Posted by Seth on April 22, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports | 
Many warned me about the PrivatAir 737 operating as Swiss for the flight between Zurich and Newark. Beyond the geek factor of an all-business class config (my second such flight of this quick RTW trip) the product is actually not all that amazing. The seats are old and the IFE limited. Still, I wanted to have the experience for myself so I could report first-hand on what it was like. They were all pretty much dead on.
After spending my short layover in downtown Zurich on the lake, joining with seemingly everyone else in town heralding the arrival of spring, I made my way back out to the airport for a quick lounge visit and then on to the plane. The lounge in the main terminal area was pretty nice, but the flight departed from a separate section of the airport, a tram ride away. The lounge there is a contract lounge that isn’t particularly bad, but it also isn’t as nice as the Senator lounge in the main area.
Boarding 50ish folks on to a 737 is incredibly quick and easy and we were underway right on time, with a quick climb out and fly-by of downtown as we left the area.
The flight departed around 5pm, meaning it was time for dinner shortly after departure. Perhaps the best part of the flight is that the food appears to be catered up to the Swiss standards. It was quite good and comparable to the meals I’ve had on their regular flights. Except that they didn’t have ginger ale catered on the plane. That was rather annoying, though I also probably didn’t need any more rum so perhaps a blessing in disguise. Having indulged on meats for my previous flights and also downtown I switched to the fish options on the flight. Quite tasty.
After dinner it was time for a nap. My body was starting to fight back against the crazy time zone shifts and it was time to succumb for a few hours. The seat reclined to its angle-flat position and I grabbed the digEplayer to zone out for a bit. I was rather disappointed with the very limited selection of titles – only 10 – on the player. Fortunately I was asleep pretty quickly so that was less of an issue.
A few hours later it was time for second dinner. Really just a small snack served from casserole dishes rather than individually prepared, at least they were willing to offer up seconds (though I found this out after calling it a day on the meal). Tasty enough, but not particularly substantive as a meal.
Not much later we were making the left turn down the Hudson and beginning our approach into Newark, with the sun setting off to the west.
I expected the seat and the IFE to be iffy. That expectation was met quite easily. I also expected the food and crew to be on top of things. Alas, only the food was. The crew was somewhere between standoffish and outright ignoring me for long periods of time during the trip. Part of that might be just in comparison to the effusive and somewhat over-the-top service levels of the Asian carriers, but I really did feel like a second-class customer sitting on the plane for most of the trip.
Overall, the trip probably rates a C+ to B-. The crew was the biggest surprise, while the seat and IFE weren’t a surprise but still dragged down the score. Given another option, I’d avoid the PrivatAir option unless you really want the all business-class option or that’s what works with your schedule/budget. Also of note, the Zurich-Newark route is no longer served by PrivatAir, so it isn’t as much of an option anyways.
Posted by Seth on April 20, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Continuing the long trek home from Singapore, I transferred in Rome from Thai Airways to Swiss for the last bit of the trip. First up was a couple hours with the short-haul product, flying from Rome to Zurich. Like pretty much all short-haul flights in Europe this one was just coach seating with the middle seat blocked and upgraded catering. And like most such flights it was completely uneventful, probably a good thing.
Shortly after takeoff breakfast was served. Fruit, yogurt and a croissant were all tasty enough, though nothing special.
And, because they are Swiss, there is the chocolate bar distributed towards the end of the flight.
In the middle, aside from the food, was the opportunity to look out the window as we flew over the Alps. One of my favorite aerial views, to be sure. It doesn’t get much better than this all that often.
Easy flying with beautiful views along the way. Not much to complain about at all.
Posted by Seth on April 19, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Booking my award flight on the non-stop Newark to Singapore flight was a huge win and opened up a ton of opportunities for me. Among them, I had to figure out how to get back home from Singapore within a relatively tight timeframe, and I was searching not too far out from my planned dates of travel, which created some interesting challenges of its own. Fortunately I managed to find several options available, one of which was a routing with Thai Airways via Bangkok and Rome, continuing on Swiss Air from there. My last experience with Thai wasn’t the greatest but I decided to give them another chance. Among other things, the BKK-FCO line was just too fun to pass up.
Getting to the airport in Singapore was reasonably easy thanks to the trains and about 40 minutes after leaving my hotel I was in the check-in lobby of the airport. I also was about 4 hours in advance of my flight – I wanted to check out the lounges – which meant that they were not actually accepting passengers for check-in. Whoopsie. The good news is that there is actually a premium check-in lounge at Singapore’s airport where business class passengers are able to have a seat and go through the process in a much more civil manner than the long queues of the economy cabin passengers. The premium check-in feeds directly into a bypass of another queue for security/immigration, making the entire process rather simple.
From there it was off to the Thai lounge. To say I was disappointed would mean that I actually had high expectations. The lounge was dark and brooding, with a few small snacks. It was quite a step down from the Singapore Air lounges in the terminal or even the British Airways and contract lounges in the same area. I’m working up a full post on the lounges but I would recommend against planning on too much time in the Thai lounge.
Boarding came about soon enough and the 777 was awaiting us for the quick flight up to Bangkok. Getting a long-haul configuration on relatively short flights is much more common in Asia than in the United States. This one had the great seats and IFE systems which make flying up front truly pleasant, though neither system is best-in-class.
The flight was only about 2 hours long but it also included a full multi-course meal service with a choice of entrees. After the snack mix and appetizer I had the prawns with rice; not bad at all.
I also love the way many foreign carriers pay attention to the small touches that make a trip more pleasant. Certainly the orchids in the lav don’t have any concrete impact on the in-flight passenger experience, but they sure go a ways towards trying to make it feel a bit more human at 35,000 feet.
A couple hours later I was on the ground in Bangkok for just long enough to grab a shower, snack and massage and then it was back in the air for the flight to Rome. I had forgotten that the flight was on a 747. I had also forgotten that I booked a seat upstairs. Remembering that as I boarded the plane was quite nice. Walking up a set of stairs upon boarding is always a fun experience.
The seats on the 747 are more or less the same as the business class seats on the rest of the Thai fleet – flat-ish at an angle. Not the best ride out there, but it beats the heck out of coach and these got me home when I needed. Plus, the hot pink and purple is a fun color scheme.
With the longer flight time to Rome there was also the opportunity for a more involved meal service, not that the short hop was particularly skimpy. I started with the foie gras and moved on to the steak. Both were quite tasty.
The cheese plate was not particularly impressive but the chocolates for dessert were. A great finish to the meal.
With that it was off to bed for several hours, waking up just as breakfast was being served.
The fruit was rather disappointing but the noodles were delicious and made for a great base to start the day with the early arrival in Rome.
I mentioned above that the IFE was not the best-in-class. It is an AVOD system with a selection of about 25 movies available. Nothing to sneer at necessarily. At the same time, however, the selection was rather poor and the classifications of the movies were questionable in many cases. "Classics" for movies should not include many works made after 1990. Shutter Island; Monsters, Inc.; Ocean’s Thirteen; Sherlock Holmes; 300; Casino Royale or the new Planet of the Apes are not classics. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Grease and Goldfinger are. Die Hard is in a gray area, but I’d probably let it slide. Yippie kaiay.
Overall, I think the service was a solid B to B+ effort. The food was on the higher end of the spectrum while the seat and IFE were a bit lower. Ground service was great in Bangkok – I love the pre-flight massage – but not as great in Singapore. Still not the best offering in and out of SE Asia, but they’ve got a lot more award inventory on long-haul flights so there’s something to be said for that.
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Tags: award, Bangkok, Dining, Flying, IFE, Lounge, Photos, review, Singapore, Singapore Air, SINtacular, Thai Air, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on April 10, 2012 under Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
The response since I released the FareFinder tool last week has been incredible, including a few feature requests that made sense to work on. I’m happy to announce that some updates have been made which hopefully will increase the utility of the tool significantly for users.
First up, all registered users can now toggle on/off all carriers in the filter:
If all are toggled off then you must go in an pick one to get the data to update. First Class members still have the ability to click on the icon next to a carrier name to immediately filter only to that carrier. Additionally, First Class members can set up default filters for excluded airlines from both the UP-fares and Low Fares searches.
Next, there are now a few more details available the fares that the system is publishing. The data grid now shows hyperlinks for the fare and fare basis columns:
Click on one of those links and a new window will pop up showing the details of the fare. These details include minimum and maximum stay, advance purchase requirements and fare validity dates.
The caveat here is that the detail data is only displayed where it exists, and it doesn’t actually exist for all fares. Even where it does exist it rarely exists for all categories. This is a limitation of the underlying data source and unfortunately not one that I can fix easily.
As always, I’m open to suggestions for other improvements so feel free to ask.
Related Posts:
Posted by Seth on April 5, 2012 under Wandering Aramean Travel Tools |
The old farecompare.com site used to have a list of lowest fares available from various airports, along with filters and such to help suss out potential deals/mileage runs. It went away and getting a good collection of that data has been somewhat difficult for a while.
It just got a bit easier!
Now available is the Fare Finder from Wandering Aramean Travel Tools. It covers about 100 airports in North America and another 50 in Europe as origins for the queries. There are a bunch more destinations available in the results, too, with more being added as the system scales up. Right now there are over 360,000 fares in the database.
It also has a built-in CPM calculator (based on direct distances, so you can probably do better) but does NOT include the YQ or other taxes, so take that in to consideration when looking at the fares.
The default filters allow for limiting to an individual airport or by destination region. Registered users have the ability to filter the search results by carrier.
And users who have upgraded to the First Class level can also filter by price range or on a radius from the origin airport. First Class users can also store their preferences for carriers to be excluded from the low fare search results.
The fare data currently updates daily, though more frequent updates is part of the product road map.
Oh, and while you’re on that page, check out the options for finding *-UP fares from UA, US, DL and AA as well as SWUable fares from Delta or GPUable fares from United.
Posted by Seth on April 2, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
In my efforts to explore the LCCs of SE Asia I did what I could to mix up my flights a bit. This meant picking a different carrier for my return from Kuala Lampur to Singapore and the fares and times suggested that my trip would be on Tiger Airways. Tiger is one third owned by Singapore Air and operates a decent collection of routes in the region on their fleet of Airbus A320s configured with 180 seats in an all-coach configuration. My trip, KUL-SIN, was relatively short but also rather typical of their operations from what I could tell.
For the most part the flight was just another quick hop in a metal tube hurtling 500+ miles/hour through the skies 6 miles above the ground. Really nothing particularly spectacular, either good or bad, about the experience. The plane was clean inside and, while a bit tight, the seat pitch wasn’t completely horrid.
That said, there were a few things that I found interesting or surprising about the experience.
First up, the flight departed from the LCC terminal in Kuala Lampur. Similar to Singapore, the LCC terminal at KUL is actually a separate building on the other side of the airport. Unlike SIN, however, the process of getting there was way more difficult. I took the bus from KL Sentral and it was fine in both transit time and cost, but it was still a bit of a pain relative to the main terminal. Also interesting about the LCC terminal in KUL is what a dump it was relative to SIN. It did have a lounge (two, technically, split across the immigration/security barrier) which I got in to with my Priority Pass card. Nothing particularly amazing in the lounge and I wouldn’t pay out of pocket to get in, but I took advantage of the free to me access to grab a couple beers before the flight.
Next, given that they were selling seats on the flight that morning for only ~$25, I expected that it meant loads were low. Nope. The plane was packed. I had my window seat thanks to checking in relatively early so I wasn’t particularly affected by the loads, but it was crowded. Fortunately the crowds didn’t translate to lines at immigration at either end.
On arrival, once again, it was a bus ride back over to the main terminal in Singapore to catch the MTR into town. Much easier here than in KUL.
Overall, I enjoyed the flight that morning on FireFly more than the evening flight on Tiger. The airport facility at Subang was nicer than the LCC terminal and the flight was a bit more pleasant. Plus, there was no silly "convenience fee" for booking that I still don’t know how to avoid through any channels. Still, the Tiger flight met my expectations in terms of being clean, cheap and easy.
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Posted by Seth on March 29, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
I was bored in Singapore. Apparently that happens from time to time. I wasn’t going to take it lying down, however. I was determined to find something entertaining to do, and for me that usually means some sort of ridiculous travel-related event. The region is filled with LCCs and there are plenty of options for day trips. Why not have some fun with that?
I started searching for destinations that were close enough I could actually do a day trip and get out of the airport. I wanted to fly different carriers each direction if at all possible, and bonus points were on offer for routes and carriers that were less well known. Needless to say, when I found a carrier called FireFly operating from Singapore into Subang, the old Kuala Lampur airport, I was sold.
FireFly is a subsidiary of Malaysian, operating a small fleet of ATR72-500 aircraft and serving a dozen or so destinations in the region. They are based out of Subang’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport. This is the field that operated as the main airport for KL until 1998 when the current facility was opened. Since then Subang is used mostly for a single cargo operator, for a charter holiday carrier and for FireFly. It doesn’t have rapid transit to downtown like KLIA does, though the terminal is reasonably new and nice and taxis aren’t particularly expensive (~USD$20 to KL Sentral). Plus, I wanted that line.
FireFly operates out of the LCC terminal in Singapore. It is actually a pretty decent facility, with a number of shops and restaurants available both inside and outside security. I bought my ticket at the counter there and then had a quick snack waiting for check-in to open for the flight.
Once checked in I was through immigration and security and then waiting for the flight. There is also a small garden on one side of the terminal. It happens to also be the smoking area, but there is enough space out there that you can enjoy it without being overwhelmed by the smokers if that’s your thing.
I headed over to the gate a few minutes early, mostly because it let me wander down one hall of the terminal that was otherwise empty and there were some fun plane spotting opportunities (Jett8 74F and the Qantas A380 with a blown engine, anyone??). As I was taking photos I heard an announcement for a gate change of a different FireFly trip. Okay, not my flight so I shouldn’t be worried, right? Except that the new gate for that flight was the gate mine was supposed to be departing from. Ruh-roh.
We swapped gates with that flight and managed to push back only about 20 minutes late, so not a huge deal, though there was certainly potential for things to go badly there. Our boarding was called and there was much queuing to prepare for the flight. As I had one of the few seats in the boarding area I chose to stay seated and board near last but most others on the flight seemed to very much enjoy the queuing process. We walked out from the terminal to the aircraft and I quickly settled in to my seat.
Pitch was a bit tight, but hardly bone-crushing. It also helped that I had an empty seat next to me.
The LCC terminal is close to the end of the runway so it was a short taxi over to runway 20C and we were soon off to Malaysia.
The service in-flight was reasonable. The flight is only about an hour in the air so there isn’t a whole lot of opportunity for things to go very well nor very badly. Still, there was a complimentary snack and juice service and then we were on approach into Subang.
As flights go I would be hard-pressed to classify this as an LCC, certainly in the traditional “no-frills, all fees” context of the term. They offer up to 20kg free checked bags, free snacks and pretty good service during the trip. The delay was minor and having service into Subang isn’t all that much worse than the remoteness of the LCC terminal at KLIA, so long as you’re starting or finishing in Kuala Lampur anyways; if you need to connect to mainline then being at KLIA is obviously better.
Overall, a completely reasonable travel experience. Nothing too crazy, either on the good or bad side of the ledger. That’s basically what I hope for when flying, so I was pretty satisfied.
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Tags: FireFly, Flying, in flight, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, Photos, review, Singapore, SINtacular, Trip Report, video
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 20, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Mileage Run, Review, Trip Reports |
Yeah, I wish that all my flights were in the pointy end of the plane, but that just isn’t feasible on my budget. And so, once again, I headed off across the Atlantic Ocean in coach, hoping that I wouldn’t be too annoyed. This time it was Air Canada, from Brussels to Montreal. I’ve flown Air Canada a few times long-haul recently and been rather pleased with the experience so this was mostly a case of hoping they lived up to their previous performances. They did.
The Seat
I never did manage to request a seat in advance for this flight thanks to it being ticketed as a code-share and the phone agents not feeling particularly creative. Still, when I went to check in I found myself assigned seat 18H, a non-reclining exit row aisle seat. Yeah, I prefer the window, but I’ll take the exit row without any complaints. The pitch is tremendous and the center seat area there is actually the galley so fewer people (though the galley part can be disruptive on a night flight).
Upon boarding I started chatting with a few other folks who were also on the same mileage run I was on and one was actually assigned the exit window that did recline and he was looking to swap to my side of the plane to be near his family. No problem at all. Without too much fuss I was in one of the best coach seats available.
One interesting thing about the over-wing exit seats for Air Canada’s 767-300s is that they don’t have an armrest on the exit side. That was definitely a bit strange, though it ends up making the seat feel wider than it actually is, which is mostly a good thing.
The seat cushion didn’t feel quite as soft as I remember of those from the non-exit seats, but it wasn’t particularly bad. I did find that the exit row was VERY cold, even with my thick travel socks on. I actually ended up wedging a blanket between my shoulder and the wall to insulate myself from the chill.
Food & Beverage
The flight, scheduled for 7:30 in the air, included three distinct meal/beverage services. The first was a lunch, served hot, where I chose the chicken over the pasta option. The ginger chicken was pretty good, most notably for actually having the taste and texture of chicken, more than I can say for the last time I ordered chicken in coach (Thanks, United Airlines!). It wasn’t anything special, but it was actually what I was expecting, so that was nice.
As an added bonus, drinks are free, even in coach. That’s not to say the wine I had with lunch was any good, just that it was free. My seatmate and I shared a laugh over that fact (he agreed that free was the only redeeming quality of the wine). Also, the flight attendants were offering up the whole can of soda when ordered; I generally have no trouble requesting such if I want it but it was nice to see them being proactive on that front. Also, the meal tray comes with a small bottle of water, in addition to the drink cart, so hydration is not a problem at all.
The second service was beverages plus a snack which was actually just a bag of pretzels. Not particularly filling, but they are pretty good pretzels, with a buttery flavor to them that I quite enjoy.
The third service was a hot snack, presented as the option between a beef or tomato wrap. I went with beef and was presented a box that mostly elicited memories of McDonald’s Apple Pies from many years ago.
It was most certainly hot, and it seemed to have flavors of all the things on the ingredients list at one point or another – mostly beef and veggies – but it was also somewhat difficult to eat without making a complete mess. The filling of the wrap was incredibly hot and reasonably gooey (the corn flour, I’m betting), and biting in on one side meant it would ooze from the other. Not the worst thing I’ve ever had on a plane, but a bit of a let down after the first meal. Then again, I’m not Canadian so maybe I’m missing something there.
In-flight Entertainment
When it comes to IFE systems, the options for coach customers are getting better and better. And Air Canada has one of the better products I’ve seen in that regard. It offers large screens, a good selection of movie, TV and audio titles and one of my favorite moving map interfaces. If none of that suits your fancy there is also USB power at every seat and 110V power in every row, one outlet per 2 seat group and 2 outlets per 3 seat group. The touch-screen interface can be a bit pokey at times in terms of performance and the commercials before the shows are annoying, but both of those are outweighed but the quality of the rest of the product.
Lounge/Ground Services
I had done online check-in the night before but didn’t have a printer so no boarding pass. I decided to get one from an agent rather than the kiosk so I could take care of the passport check formalities as well. Plus I figured with the elite line it should move pretty quickly. I should never underestimate the ability of the more frequent travelers to make for a slow experience. It didn’t help that the agents working that line were also handling calls from the transfers desk and a myriad of other tasks while also trying to check customers in, but it did seem that they were somewhat understaffed.
Air Canada makes use of the Brussels Airlines lounge in the Brussels airport. This makes sense as they are a Star Alliance partner so I cannot really hold that against the carrier. But the lounge is not particularly impressive. It is small for the number of flights and passengers heading to the USA every morning, meaning finding a seat can be a challenge. We managed to find a few in the business center which was empty thanks to the computers being out of service. The snack options in the lounge were OK, with pastries and cereals available, though the pastries weren’t particularly tasty. The croissants I had from the grocery store out in the terminal were much better, even if I did actually pay for them. On the plus side, there is self-serve booze, including Leffe beers. A Leffe Brune and pain au chocolate make for a pretty decent breakfast.
Much like my last experience in Air Canada’s long-haul coach cabin, this one was quite pleasant overall. I managed to sneak in a nap after the first meal and generally was ready to hit the ground running upon arrival in Montreal. At this point I’d say that the Air Canada option is the best coach cabin across between North America and Europe, certainly in Star Alliance and arguably against the others, too. I’m not as huge a fan of the AC business class service as some others are, but if you’re slumming it in coach, the connections via Canada are looking pretty nice these days.
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Tags: Air Canada, Belgium, Boeing, BRU2012, Brussels, Dining, Flying, IFE, in flight, Mileage Run, Photos, review, 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
