was impressed. The flight was on a A321neo LR, and it was such a comfortable flight. I honestly think this is The Future, especially with airlines retiring their older wide body planes like the 747 and 767, plus with the A321neo LR becoming more and more popular.
I took a 6 hour flight on an A320 recently, BA six hours to Egypt. Absolute hell! No IFE, uncomfortable ride when compared to a wide body, and crap service. Narrowbody AC are fine for short haul, but 5-6 hours is the max, speaking for economy flying anyway. Put it this way, if you said fly this BA A320 LHR-JFK or this A350-1000, I’d take the latter without a moments hesitation.
Great little video Noel . Looks like my kind of flying . Certainly not too busy . Makes sense . And the service looked great
Sorry Noel. Hearing you on this episode, is very very hard. The volume is terrible. Sorry, I hope it gets better next week.
Even the Loo Review was bad. I hope that the sound mixing gets fixed soon. Maybe it’s a new editor who just wasn’t aware they didn’t turn down the background levels?
Thank you for the fresh perspective on long-haul narrow-body flights! As a pilot as well as a long time traveler, I have always been in support of the longer flights over 5 hours being on a wide-body. But I see now the benefit of a business class model for narrow-body long haul flights. As long as it is affordable for the airline, I wish more airlines would adopt this model rather than cramming as many people onto a smaller plane. Especially with a middle seat!
the women next to you on flight would not stop picking her nose when you was showing the amenity kit and at points could see her rubbing her fingers and flicking her boogers and at 1 point she looks directly at your camera after flicking an smiled/grinned 🤣...keep up the good work lol
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I did the United wide body version of this flight from Newark last month on the 777-200 in coach (window seats in rows 51 & 52 are where it’s at, no middle seats). Not bad, and as you noted, the flight is so short you barely have time to sleep anyways. Longest narrow body flight I did was PHX-KOA on Southwest 737-MAX8….pretty comfortable for a 6 hour flight in coach! I do miss the seat back IFE on narrow body flights, though!
Hi Noel what a great video loved the airline looked very good your are correct less people better service keep up the great work you are doing for aviation. Paul in Kent
Glad you enjoyed it
A narrow-body flight always gives you a more intimate sense of what flying means. More turbulence? Yay. A bigger chance of a window seat? Yay!
On narrow and wide bodies, you get the exactly same comfy (or cramped) seats.
LOL, i was too distracted by the woman in the background picking her nose for ages
Probably 20 years ago I flew non stop with continental on a 757 from ewr to anc. That was every bit of 9 hours and change. Love the videos keep it going!
I always tap the outter skin of the plane when boarding too. Ever since I was a little kid. Superstition and for luck. And I’ve never had a negative flight experience. It works.
Your videos are comforting, interesting and I often find myself laughing at your humerous takes. Thanks for taking us along on your journeys!
Thank you for your kind words, glad you enjoy them.
Technically Concorde was a narrow body aircraft and it also flew between New York and Paris
In some ways this A321 layout is better than a Concorde. The Concorde flew higher and much faster but that was about it. How many wealthy people only flew Concorde once for the experience & then went back to flying first class on B747s?
Let’s not forget the Uk
Nice flight. Nothing special other than the entire plane being business class I suppose. I’m glad you enjoyed your flight. My best wishes to you and your family. Keep on traveling Noel!
You may not like EWR, but it's most convenient to almost anywhere in the world.
First airport I ever flew into in 1991. Had to take a bus to another terminal to catch the connecting flight. Airport Was far less chaotic than JFK.
It’s much more convenient for me than JFK. The new domestic terminal is nice too. Only bad part is that they have no lounges for Priority Pass members.
@@travellinman382never been to the new Terminal A but the old one was horrible.. old outdated cramped and about 50 years old when they retired it.
I personally prefer its compactness and train connections to Manhattan as well.
unless you stuck in Terminal B
Noel, I'm with you about the virtues of the narrow body for long flights. After all, that
is all there used to be. Think of the Lockheed Super Constellation, and the Boeing 707.
I flew to Europe twice on a 707, and found it very nice indeed.
Newark is good for arrivals if you’re going to manhattan, train service is good and my feeling is that the volume of passengers is less than JFK.
Bingo! I didn't feel overwhelmed flying through it like some others...
Continental had 757 flights from Newark to Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. They were maximum range for the 757 and around 8-9 hours. The lavs or loos as you called them, used to get really smelly as the flight progressed but that was eventually solved by upping the blue water ratio.
The 2x2 config is the major selling point here as you mentioned. Having done a few 6+ hr flights on narrow body airframes I’d say that’s about my limit lol
Interesting to see La Compagnie using the old Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Newark. I thought it looked familiar when it popped up!
I'm surprised that you've never been to Newark. It's the united hub, and it's probably in my opinion the best airport to fly out of in the NYC area.
Prior to the new Terminal A. Terminal A and B sucked and C was ok (C3 was kinda nice).
It really surprised me! In fact, it serves more european destinations than jfk right now!
@@jasonthompson8157 I never thought it was that bad myself... It was older but compact and did the job...
Great product 👍 That reminds me of my American Airlines flight with B757-200 in 2009 from Chicago to London-Heathrow 😎
Errrr … back in the day, before the Boeing 747 and McDonell-Douglas DC-10 came on the scene, ALL airliners were narrow-bodies. And they flew right around the world. I don't seem to recall having any problems back then flying in those narrow-body, first-generation jet airliners, including Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 jetliners on long flights. And there was no inflight entertainment back then either. We simply took a good book or two with us to pass the hours while awake.
Somebody - I think it was Norweigian - flew 737s across the pond. Doesn't bear thinking about...
And a pack of cigarettes or a cigar.
All true, but then we had no choice, it doesn't mean that wide body is not preferable to narrow body. It clearly is. Also, you gotta remember back then the airlines gave economy passengers a lot more legroom than now, and meals were included and pretty decent.
I can't read while in .motion it makes me sick
Great review Noel. I wouldn’t agree with your conclusion about narrow bodies. Not because the size of the plane but because what the airlines try to squeeze out of them.
I took a 6.5hr A321NX overnight last week on an LCC and it was awful. All designed to pack in the sardines. Thin uncomfortable seats, no folding headrest to act as a pillow. Came back on a full service 787 and it was chalk and cheese.
Have you tried Air Transit, SAS or Aer Lingus on their A321LR's?
I think he’s done Aer Lingus A321LR between Dublin and London in business class
My wife and I recently flew on a JetBlue A321 core/economy AMS-JFK, flight time was just minutes shy of 8 hours. We were lucky, we had a window and aisle with nobody between us but despite this being a long flight on a single aisle aircraft, this was by far one of the best TATL flights we’ve ever had. I’m sure the empty seat between us helped but even without that it would have been perfectly fine. My conclusion is that it’s the airline, seat and service that makes the flight, far more than how many aisles the aircraft has. Yes, there can be a line for the lavatories as the ratio isn’t as great on a typical narrowbody but I’d counter that by saying exiting the aircraft can be 5-10 minutes faster from the back of the plane when compared to a larger widebody. To me, the compromises aren’t a big deal at all.
Noel uploaded on my birthday, yayyy! best gift ever, thanks Noel! 😂🎁🎂
@lorddavidlawrence thank you so much! 😁
Happy Birthday!
@@noelphilips thank you so much!!! :)))
Looks like a nice, cozy flight! It kind of reminds me of a flight I took with my wife from Newark to Omaha when her father passed away. We flew Midwest Express on a 717 which was in a 2/2 config and all the seats were wide 'first class' seats. That was probably the nicest flight I was ever on. It's a shame most flights now just shove you in like cattle and expect a premium to be paid.
Paul Lucas always taps the fuselage of the aircraft before he boards. You and Paul are my 2 favorite avgeek bloggers of all time. Do you know Paul personally?
Noel, per the other comments about the volume in your voice-over, I urge you to please do what you can in the edit process to amplify your voice overs, if you can do so. Thanks, Mate!
La Compagnie isn't an airline to be counted on. They have a reputation for canceling flights for no reason. It's very much a luxury airline with a bad French attitude. If you are flying for business purposes, go with one of the big airlines.
It's the cabin altitude and noise level, done a lot of narrow body trips in the Pacific and it's far quieter and restful when I take the 380
the music is so loud its insane. Who edited this?
I’ve done Hartford BDL to Dublin DUB return multiple times on Aer Lingus in their a321 and always love it.
thank goodness you had the price in Costa Rican Colón
I'm surprised Noel didn't convert his fare on Air Seoul into Costa Rican Colóns.
My longest narrow body aircraft flight was from California to Okinawa, Japan (refueling stop in Honolulu). A year later, Okinawa to San Diego (refueling stop in Anchorage). Both flights were on Boeing 707-320 series aircraft. 1969 and 1970.
None alcoholic champagne = Sparkling grape juice
We flew TAP Portugal on an A321 XLR from Dulles to Lisboa. It wasn’t bad being on a narrow-body aircraft. Personally, I like the bigger jets, but whatever gets me where I need to be works just fine.
Starting around 8:30 - I believe the person in the background is ‘cleaning’ their nose? 😮
Really disgusting😭even eating all the bits it as well😱
Chicago - London with a stop in Montréal on a 707. Airtime 7.5 hours eastbound, 8 hours westbound, not counting time on ground in Montréal. (Revealing my age with this.)
Booked onto a narrowbody Washinton DC to Milan a few years later, but when an engine got sparky after takeoff, came down in Boston, and we were all salted into a 747 for Rome, then a domestic Italian flight to Milan with no English or French language newspapers available.
757 Philadelphia to Bahrain... boy oh boy.
Love to see your room in the house where you keep all the amenity kits !!
The women picking her nose and eating it at 8:10 rightt through till 9:10
thanks for that 🙄🤢
Really interesting Noel. BA used to fly A318s to New York via Shannon out of LCY with 32 all Business class config. They had the old Concorde flight number designation 001 . They have been scrapped now. I used to work on them at Gatwick
I think you should do a British Overseas Territory tour series. An aviation enthusiast that hasn't been to St Helena and Gibraltar? Iconic airports!! Pfft.
Your next family vacation should be to the Alsworth resort in Alaska. You could do a collab with Salina Alsworth. Film trips on float planes, etc.
Anyone else see the women sitting across from him fully picking her nose for a solid 30 seconds or so 😂
Noel that looked absolutely brilliant i would love to fly that aircraft . Great video as always
Many thanks!
"Next door to New York" don't do my state of NJ like that!
I've often noticed comments mentioning how much faster it is to exit an aircraft if you're seated in X, Y or Z or the aircraft is body. Unless you are hand-luggage only, it doesn't matter how fast you exit the aircraft because you still need to wait on baggage reclaim. Having worked back-of-the-house at BHD, depending on how many personel are available and how many aircraft need unloading, I found that more than once we prioritised an aircraft not because it was first in, but because something on that aircraft had to be removed fast. Departures were always given priority. That was 25 years ago and since then I have never been in a rush to deplane.
"deplane"? Jeez ...How often do you enplane? George Carlin was right about "deplane" and its only legitimate use.
@@rorykeegan1895 Just an expression we always used when I was working at BHD.
Pineapple signs on cruise ships are apparently important to swingers.
Main disadvantage for narrow bodies is cruise speed. They cruise at circa 50kts slower than wide bodies. So on a flight of this length would be about 45 minutes slower
Newark is in New Jersey, another state - believe it or not
2 month ago I flew with TAP Air Portugal from Lisbon to Newark on the Airbus A321neo in business class and I can say that it feels much more exclusive flying a long flight on a narrow body aircraft rather then in a wide body like b777, so I would totally do it again!
First!😊
Longest narrow-body flight I've done is Amsterdam-Kano with a stop in Tunis, on a DC-8 in Air Suriname livery (!), flown by KLM. I think it was about six or seven hours including the stop. (The flight from Montreal (Mirabel!) to AMS was on an L-1011! Only time I was ever on that plane.) Not the longest distance in the world, but the start of a two-year stay in Nigeria from 1981-3 while my parents were teaching there. I turned 13 on the way home in Scotland, as we took a couple weeks to get back to Canada.
The voice over @ 2:31 is not great :/ the lounge background sound is too loud
I have to agree….though I love widebodies, it is easier on a narrow body. Boarding and deplaning is faster as is service. I’ve done the Cleveland to Dublin run in economy and that was great. Also have done low cost Play airlines Boston-Iceland-Paris and that was also awesome. As a child I did the Boston-Frankfurt many times on the Lufthansa 707.
Love your content but one day you may lose everything if you continue not to blur people's faces like every other aviation TH-camr. This is not public space, it is private space and people have been sued before by someone who didn't want their face shown on a plane etc. It is not a joke!
Ok boomer
He probably asks people he’s engaged with directly. Some person just randomly walking around in an airport has no expectation of privacy.
I flew from Newark to Sao Paulo back December of 2009 on Continental Airlines. Plenty of restaurants i had no problems at Newark.
My longest flight on a narrow body flight was in September 1972 in a stretched DC-8 from Yokota Air Base Japan to Travis Air Force Base, CA, USA. Oh, BTW it was 15 hours with all seats economy (six across). And it was nonstop at that.
I absolutely touch the outside of the plane every single time I board. Every time, without fail. I laughed when you brought that up and have honestly wondered if you do that as well 😂
I absolutely love Newark terminal B. That's where I take the morning flights to Singapore and there's just so little people early morning that's it's very smooth. Amenities wise it's really nothing to write home about but I find it easy to fly from there 😊
Great video as always!! Didnt know they operated to Nice and Milan, only thought it was Paris as the sole destibstion from Newark. Longrst flight on a narrowbody ive travelled on is the united flight from London Heathrow to Washington Dilles. Hope all is well, take cRe
Hey man you twp the plane before you enter. Wow. I didn't even know who else does this. Been doing this for yearssssss. Amazing
Been watching your trips for a few months now, very enjoyable. Im doing a long haul in a few days time. Melbourne - Singapore - Heathrow - Dundee - Sumburgh, 34 hours including stopovers. Originally from Shetland, but live in Australia.
Appreciate you managed to find an El Al plane at both EWR and MXP. Nice way to tie the video together.
People forget that well into the 1970s, long-haul flights were typically flown on the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, which were narrow-bodies, and nobody complained. Before that, it used to be even longer flights (in terms of duration) on even smaller Constellations and DC-6s. And you do have a point in the quicker embarkation and disembarkation times, less congestion, and swifter service on a narrow-body. Hey, I miss the 727's rear stairs, which helped to fill and empty the plane in a heartbeat.
That said, there is something comforting and less claustrophobic in a wide-body cabin. For sure, it's purely psychological and has all those tradeoffs you mentioned, but it may mean a slightly less stressful experience to many passengers. It must also be remembered that a typical economy-class seat on a 707 was much roomier than today's average. It also depends on the plane model: I HATED my only flight on a 757. It was just a 2:30-hour hop (DFW-MIA on American), but I arrived exhausted, as if I had flown 10 hours. That very long cabin of the 757 made service slow, the flight very stressful, and access to the lavatories difficult. Since the A321 has similar dimensions to the 757, I'd expect a similar experience.
But to each one's own, and it's good to be able to choose. As for La Compagnie, it looks like it was a nice flight, but I found it too expensive and bad value for money. You can certainly find much more modern business-class products across the Atlantic for $1900 or less one-way, especially if you buy your ticket well ahead, and you can also accrue and use alliance loyalty miles, which you can't at La Compagnie.