RTW4

LAX-NRT Varig flight 8826 September 2, 2004

OH WOW!!

This report will begin at check in

CHECK IN
I was quite surprised when I checked in to Tom Braddley international terminal to fly to NRT. I was on a Star Alliance award ticket. The surprise was on check in. I was informed that FIRST CLASS on this flight was the “new” first class seating. Instead of one row of first class with 6 seats, there was one row with 4 seats with sleeper seats. I waited only 5 minutes in line…. And then to the VARIG lounge

LOUNGE
The Varig lounge is locate on the fourth floor. There is no differentiation between first and business class. The lounge was absolutely beautiful and very quiet. There was no internet access and no real food. The snacks were actually quite pitiful. But the ambience was excellent. I had some green tea and did some work. Boarding was delayed by 30 minutes.

BOARDING
All first and business class passengers were boarded first in a very orderly manner. I was personally led to my seat and was absolutely amazed to find that this VARIG MD-11 was retrofitted with 4 Swissair first class seats. In fact the in flight telephone actually said “Swissair design”. The seat was sensational with the famous “ottoman” and full sleeper seat design of Swissair. As I sat in my window seat 1A I was joined by another couple and another solo flyer in 1J the other window seat.

FLIGHT
I was already quite impressed with the service as I was offered my choice of beverages before take off in real glassware.. Menus were handed out and after hearing such lackluster reports on VARIG I was already pleasantly surprised and pleased. The immediate feeling of this transpacific trip was that it would be very special. I surely did not expect this. I decided before the actual flight that would watch my own DVDs.. There was no offered IFE that I saw. But to my great pleasure…the seat was equipped with in seat power.

MENU
WESTERN SELECTION LUNCH
Mixed nuts
Caviar
From the Caspian Sea presented with traditional accompaniments

Appetizers
Smoked salmon with mixed greens cucumbers and lemon
Prosciutto with melon and tomato
Seasonal mixed fresh greens with mustard dressing or Italian dressing

SOUP
Cream of mushroom


MAIN DISHES
Grilled fillet of beef served with red wine sauce and mixed mushrooms broccoli carrots and zucchini
Grilled fish with marinated herbs, bell pepper sauce rice with potatoes and raisins broccoli and carrots
Breast of chicken with grilled vegetables and rice
Cheese ravioli in mushroom sauce and basil

DESSERT
Fresh Fruit
Cheese
Walnut tartlet or Chocolate ice cream with vanilla sauce
Brazilian coffee and Regular and decaf espresso

AT ANY TIME
Selection of hot sandwiches accompanied by your favorite drink will be available throughout the flight.
Swiss cheese and tomato
Grilled Chicken
Roast Beef

HOT SNACK
Main Dish
Tenderloin and cheddar cheese sandwich
A selection of sandwiches:
Cream cheese, walnuts and onion on white bread
Ham yellow pepper and dill on pumpernickel bread

Chocolate bavaroise
Chocolate

Japanese Selection
Appetizers
Smoked salmon roll with herbed cream cheese, grilled shrimp, fish cake with caviar, egg roll and crabmeat and green beans

Sushi
Grilled eel with cucumber ginger and seaweed

Simmered dish
Sautéed chicken with mixed vegetables carrots and peas
Japanese salad
Squid, rolled with seaweed, tuna with julienne radish, ginger greens and lemon
Noodles with green tea, ginger sliced spring onion and dry seaweed

Soup
Consommé

Main Dish
Grilled sea bass with sesame asparagus and grilled black mushrooms
Accompanied by steamed rice and Japanese pickles.

CHAMPAGNE was a Gosset Brut Gran Millesime 1996

After watching a few episodes of ALIAS I took a rest and then began a great David Cronenberg flick called SHIVERS which I have never see…Oh well…alls well that ends well. Shivers was one of the worst movies that I have seen in a while. But let me tell you that I was surprised the entire flight on VARIG as the service was nothing less than superb. We had a flying time of 10:46 and landed exactly on time at 1:35 PM Tokyo time. I hope that you all enjoyed this report…. Until next time...

Maurits

Great report!

I probably going to try out RG in F (AMS-Sao Paolo) very soon. Let's hope they also have the SR seats!

AJLondon

Nice trip report. RG new F sounds quite promising ^

BTW, Did you get any PJ's or other flightwear and what was the amenity bag like?

djjaguar64

RTW4 nice report. I have never heard anything favourable about Varig. Will you be perhaps writing a comparision of all the 1st class products of the various airlines that you will be flying? By the way, was the crew young ones or the old matrons on the Varig flight. Was it a Japanese crew ?

Eastbay1K

I concur that the RG F inflight service from LAX is very good - I flew LAX/GRU last year. I had the old seats, which were ok - but the inflight product was very good, and so was service. I did think the LAX lounge was pathetic. I don't know if it has moved. I also thought boarding was not a good process, and boarding was delayed about an hour, with no announcements or reasoning.

jptasker

I have never flown on Varig before, thank you for that informative report. I didn't even realize that Varig offered service from LAX to NRT, is this for passengers connecting from Brazil?

Excellent report, none the less.

dhammer53

BTW, we flew JFK/FRA in Raffles and loved the IFE. I wanted to stay on the plane all the way to SIN; just to keep watching and listening.