There's no nonstop path linking these two cities, which means every itinerary in business class from Memphis to Nantes involves a strategic transatlantic connection, and after years of routing clients and myself through this corridor, I've settled on a clear favorite: Delta via Atlanta and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, paired with an Air France codeshare for the short CDG-NTE hop. Delta's widebody service out of Atlanta typically features Delta One suites with sliding doors on aircraft like the A350 or 767, giving you a fully lie-flat, private experience for the long Atlantic crossing before the quick regional connector into Nantes. Lufthansa is the other viable option, routing through Frankfurt or Munich with their long-haul business class seats, though their Allegris cabin rollout hasn't reached most of the aircraft likely to serve the Atlanta-Frankfurt or connecting sectors on this itinerary, so seat assignment luck matters here.
The real insider move is booking the MEM-ATL segment on a Delta regional jet with enough buffer time to clear security comfortably, then treating the Atlanta lounge as your pre-flight sanctuary before the long haul — Delta's Sky Club network in ATL is far superior to anything you'll find on the Nantes end, so eat and relax there rather than rushing. On the return, Nantes Atlantique is a compact, low-stress airport, and connecting through CDG rather than Frankfurt tends to shave real time off your total journey if Air France's connection windows align with your Delta itinerary. Seasonally, this route sees the deepest business class value in the shoulder months of January through March and again in October and November, when transatlantic leisure demand to western France dips and Delta and Air France release more premium award and discounted revenue space.
Because pricing on this three-airline corridor fluctuates significantly with fuel surcharges and seasonal demand into the Loire Valley wine region, setting up automated fare alerts is the smartest way to catch the periodic dips before they disappear.
