Posted by Seth on April 25, 2012 under Flying, News | 
Lufthansa has officially taken delivery of the first Boeing 747-8i passenger aircraft today, marking another milestone in the aviation industry. The plane will remain in Washington until May 1, at which time there will be a celebratory event as it departs to Frankfurt, with an arrival party in Germany on May 2. Look for the aircraft to enter commercial service shortly thereafter.
Image courtesy of Boeing
Posted by Seth on April 19, 2012 under Flying, News |
For each of the past several summers sales for premium cabin travel have been offered by a number of airlines, looking to cash in on the lower demand for business travel during the period. This year’s sales launched today. In addition to the first class sale that Lufthansa is advertising (coverage from Lufthansa Flyer here) there is also a business class sale on offer, with United Airlines publishing a number of fares.
The bad news (and it comes as no real surprise) is that the prices are higher than they have been in the past. Definitely still discounted fares, but not so many of the bargains that there used to be. Here are some sample numbers:
Definitely worth looking in to the numbers if you were thinking of dropping $2500-3500 on a trip to Europe anyways this summer and you can meet the advance purchase (60!! days) and minimum stay requirements. Some more of the fine print includes:
Travel must be booked by May 31, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. Sale is valid on UnitedBusinessFirst® fares for travel starting between June 29, 2012, and September 1, 2012. Return travel must be completed on or before September 6, 2012. Saturday night stay required. A 60-day advance purchase is required. Fares are nonrefundable and require a $400 USD change fee.
Also of note is that the fares, while advertised by United, are available across the anti-trust immunized group of carriers, so if you’d rather fly on Lufthansa or Swiss odds are you have that option.
Posted by Seth on March 24, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
In many ways calling it the short route is silly. After all, it is the longest scheduled commercial flight in the world, clocking in at more than 18 hours. Singapore Airlines flight 21, Newark to Singapore, is simply ridiculously far. But it is the fastest way to get from the New York City area to Singapore and it is a pretty stylish way to do it, too.
The route is flown on an Airbus A340-500 with only 100 seats, all business class. Booking one of those seats used to require a large chunk of cash (or getting lucky with a couple routings out of the Pacific Islands) but recently they started showing up in limited quantities for award bookings. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity and even though I don’t really have any pressing reason to be in Singapore I’m on my way. It seems like a reasonable enough place to spend a couple days. And the flights to and from seem pretty fun, too.
The Seat
With such a low density seat map there is plenty of room on board for each seat and Singapore Airlines takes advantage of that fact. The layout is 1-2-1 across the A340 body, the same spacing as First Class on Lufthansa. The seats are about 30″ wide; it is quite spacious.
When the time came to convert the seat to a bed it actually flips forward rather than reclining all the way back. This is good and bad, as it somewhat limits the reclining positions available, but it also means that the full width is usable for bed mode. I chose the bulkhead seat so the footwell was full width as I don’t really lie my feet going in to a cubby hole. That part worked out well, though there is a gap between the seat and the well, basically forcing you to sleep at a slight angle.
Also, the bed is quite firm. Not a problem for me but I could see how some might not enjoy it too much. With a few pillows and sufficient booze in my system from the lounge and from dinner I had no problem sleeping for a solid 8 or 9 hours. Or again for another few hours after my mid-flight snack.
Checking in for the flight at the counter the agent was somewhat surprised that I had selected the seat I had. He mentioned the proximity to the lavs and the potential noise and smell issues there. That turned out to not be an issue for me, though I can see how it could be annoying.
Food & Beverage
There are three meals served during the flight. The first is a dinner served shortly after takeoff. Next is a lunch mid-flight and finally breakfast shortly prior to arrival. I very much prefer this sequence of service over the option from Thai on their soon-to-be-retired LAX-Bangkok flight. It just makes more sense. Also, the food was much better.
My first meal started with a salad and bread. Fresh veggies and a couple strips of seared fish on top, with a nice balsamic dressing.
For the main course I had the braised pork served over egg noodles in a broth. Excellent presentation and the food was quite tasty, too.
Finally, for dessert, I had both the chocolate ice cream and the chocolate mousse, though I did pass on the petit fours.
Somewhere over Uzbekistan, I was hungry again. Having been asleep for the past eight hours that seemed to make sense and I wandered back towards the galley to see what my options were. Set up in the galley was a nice spread of chips, fruit, cookies and other snacks; I grabbed a couple for later. But I was thinking of something more substantive. The flight attendant greeted me by name (little things like that really make me happy) and offered up a few lunch options. I went with the chicken over udon noodles. About 10 minutes later she brought it out to my seat.
The flavors were great; no real surprise there. But it wasn’t heated all the way through. I actually didn’t mind that too much, but it was somewhat surprising. My seatmate ordered the same a few minutes after I did and his was heated evenly. Go figure.
Oh, and they had Dunkin Donuts on board. They spelled it wrong in the menu, but they had an actual box of Dunkin – the variety pack – and gladly served up donuts upon request.
For breakfast I had another noodle option, sliced beef in broth with noodles. The omelet looked fine, too, but I like the flavors of the soups. This also may have been the first time I’ve had a 4-course breakfast, with fruit, pastries and yogurt all preceding the actual meal. The bagel was actually quite good, too.
In-flight Entertainment
The IFE system on Singapore routinely gets high marks and it is easy to see why. The screen is large – 15.4″ – and the range of titles available is rather extensive. Whether you want TV, movies, audio or games, there are plenty of options to choose from. Me? I just watched the moving map when I wasn’t sleeping. But I like that there were lots of other options available.
Also, there is a universal plug, a couple USB plugs, iPhone/iPad interface and RCA jacks for hooking in to the system. Even if you don’t like what they’re showing, there are still plenty of options.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge used in Newark is the SAS lounge. It is pretty nice and for the late departure of the Singapore Air flight there are no other passengers in the lounge. They up the catering a notch to offer a more substantial meal option around 9:15pm, tiding folks over until the dinner served on board. I enjoyed the self-serve alcohol and a bit of a snack and then headed out to the plane.
As I mentioned before, the first agent I dealt with suggested that the seat I had wasn’t so great. I told him I was flying with a friend so I didn’t want to change anything until I could speak with my friend. Turns out the same guy also handled that check-in and remembered that I had mentioned we were flying together. Again, a little thing, but one that was quite nice.
No arrivals facilities in Singapore upon landing at 6am is a bit rough, but that’s how they roll.
Other bits
A couple other things of note related to the trip. First, it is not at all common to see numbers like these on the flight map data page. More than 18 hours and more than 15,000 km left to fly is insane. The flight actually ended up being nearly 19 hours in the air due to headwinds.
Next up, it is somewhat strange that there is no amenity kit on the flight. All the goodies are stocked in the lavs and it certainly reduces waste, but I was still a bit surprised. They do distribute eye masks and socks to all passengers.
Finally, the pilot put the plane down so hard on arrival in Singapore that we actually bounced off the runway. And when we pulled in to the gate the APU was inoperable. Dunno that the two are definitely related, but it was one of the hardest landings I’ve ever experienced. Of course, the FAs played it down suggesting that it just felt hard because we had been flying 19 hours. But the look on their faces when it actually happened belied that smoothness.
Overall there is very little bad to say about the experience, other than that 19 hours in a plane is a really long time. I’m quite happy I got the opportunity to make the trip and look forward to having this as an option for future award travels.
Tags: Airbus, award, Dining, Flying, Lufthansa, New York City, Newark, review, Singapore, Singapore Air, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on March 19, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Mileage Run, Review, Trip Reports |
I never actually bought the ticket from Newark to Brussels. I didn’t even buy a ticket from United Airlines. And yet, on a Friday afternoon, I found myself sitting in the lounge at Newark airport, watching basketball on TV and waiting for my flight to Belgium in the new business class seats that United has on their Boeing 777-200 airplanes.
I originally purchased a flight on Air Canada, connecting in Montreal. I was going to spend the day out sight-seeing prior to my onward journey across the Atlantic. That plan came screeching to a halt when I woke up to an email alert from AC that my flight was cancelled. Oh well. I made use of their excellent online rebooking engine and scheduled myself out of Newark instead. When I got to the airport the agents were chatting about the flights being overbooked and I offered up that I’d be happy to take the non-stop flight on United, if they wanted to free up a seat. Much to my surprise – and great pleasure – they agreed.
Once I had the ticket pushed over to United I was able to apply an upgrade voucher and so it was that I found myself in seat 10K, a rear-facing window, for the hop across the pond.
The Seat
This was my first experience in the new United configuration and my first time flying facing backwards since the party seats on Southwest 737s so it was a good opportunity to try something different. The flying backwards part didn’t bother me at all. I honestly don’t think I noticed, other than while trying to look out the window (not particularly easy from this seat as there is no window aligned with where you are when upright) and during takeoff/landing. From that perspective I’ve got no issues with the United product. There are a couple areas where I do, however.
The width of the seat is pretty tight. The 2-4-2 layout across in business class means that they necessarily have to make the seats narrower to fit that many in. I’d read the specs and understood that, by the measuring tape, they aren’t too cramped, but actually sitting in one it felt like I was. When upright I felt that I was pressed into the side wall of the airplane, with my shoulder resting against it. When in the sleep position the seat was slightly wider thanks to the armrest moving out of the way, but it wasn’t fantastic.
I was somewhat surprised to find that the foot well when fully reclined was a tight fit. It makes sense, I suppose, as when the seats meet each other in the adjacent rows the feet sections can be split between the two sides, reducing the pitch a few inches while still keeping the overall length high. But at the bulkheads, where there is no need to save those 6 inches, the foot wells are still half size, unlike other carriers with a similar product. Probably a few dollars saved on the engineering and manufacturing side there, but a definite loss on the comfort side.
Finally, there is virtually zero storage space available at the seat. The photo below shows my Kindle resting in basically the only place it could. And it was too big to fully fit there. I certainly wouldn’t leave it there longer than a few minutes here or there. Not so great for passengers.
Food & Beverage
Like most business class products, the meal was a multi-course affair. A number of carriers have been stepping things up on the meal service lately (I was quite pleasantly surprised with the Lufthansa meal EWR-FRA a few months ago) and the new United has the advantage of owning the their own catering company with operations in Newark so I was looking forward to trying the meal. The flight attendants took orders by asking for first and second choices, the legacy United approach where they reconcile things in the galley and prioritize by status. In this case it probably worked in my favor as I was one of the last to order, but I don’t know that anyone actually didn’t get their first choice; the cabin was only booked 33/40 so there was some wiggle room.
Like always, dinner started with a beverage and nuts in a warmed ramekin. I don’t get the obsession with this part of the service, other than that some people really love salt. Beyond that, it is really a strange thing to me, I picked out a few nuts and waited for the real meal to begin.
The first course was a salmon appetizer along with a salad. Both were fine, but nothing particularly special. I was definitely missing the Continental version of the appetizers with a few more choices and larger servings offered, especially on the salad.
For my main course I had the Beef Short Ribs. The flavor was actually quite nice, though the meet a tad over-cooked. More sauce would have been useful for helping out with the fact that the meat was a bit dry but no real complaints there. The portion size on the beef seemed quite reasonable as well. The bread basket options were basically white or wheat. No pretzel roll nor garlic bread on offer. Most unfortunate.
Finally, for dessert, the offering was a cheese cart and ice cream. This is a course that I look forward to on most flights. I was rather disappointed. One of the two cheese options (a Manchengo, if I had to guess, and I do because no one knew what they were) was OK. The second cheese was some sort of sun-dried tomato flavored goat cheese-ish spread that seemed more like an Alouette container in the store than good cheese. I like both, but one is for pre-dinner snacks and the other is for dessert with a drink before sleep. This was the wrong one. And the ice cream is just a scoop of ice cream, not a sundae. That was most disappointing. Oh, and seedless grapes, which I like for the convenience, but the flavor of which wasn’t as good. At least the flight attendant was able to find the after-dinner drink I ordered, after initially claiming they don’t stock Grand Marnier on the flights.
Also of note, my seatmate ordered the express meal service. I think he finished no more than 10 minutes earlier than I did. Not that his wasn’t fast but the regular meal service on this particular night was also quite quick, without feeling rushed. I was done well before we cleared Gander, meaning 4+ hours to sleep.
In-flight Entertainment
I was mostly sleeping during the flight so I didn’t play around with the IFE system too much, but I did like what I saw. The screens are large and the movie selection was reasonable. My seatmate watched The Adventures of Tin Tin which meant that I also watched it, though I did so without the audio track. I actually think I came out ahead in that regard, though the animation was pretty good. I’d place the IFE towards the top in terms of relative rankings, though that is also generally pretty low on my priority list. Give me a decent moving map and a plug for my laptop and I’ll stay entertained for hours.
Lounge/Ground Services
The lounge in Newark is nothing special. Never has been. I like the views, but otherwise just somewhere to sit before the flight. I actually got bored and left early to go walk the terminal before my flight. Not bad, just not particularly good. At least I had a couple packs of carrots to up my vitamin intake for the day.
One thing that I’ve always loved about flying Business Class on Continental was the arrivals service they offer. You get access to a shower or day room at most destinations if you’re flying up front. I inquired about this at the lounge (twice, because the first agent was a bit unconvincing) and was told, as usual, to ask at the gate and then again upon arrival in Brussels, but that the facility was the Sheraton hotel (they were reading this out of the DRS screen). I asked at the gate and the lead agent made a call to operations who confirmed that I should ask the arrivals agent and that the Sheraton was the facility. I asked upon landing and the agent confirmed that they had day rooms at the Sheraton and that I should go to the ticket counter to get a voucher.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the ticket counter (after a rather ridiculous immigration experience) and the woman informed me that she had never heard of such a thing and that there was no way it was accurate. Oy. After 10 minutes of calling around and checking on various things they confirmed that assessment, leaving me out in the cold, so to speak, without a shower. A rather unfortunate conclusion to the trip on two levels, both that I didn’t get the shower and that no one seems to know what’s going on. The good news is that I was in Belgium for the day and there was plenty of beer and fun to be had.
Overall, I rate the trip as a pretty mediocre business class experience. The flat seats are nice for being flat, but I would imagine that folks taller or wider than me would find them rather confining. And the meal was fine, but nothing special; with both the appetizers and the desserts I think they missed the mark.
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Tags: Air Canada, Belgium, Boeing, BRU2012, Brussels, Dining, Flying, IFE, in flight, Lounge, Lufthansa, Mileage Run, Newark, Photos, review, Trip Report, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on March 1, 2012 under News |
Apparently I missed the rather significant news on Tuesday that the Boeing 747-8i, the passenger version of the company’s largest aircraft, is now in service. The very first, delivered to a private customer with a Qatari registration, took flight as an unmarked white behemoth on the 28th, headed from Paine Field to Wichita where it was actually delivered to the customer.
There are a few photos over at NYCAviation and at AirlineReporter.com.
Next up is the delivery of the first to a commercial carrier. That will be this aircraft heading to Lufthansa, though the date of that delivery is yet to be publicly announced.
Posted by Seth on February 26, 2012 under frequent flyer, News, points |
With just a week to go before the new MileagePlus program launches for United Airlines and the OnePas program of merger partner Continental officially disappears, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the new program. Earning rates for flying on partner airlines is among the major points still unknown. In the past couple weeks a test website for the newly merged web presence of the company has been available (http://pss.united.com) and even more recently some details regarding earning rates for partners has shown up on that site. I am hesitant to consider this data completely authoritative for many reasons, among them that the carrier has explicitly stated that the site is not official, but there is enough information there that I figured giving it a first pass was worthwhile.
Each of the programs had about 500-600 rules for earning on Star Alliance partners; the new program is no different in that regard. Of those, somewhere between 20-40% seem to have at least one aspect of the earning rates changing as part of the new program. That’s a lot of new information to process.
In most cases the changes reflect the company choosing the rates from one of the two programs which is being retired; there are, however, a few instance where the numbers are completely new. And, since many people like to wonder if the program is trending more towards the legacy United or Continental way of business, my rough count suggest that in those cases where the two were different and one of the legacy rates was chosen, Continental "won" at a 2:1 clip.
So, what are the changes of note? Here are a few, broken down by partner:
Aegean
- Four economy fare buckets – P, T, U & V – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Two economy fare buckets – Y & B – will earn fewer EQMs per trip. The are now at 100%, the legacy United rate, versus the 150% rate that Continental offered.
- Four premium cabin fare buckets – A,C, D & Z – will now earn 125% EQMs per trip. This is a downgrade from the legacy Continental rate (150%) and an upgrade from the legacy United rate (100%).
Air China
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, F, J, Y & Z – will earn 100% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy United program. This is a downgrade from the OnePass program (150%).
Asiana
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Two discount economy fares – G & T – will see earnings at 70%. This is an increase from both the OnePass program (50%) and the Mileage Plus program (0%).
Austrian
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program (100%).
- Deep-discount economy fares – S & W – will earn only for flights within Europe, at the rate of 100%. This is a downgrade from the Mileage Plus program and an upgrade from the OnePass program.
bmi
- Two economy fare buckets – L & U – no longer earn at all. This is in line with the legacy United rates and worse than the legacy Continental rates.
- Three full fare economy and premium cabin buckets – I, S & Y – will earn 100% award miles and 150% elite miles. This is in line with the legacy Continental rates and an upgrade from the legacy United rates (100%/100%).
- Six premium cabin buckets – A, C, D, J, P & Z – will earn 125% award miles and 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. The EQM earning rate is an upgrade from the 100% earnt in the legacy United program.
- All fares earn 500 mile minimums, matching the OnePass charts and an upgrade from the United charts.
Blue1
- Eight full fare or premium cabin buckets – A, B, C, D, J, S, Y & Z – will earn 150% EQMs, matching the rates in the legacy Continental program. This is an upgrade from the legacy United program (100%).
- One discount economy fare bucket – O – will earn at 25% RDMs/EQMs. This matches the legacy OnePass rate and is an upgrade from the legacy United rate (0%/0%).
EgyptAir
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
- Seven deep-discount economy fare buckets – G, L, S, T, U, V & W – will earn no credit, matching the legacy United program; this is a downgrade from the 25-50% rates they earnt in the OnePass program.
- Two economy fares – Q & K – will earn at 100%, matching the legacy Mileage Plus program and upgrading from the 75% rate in the OnePass program.
Ethiopian
- Three premium cabin fares – C, D & J – are upgrading from 100% to 150% EQMs. This is an upgrade from both legacy programs (100%).
Lufthansa
- Most premium cabin fares see an upgrade to the award miles earning rates, in line with the previously discussed earning rates for United flights. These rates are much higher in most cases than the legacy United or Continental rates.
- For discounted economy fares – L & T – the rates will match those of the legacy United program, earning 100% on intercontinental flights and on intra-Europe flights which connect to intercontinental flights. The OnePass program offered 50% credit on all flights in those fare buckets.
Swiss
- Similar to Lufthansa, most premium cabin fares will earn at much higher award miles rates. In addition, the EQM earning rates for those fares will be increased to 150%, matching the legacy Continental rates and improving from the 100% that United used to offer.
- Three discount economy fares – K, L &T – disappear from the earning charts completely, a downgrade from both legacy programs.
US Airways
- No more 500 mile minimums for flights, a downgrade from the OnePass program and matching the United program.
- Only 100% EQMs on Y and B fares, a downgrade from the United program and matching the OnePass rates.
Croatia AIrlines, Singapore, Thai & TAP
- Most full fare and premium cabin classes will see EQM earning set at 150%, matching the OnePass program and an increase from the United program.
For Air Canada and TAM the earning rates are not yet loaded on the site, and the TAM page shows some data from bmi and some from TAM. For Copa it does not show an elite earning bonus, though that is unlikely to actually be the case.
The only chart that appears to remain the same across the board is that of partner Turkish Airlines.
Non-alliance partner EVA will see a much broader partnership, with many more fare buckets available for earning. The rest of the non-alliance partners look to be pretty much the same, though I didn’t give those charts as thorough a review.
Again, please remember that the analysis here is from unofficial data and should not be considered necessarily accurate, though it is accurate from what was on the website when I looked at it today.
And, should these rates end up being accurate, it would appear that this is a case where the company being somewhat one-sided in where they favor a legacy program will work out well for customers. In nearly all the cases that the legacy OnePass rates were picked it was an upgrade for the Mileage Plus rates. The same cannot be said for the cases where the legacy Mileage Plus rates prevailed.
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Tags: Air Canada, Asiana, bmi, Continental, Copa, EgyptAir, Ethiopian Airlines, frequent flier, frequent flyer, Lufthansa, points, Swiss, TAM, United, United Airlines, US Air
Posted by Seth on February 15, 2012 under News |
Delta has announced major upgrades to their 747 cabin interiors in both the business and economy cabins. One aircraft is already converted and the company expects all their 747s to be in the new configuration by October, 2012. The changes are significant throughout the plane, mostly for the better, but there are a couple potential negatives that come with the announcement as well.
In the Business cabin the new seats will offer flat beds and direct aisle access for all customers. The seats are from Zodiac Aerospace and are the same as those in place on US Airways A330s and Cathay Pacific’s new business class. American Airlines has also confirmed that they will be using the sets for the new business class product on their 777-300s. The seats are nice and the IFE upgrades that will accompany them – 15" screen, more than 300 films, 88 hours of television programming, nearly 100 hours of premium programming from HBO and Showtime, 27 video games and more than 5,000 digital music tracks – are certainly top notch. The layout of the seats is also nice, with both single and "paired" seats so traveling with a partner in the comfy seats won’t mean being isolated from them.
It is somewhat strange, however, that the company is claiming the seats’ 20.5" width is 20% more than the old seats. That suggests the old seats are 17" wide, which is definitely not the case, or there is some other creative math going on. The other significant downgrade that is coming with the new seats is a sharp decrease in the number available on the planes. The current configuration has 65 seats; the new configuration has only 48. That’s going to hurt folks looking for upgrades or discounted business class seats.
In the economy cabin the best news is that the same IFE system that powers the business class cabin will also be available. Other than that, there will be new, slimline seats installed in the cabin. The general idea behind the slimline seats is to provide additional knee-space for passengers without requiring additional pitch in the cabin. This allows for more customer space without removing seats from the plane. I’ve only had one experience on the slimline seats – with Lufthansa on a short flight in Europe – and they were comfortable enough but I’m not so sure how they’ll fare over a 12-16 hour trip.
Definitely upgrades to the product overall, though, like everything else, a few sacrifices to realize those improvements.
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Posted by Seth on January 20, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Any trip that starts with a dozen folks hanging out in the lounge, enjoying a few drinks before the flight, has strong potential. That I had already been in the lounge 2+ hours when the others started to arrive didn’t hurt the situation either. And the fact that my upgrade into the BusinessFirst cabin on the 757-200 had cleared at the time of booking made things even better. So it was slightly lubricated that I made my way down to the duty free shop and then to the gate for a flight from Newark to Stockholm.
Boarding was a bit of a mess, even though we arrived at the gate towards the end of the process. We were awaiting the last of the duty free deliveries which took us precariously close to departure time and my mobile boarding pass failed, causing me to hunt down a printed one while the gate agent dealt with some other issues which involved the police. Still, I had sufficient time to stow my bags in the overhead and settle in to 1E with a glass of champagne prior to departure.
I also was able to find the International Concierge working the flight, despite his best efforts to remain invisible in the cabin. Somewhat critical to the success of our first day in Stockholm, I requested access to the arrivals facility that the BusinessFirst service provides. In Stockholm this is a day room at the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport. There were four of us in the forward cabin so four rooms were requested. And he actually followed through on the request; the agent meeting the flight knew that we needed the rooms and was ready for us (sortof).
I chatted with my seatmate a bit during our short taxi out to Runway 22R and the ~7.5 hour flight to Sweden began.
It turns out that there are only two bottles of Heidsieck Monopole catered in the forward cabin on a 752. Those went pretty quickly, starting with the warmed nuts service and lasting part of the way through the appetizer service. The nuts were not particularly memorable but the apps were. Both the cold seafood soup and the beef empanada were quite nice. There was a salad, too.
I took a risk when ordering dinner: I chose the miSteak. It is a complete crap-shoot taking that route. Sometimes the meat is horribly overcooked and miserable. For this flight, however, it was cooked to a reasonable medium doneness (still way overcooked for my tastes, but at least edible) and actually tasted pretty good. The accompanying sides (creamed spinach, asparagus and a potato patty of some sort) were not particularly memorable, either for being good or bad.
And then there is the hour-long foodgasm that is dessert on the BF flights. First was the cheese plate, served with a reasonable glass of Port. Not particularly great cheeses, but the flavors were where they should be for the types served. Next up was the ice cream sundaes. I only had one (caramel and chocolate, thank you very much), but there were extras making their way back to the galley which may have been waylaid by a couple of the other guys. And then there were the pastries. They’ve got nothing on Austrian, to be sure, but they were pretty tasty.
And then it was time to try for some much needed sleep. I actually managed to get 3-4 hours which is pretty good for an eastbound redeye; it helps that this is one of the longer flights being run out of Newark to Europe. Plus, I managed to sleep through the relatively poor breakfast offering which was a good plan based on the reports I got from the others.
The food was fine, as was the seat and the sleep. What truly made the flight for me, however, was the crew. It is usually easy to tell at the beginning of a flight if the crew is enjoying themselves or not, and that generally translates into a better in flight experience. This crew was having a great time from the get go and it really did play out through the rest of the flight. It really is great to fly with a crew that enjoys their job.
Overall the trip was a very good one. Most of that is attributable to the crew, combined with having a bunch of friends on board, but I’m not so sure the reasoning matters as much as the fact that it was a nice flight. Even with the very recent surprisingly nice flight on Lufthansa, I have to say that the legacy Continental product that United is offering these days tops it, both in food and seat. It is one of the better business products across the pond.
Tags: Continental, Dining, EuroHopping, Flying, in flight, Lounge, Lufthansa, Newark, Photos, review, Stockholm, Sweden, Trip Report, United, United Airlines, upgrade
Posted by Seth on January 17, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
It took a long time before I managed to get myself into a proper first class cabin on a long-haul flight. I still haven’t actually done it all that often. And now I believe myself wholly spoiled from enjoying it in the future. I’ve had the great pleasure of flying in the Emirates A380 First Class Suite.
Coming home from Sri Lanka actually involved two flights in Emirates First, one on a 777-300 which is a proper F cabin and pretty impressive on its own. The seat is huge and offers a decent amount of privacy, though the 2-2-2 configuration does mean that the outside pairs involve climbing over someone or having someone climb over you for window/aisle access. As we were a couple traveling together it wasn’t a huge deal.
The other amenities on the 773 are comparable in many ways to the A380. Each seat has a private bar, though the good stuff comes from the flight attendants, not pre-stocked at the seat. And the ICE entertainment system is awesome in so many ways. Huge screens and options for both movies and music.
My only minor complaint on the first flight is that there was no meal service at departure. It is only a 3:30 flight and it leaves around 3am local time from Colombo. Still, the food options in the airport sucked and I was hungry. I chose to sleep through breakfast to try to actually get a couple hours of sleep so I basically had no food on the flight. Other than that, lots of fun.
Our layover in Dubai was just long enough to get lost in the lounge (I’ll post about that later) and then it was time for the crown jewel of the trip: A380 Suites.
The 773 provided a lot of space and privacy. The A380 bested it by far. The closing doors on the suites, in particular, was a nice touch for privacy. Also the 1-2-1 layout allows for isolation quite well, Sitting in the middle we were unable to actually see out the windows at all which was slightly annoying, but that’s how much privacy it afforded passengers. The photo below shows just how much space there is; my 22" TravelPro fit nicely under the desk at my seat, with plenty of room for the seat to still recline into bed mode.
The service started with the purser presenting our menus for the day and offering up some quite lovely advice, "The champagne today is, of course, Dom 2002." Suffice it to say, a bottle or two of that ended up in my belly. There’s a 21 year Single Malt and an 8 year rum, too, if that’s your thing. And the wine list was pretty impressive as well.
The food service was also at the top of my experiences, with a couple minor caveats. I liked the meals better than those I had in Lufthansa First last year. There were more choices, we were served more of them, and I thought that the quality of the food was slightly better.
My wife did remind me that the Lufthansa options are a bit more of a stretch in terms of providing a fine dining experience – fancier preparations and presentations – but I think that Emirates is nearly at the same level there and delivered on the attempt much better. Even the caviar service appeared better to me on Emirates.
You can eat anything you want off the menu whenever you want to. I understand that there is some flexibility to that effect on Lufty but they weren’t nearly as happy about providing it. And when I couldn’t make up my mind between the lobster and the lamb, the flight attendant solved that problem quite quickly, serving up both. They were delicious, though the lobster truly shined.
Oh, and then there was the shower. At roughly 35,000 feet over Ankara I stepped into my "spa experience" and enjoyed a quick rinse. We had been on the go for about 30 hours at that point and the shower was quite refreshing. I was somewhat concerned about the 5 minute limit on water but I ultimately found that by turning it off when soaping it was more than enough for me. There are a full set of shower amenities provided and the flight attendants are happy to explain the process to you, including the instructions to sit down on the bench should the plane encounter turbulence.
The flight attendant also made sure to ask what beverage I’d like to have when I finished my shower, and I came out to not only the aged rum that I had requested but also a fruit plate to have as a snack. She was top notch.
While she was great I cannot really say the same for her colleague across the aisle. My wife and I received notably different levels of service. Even when we specifically requested to dine at the same time we had issues with the timing of the food. Not the end of the world by any stretch, but it was a bit annoying. She was good, but not effusively so like the FA on my side.
There are some other things that are a little different with Emirates. There isn’t a proper amenity kit, per se, in that there is no little bag to take home with you.That said, everything you need – and then some – is provided either at your seat or in the lav.
And then, all too quickly, we were on final approach into London. The flight was only 7.5 hours. They were 7.5 hours of aerophillic bliss, but it was done. And now I am spoiled rotten. Flying in First will never be the same (though I’m more than willing to try just to confirm that concern).
Tags: A380, Airbus, Colombo, Dining, Dubai, Emirates, in flight, London, Lufthansa, NYE2011, Photos, review, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on December 22, 2011 under Dining, Flying, Trip Reports |
Flights from New York City to western Europe are generally too short for anything remotely resembling a good night’s rest. In many cases even a chance of a decent nap is pretty low. The key to having a chance, however, is to be done eating before clearing the edge of Canada. That generally means at least 4.5 hours until landing, leaving a 4 hour window for sleep before the attendants have to put the cabin back together for arrival.
And so I was watching the in-flight map as we departed Newark for Frankfurt last night, trying to figure out how we were doing on the meal as we headed east. When the appetizers showed up we were over Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Not good for hoping to be done with the meal before clearing Canada. On the plus side, the food was quite good, a pleasant surprise in quality and quantity. I even managed to skip the Fernet Branca, going to sleep without that flavor in my mouth for the first time in a long time on a Lufthansa long-haul flight.
By the time the meal was done we were 3:45 out from landing. I slept almost all of that, even in the angled seats of Lufthansa business class. We were fortunate to arrive to a gate at the terminal rather than a remote stand and from there wended our way through the terminals and the SkyTrain to find some lounge time.
Our onward flight to Chennai departed from B42, directly adjacent to the new Terminal B Senator Lounge. The new lounge is quite a welcome improvement over the old B lounge, though it still suffers from crowding at the peak morning departure bank; the wait for a shower was about 30 minutes and our layover wasn’t long enough to make that work.
And then it was time to head out to the gate and board our flight to Chennai. Another 8.5 hours in the sky with Lufthansa as we begin this crazy adventure.
Tags: Canada, Chennai, Dining, Frankfurt, in flight, India, Lounge, Lufthansa, New York City, Newark, NYE2011, Photos
Posted by Seth on December 22, 2011 under frequent flyer, News |
A binding agreement has been signed regarding the sale of Lufthansa subsidiary bmi to IAG (the consortium which owns British Airways and Iberia). The sale is still subject to regulatory clearance – no small issue considering the impact on slots at Heathrow – but the two companies expect the deal to close in Q1 2012. Lufthansa expects the impact of the sale to be off their books by the end of next year while IAG will spread the costs of the acquisition and restructuring over a three year period.
IAG only wants the mainline operations of the bmi portfolio. As part of the deal Lufthansa is still shopping the bmi regional and bmibaby units to other potential suitors. If the bmibaby brand is not unloaded there are "significant" price reductions to be accounted for. And Lufthansa is still on the hook for the pension plan of bmi employees. At the same time, IAG will receive up to 56 additional slot pairs at Heathrow, further growing their position as the largest operator there.
IAG CEO Willie Walsh offered up the following comments:
Buying bmi’s mainline business gives IAG a unique opportunity to grow at Heathrow, one of our key hub airports. Using the slot portfolio more efficiently provides the option to launch new longhaul routes to key trading nations while supporting our broad domestic and shorthaul network.
This deal is good news for the UK as we will maintain a comprehensive domestic schedule including Belfast. Our plans to expand our longhaul network would guarantee growth by making Britain better able to compete on a global scale. It will also help maximise Heathrow’s position as a world class hub airport.
Customers will benefit from access to new destinations, more convenient schedules, enhanced frequent flyer benefits and greater investment than had been possible for loss-making bmi.
Sure, maintaining the schedule is easy. The real question is what fares will look like without competition on the routes. It is rare that losing a competitor in a market makes things better for the customer.
I really do need to redeem the last of those Diamond Club points quite quickly.
Announcements from IAG and Lufthansa.
