It’s a fascinating time for Air Côte d’Ivoire, the national airline of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire. The airline recently took delivery of its first wide body aircraft, an Airbus A330-900neo, and will soon launch flights between Abidjan (ABJ) and Paris (CDG).
I realize I’m probably more intrigued by this new service than just about anyone, especially since Air Côte d’Ivoire is the first airline in years to introduce an international first class product. However, I’m a little confused by what’s going on here, and am wondering if the airline decided to backtrack?
Does Air Côte d’Ivoire offer first class to Paris, or not?
Air Côte d’Ivoire has been promoting how its Airbus A330-900neo is in a premium, four cabin configuration, with first class, business class, premium economy, and economy.
Now, as I noted when the airline took delivery of the plane, in terms of quality, first class looks more like a “business class plus.” That’s because there’s not even a curtain between first class and business class (then again, the same is true on Starlux, and that doesn’t stop the airline).
But this is where it gets strange, and I’m confused. If you go to the website of Air Côte d’Ivoire and try to book this flight, you’ll see the option to book business class or economy, but not the option to book first class or premium economy. Is that a glitch, or…?
Even the carrier’s advertisement for this flight only makes reference to business class and economy fares, and not first class or premium economy fares.
What makes this strange is that if you go to Google Flights, you’ll see the option to book first class (with absurd pricing), but only through online travel agencies.
So is the airline offering first class, but just isn’t selling it directly (yet?), or what other explanation is there?
Here’s another thing I find noteworthy. If you check out the carrier’s 3D tour of the A330-900neo cabin and look at the front row of seats, you’ll see them described as “BC+ Suite,” which sure sounds to me like “business class plus suite,” or something, rather than first class. Is that intentional?
So does anyone have any clue what’s actually going on here? Is the airline selling this first row of seats as first class or as business class plus? And does the airline even sell this product directly, in any form?
I wondered if a ticketed passenger in business class has the option to pay extra to assign a seat in the first row, and that maybe this is how the airline is monetizing the cabin. However, it seems that the airline doesn’t actually let you access the seat map without first ticketing the reservation, which is a major challenge in terms of figuring that out.
I’m still looking for a good Air Côte d’Ivoire fare
Regardless of whether Air Côte d’Ivoire markets the front cabin on its A330-900neo as first class, or business class plus, or whatever, I’d still like to fly with the airline, even if it’s in the standard business class.
However, I’m finding that Air Côte d’Ivoire has unusually straightforward pricing, in the sense that there aren’t many opportunities to position to another city to get a better deal. Pricing is pretty similar whether originating in Paris or Abidjan, and roundtrip fares are more affordable than one-ways.
Often there’s an opportunity to book one direction in business class and one direction in economy (so that you can just throw away the return), but that’s not even an option here, at least not in a way that’s useful. If you select a business class fare on the outbound, the cheapest economy fare can no longer be paired with that, and you end up having to pay an economy fare that’s close to the business class fare.
I’ve looked at originating in other cities, but there’s virtually no pricing advantage. I feel like there’s no airline that’s quite this straightforward, so I’m curious if anyone has found anything better.
What’s funny is that Starlux is the only other airline in the world I haven’t flown in first class, and the carrier’s pricing just frustrates the hell out of me. You can either pay around $2,500 for one-way first class on an intra-Asia flight (which just seems stupid, since it’s not the full experience), or you can pay around $8,000 for one-way first class on a long haul flight.
I haven’t been able to find any sort of a deal with any city pairs, so I really think that Starlux has outsmarted me here! I want to pull the trigger on my last first class product, but both of those options just seem suboptimal. Where’s an Aeroplan partnership, or an ex-Cairo (well, or somewhere else) fare, or a cheap airport upgrade, when you need it?!
Bottom line
Air Côte d’Ivoire will soon launch Paris flights with its new Airbus A330-900neos. The airline has been promoting how these planes will have first class, yet oddly, the airline isn’t actually selling first class directly (unless I’m missing something). Meanwhile some online travel agencies do sell first class on this flight, while the company’s virtual tour of the plane suggests this is a business class plus product.
What do you make of this Air Côte d’Ivoire first class situation?
