Carfield

June 12, 2003
SK 1715 HEL-VIE Lv1545 Arr1625
Boeing 737-600 LN-RRX “Ragnfast Viking”
Check in was hassle-free at HEL, but the agent was a bit icy – not rude, but she did make me check in my roller on bag. I actually got by with that roller on till today throughout the trip – quite an achievement. There is only one lounge at HEL but it was nice with a great view of HEL’s runway activities. There is the usual salad bar with ham, tomato, cheese spread, bread and crackers, and the full bar. It was busy as LH and other Star Alliance use the same lounge. It is an interesting plane spotting day with the broken BA’s A319 (G-EUPJ delayed since 7am), Lauda Air’s CRJ (OE-LRE), LH’s A321 (D-AIRN), Air Finland’s Boeing 757 (OH-AFI), Finnair (OH-LGB to JFK), LGC arriving from Asia, and City Airline’s EMB-145RJ (SE-RAC).

I really like the Boeing 737-600 – great performance. The cabin was very spacious with a five abreast seating in business. The interior is nice with great seat pitch and even the seats itself are ergonomically designed (using the airline’s jargon), but are definitely comfortable. Thanks SAS for a nice interior. Boarding began at 3:28pm from gate 27. It was a full flight but boarding was finished in thirteen minutes, but as all other European airlines, there is no priority boarding – a bit chaotic. We pushed back right on time and headed towards R/W22R, and took off at 3:55pm. Flying time was an hour and twenty-seven minutes.

Another cold meal was served – an entrée of chicken (much better marinated and tastier) on top of a barley salad, a side fruit salad (melon, pineapple, orange, and grapes in a chile/spicy syrup), and a box of Godiva chocolate (Belgium made). The breadbasket was offered as well. Soon, descent began and we landed on R/W22L at 4:22pm local time (CPH is an hour behind from HEL). We parked at D1.

June 12, 2003
SK 1507 CPH-LHR Lv1735 Arr1835
MD-90 LN-ROA “Sigurd Viking”
The usual visit to the Scandinavian lounge, which is busy as usual and features the amenities such as a cold cut bars and various Danish pastries and crisps and cookies, is followed with the long queue of line outside of passport control. For those who are familiar with CPH, the line went all the way from the passport control offices to the SAS lounges. Our aircraft was already parked at gate D32 and was ready to go. I spotted a Yugoslav JAT Airlines’ Boeing 737-300 YU-ANF heading to Belgrade, which eventually took off before our aircraft, Sigurd Viking. I also passed by the Narita arrival and Beijing’s outbound Airbus A340-300 (OY-KBA Adalstein Viking). Our gate was packed, as we had a full flight. Boarding was the usual chaotic European style. It took place at 5:22pm and no wonder we were late for ten minutes. Welcome me aboard was the same crew as my HEL-CPH. The purser was doing the return to CPH as well – two return flights in a day seem pretty hectic. Well, MD-90 looks no different from MD-80, and there are no convertible seats, and C class features the same five abreast seating, which is obviously poor compared to my previous Boeing 737-600 flight. The décor is the same IKEA style and not much different from the MD-80 flight yesterday. But with a full cabin, the lack of room was obvious, but the bulkhead seats allowed a better legroom. We pushed back at 5:46pm and headed towards Runway 22R. We took off at 5:55pm, and flying time was an hour and forty-three minutes – a bit longer than usual according to pilot due to strong head wind.

The seat belt sign went off three minutes later, and printed menu postcards were passed out. I was not quite expecting it, but more than happy to get a printed menu. SAS perhaps is the only European airline that has a printed menu for European regional flights, but the printed menu did not help to improve the poor and small meal. BA won by a long distance on the exact same route at similar times that took place last week. BA’s food is better, despite SK offers a bit more room if you fly the Boeing 737s or Airbus A321s. I will avoid MD-90 in the future, but don’t regret it because it is a new aircraft type for me. MD-90 is certainly quieter than MD-80s and Fokker 70s, but you can’t really notice it. Well, a pack of flavored broad beans was handed out next, followed by an initial beverage cart, and then meal cart appeared with the single tray dinner service, which was shocking. Especially when I compared it to SK menus on the same route from a fellow HT talker last year, there was no longer a separate entrée service, and the meal was exactly the same size as the light meals served on the shorter HEL-CPH and CPH-HEL flights. The only difference is the additional of a piece of hot meal on the salad, instead of cold chicken. I was horrified. Here is the menu transcript!

Welcome Aboard
They say the way to the heart is through the stomach: food is comfort, comfort is a sense of well-being, and well-being is peace of mind. You might not always think of air travel in these terms, but why not? Here’s today’s menu. Enjoy!
Is this an ironic statement or what? If anything that this meal symbolizes, it is an obvious sign of cutback and the deterioration of service on intra-European flights. I think that the European airlines get less excuse because they don’t have the same upgrade problems as the US airlines. But I guess ticket price for intra-European flight has gone down a bit too.

Something to eat
Today we serve the following meal to which you can choose to add a hot complement.
Tomato and feta cheese salad
Vegetable risone salad served with hot pork loin
Coffee or tea

Self-descriptive and now I know that nice orzo pasta salad is called Vegetable risone salad, and the piece of pork loin is small. It is okay, but I can’t believe that there is no separate hot entrée or dessert service – the same box of Danish chocolate as yesterday flight from CPH to HEL. Tea and coffee and second beverage service came through before the end of all cabin service. Duty free was offered, and then descent began at 7:15pm. BTW, no audio or video equipment is installed on MD-90s as Boeing 737-600s. The flight was certainly disappointing, and soon we landed on Runway 27R at 6:38pm London time (an hour behind Copenhagen). We parked at gate 15 or spot 313 later. A bit of plane-spotting information at T3 –
Qatar’s Airbus A330-200 A7-ACB
Varig’s MD-11 PP-VQH
Japan’s Boeing 747-400 JA8077
Sinagpore’s 747-400 9V-SPB
All Nippon’s 747-400 JA8958 (new F and new J and premium Y)

June 13, 2003
BD 584 LHR-MAN Lv0850 Arr0943
Airbus A321-200 G-MIDK with the interim BMI livery
Check in agent was a handsome young British boy, but was a bit clueless. He did not quite know what to do with my ticket. So much for Star Alliance – he obviously did not see that I was connecting to MCO from ORD. That was not a big problem, since I need to get a new boarding pass from UA anyway. Star Alliance carriers, till today, still cannot issue boarding passes all the way through – only when you traveled on the same airline code. If your ticket shows a BD code on your connecting United flight, you will get the boarding pass, but if you use the UA code, you don’t get the through check in. Anyhow, I was given two boarding passes and headed towards the BMI lounge. The lounge was very spacious but there are only cookies and peanuts as snacks. Boarding began at 8:31am at gate six and the flight was not terribly full (10J and 100Y). Five rows of business class only and the service was quite attentive with two F/As serving us. Door was closed at 8:50am, as the catering arrived late. Soon we began our taxi towards Runway 27R. Plane spotting are interesting – Gulf Air’s new livery A330-200, TG’s royal boat Boeing 747-400, Cyrprus’ Airbus A330-200, Virgin’s A340-600 with a new slogan – something about BA and Concord and VS can’t have it, and various BA aircrafts. We took off after an Air France’s RJ-85 G-JEAU at 9:14am, with a BA 747-400 with the USA design following us.

It is a beautiful day in the UK this morning. Seat belt sign was off nine minutes after takeoff, but the breakfast service has already started. The bento box was offered with a choice of sausage or vegetarian panini. The bento box seems to suffer some cutbacks from the pictures I saw from airlinemeals.net and BMI’s own description – no yogurt is offered, and the supposedly tub of orange juice was replaced with a Orchid Maid’s Cranberry and Raspberry yogurt drink in a juice box (pretty cheap I must say!). The fruit salad is still there with a mix of orange, apples and pineapples. Well the sausage pannini is pretty nice especially they use the kind of sausages that I like – not the cheap American cafeteria one, but veal sausages. Y got pannins too. Two types of tea – English breakfast and Earl Grey, and coffee were offered numerous times, but I was disappointed not to see orange juice or cold beverages being offered. Then there is a hot towel and mint service after we began our descent. The flight was fairly short and after thirty-three minutes, we landed on Runway 24R at 9:38pm. I can’t help to notice those plane spotters’ stands – it is nice to see people taking pictures of your plane. The scene is even better when my A330 flight took off a couple hours later – you can see these enthusiasts taking pictures of our planes madly. Well, soon we were parked at gate 18 and an agent directed me towards the transit area, which was fairly basic and straightforward. Terminal two is absolutely busy with many transatlantic and European flights departing in the early afternoon hours.

June 13, 2003
BD 705 MAN-IAD Lv1105 Arr1320
Airbus A330-200 G-WWBM
I went to the Globalground lounge, and a full selection of sandwiches, crisps, nuts, muffins, pretzels, sliced cakes, biscuits, full alcohol and non-alcohol bar were offered. There was ample room to spread out and I got a very interesting Emirates’ Airbus A330-200 catalog. A bit of plane-spotting this morning – BD’s A330-200 G-WWBB heading to IAD, SQ 777-200ER 9V-SVD heading to SIN, EuroAtlantic Airways’s Sri Lankan registered CS-TEB’s L1011-500 Tristar, Pakistan’s Boeing 747-200Combi AP-BAK, Boeing 747-300 at a far corner at T1, Futura’s Boeing 737-400 N254RY, Iberia’s A320 EC-HAF, saw the arrival of US’ A330-200 into spot 204.

Boarding soon began at 10:22am at gate 32. I got the security checks at the gate because I was a connecting passenger – MAN bound passengers got questioned at the check in area already. I don’t see much purpose but I guess that is the new travel reality. There is no disappointment with BMI international service. I was lead to my seat immediately and another F/A came to take my pre-takeoff beverage order. I had a glass of orange juice served in real large glass. Amenity kits/Wash Bags and noise-canceling headsets were offered immediately. The load on this flight was relatively light and I was able to move to a pair of seat at the window 3A. After the door was closed at 11:02am, F/A passed out the signature cold towel on wooden tray – just like CX’s first class. We pushed back at 11:11am and headed towards Runway 24L soon. A Lufthansa’s CRJ D-ACLP followed us at the takeoff queue. We took off at 11:26am and flying time was seven hours and forty-four minutes. The routing took off into the Scottish city of Prestwick before reaching 11,582m, and then we proceeded towards the Southern tip of Greenland and passing south of the city of Goathub. Then we climbed further to 11,887m before entering the North American airspace. We passed by north of the city of Goose Bay, Val D’or, and then Timmins, before descending to 11,277m into Saulte Sainte Marie, Traverse City, and Muskegon before we start our final descent into Chicago.

The lunch service was served in a leisurely pace, which was welcomed especially in these daytime flights. The chef on board took our meal order and then F/As began the beverage service, which was accompanied by a bowl of snack mix – not cheap o’ summer harvest or supreme nut mix or zesty party mix. BMI snack mix has Japanese rice crackers, sunflower seeds, peanuts, broad beans (just like SAS), and pretzel nuggets. I had a glass of Lauren Perrier champagne. Then the meal service began with each course served individually. I like the whole presentation of the meal – indeed water was poured into a blue colored glass, which showed how BMI planned this service in details. During the beverage service, one of the friendliest service directors introduced herself to each passenger in J class and has a nice chat – everything was so personal and made you feel welcomed. No wonder that the F/As are proud of the service. I also found out that this is a brand new menu (just introduced from June). I love every second of the flight. Here is the wine list and menu transcript!

Wine List
Champagnes
Champagne Pol Roger N/V, Epernay, France
Champagne Laurent Perrier 1993, Tours-Sur Marne, France

White Wines
Chardonnay 1998, Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio, Umbria, Italy
Mercurey Les Ormeaux 1999, Maurice Protheau, Le Chateau D’Etroyes, Bourgogne, France

Red Wines
Cabernet Franc 1998, Castelvecchio, Sagrado, Italy
Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 4000 1998, McGuigan, Pokolbin, NSW, Australia
Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux 1997, Chateau Loudenne, France

Lunch
English asparagus tips on garlic bread with crispy bacon and a soft boiled egg
Freshly cooked Thai chicken kebab with Asian noodle salad
Smoked Haddock and Saffron Chowder
Summer leaf salad
I had the chicken entrée, which was okay. The chicken was not salty enough, but the presentation was excellent though. The soup was one of the best soup ever served in the sky – diced fish, potatoes, & onions in a thick cream soup – I was so tempted to ask for a second bowl. I love the soup. I don’t know if I am supposed to order two appetizers – but I just assumed that standard premium meal include one appetizer and one soup or salad course.

Posh fish and chips – roasted salmon, crushed peas and tomato chutney
Freshly roasted chicken stuffed with goats cheese, tomato and basil butter with a creamy parmesan risotto
Honeyed lamb shank with a baked layered potato cake and vegetables
Individually prepared summer vegetable lasagne
I had the lamb shank, which was excellent. The presentation was simply magical – I was surprised that the whole lamb shank was served. The potato cake was very nice as well.

A selection of sauces and dressings are available to complement your meal

Dessert
Warm Sticky chocolate cake with ice cream
Vanilla poached pear with raspberry sauce and shortbread
British cheese plate – Cornish Yarg and Oxford Iris
Fruit Plate
Ice Cream
The fruit plate includes banana, grapes, strawberry, melon, cantaloupe, and pineapple. I had the pear dessert that was nice and light. A perfect way to end the meal!

Freshly ground coffee
Twinings tea selection
Chocolates
Then I have a cup of tea with lemon and sugar and some nice Galaxy chocolates accompany my tea. I am speechless about this meal.

The seats are definitely the most comfortable till dates – I actually like this traditional First class sleeper seats, compared to some of these flat bed seats. The recline is generous. The lumber supports are adjustable and the legrest came up to a horizontal position. The width is generous, unlike some of these new generation bed seats. The blanket is not the cheap wool blankets, but with a nice texture. I slept for a few hours, which were appreciated especially the upcoming nightmare and mob scene at O’Hare. About an hour prior to arrival, lights were turned back on and hot towels were offered once again, followed by the most beautiful afternoon tea service – it is just a collection of bites and I only wish they can have extra scones for us. A beautiful glass plate was featured. Everything was great.

The mad-hatter tea service
Poached salmon, horseradish and dill on brown
Egg and cress on white
Freshly baked sausage roll
Mini Chocolate tart
Mini Lemon fondant
Mini plain scone
Mini Sultana scone
Strawberry Preserve
Cornish clotted cream
Fresh English strawberries

Freshly ground coffee
Twinings tea selection

Any time
Sausage Panini with tomato ketchup
Fresh Fruit Plate
Ice Cream
Cappuccino
Espresso
Irish coffee
Twinings tea selection
Hot Chocolate
Horlicks

Almost forget, the entertainment program is now twice monthly – for those who care – I guess that is the latest trend. I watched some comedies and soon descent began at 6:33pm MAN time. The purser came to talk to each of us again and said goodbye. I gave her the address of this website and promised that I will post a wonderful trip report. We landed on Runway 4R at 1:10pm ORD local time, and it was a truly remarkable flight – BMI definitely has the best business class product in the world. They should be proud of it. We parked between the KLM’s Boeing 747-300 Combi with the KLM.com sticker PH-BUM “C.H. Kingford Smith” and Korean Air’s Boeing 777-200. As expected, it is a mob scene at the O’Hare. Unfortunately the flight ended up with one of the longest bag waits in my travel history – 45 minutes for the priority bags to show up (among the last patch not to mention). Anyhow, back to the US means back to reality. Aiya – United…

June 13, 2003
UA 470 ORD-MCO Lv1600 Arr1928
Boeing 737-300 N328UA
Back to the reality world – First my bags need to be rerouted. As unfamiliar with the process, I took off the bag tag so the agent could check my bag in with a new bag tag. Then I was told rudely to put the bag tag back on, as I found out that a reroute sticker will be placed on the bag – the agent just threw me the stapler and I had to staple back the tag together. A proper procedure will be the ground agent stapling the tag for me, but too bad, this is United! Well, no priority tags… the agent gave me my boarding pass and told me to drop my bag next to the TSA agent. If this flight is my sole United experience, I will definitely not fly United again. Ground service remains poor. O’hare was extremely busy – the air train was packed with connecting passengers. The security line was long beyond belief – people everywhere and line everywhere.

Gate C3 was fairly crowded and my aircraft arrived on time from Philadelphia. Boarding began at 3:38pm and fortuatenly, the flight attendants were extremely friendly. I am glad to have Channel 9 back on again – I miss it much. All three UA flights I flew had Channel nine switched on. Door was closed at 3:59 and we pushed back ten minutes later and there was queue everywhere. Due to some storms, we were rerouted a number of time and the ATC controller can only clear eastbound flight every three minutes. Then there were planes everywhere. We did not take off till 4:50pm from Runway 4L.

Flight service began shortly with beverage and supreme nut mix. Then we had the choice of a salmon salad or roast beef sandwich. Couple slices of roast beef, tomatoes, red onions and cheese were featured in a plate with a warmed French roll and a fruit bowl (cantaloupe, grapes, melon, pineapple, and strawberry). Due to weather in the South, our flying time was prolonged to two hours and forty minutes, and we changed our attitudes three times 330 – 350 – 290. Descent finally began at 7:09pm and we landed on Runway 18L at 8:30pm MCO time (MCO is EST). Bags came out twenty-two minutes later.

June 14, 2003
UA1195 MCO-ORD Lv1210 Arr1357
Boeing 757-200 N564UA
Orlando was very busy in the late morning hours and I recommend checking in two hours prior for Y passengers, and 90 minutes for F passengers. The security looked long, but I got through within twenty minutes. Check in took place in a quiet manner – the agent was expression-less and I really don’t have expectation for United’s ground service anymore. Well, I headed over to gate 45 then. Boarding began at 11:43am and I found the same crew on my inbound flight last night working on this flight. Pre-takeoff beverage was offered this occasion and channel nine was turned on. We pushed back at 12:09pm and headed towards the familiar Runwy 18L for takeoff. We took off at 12:22pm and climbed to 35,000ft.

A movie was shown in today’s flight – DareDevil and Ben is as cute and handsome as ever. The familiar beverage and supreme nut mix service, followed by the lunch service – a choice of salmon salad or deli sandwich (ham & salami, cheddar and Provolone, chicken salad, onion, tomato and an olive roll). No fruit bowl is offered for lunch, but the cookie, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie is still offered. Descent began at 1:57pm and we landed on Runway 4R at 1:38pm CST.

UA 882 ORD-LGA Lv1600 Arr1904
Airbus A320-200 N494UA
Not much to tell you about this flight! Friendly F/A and the same snack plate as my ORD-MCO flight! Channel nine was turned on! We were sent to the scenic park a bit, but not too long! We landed early into LGA’s Runway 22 and I was home soon.

A bit of conclusion – In terms of cabin service, Star Alliance has an edge, but oneworld has a slight edge with ground service. CX is slightly disappointing, but I understand the situation and see the impact of SARS first hand.
BMI is still the best Star Alliance carrier, and Austrian comes close.
For intra-European airlines, cutbacks are obvious and SK is the major disappointment. Tyrolean and BMI will definitely be on my priority list.
I finally got to fly three new aircraft types – Fokker 70, MD-90 and Boeing 737-600. My only disappointment is not to be able to experience the long haul Finnair flights, due to the last minute reduction of their SIN flights.

I hope you enjoy this journey. My next report will be a tale of two Japanese airlines in late June!

Carfield

pallensf

Beautiful Carfield...

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Patrick A. Inouye, LMT
volunteer trip reports moderator

Mats

If a meal left Carfield speechless, it must have been incredible!

bmi British Midland would be pleased to know that perhaps the world's greatest airline meal connoisseur appreciated their catering.

I'm still enamored with SAS, but the passport control mess at Kastrup sounds awful.

alect

Yes that's all very well but how about some details - like the absorbency of sanitary napkins on each of the *A airlines?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003816.html

mad_atta

Another great report, Carfield - thanks! I presume your comments about the various *A airlines are referring specifically to business class? Out of curiosity, how would you rate the rest of the *A carriers you've flown in long haul business?