Flight Review Archives - Rebel Flying

Flight review – Lufthansa Business Class, Frankfurt – Paris, with Senator Lounge Frankfurt

Following a pleasant flight from Punta Cana back to Europe, I had a short connection to make from Frankfurt to Paris CDG.

After 9 hours on board that flight, my first port of call was the Camel smoking lounge, conveniently located airside.

With my nicotine craving satisfied, I headed off to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, which can be accessed by American Express Platinum card holders travelling in Lufthansa Business Class.

The first thing I wanted was a shower. However, there was a waiting list and I had to pick up a pager to notify me when a shower was available.

In the meantime, I decided to grab a quick coffee.

After a few minutes, my pager bleeped and it was time to check out the shower suites, which were well appointed, spotlessly clean and very welcome after an overnight flight.

The lounge itself was quiet and pleasant with a reasonable breakfast selection and an impressive array of refreshments.

Having already eaten breakfast on my inbound flight and looking forward to lunch on my way to Paris, I contented myself with some rather overcooked sausages, Spanish tortilla and a cheeky Rum & Coke.

On arrival at the gate, I noticed that the flight had been delayed for 30 minutes and there wasn’t actually an aircraft at the gate.

This was soon rectified.

Once on board, I settled into seat 2C, which is a bulkhead aisle seat and probably the best seat in Lufthansa’s short-haul configuration. Although it is the usual intra-European business class standard of economy seating with a blocked middle, it offered extra legroom and was perfectly acceptable for this very short flight.

Shortly after take-off, I was served a light lunch of salmon and a glass of German Riesling.

The salmon was tasty and wonderfully fresh and the Riesling, although sweeter than my usual choice of whites, paired well with it.

Very soon after I finished lunch, we were on final descent to CDG and the flight was over in the blink of an eye, a pleasant way to round off a 6-week trip.

Flight review – Eurowings Discover Business Class, Punta Cana – Frankfurt

Following a delightful trip to the Dominican Republic and the USA it was time to return briefly to Europe.

This was done using Eurowings Discover’s long-haul business class, purchased as the return half of a round trip from Paris, which included a superb outbound flight on Air Canada.

My flight was scheduled from Punta Cana at 19:10, landing at 09:30 in Frankfurt. I found this to be more or less an optimal timing for an eastbound overnighter, as it allowed me a couple of hours after take-off to enjoy dinner and a few drinks before settling down for a decent few hours of sleep.

My evening started at the VIP Lounge Terminal A, which is a basic, catch-all contract lounge used by a number of airlines as well as Priority Pass. Although the lounge was nothing special, it was a perfectly decent place to wait and enjoy a couple of pre-flight beers.

Once on board, I took my seat in the centre pair of the 2-2-2 configured business class cabin. In this configuration, I always prefer the centre pair of seats, as it offers direct aisle access to both passengers and avoids the annoying “climbover factor”. As it happened, I was pleasantly surprised not to have a seat neighbour, which proved advantageous later.

Nuts and aperitifs were served shortly after take-off. I opted for a glass of the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, which was served nicely chilled.

Dinner followed soon after with a choice of courses and a reasonable wine and cocktail list.

I chose the serrano ham to start, which was decently presented and fresh, served with another glass of the Sauvignon Blanc.

The beef tenderloin was my choice for the main, accompanied by the Argentinian Malbec. Beef is often not a good choice on flights, as it is nearly always overcooked. Whilst this was no exception, it was still tender and tasty.

I rounded off the meal with the cheese platter and some more of the Malbec.

After a few cognacs, I reclined the seat into flatbed mode and settled down to sleep.

Although it felt rather narrow, the bed was comfortable enough to sleep reasonably. The one thing I noticed was the foot space was rather small and angled toward the neighbouring seat.

As the seat next to me was unoccupied, I was easily able to slide one of my size 12s over to the other side of the divider, but the configuration could have been awkward if both seats had been occupied.

I managed around 4 hours of decent sleep and awoke around an hour and a half before landing, ready for breakfast.

Breakfast was a Spanish tortilla, served with bread, cheese and fruit, along with orange juice and coffee.

We landed a little ahead of schedule in Frankfurt, with more than enough time to catch my connecting flight to Paris, which will be the subject of my next review.

This Eurowings Discover flight exceeded my expectations. While the hard product is decidedly mid-table in business class terms, the service was friendly and attentive. I had a comfortable flight with a decent meal and a good few hours of sleep. I arrived in Frankfurt ready for the day ahead. For a little over £1,000 ($1,300) for a transatlantic round trip, I couldn’t ask for more than that.

Flight review – United Domestic First Class and Regional Business Class

Late last year, I took three flights in United’s Regional Business Class and Domestic First Class.

I flew the following routes:

Punta Cana (PUJ) – Chicago (ORD)

Phoenix (PHX) – Washington Dulles (IAD)

Washington Dulles – Punta Cana (PUJ)

I have consolidated these into one article, as the products are essentially identical.

The on-board hard product was reasonably consistent across the three flights, the standard US Domestic First 2-2 configuration on narrow-body jets.

Unfortunately one of the seats was so badly worn, the I could feel parts of the fittings through the seat cushion. As the flight was full, the only option was to use a blanket as additional padding.

Fortunately for me, I was asked to move after take-off to accommodate a couple with a pet, erroneously seated in a bulkhead row. Obviously I readily acquiesced to this!

After this flight, I received a credit to my United MileagePlus account of 2,500 miles, labelled “Inflight Compensation Miles”.

This was not discussed on board, and I am not sure whether this was for the worn seat or being asked to move.

Either way, I considered it a fair and reasonable gesture.

Seat pitch was a uniform 38″, providing decent legroom.

I sampled a variety of the on-board catering, including both the omelette and shakshuka breakfast options, as well as a lasagne lunch dish.

Whilst the presentation of the lasagne left a little to be desired, it certainly tasted a lot better than it looked.

All of the dishes were tasty and filling and the on-board service was much more proactive than that on Air Canada Rouge’s Business Class product, of which I was rather critical in my recent review.

Overall, I was happy with the product and service, which was quite consistent across all three flights.

The upgrades from the standard economy product worked out at around $150 or £120 for each of the 4-5 hour sectors, which considering that baggage fees were included, I considered pretty good value and would be more than happy to pay again on a future flight.

Flight review – Air Canada Rouge Business Class, Montreal – Punta Cana

Following on from my transatlantic flight and my layover in Montreal it was time for the last leg of my journey to the Dominican Republic, a flight on Air Canada Rouge to Punta Cana.

This flight had originally been booked in Economy Class, but I was able to place an online bid for an upgrade.

My bid of 225USD (£179) was rejected, but during the online check-in process, I was offered a price for a cleared upgrade of 241EUR (£206).

I tried to pay for this online but two credit cards were rejected by the Air Canada website. The payment was eventually processed at the check-in desk at CDG.

On the day of the flight itself, check in and bag drop at Montreal was a breeze and I was through and into the lounge in minutes.

The lounge was pleasant and quiet, with a small selection of food and drinks. As I had already eaten a decent breakfast at the Holiday Inn I contented myself with a couple of beers.

The priority boarding was smooth and I was installed in seat 1F very quickly.

I am normally an aisle seat man, but with the amount of room in the bulkhead seat, the window seat was no hardship.

Although this was obviously nowhere near the comfort level I experienced on my flight from Paris I found it perfectly acceptable for 4 hour flight down to Punta Cana.

Around an hour after take-off a drinks service was offered and I chose a Canadian beer.

Lunch service followed shortly afterwards. I chose the chicken tagine main, which was served with the salad and dessert on the main tray.

After the meal service was finished, the cabin crew retired to the galley and were more or less not seen again for the rest of the flight, although I did manage to get a drink after going up to the galley myself.

Overall I have to say that I was not particularly impressed with Air Canada Rouge’s Business Class product.

Compared with Air Canada’s long-haul Signature Business Class the difference is night and day.

Seating was identical to US domestic First Class and the conspicuously absent service fell below even that benchmark.

Some time ago I wrote an article on whether business class was worth paying for. My

While this was a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours, I’m not convinced it was worth £50 per hour.

In all honesty, were I to fly this route again I would select an aisle seat down the back and keep my credit card in my wallet.

Flight review – Air Canada Business Class, Paris – Montreal

After my flight to Paris and a short stopover it was time for the first long haul flight of my 5-month travel season.

A fortuitous deal meant that this would be in Air Canada’s Signature Business Class.

As my flight was leaving from Terminal 2, I started my travel day in the Extime contract lounge rather than the Star Alliance Lounge in Terminal 1.

The lounge was located after security but before passport control and offered a reasonable selection of food and drink.

After around an hour in the lounge I boarded the flight and settled in.

This flight was operated by a 777-300ER with business class seating in a 1-2-1 configuration. All business class seats on this aircraft offer a fully flat bed and direct aisle access.

I was given a small amenity kit and a pre-departure glass of champagne.

The dinner service began shortly after take-off with nuts and another glass of champagne.

The menu and choice of drinks offered an impressive array of options.

The appetiser was tasty and the salad was fresh.

For the main course, I was informed that the beef cheeks were not available. This was not an issue for me, as I had already chosen the chicken curry.

The curry was tasty and unusually for an airline meal, had a nice spicy kick.

I chose the Côtes du Rhône white wine to accompany the main course and this was generously poured and regularly topped up.

I finished off the meal with the cheese platter, a glass or two of port and a couple of brandies.

By this stage there were only around four hours left of the flight, so I decided to put my seat into flat-bed mode for a short nap.

I had a nice two-hour sleep before a light pre-arrival meal of Arabic mezze with fruit and coffee was served, along with a couple of tasty little chocolates.

After this, we began our descent to Montreal, where I had a one-night layover before continuing to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Air Canada’s Signature Class was a very relaxing experience and a thoroughly civilised way to begin my long-haul travels.

I can recommend this product as a very solid option for a trans-Atlantic flight.

Flight review – Air France Economy Class, Zurich – Paris

After my first normal Summer at home on the shores of Lake Constance for four years, it was time to take flight again for another five months on the road.

My journey started with a short flight to Paris, from where my next long-haul adventure would begin.

For this short flight, I had booked myself in Economy Class with Air France, using 7,000 Flying Blue Miles. During the online check-in I was offered an upgrade to Business Class for €79 (£69/$83). For a one hour flight, I declined this offer.

My flying day started in the Marhaba Lounge, accessed via Priority Pass.

After a decent lunch in the lounge, I boarded the aircraft for the short run to Paris CDG.

The flight was very lightly loaded and I had a row of three seats to myself.

The legroom was perfectly fine for a short flight.

A snack and drinks were served shortly after take off.

Almost as soon as I finished my coffee, we were descending into Paris for an on time arrival.

I was glad that I had decided to decline the €79 upgrade offer. Some time ago, I wrote a piece on whether business class travel is really worth it and at times I believe it is.

On this occasion, however, I was glad I kept my credit card in my wallet.

This flight was one of the better short-haul experiences I have had in recent years and an easy and painless way to begin my Winter travels.

A very poor experience with Swiss

Last Monday, I decided at the last minute to take off to Barcelona for a few days.

Barcelona is a lovely city and I will be reviewing it in the coming days, but getting there and back was far from straightforward.

I was booked on a direct flight from Zürich to Barcelona on Swiss, returning via Munich on Lufthansa.

I got to Zürich a few hours early and checked out a couple of the Priority Pass lounges, which again I will review in the next few days.

Around an hour before the scheduled departure, I got the dreaded cancellation SMS from Swiss. I had been rebooked on a connecting flight via Frankfurt, with a 28-hour delay. Needless to say, on a 4-day trip, this was totally unacceptable.

By this stage, Zürich Airport had descended into chaos, with many Swiss and Lufthansa flights cancelled. As I waited in the 2-hour queue for the transfer desk, I researched other available options.

I found a Vueling flight some 4 hours later, bookable under an Iberia codeshare, which I know that Swiss are capable of booking. Mindful that there were very few seats left on this flight, I called Swiss Customer Service while standing in the queue.

Unfortunately, Swiss flatly refused to rebook me on that flight, regardless of their obligation under the EU261 Regulation to rebook passengers in the most expeditious manner possible.

As this was clearly in contravention of that condition, I took matters into my own hands and booked myself on the Vueling flight at a cost of €329.79.

The last step was to make sure my return was not cancelled when I no-showed the unacceptable rebooking option. This was done when I finally reached the transfer desk.

The final insult was delivered when I was informed that the cancellation was due to “weather”.

Forgive me if I am somewhat sceptical of this, when the only cancellations were from Swiss and their parent company Lufthansa, but every other airline was flying with short delays.

Are Swiss claiming they were subject to different weather conditions than British Airways, Finnair, SAS, Tailwind, Sun Express and Vueling?

Either way, a reasonable attempt to mitigate the delay was clearly not made, as I managed to beat their rebooking option by 24 hours.

As it happened, I arrived at my hotel in Barcelona at 1am, a delay of around 5 hours. Actually not a disastrous result, but only because I fixed the issue on my own initiative.

Naturally, this required me to pay upfront for the replacement flight, but this is recoverable under the relevant regulations, when the airline has failed to provide a reasonable alternative.

Most Ombudsman services and regulatory bodies will generally back up your claim if the airline has refused to rebook a clearly available same day alternative.

I will write an update with the result of my claim from Swiss, which will include the cost of the replacement flight plus €250 cancellation compensation.

As a side note, the Vueling flight, which I will also review in the coming days, was a pleasant experience and exceeded my expectations.

Swiss however, which is usually a very good airline, left a lot to be desired on this occasion.

Flight review – LOT Business Class, Warsaw – Chicago

20 January 2023
by thebouncer

Finally it was time to get into the long-haul phase of my travels, starting with a 7,000 mile US road trip.

But first, there was the small matter of crossing the Atlantic.

I managed to pick up a reasonable deal with LOT Polish Airlines, coming in at a little over €1,600 (£1,400) for the Business Class round trip from Stockholm to Chicago.

After my short connection from Stockholm it was time for the transatlantic leg.

Business Class seats on LOT’s 787-9 are in a 2-2-2 configuration. As a single traveller, I chose 4D in the centre pair, to avoid the climbover factor in the window pairs.

As my seatmate had already settled in by the time I boarded, I snapped a quick photo of the inoperative 3C-D pair in the next row, which are identical.

Shortly after take-off, the meal service began with a choice of drink and a small amuse-bouche, while meal choices were requested.

I chose the onion soup, which was tasty and came with a side salad.

For the main course I chose the pork neck, which was nicely presented, tender and tasty.

The meal was rounded off with a selection of fruit and cheese, followed by a well presented latte macchiato and a couple of sweet, but delicious cherry vodkas.

After lunch, the effects of my early start began to show (or maybe it was the cherry vodka) and I settled down for a short nap.

LOT’s Business Class seats recline to a fully flat position and a “short nap” turned into four solid hours of undisturbed sleep.

Shortly before arrival in Chicago, a second meal was served, this time all on one tray rather than course by course.

The pasta dish was accompanied by salmon and meat appetisers and fresh fruit.

Overall, this was a pleasant flight and certainly felt shorter than the 10 hour block time.

LOT’s Business Class is a solid product and offers a civilised way to cross the Atlantic.

At the price I paid, I would definitely not hesitate to book it again.

Flight review – LOT Business Class, Stockholm – Warsaw

After my summer tour of Scandinavia, it was time to head off on my long-haul winter travels.

But first, there was the short connection to Warsaw in LOT Polish Airlines’ Business Class.

LOT uses the SAS Norrsken Lounge in Stockholm. However, as this was an early morning flight and I had already had breakfast at my hotel, I decided to skip this in favour of a quick transit through the airport.

Boarding was swift and efficient and I soon found myself settled in.

Business Class on this Embraer 195 was economy seating in a 2-2 configuration, with one of each pair kept free. I found this comfortable enough for the short flight.

Although this flight was only 90 minutes, there was time for a pretty well varied breakfast selection.

On approach to Warsaw, we circled over a blanket of very low and heavy cloud for around 15 minutes.

Fortunately we were able to land in Warsaw on time and in plenty of time for the next leg of my winter season, which sees me heading to Chicago and a 7,000 mile US roadtrip.

Flight review – Nordic Seaplanes, Copenhagen – Aarhus

Whilst in Copenhagen, I was presented with an interesting opportunity to try out a new style of flying – a 45-minute flight with Nordic Seaplanes to Aarhus, one of the oldest cities in Denmark.

At a one-way price of around €95, this seemed too good to turn down.

Unfortunately I was advised 24 hours in advance, that my planned 8:45 departure was cancelled and offered a seat on the afternoon flight.

As this was only a day trip, I opted to take the following day’s morning departure instead and I was quickly rebooked.

The flight departs from the company’s city terminal, a short distance from the iconic Little Mermaid statue.

The experience started with check-in 20 minutes before departure and a coffee in the small, but comfortable, lounge a very short distance from the boarding area.

The cabin is laid out in a 1-2 configuration and on boarding I was pleased to be assigned to one of the single window seats towards the rear.

Flying by seaplane certainly gives a different perspective from flying by jetliner and it was nice to experience the take-off over the city of Copenhagen.

The landing in Aarhus, with a steep nose-down angle was even more exhilarating.

The arrival was at the small terminal a short taxi ride from the centre of Aarhus.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and time efficient way to travel and involved none of the usual annoyances of air travel, such as time consuming check-in procedures, long security queues and extra travelling to and from airports.

My flight from Copenhagen to Aarhus was an enjoyable and trouble free way to travel and I would definitely use this service again.

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