Man reveals surreal experience on a 44-seat Airbus A319 with only 12 passengers after massive delays

This guy – yours truly – had what felt like a private flight aboard an Airbus A319.

The plane in question was a heavily modified Airbus A319 – hence the reduced number of seats.

But it was half empty to begin with.

And then something else happened.

The reason why this Airbus A319 only has 44 seats

The plane in question is one of two aircraft operated by BeOnd, an experimental all-business airline that basically only flies to/from the Maldives.

The idea is to ‘democratize’ business class seats.

Ordinarily, a business class seat from Europe to the Maldives will cost anywhere from $4,000–$5,000.

With BeOnd’s business model, you can find one for less than $1,500.

The airline operates two refurbished, second-hand Airbus aircraft that have been completely overhauled to include only business class seats.

The Airbus A321 they use has 68 seats and the A319 I was on only had 44 seats.

But it was actually almost empty.

And here’s why.

The reason why the plane was almost empty

Most people, whether they like flying or not, tend to opt for the safe, conservative choice.

They want household names and low cancelation rates, and BeOnd has neither.

That was the first deal-breaker, because most people didn’t even know this airline existed.

The second deal-breaker was the price, which was cheaper than a regular business class ticket but still expensive in absolute terms.

The third deal-breaker was the airline’s track record.

Pictured below: view of the only other BeOnd Airbus from the window of the one I was

Before booking, I did some research and accepted the fact that BeOnd’s cancelation rate was high.

But this was an experiment and I was fully prepared to be disappointed.

And that’s why I was also not in the least surprised when I overheard the crew say there were only 22 people on the flight manifest.

But then the fourth deal-breaker happened, which is how we ended with an almost empty plane that felt like a private flight.

The flight was delayed by a grand total of 8+ hours

My flight was scheduled to take off at 11:10 PM GMT+2 from Milan, Italy, but it actually took off around 5+ AM the next day.

That’s a six-hour delay – not eight – but hold on because it gets worse and we’ll get to that later.

Anyway, because it was nighttime, the airport was empty and everything was shut, which meant my fellow passengers and I were in the same gate area.

However, we were all very tired, very hungry, and very angry, so no one was paying much attention.

By the time we actually boarded, everyone looked like they’d spent the last 24 hours rolling in the dirt while wrestling a bear.

It was late, but the amenities were tremendous and so I stayed awake for a while to enjoy them before going to sleep.

Then there was another delay, and that’s when I realized the plane was emptier than I thought.

The thing is, the Airbus A319’s range isn’t good enough to get from Europe to the Maldives, and so the flight has a scheduled refueling stop in Dubai that’s supposed to last around 45 minutes.

But it didn’t – it lasted three hours.

This also meant that the crew told us we could get up and stretch our legs.

At that point I was wide awake and it was broad daylight, and so I did a rudimentary headcount and I definitely didn’t see 22 faces on the plane.

I saw 12, one of which was mine in the mirror.

It was a surreal experience because it felt like a private flight with your friends.

By the time we landed at Male Airport in the Maldives it felt like we’d spent weeks on that plane, not hours, and everybody knew everybody else’s names and life stories. Fun.

But sadly, it is likely never going to happen again.

One of the reasons I was eager to do this was that BeOnd’s business model looked clearly unsustainable.

The attention to detail was stellar, the food was amazing, and yet the ticket was one-third or maybe even one-fourth of a regular business class fare.

How long can that last? Not long, apparently.

At the time of writing, there hasn’t been a scheduled BeOnd flight since April, and the airline announced that all scheduled passenger flights are ‘suspended’ through the end of the year.

Only chartered flights (so basically a private flight) are taking off at the moment.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid but, in the corporate world, suspended and canceled often mean the same thing.

And temporary and permanent can also mean the same thing.