Southwest Florida isn't exactly a hub for Aegean sunsets, which is precisely why the routing puzzle from RSW to Crete deserves real strategy. There is no nonstop option here, so business class from Fort Myers to Heraklion always means a transatlantic connection, and the two smartest builds run through Frankfurt on Lufthansa or through Paris-CDG on Air France, with Aegean Airlines picking up the final Athens-to-Heraklion or direct European leg depending on season. Factually speaking, the total journey runs roughly 12 hours of flight time excluding layovers, and Lufthansa's long-haul segment out of a US gateway typically features their staggered business class seat with direct aisle access, a meaningful upgrade over older herringbone configurations still found on some Air France A330s. I've routed this trip both ways over the years, and Frankfurt consistently offers the calmer connection, particularly if you can catch the Lufthansa Business Lounge before a tight onward hop to Athens or a seasonal direct Frankfurt–Heraklion service that Lufthansa or its partners run in peak summer.
Air France's Paris routing has its charm, especially if your RSW departure connects through a US gateway like JFK or Atlanta with a Delta codeshare, landing you into CDG's Terminal 2E where the Business Lounge by Marc Newson is worth the wander even on a tight layover. The insider move here: book the Aegean intra-European leg separately when fares allow, since Aegean's business class on A320-family aircraft is a domestic-style recliner, not lie-flat, so you want your true rest accomplished on the transatlantic segment, not the short Athens-Heraklion hop. Seasonally, April, May, September, and October are the sweet spots, both for fare softness and for Crete's shoulder-season weather, avoiding the July-August crush when Heraklion's small airport gets overwhelmed with charter traffic.
Given the multi-carrier complexity of this itinerary, fares on the Frankfurt and Paris routings fluctuate more than typical single-carrier long-haul routes, so setting up fare alerts for Fort Myers to Heraklion business class is genuinely the smartest way to catch the pricing windows before they close.
