Gnopps

My girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to visit her for that. It took a while before I could get the days off work confirmed and so when it was time to purchase the flights prices were already high. I therefore decided to use my miles for an award trip, but only business class was available for the flights with CSA (Czech airlines) that I wanted. Oh well, if one have to… Though you get free stand-by upgrades for all CSA flights when you have status with them I haven’t flown them since I became a status member a year ago. That time I flew in economy and was very pleased with their intra-european product. Actually, I was upgraded on one of the legs back then; the girl sitting next to me asked if I would be willing to switch seats with her boyfriend in business class so they could sit together. Sure! Service was good but it was a very short flight (VIE-PRG) so I didn’t get a “full” impression.
Now it was time to try their C-product. Though helpful, the CSA call center agent booking my flights sounded like she was ready to pass on. If you ever call the CSA call center, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the pre-recorded messages sound like they were made by a zombie. Anyway, back to the flights.


OK675 DUB-PRG
07:15-10:45

Bus communications in Dublin can be horrendous, and there are no direct bus links from where I live to the airport. The first bus via the city centre in the morning would only get me just in time to the airport so I took a taxi instead. The taxi was on time but I wasn’t. Always the same story when packing the same morning at 04.45… CSA operates two daily flights to DUB and they seem to be doing quite well, at least the lower booking classes are always full when I try to find seats.

There were two economy and one business check in desk open in DUB. I had to wait about ten minutes before it was my turn and got my pre-assigned 3F changed to the bulkhead 2A. I didn’t visit the lounge (operated by Anna Livia) in favour of looking in the shops. I’ve been to this lounge a couple of times before and it is pretty standard, but with a decent selection of drinks and three internet computers. When I visited this lounge two years ago it was much better though, then they had a good selection of croissants, cookies and muffins to eat. Now that is reduced to two flavours of chips.

Boarding started on time but the gate agents forgot to change that status of the flight which can be annoying if you aren’t at the gate. Inside the plane there was a good selection of newspapers (for all passengers) and my coat was taken as I sat down. Contrary to most other European airlines, CSA offer custom seats in business class. Whereas many European airlines will simply offer the standard 3+3 seating or blocking the middle seat, CSA offers a real 2+2 layout instead of the 3+3 found in economy (on most planes). This means seats are much wider and have a small table between them, similar to first class offered on domestic American airlines. Still the seats have a very smart design, so they can be converted in to economy seats. The flight was pretty full in economy but only three out of 8 seats taken in business. My bulkhead seat felt a bit tight so I switched to 3F instead. Since I didn’t compare I don’t know for sure, but I believe leg room is also better in business class, as I had ample room for my legs. On the bulk head wall Newsweek and other Czech and English business-magazines were offered.

When everyone was boarded a stewardess came around with hot towels and then a glass (everything was served on china or glass) with orange juice. The captain announced that due to traffic restrictions our flight would have a delayed take-off of 30 minutes. After waiting patiently we were soon above the clouds and in-flights service began. A table cloth was put on each tray and then a tray was served. Main meal was an omelette with cheese, fried tomatoes and rösti (fried potatoes). There was also a fruit bowl and yoghurt. This was accompanied by the usual selection of bread (which tasted good). One thing I noticed that usually annoy me on other flights is that the butter is rock hard. On all my CSA-flights the butter wasn’t as cold and could therefore easily be spread on the bread. The food tasted alright, but presentation of the main meal could have been done better (sorry no camera with me). To the breakfast I opted for a cup of tea and instead of the ususal standard tea to my surprise my cup was filled with just hot water. The steward then returned with a selection of tea bags! I couldn’t see my favourite brand though; “Fair trade” . The trays were quickly removed but the steward returned to me with a small coaster for my tea cup. I asked for a blanket which I got. The blanket was of good quality but as usual a bit to short, meaning either my feet or breast had to be sacrificed. I reclined my seat but due to it’s width I had a hard time finding a good headrest. Eventually I fell asleep luckily and woke up for the landing announcement. We landed only about 10 minutes late in a sunny Prague but had to wait 10 minutes for our gate. While waiting I was entertained though by watching 6 men trying to load an animal container in to an El Al airplane.


Prague airport and lounges

The Prague airport is pretty airy and actually feels a bit too big for how many passengers there actually were there. The airport has three fingers, with one of them handling only schengen flights. Security check is done at the gate except for the schengen finger. As I deplaned I was looking for an overview of the airport, but any kind of airport map was impossible to find.
CSA operates two lounges here, and I first went to the old one in the non-schengen area. The lounge had a lot of seating available, one part being “café”-style with chairs around tables. The other part has relaxing chairs, some of them looking out over the runways. A good selection of drinks is available, accompanied by various salads. I was lacking something for my sweeth tooth, only finding müsli-bars. The lounge looks nice but in my opinion has a “canteen”-feeling to it. I believe this is because the walls are painted in a single colour and completely empty. Having some paintings on the walls would bring up the cosiness. Here I eventually found an airport map though, in the CSA printed timetable…
Since my flight was at the other end of the airport I headed over for the lounge there instead. This lounge is located after security check but not near the gates at all. After security the finger with all the gates is on the ground floor immediately to the right, but the shops are up on the second floor to the left! To reach the lounge you then have to ascend to the third floor from in the middle of the second floor. As I understand it this finger is newly constructed, but I don’t understand why it was designed this way. The other lounge was similar to the first, but smaller and lacking a view (except one of the airport roof). I found some open sandwiches here and sat down with a beer surfing the internet at one of their work stations. There was muzak (old lovesongs) playing in all of the lounge. Soon it was time to board again and so I went down to the second floor, walked some, then down to the ground floor and walked to my gate..


OK480 PRG-HEL
12:35-16:55

This flight was done with the same kind of aircraft but business seating stretched three rows. Again magazines were available and my jacket taken. I was asked if I preferred juice or sekt as predrink and chose the latter, though it didn’t suit my taste. CSA plays instrumental muzak while boarding and disembarking on their flights, though I’m no fan of that practise, their muzak seemed to be low enough not to disturb at least.

Once airborne, a twelve page (sic) menu was handed out. The menu was worthy of long-haul business class, including a small intro written by both the head chef and the head sommelier. Two white and two red wines were available, the same on the following flights. A choice between lamb and chicken was given (of course with much much nicer wording). I chose the lamb and found it very good. To drink I chose juice as I didn’t want to be in too much of a party mood when I arrived. Again, the tray was cleared just when I was finished.

I used to not liking cream liqueurs at all, but after trying Amarula in a Delta lounge earlier in the year I’ve started to like it. Therefore I asked for a Baileys after lunch. The steward couldn’t find it on the cart but returned with a bottle from the galley. When I drank it, it was very thick and didn’t taste very well. I have a hunch the bottle I was served was opened a long time ago.. Anyways, a gin and tonic afterwards helped clear the taste, this drink was served with very good salted almonds. Though I already had a birthday gift for my girlfriend I couldn’t resist buying some perfume for my girlfriend. Unfortunately the payment terminal wouldn’t accept my OK Plus card for the miles. I couldn’t help but wonder what the purser thought of me though, sitting in business class buying perfume, showing a OK Plus Gold card and then paying with my Diners which is a combined SAS Gold card, did he think I was some spoiled rich kid? You should know what salary I have, I bet it is much lower than the ones of you who are working earn. Anyway, we landed in Helsinki on time but I had some problems in passport control, the first page of my passport is starting to fall of due to poor quality, eventually I was let through though.. As I had no checked in luggage I didn’t get to see how well priority markings worked.


OK481 HEL-PRG
16:40-17:55

My girlfriend eventually let me go and I checked in at the Finnair business class counter in Helsinki. The check-in agent was very nice and used my first name, and double checked which seats I wanted for each leg. This was a good surprise as I find that more often than not, the premium check-in counters are staffed with grumpy personnel. Helsinki airport is divided in two international check-in areas, and the Finnair one had a long security line. Instead I took the 30 second walk to the other terminal and was through in no time. After passport control I went to see the non-schengen lounge. I like the generic schengen-lounge in HEL, as it offers very good view of the runway, but I know others disagree . The non-schengen lounge offered a good selection of drinks and food (pasta salad and potato salad), but had a very poor selection of newspapers. Most of the seats were taken but I got one and sat down with some juice and salad. While eating I got to see part of the finish way of life as the man next to me saw someone he knew at the other end of the room. He shouted to his friend, who didn’t hear him. Instead, he called him on his mobile phone and said “Hey, I’m over here, no not there, here!”. The friend then saw him and waved him over. Funny that he called instead of walking over. Anyway, I went out to the gate to have a look at the long haul planes parked next door. Here I got to witness another funny (?) episode where a drunken man came over to the gate agent and asked about the flight. Problem was that he couldn’t produce any boarding pass, and what was worse, no ticket coupon. He insisted he hadn’t been given these in the first place, but wasn’t believed. After a lot of arguing (from him) he was sent to the transfer centre. I never saw him board the plane.

Again hot towels and a predrink was handed out onboard the plane. Again the same excellent menu, though I must say the extensive menu is a bit over the top. As I am currently writing somewhere over Poland I’ll copy the menu:

MENU
HORS D’OEUVRE Fresh salad with marinated chicken, couscous, cucumber, yellow and red peppers

ENTRÉE Chicken Biryani and basmati rice with ginger served with green asparagus and caramelised red onions

or

Grilled salmon served with strigoli pasta, romanescu and pepper sauce

DESSERT Honey cake with chocolate shavings

My Baileys this time was much better and service impeccable. Arriving in to Prague I went to the lounge to relax a bit before the flight. Wanting to volunteer I asked whether my next flight was overbooked. First I received the answer that my flight was five minutes late, when I asked again the lounge attendant asked me which seat I preferred instead, it was first when I asked for the third time that she told me there were still five seats available. This was not annoying but merely funny as she all the time had a very friendly smile on her face. This time there was no salad nor sandwiches in the lounge, just empty bowls, perhaps since the long-haul flights had all departed.


OK674 PRG-DUB
19:15-20:50

Security at the gate was swift but the gate area itself lacked god air conditioning. Boarding began but I wasn’t let on the plane. Turns out staff in Helsinki had put the wrong ticket coupon in the wrong boarding pass, meaning I was left in PRG with my HEL-PRG coupon. After some phone calls I was able to board though, I’ll remember to check this better in the future. As this was a very full flight I had someone in the aisle seat next to me, but there is more than enough space for each passenger. My coat wasn’t taken until everyone was seated and I specifically asked for it. Menu on this flight is the same as it was on the flight to HEL last Wednesday and since I’m currently flying over Amsterdam I’ll copy it here as well:

MENU
HORS D’OUVRE Fresh salad with Feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and red pepper

ENTRÉE Chicken breast filled with sun-dried tomatoes served with oregano sauce, steamed potatoes and beans

or

Loin of lamb accompanied by couscous with spicy sun-dried tomatoes and aubergine purée

DESSERT Morello pie with whipped cream and chocolate shavings

This time I had the chicken and it tasted excellent. Again the dessert was a bit too sweet for me though. Our flight so far has been very turbulent so the seatbelt sign is constantly on. The CSA in-flight magazine has a little to read but not much, luckily though my seat neighbour proved to be nice. We landed on time and I had the same dull feeling as always when returning from a trip. It is just so boring to travel on a bus or train you know since many times before when you were just looked after in the sky!


Verdict:
Having travelled in business class intra-europe on several different airlines before it is easy to tell CSA stands up to the competition and exceeds it in some ways as well. Service was very friendly, only thing not matching the excellent in-flight service is the lounge in PRG. With the unlimited free systemwide upgrades CSA is continuing to be my choice of airline when possible.

mag

hi gnopps,

thanks for a nice report on an airline rarely featured here. seats sound especially nice...

(you may want to correct the routing of the first trip in your report, it reads HEL-PRG instead of DUB-PRG)