Last month, Simple Flying flew roundtrip from Los Angeles to Paris at the invitation of French bee, a French a-la-carte airline. Founded in 2016, French bee is France's first long-haul low-cost airline and operates a fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft. The airline serves several destinations in the US, as well as Tahiti and Reunion Island.
For the outbound leg from Los Angeles International Airport, French bee booked us in Premium. On the return, we flew in Economy, and the full review can be read below. In typical fashion, I arrived at the airport 80 minutes before my flight.
I cut it close whenever I fly in the US because I am a CLEAR member and have TSA PreCheck, and on this trip, I was flying only with a carry-on bag. Frenchbee only recently joined PreCheck, but for whatever reason, the PreCheck logo was not available on my boarding pass. By the time I arrived at the check-in desks, no staff were there, and I had to proceed to the regular checkpoint.
Fortunately, once I went to the CLEAR kiosk and it scanned my eyes, it said I had PreCheck, so the staff member escorted me to the other checkpoint. The staff member then explained the situation to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent, who asked for my passport to verify that I was a PreCheck member. Their system confirmed I was a member, and I was allowed to go through.
It took me less than four minutes to go through security, and I was airside within eight minutes of being dropped off at the airport. By the tim.
