tegwj

Wifeykins hadn't been to Rome so a quick trip was in order last week. I had booked travel & hotel a while back but even with ~12 weeks' notice, finding inventory in J was difficult. EXP status helped with access on Eagle but I don't know if it bought me much on other airlines.

Regrettably this isn't meant to be an extensive review -- my main interest was in experiencing two carriers' J products (LX & IB) and burning a bunch of Hilton points at the Cavalieri.

10/3/05
AA4780 DCA-BOS

Standard Eagle flight. Left on time, arrived on time, nobody spilled drinks on me or set anything on fire, so winners all around.

LX053 BOS-ZRH

LX uses the Aer Lingus lounge at BOS, which is, quite frankly, terrible. Seating was woefully uncomfortable, food choices were negligible, bar was barely adequate, and no free WiFi access. The staff were pleasant but had very little to work with!

Equipment was A330, so we didn't have the latest J seating that is installed on the A340. Seat was quite comfortable, good selection of IFE, very pleasant and helpful staff. Menu:

First course:
Gravlax and grilled shrimps served with white radish and hot honey mustard
OR
Seasonal salad with a balsamic and olive oil dressing

Main course:
Beef tenderloin in a brandy and peppercorn sauce served with spinach, fennel and roasted potato
OR
Veal sausage accompanied by green beans, rosti and an onion sauce
OR
Sea bass with ginger and soy served with bok choy, carrots and miso sauce
OR
Roasted eggplant and spinach lasagne in a tomato sauce with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese

Cheeses:
Selection of cheeses

Dessert:
Chocolate delight with raspberry sauce

Swiss chocolates
Coffee and a selection of teas


Before landing breakfast:
Fresh fruits

Yoghurt

Assortment of breakfast breads served with butter and preserves

Coffee and a selection of teas

Wine list:
Fizzy -- Nicolas Feuillatte Reserve Particuliere, Brut

White -- Winzergold Muller-Thurgau 2004 Spatlase (Swiss)
Viognier Finca La Linda 2005 Luigi Bosca, Mendoza, Argentina

Red -- Winzerin Balgacher Pinot Noir 2003 E Nuesch (Swiss)
Equinoxe 2002 Les Beaux de Provence, France

Pablo Neruda Carmenere Reserva 2001, Vina Sutil SA, Chile


Dinner was quite good. I had the sausage, wifeykins had the tenderloin, and we traded off. I think the sausage was better, and was highlighted as the regional choice. The purser recommended the Chilean over the Swiss wine and I took his advice. The dessert was excellent!

10/4/05 LX1736 ZRH-FCO

Spent a couple of hours at ZRH wandering around the shiny new terminal and hanging out in the lounge, which was comfortable though didn't have a great view of the runways. Lots of fresh fruit, good drinks & other food. They also have what they claim is the longest airline lounge bar anywhere in the world. We had a look, and indeed, it is very long, but the overall space had nothing on the CX bar at The Wing in HKG.

Like many other European business class services, LX doesn't actually change the seating up front, they just block out the middle seat on each side. But the meal service, even on this very short (1hr20min) flight was great. Nice fluffy gnocchi, a good salad, drink selection, and pleasant staff. LX showed well on this itinerary and I would fly them again.

10/4/05 - 10/7/05, Cavalieri Hilton

I was quite excited about this hotel, owing to the materials I'd read here on FT, as well as other anecdotal reports I encountered from colleagues and friends. They did not disappoint. I am Hilton Diamond, which perhaps helped a little; when we arrived (after a charming handshake and wishes of good luck from our friendly taxidriver) I was redirected from the normal registration counter to the VIP room adjacent. We were met by the guest relations manager, Lynn, who was charming and very welcoming. She got us sorted and then personally showed us up to the executive floor, made our arrangements to have breakfast at the restaurant downstairs (instead of in the lounge), and confirmed our reservation at La Pergola for the Thursday night. Our room was very comfortable, they had provided a chilled bottle of spumante ahead of time, and the full array of Hermes toiletries were a nice touch. It was all we could do to pull ourselves away and begin our adventuring in town.

The hotel's staff were really the best feature. Everybody was effortless -- it was never apparent that somebody was running through the checklist of things necessary to "get it right" in their head when interacting with us. Of course there were little details throughout which made it particularly comfortable and decadent, but I've stayed at other nice hotels which would match the Cavalieri's list bullet for bullet.

We ate out the first night, at the downstairs restaurant the second night (excellent homemade pasta!), and at La Pergola on the third night. Much like the rest of the hotel, the restaurant staff were approachable, welcoming, and utterly faultless throughout the 4 hour meal. The fact that the food was similarly outstanding, and that they did such a gracious job accommodating my wife's nut allergy, made this our standout dining experience for the past couple of years. We placed it on a par with our first trip to The French Laundry, and better than our subsequent two visits to Yountville.

Friday morning brought the sad realization that it was time to go, so we checked out and went back to the airport to board...

10/7/05
IB3605 FCO-MAD

I'd never flown Iberia before, and was curious to see how it would compare. This service, operated on an A320, was generally unremarkable. The boarding process was chaotic -- no tiered boarding, not even for their own elites -- and once on board, we had to wait, with no immediate explanation, for an unknown delay to be sorted. Eventually we pushed back and were off. The flight was nice -- seeing the Mediterranean islands is always pretty -- but the flight attendants didn't seem particularly interested in ensuring we had what we needed. Neither my wife nor I speak any Spanish and while the staff obviously spoke some English, they didn't make any obvious effort to do so. The other weird thing I noticed is that the in-cabin volume for PA announcements was LOUD.

10/8/05
After a brief overnight visit to downtown Madrid, and a quick run around the Prado, we were back out to the airport for the return segments.

IB6253 MAD-JFK
Iberia has gone to a two-class cabin configuration on their long-haul routes, so this was technically a 'BusinessPlus' seat. The seating is quite new, unfolds to be fully flat (though not horizontal), and has a good selection of IFE. I'm tall -- 6'5" -- so I couldn't stretch out anyway, but my wife liked it. The food was as follows:

Chicken Consomme

Pickled partridge salad with spring garlic and mangetout; Virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar

Beef loin with truffle sauce, potato au gratin with Manchego cheese
OR
Casserole of hake with asparagus
OR
"Tumbet"

Assortment of Spanish cheeses with fig jam

Coffee and caramel cake
OR
Hazelnut and pear Williams ice creams

Coffee, herbal teas and spirits


SNACK pre-landing:
Club sandwich
Cream of cheese
Fresh fruit
Coffee and herbal teas


We both had the beef loin, which was really good -- cooked properly, with big chunks of truffle evident in the sauce. The meal was very good, one of the better I've had on an international J flight. We both passed on the pre-landing snack so no first-hand experience there. It didn't look like much as it was being served.

Unfortunately, however, the IB cabin crew again let down the side. We saw them happily chatting with Spanish-speaking passengers throughout the cabin, but we barely got more than a grunt. Once the primary meal service was done, we didn't see them at all until the Snack service went around on the cart. I had to ask them to enable the in-seat power adapter and was initially greeted with the 'you've clearly done something wrong' attitude in response, only later for them to discover they hadn't switched on the whole system on the big A340 touchscreen control up in the galley. PA announcements were, again, VERY LOUD, and the flight attendant had horrible audio feedback piercing through the cabin whenever she activated the system.

We landed at JFK and were very quickly through to immigration, passed through very easily, and then took the elevated train over to (shiny! new!) AA Terminal 9 to catch...

10/8/05
AA4757, JFK-DCA

Which, other than an hour delay due to weather issues at JFK, was pretty easy. We were actually booked on the later Eagle flight but waitlisted for this one (and bumped 14 other people 2 spots down in the process!) and made it. I was torn, because I wanted to see the new Admirals Club at JFK, but decided getting home a couple hours earlier was worth it.



And that was about it. Verdicts:

LX Int'l J: better than AA, CX old J, Qantas old J; not as good as CX or QF new J
LX Europe J: better than AA domestic F :-) I'd say better than BA Europe J too

IB Europe J: worse than AA domestic F, in fact I'd take circa-2002 MRTC AA mid-con Y over this
IB Int'l J: the fundamentals were good but the cabin crew really let it down. I'd probably take it over AA J sometimes, but not every time.

Cavalieri Hilton: a great way to blow 120k Hilton points in 3 days!

twj

sadiqhassan

Thanks ^

Great Report. A pleasure to read

RachelG

Your impression of the IB flight attendants coincides with mine. Total neglect of passengers who were not Spanish. And I speak Spanish!