JamesBond_ppk

Awards and Conclusion

Before finishing this trip report, that I wrote during and after each flight, I thought it would be nice to sum up these six weeks of holidays and flying with giving awards for the best and worst airlines of the trip in several different categories. Bare with me on this.

Of course these awards are a matter of opinion and only reflect my experience with the above mentioned flights, so please be indulgent. However, please feel free to comment, share your experiecne and agree or disagree with me!

I must also point out, that, despite being picky, I do not feel like being smug or anything. Nor do I act like this on board in any way. On the contrary I usually leave the bad moments silent (except the rude agent in ZQN who really pushed my buttons), and reward the good ones by showing thankfulness to the staff and by complementing them on their achievements. I hope this is reflected in the way I wrote this TR.

Awards

Best ground services: tie between LH and TG
LH offers a somewhat more premium feeling with the First class lounge in MUC, and only lacks escorts to and form the plane. TG has simply amazing facilities in BKK, but service there was not quite as polished as LH.

Worst ground services: clearly NZ
And it comes as a disappointment. Most of the ground staff acts as if they were working for a low cost carrier. In most cases, the staff we enquired was unwilling to assist of any small request, whether, it's at check in or in the lounge. *G status is widely ignored which was really annoying and frustrating. There were exception of course but they were unfortunately not the rule..

Best in flight experience: tie between TG on the 77J and EK on the A380
Where TG offers a delicate service and discreet but extremely comfortable hard F product, EK is more in your face kind of story. They compensate by the amazing A380 experience with great suites, and the onboard shower.

Worst in flight experience: NZ on the A320R
Mainly because of the small pitch, but it must be said it was not at all a bad flight.

Best IFE: NZ
Of course the screens are smaller than on F class, but the system is great and innovative. It is also on all their International flights, regardless of the aircraft. Special mention for the playlist function and the Bob function directly from the IFE.

Worst IFE: TG on the 74R
The system was older and slower than any other I've experienced in F. And the screen was quite small. Not all that bad, but definitely the worst of this trip. Even the iPad from QF was better.

Best catering: tie between LH and TG
Lufthansa had a great meal service to DXB and Thai had a great one to FRA. The quality of the food, lied in the quality of the ingredients. Furthermore the dishes were accompanied by excellent upper class wines.

Worst catering: EK
We had a disappointing lunch with EK..Even the Caviar tasted off. They redeemed themselves with breakfast but that was not very hard!

Biggest surprise: QF
After hearing and reading so much negative comments about them I was expecting the worst. It wasn't bad in anyway. It was in fact the best short flight we had in that holiday.

Biggest disappointment: NZ of course!
At no time with NZ did I get a constant Premium feeling. Note that I use the word Premium, since it is the one they are themselves using.
Checking in experience is nothing less than traumatic for *G. The lack of service of most agents on the ground is a big blow. On board service was decent but sometimes over the top as detailed. And last but not least, I missed the little extras.

Conclusion
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this TR as much as we enjoyed our amazing holidays! We trully had a great time both on ground and in the air. Please feel free to leave a comment, or PM me if you have any questions!