lancasteruk

This is the first time I've really gone on trip like this one and, since I found tickets through advice on this forum and was inspired by similar trip reports here (yes, it's all your fault), I thought I'd blog as I go along.

Some background (feel free to skip!)

At some point around 2 months ago, I was sitting in my office at work and feeling a little listless and, since I'd just finally got through a solid month's-worth of marking, I started daydreaming of summer holidays. A few weeks prior to this I'd been on a trip with my fiancee to Denver for a conference and had learned from a colleague of the benefits of using airport lounges. Something which, as we had a 7 hour layover in Dallas on the way back, we were very glad of! It occurred to me that the problem with using airport lounges when you're flying economy is just that - you're flying economy, with all the attendant downsides. It thus occurred to me that business class travel was something I'd like to try and that airline status would be a very nice thing to have indeed!

I stumbled upon some blogs of people who'd gone on tier point runs and this idea very quickly began to appeal to me. I have always loved aircraft, flying and even airports and consider the flights to and from a destination to be a big part of the holiday, and so a trip based around flights seemed like a good idea. Browsing around the forums I eventually came across a thread describing cheap business class flights to Male from Frankfurt flying on a combination of Qatar and Sri Lankan's rather nice A330-300s and decided in unusual (for me) haste that this was something I should go for. And so, here I am sitting at Newcastle airport waiting to board the first of 10 flights over the next 4 or so days.

The route

My cheap business-class ticket begins in Frankfurt tomorrow, so I need to position myself there today. I managed to get some decent tickets from the (perhaps fairly) much-maligned BA and a pretty nice hotel for this evening near to Frankfurt airport. Here is my route:

Monday the 17th
Flight 1: BA1335 NCL-LHR
Aircraft: G-EUOH (Airbus A319-131)
Seat: 22A (very much economy, but at least it's by the window!)

Flight 2: BA0916 LHR-FRA
Aircraft: G-EUPF (Airbus A319)
Seat: 22A

Tuesday the 18th

Flight 3: QR70 FRA-DOH
Aircraft: A7-BAQ (Boeing 777-3DZ(ER))
Seat: 3A

Flight 4: UL0218 DOH-CMB
Aircraft: A3-3ALM (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A

Wednesday the 19th

Flight 5: UL0101 CMB-MLE
Aircraft: 4R-ALQ (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A

Thursday the 20th

Flight 6: UL0116 MLE-CMB
Aircraft: 4R-ALN (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A

Flight 7: UL0217 CMB-DOH
Aircraft: 4R-ALN (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 3A

Friday the 21st

Flight 8: QR069 DOH-FRA
Aircraft: A7-BAW (Boeing 777-3DZ (ER))
Seat: 4F

Flight 9: BA0907 FRA-LHR
Aircraft: G-EUPC (Airbus A319-131)
Seat: 15D

Flight 10: BA1334 LHR-NCL
Aircraft: G-EUOG (Airbus A319-131)
Seat: 17A

lancasteruk

Leg 1: Newcastle to London

Flight: BA1335 NCL-LHR
Aircraft: G-EUOH (Airbus A319-131)
Seat: 22A (very much economy, but at least it's by the window!)
Avios/tier points: 250/10

Trust me to be leaving Newcastle on the most gloriously warm and sunny day in all recorded meteorological history! After a little lunch with my fiancee, I headed off to catch the Metro to the airport. It really was a beautiful day and actually got quite warm in the enclosed metro carriage. I arrived at NCL and headed straight through security, which was lightning fast as always, leaving me with plenty of time for a cortado and a browse of the duty free before boarding the flight to London.



Priority boarding was very much in force, followed by boarding of the cattle-class pax. (myself included) in sections. It was a typical intra-Europe flight and, as always, there was less than generous leg room in the cabin, although the FO was of the very cheery and informative variety, as BA pilots often are. In no time at all we were on our way to the BA Mothership and, after a couple of trips around the holding pattern to the NE of LHR, we landed on a Westerly approach with Queen Liz's country pad very visible out of the window.





Heathrow T5 was as busy as ever and we had to wait around 15 minutes on the taxiway for the departing A320 to leave our stand. As I had almost 2 hours before my next flight I had plenty of time to grab a much-needed bottle of water (bloody cheap BA and their Pay on Board "offering") and some very nice noodles at Wagamama.

BigEyedFish

Nice - sounds like a good adventure! How many miles will you get for your trip, and what status will you be at the end?

lancasteruk

Leg 2: London to Frankfurt

Flight: BA0916 LHR-FRA
Aircraft: G-EUPF (Airbus A319)
Seat: 22A
Avios/tier points: 250/10

After an enjoyable, if not somewhat rushed, dinner at Wagamama it was time to head to the gate for my next flight on to Frankfurt. Priority boarding was initially something of a shambles (too many British people about feeling the need to queue for a flight that wasn't theirs in sympathy with those already queuing, I imagine) but a BA rep finally managed to restore some order. We headed out to the gate for what was a very full flight with every single seat occupied.

By this point Heathrow had become extremely busy, so our Aussie pilot (one of the very few in London not working at a pub) communicated an expected 10 minute delay for engine start and then a 20 minute wait on the taxiway. In the end the delay to engine start reduced to only a few minutes but we did need to wait on the taxiway for a good 20-25 minutes, which allowed for plenty of plane spotting.



The flight itself was almost entirely uneventful and we arrived in Frankfurt only a couple of minutes behind scheduled and were bussed to terminal 2. I used to live in Germany and often connected through FRA to get home to the UK and don't have hugely fond memories of the airport layout. Needless to say this view hasn't really changed. Finding the hotel shuttle bus was confusing to say the least, although it did end up being a good test of my German, which seems to be more or less intact. So much for German efficiency!



After connecting to Terminal 1 I was finally able to catch the shuttle to my hotel, which I'd booked with a combination of Avios and hard currency. The hotel was actually pretty good and I managed a decent 5 or so hours sleep and enjoyed a hearty teutonic breakfast before taking the shuttle back to Frankfurt terminal 1.

Tocsin

Looking forward to the next installment - thanks lancasteruk !

lancasteruk

Thanks for the comments Tocsin and BigEyedFish. Assuming all goes well and no tier points go missing, I'll be very safely into BAEC Silver by the end of this. I am now updating all the posts with tier points and avios accrued.

Leg 3: Frankfurt to Doha

Flight: QR70 FRA-DOH
Aircraft: A7-BAQ (Boeing 777-3DZ(ER))
Seat: 3A
Avios/tier points: 3559/140

Now to the more exciting parts of the trip report (at least they are for me) - the business class flights.

After a decent 5 of so hours' worth of sleep, I started my day early (6AM is early enough for me) and went for a quick, and surprisingly light, breakfast at the hotel. The Germans are not exactly known for the light cuisine, even if their language is the source of the term "delicatessen," so I was pleased about this. After eating, I went for a little walk and then took the hotel shuttle to Frankfurt airport.

I arrived at the Qatar check in to find a very long queue snaking its way through the terminal and, being on autopilot, joined the end of it before remembering that I now had a better option. I walked over to the business class queue, which was completely empty, and walked straight up to the desk where the check in agent printed out my tickets, informing me that I had window seats all the way to Male and inviting me to use the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. Well, it'd be almost rude not to, wouldn't it?


Checking in and the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge

I passed quickly though priority security and headed off to find the lounge, which was a short walk and up some stairs. I entered the lounge (after having my credentials checked) and grabbed myself a quick cappuccino from the machine and settled down to wait for my flight. No sooner had I sat down than an alarm sounded and a staff member rushed in shouting "alle 'raus". I don't know about you, but when I heard commands shouted at me in German,I tend to take notice of them! As all of the J pax. shuffled out of the lounge, I could help noticed the look of obvious Schadenfreude from the other passengers waiting in the terminal! After about 10 minutes of waiting a troop of rather annoyed-looking firefighters rushed past and into the lounge, emerging literally seconds later, the alarm having been safely turned off. I immediately got the impression this was not the first time they'd visited this particular part of the airport.

My suspicions were correct. As we walked back into the lounge, I inquired what the problem had been and was told that this happens roughly twice a day as a result of either an over-sensitive smoke alarm and an overzealous shower user, the steam from the shower setting off the alarm. Perhaps an example of health and safety gone a little too far? Anyway, I spent another half an hour enjoying the lounge and admiring its fantastic lit glass centrepiece from the comfort of a recliner in the lounge's quiet area. There's even German Weizen on tap. Oh and no, I didn't have any Weizen - even for a Scot 8 in the morning is too early for a wheat beer!

After checking for any more flammable shower cubicles, and with half an hour until my flight boarded, I exited the lounge and walked the short distance to the gate. Within minutes the J pax. were called forward to board and I was very pleased to be among them and was very much looking forward to my first experience of the famous Qatar business class experience.








The flight

Boarding via a separate airbridge for J pax., I was welcomed by the international, but mostly Korean, flight crew and walked to my A3 seat by the window. I sat down and a crew member almost immediately came and explained the seat controls to me and offered me a glass of champagne (Billecart-Salmon brut; very nice, indeed), which I accepted without too much persuasion necessary, and a Bric's amenity kit. During the seat functions briefing I tried to maintain an air of cool to suggest that I was used to such things, being a regular visitor to the front of the aircraft and a seasoned business class traveller. An illusion of suaveness that I maintained for almost a whole 2 minutes until I somewhat destroyed it by asking the FA to take a picture of me enjoying my champagne in my large and comfy seat.

A quick note on the seats. I know these are not entirely cutting-edge any more (the world of business-class seats seems to be a very rapidly-moving one), but they are extremely comfortable and have some clever features. The little cubby under armrest containing a bottle of water and the very clever/over-engineered tray table being standouts. Also you do get a massage function, which my fiancee would appreciate. I gave it a go but suspect that the look on my face may have been disturbing to other passengers, so quickly turned it off. The IFE is good and the screen is large and clear, although not quite HD, I don't think. Qatar give you some unbranded noise-cancelling headphones, which they'd really rather you didn't take with you when you deplane and the controller is fairly well designed. Points also for the cabin design, which is quite luxurious without being ostentatious (I'm looking at you, Emirates) and, obviously, for the fact that the seat can be made into a bed. Although, as this was an afternoon flight, I kept my seat fairly upright.






There was a slight delay as a passenger had failed to take their seat and their luggage had to be found in the vastness of the hold and unloaded, something the baggage handling staff must absolutely love. We taxied without any fuss and took off into the beautiful late-morning sky. After reaching crusing altitude, staff came around to take lunch orders and to hand out some warm nuts and offer more champagne. Qatar allow you to request food from the menu in any order and at any time you like, but I was getting hungry and so asked to have it right away, as did most people. The food was brought promptly and I had an amuse bouche of goat's cheese and beetroot, a starter of Arabic mezze and a main course of spiced chicken, accompanied by a very nice glass of Chardonnay, which was opened and poured at my seat. Various desserts and/or cheese and biscuits were on offer, however I felt any more would have been a stretch (both figuratively and literally) as the portions were as generous as the food as tasty. Lunch was finished off with a small box of Godiva chocolates and a warm, refreshing towel.













I watched a couple of films on the excellent IFE system ("Life" and "Gifted"). Around an hour before landing, as we were flying abeam Shiraz (the city, not the wine), I caught up on some work and ordered a macchiato. The coffee arrived quickly and was really excellent, which can't be easy to achieve at 550MPH! Some people (my fiancee and father included) think, most probably rightly, that I'm a bit of a coffee snob and it never ceases to amaze me that many coffee shops don't know what a macchiato actually is, so that fact you can get a near-perfect one on a flight is great. Before landing the purser went around to thank everyone personally for flying with Qatar, which I thought was a nice touch. After a long approach over the sea, we landed at 18:07 local time and taxied to the gate. I was a little sad to have to leave the wonderful Qatar 777 behind, but the adventure continues and the al Mourjan lounge awaits!

wtcmor

The food looks really nice

lancasteruk

Leg 4: Doha to Colombo

Flight: UL0218 DOH-CMB
Aircraft: A3-3ALM (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A
Avios/tier points: 2809/140


Doha Hamad airport and the al Mourjan lounge

First impressions of Doha airport were very good - it's certainly grand in scale and the visual style has been crafted to impress without being overly ostentatious (nod to Emirates again). I connected through Dubai last year on the way to Brisbane and was singularly unimpressed with the airport, which really surprised me, given how famously wealthy and keen to impress the UAE are. Doha was different and I found myself liking it immensely. There's a real feeling of space and serenity and the famous giant teddy bear with a serious medical complaint centrepiece is definitely interesting!



I'd heard a lot of good things about Qatar's home business lounge, the al Mourjan (yes, I know that's technically "the" twice in a row, but I'm an ignorant foreigner and most certainly don't speak Arabic, so just go with it), and headed there as quickly as I could. Staff greet you (and check your travel documents) at the foot of a long escalator which takes you up to the massive lounge itself. On arriving at the top of the escalator you pass behind a large desk and into the lounge, which is, frankly, larger than most small airports. Much like the rest of the airport, the decor and design are impressive but not gaudy. There's a beautiful reflecting pool and columnular chandelier, around which snakes the staircase up to the restaurant. I went there first.

The restaurant offers a pretty impressive range of food options and as much booze as you can handle, actually to be honest way more than anyone could handle. The serving staff are very attentive and, in fact, if I had a criticism about the lounge I'd say that there are perhaps too many of them buzzing about the place. I was clearly there at a quiet time and I'm sure the staff outnumbered the passengers! In any case, I had some light dinner, paired with the recommended Chianti and some small dessert items, together with the also-recommended Riesling. I had asked whether they had a dessert wine and (helpfully?) suggested Sauternes. The waiter went to check and apologised profusely that they didn't have any but that the sommelier recommended the Riesling as an alternative and would that be ok? I can only assume that some customers are quite unpleasant and he seemed genuinely worried that I would be displeased at the lack of one specific type of dessert wine. Of course I thanked him very much for his efforts and he brought me the glass of Riesling, which was a very nice compliment to the sweets. Stop me when I start sounding like an arse. Too late? Oh well...



I (somehow; it's a hard life etc, etc) managed to while away around 3 hours in the lounge, taking full advantage of the excellent wifi to video Skype with my fiancee back home. But then time was up and I headed to the gate for the next leg of my journey and my first experience of Sri Lankan hospitality.

The flight

The flight was already listed as "boarding" on the airport monitors, even though it was not due to depart for well over an hour. As I reached the gate, I discovered it was one of those systems where they pre-check your documents before hoarding you into a tiny little waiting room (why do they do this?) The flight was clearly very full and as I waited to board I began to wonder what Sri Lankan would be like and how good the seats on their shiny new A330-300s really were. I gazed outside and saw the Airbus waiting for the passengers to board and fly us off to exotic Colombo.



Soon enough, J pax. were called to board the aircraft through a separate airbridge and were greeted at the door by a pair of FAs in their traditional Sri Lankan sarong "uniform," which is quite a change from the usual style of FA garb on other airlines. The business class cabin on the new plane was certainly very nice with some little touches of colour here and there to remind you where the airline's from. The seats are in a 1-2-1 arrangement, so all passengers have direct aisle access. I took my seat by the window and began to aquaint myself with my new surroundings. As I did, one of the crew offered me a water, apple or orange juice and, about 3 minutes later, returned with the water I'd requested and asked what I'd like from the menu. By this point I had only been on the aircraft for a few minutes and hadn't even noticed that there was a menu. I quickly grabbed it and chose something. All of the options were Sri Lankan in style and sounded good so it was a difficult decision to make in such a short time (again, life, hard).









I chose the fish option (a delicacy origination from the southern coastal regions of Sri Lanka) and began experimenting with the IFA and its massive touch screen. Unfortunately mine seemed to be playing up and was failing to register any of my touches and occasionally crashing. I didn't want to bother the crew at this stage as they were clearly very busy so just sat for a while and enjoyed the ambience of the cabin. A few minutes later we began to move and the safety video started. This features a host of "interesting" cartoon characters who seem to have been style on Nintendo Wii Miis and contains the somewhat unusual line "Note that business class seats are fitted with airbags." If you're in economy then good luck!

We taxied for a short while and then took off into the blackness of the Gulf sky and turned East towards Colombo. Food was served around half an hour after takeoff; it was served on a single tray and was really very tasty. Staff came around with extra bread in a basket, including Sub continent-style flatbreads, and took further drink orders. I felt I'd had enough wine for one evening and was still processing my Chianti and Riesling from the al Mourjan lounge, so declined. I also declined the dessert of baklava. I did, however ask for a little Cognac (Camus XO Elegance) as a nightcap and informed the crew member about my IFE problems.



This was promptly rebooted and I played around with its very cool, pinchable, tapable interactive 3D map and noted the forward and downward-facing cameras (both pretty uninspiring in the pitch black of night). I then headed off to the bathroom to brush my teeth with a brushing kit, which was provided on request, and put my seat into the lie flat position and settled in for a few hours kip. As soon as I got back on the seat an FA came around handing out complimentary Crabtree and Evelyn amenity kits.

In the end I managed to get around 3 hours of sleep and was woken up by the captai announcing that we were only half an hour out of Colombo. I was offered a cup of tea, which I had (Sri Lanka is famous for its tea, and for good reason) and was given an extremely hot towel to freshen up before landing.

Overall, this was a very good experience and it was certainly a bit different to be able to lie flat and sleep whilst flying at 41,000 feet! The level of service and food quality on Sri Lankan is clearly not up to the standard of Qatar's offering, however the staff were great and the food was still very enjoyable. Others, including Lucky of OneMileAtaTime, have mentioned that there's something exotically different Sri Lankan and I can only concur. I feel very happy that I'll be flying with them another 3 times before the trip's done.

Fredrik74

Looks like a nice trip you're having. I've never tried Sri Lankan but I would like to try them. Different isn't necessarily the same as "worse".

lancasteruk

Thanks, Frederick74. Yes, it's been a fantastic trip so far and you're absolutely right - different in this case is definitely good and I'd say Sri Lankan offer a very nice service indeed. My later Sri Lankan flights were even better. I'll write them up soon!


Leg 5: Colombo to Male

Flight: UL0101 CMB-MLE
Aircraft: 4R-ALQ (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A
Avios/tier points: 605/40

Colombo airport was pretty chaotic in the sort of energising way that one imagines of the Indian subcontinent (and by extension, Sri Lankan. Apologies to any Indians or Sri Lankans reading for any overgeneralisation - I know very well that they're different countries and cultures). Less enjoyable was the boarding setup. There was a queue to go through security for each pair of gates, followed by a tiny little anteroom and another check of tickets and passports before being allowed into another waiting room. The anteroom was tiny and yet they were continuing to let ever more passengers through without checking nearly enough into the waiting room on the other end and many people were failing to observe any reasonable queuing ettiquete. A fact that didn't not go unnoticed by the group of exasperated Brits that I somehow managed to clump together with. In any case, we were eventually checked through and J pax were given invitations to use immigration fast track in Male.





Business class boarded first and the load was quite light in the front cabin, perhaps half. We were offered drinks on boarding - either water, organge or apple juice, but no champagne (oh well, probably good to give the liver a break!) Hot towels were given out as well as menu cards and orders were taken very quickly, which seems to be a thing with Sri Lankan. I chose the trio of milk rice (naturally, served with some curry). Within 10 minutes of takeoff the cabin began to fill with the exotic smells of Sri Lankan cooking and, given it was breakfast time, I began to wonder to myself whether they eat some form of rice and curry for every meal. I can think of worse things and my selection turned out to be very tasty and I was offered some bread from a basket to go with it and chose some toast (remember that it was morning and, therefore, breakfast). This went well with the freshly-brewed Ceylon tea that was brought around next and with the little jar of Tiptree's of Essex strawberry jam.







There were no films available on the IFE system for such a short flight and by the time breakfast was finished we were approaching the Maldives. I spent the next 20 or so minutes with my face pressed against the window glass looking out for coral atolls until, suddenly, they appreared and what a sight it was! After an exciting landing (the runway at MLE is quite short and an A330-300 is quite heavy so lots of reverse thrust is required), we taxied to the gate and departed via air stairs. Apparently there are no airbridges in paradise!

Immigration was pretty straightforward with only a little form filling neccesary and I wa smet by a driver from the hotel in the arrivals hall and he led me to the waiting minibus. Mr Jin, as I learnt his name was, had been born and bred on the Maldives and was clearly a little too used to the rather lax traffic laws as he weaved his way through the otherwise slow-moving traffic. There was a very slick operation at the hotel and as I paid for my stay, a staff member grabbed my bag, another brought me a mango juice and a third brought me a chilled towel. The towel vending staff member already had the key to my room and insisted he take my bags for me and lead me to it. I won't say too much more about theb Maldives right not but will leave a few photos to give you the general idea.

lancasteruk

Leg 6: Male to Colombo

Flight: UL0116 MLE-CMB
Aircraft: 4R-ALN (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 4A
Avios/tier points: 605/40

After spending a grand total of 28 hours in the Maldives (or at least 28 hours in the Maldives and not in an airport or a plane) my hotel shuttle brought me to a very sunny Male airport for 12:30. I needed to get tickets for my inbound flights, so headed to the priority check in desk, where they were printed for me together with invitations to the Leeli lounge in Male and the Serendiv lounge in Colombo and an invitation for priority passport control and security, which saved me quite some time as it was rather busy. Before heading to the lounge I had an important mission: gifts for my fiancee and a little souvenir. Since I started travelling for my job 8 or so years ago I have bought a fridge magnet everywhere I go and it's become a bit of a tradition of mine to try to find the tackiest one possible, not that classy fridge magnets exist; the phrase "a classy fridge magnet" is almost certainly an onymoron, if ever I saw one. Gifts and kitsch magnet purchased, I headed to the Leeli lounge.





The Leeli lounge

There's not a huge lot to say about the lounge. It was pleasantly decorated and very tranquil with lots of comfy brown chairs and soft lighting. There was a pretty good selection of hot and cold food and a decent coffee machine. Unusually for an airport lounge, it didn't have any alcoholic drinks, I assume because the Maldives is a strictly Muslim country and alcohol is only to be served there on the tourist resort islands. In any case, I wanted to save my liver for what was to come!







The flight

After spending a couple of hours relaxing in the lounge and updating this blog, I headed off to the gate. Boading commenced pretty soon after I arrived but was a little strange as economy was called first and then, after some economy pax. had boarded, business was called. This caused some considerable confusion, both for the passengers and the SriLankan staff! Even more surprisingly, on emerging from the terminal on to the tarmac, I noticed that it had rained quite heavily at some point when I was in the lounge and was now quite cloudy. I boarded via a single set of airstairs and was greeted by the cabin staff and directed to turn left for the first time on the trip. The J cabin was almost completely empty with only 5 passengers and as I took my seat I was offered a welcome drink, including champagne, by a very friendly member of the CC (Gushani). Just as well there was no booze in the lounge!





I started to do a little work and was quickly brought a warm towel while the chatty captain described the upcoming flight and our routing, warning that there might be a little choppy air on the way. I'd been expecting this as the forecast had been calling for thunderstorms in Colombo for Thursday afternoon. We waited a while for ATC clearance (because it's crazy busy airspace above such a massive international hub like MLE?!) and after a long taxi and 360 degree turn, we lined up for the runway and took off at 15:55 - 25 mins late.





Food was served amazingly quickly (only 9 minutes after takeoff) and with a smile. I was offered more champagne but asked for water instead, which was brought promptly. The cabin manager then went around to offer tea and coffee and later asked if I could take my tray and whether he could get me more champagne or maybe a whisky. I declined the kind offer of more booze but told him how excellent the service had been, especially considering the short flight time. Despite the warnings and forecasts of armageddon, the flight was extremely smooth and we landed at CMB a little late at 17:37 but taxied very quickly to the gate, where the staff on the airbridges had clearly had plenty of coffee that day as I was in the terminal building for 17:44.

lancasteruk

Leg 7: Colombo to Doha

Flight: UL0217 CMB-DOH
Aircraft 4R-ALN (Airbus A330-300)
Seat: 3A
Avios/tier points: 2809/140

As my incoming flight was a little late, I only had enough time to quickly dash to the Serendiv lounge for a look around before getting on the next flight. I figured as I had a nice invitation from Sri Lankan for the lounge that it would be extremely rude not to visit. The Serendiv lounge has a very impressive entrance, the kind of entrance one might expect leading into an ancient temple where there might be, say, a giant ancient crystal sitting on a stone plinth. The kind of giant ancient crystal that, when you go to remove it, triggers a highly elaborate set of traps (which somehow, despite the fact they're also ancient, still work) that you can only escape if you have a whip, a fedora hat and a few cocky one-liners to throw about. Inside, the lounge is pretty nice and airy, continues the mystical temple feel and features some decent hot and cold food, which I had neither the time nor the stomach space to try. Sadly, though, no giant ancient crystals and not so much as even an unsophisticated trap door.







After my whistle-stop tour of the lounge, I headed straight for my flight, which, it turns out, was the exact same plane I'd just got off 20 minutes earlier. The same crazy setup was in effect for this gate as when I flew to Male the day before, but this time the security staff scrutinised my passport for quite some time. "Only a single day in the Maldives, sir? And you came from Frankfurt via Doha...!?" Clearly this guy was not a member of FlyerTalk! My brain started to whirl trying to figure out how best to explain the concept of a TP run to the security agent when he took pity on me and let me through to the waiting area. Phew!

I sat in the packed waiting area for a few minutes until the boarding call was made. They invited business class pax. to "board at their leisure" but then immediately after invited economy pax. in the final 10 seat rows to also board. Not very clever, especially as almost everyone seemed to ignore the bit about seat rows and 180 or so people began crowding towards the single check in agent. Well, I thought, we're all going to the same place anyway and it's not like they can leave without anyone. Eventually the pax. from the as-yet-uncalled rows were shooed away and I go to the air bridge and on to the plane, where I proceeded to sit in the seat directly in front of the one I'd just been sitting in an hour prior.





The purser came by and asked how I was and I told him I'd just been on this aircraft. He laughed and offered me a glass of champagne. Why not? The J cabin was again quiet with only 11 of 28 seats filled. There had clearly been a bit of rush before boarding due to the late arrival of the incoming flight as there were no menu cards, headphones or bottles of water at the seats and again my IFE system seemed to be inoperable. Not super reliable these Android-based Thales systems, it seems. After a few minutes, a very smiley FA (Sharon) came 'round with the menu cards and hot towels and rebooted my IFE locally, however this failed to resolve the issue. She came back later for my food choice (the lamb) and we took off a few minutes behind schedule, at 19:03.





Still no luck with the IFE so the purser popped by to try to fix it in the same was as the FA had done earlier. I bet him a glass of champagne that it wouldn't work. While we waited in vain for the system to reboot, we started chatting about his job and flying in general. He'd been working for the airline since 1987 and clearly loves what he does. He was sad that they'd almost entirely had to pull out of Europe but said he had the feeling things were getting better. In the end I won my bet (and got my second glass of champagne) and he went off to hard reboot the entire system. He assured me that if it wasn't working for me then it likely wouldn't be working for other passengers as well and so he wouldn't be interrupting everyone's entertainment just for me. I also offered to move seats, as there were clearly plenty available, but he insisted that I should have to go to the trouble. I'm really not that lazy, honestly! While this was all going on warm cashews were given out (first and only time on Sri Lankan so far) and the food and a selection of drinks were wheeled round on a trolley (also first time this trip). The lamb curry was fantastic
and a I choose a chapati and a glass of cabernet sauvignon to accompany it.





In the meantime the IFE system had failed to reboot and was now inoperative for everyone. 10 minutes later the reboot sequence started again and this time it as finally successful. The purser (Ricardo) came by again to make sure everything was ok with my IFE and my meal. I said it was all super, thanked him for his excellent service and asked him whether he was sweating a little with all the issues. "Hah!" he said. "I had 168 passengers with no IFE for almost half an hour. I was more than sweating, sir, I can assure you!" Apparently what had happened was that the tech guys had come by to load some new films before takeoff but, due to the rush, had not checked first that the system had been shut down, which had corrupted some files and permission needs to be sought from the captain to do a full system reboot (reassuring).

A little later, Sharon wheeled by with the trolley again and offered me some dessert. I initially declined but she said she'd just leave it there and, if I didn't want it in 10 minutes, she come and collect it and eat it herself! It was a lovely cream and custard pie covered in nutmeg and I was very glad that she'd left it for me! As promised she came back 10 minutes later. "The dessert seems to have dissapeared, sir" she said "You'll be thirsty after that. Can I get you some tea, coffee, champagne, port?"





I figured, after all the purser's efforts, that I'd better watch something and choose "Jobs," which turned out to be pretty good. Some of the actors were uncanilly like the people they were playing and, as a bit of an Apple fan and self-confessed geek, it was interesting to see some of the more famous moments of the company's genesis being acted out. I actually worked for Apple for a couple of years during my PhD and have had a real soft spot for them ever since. 30 minutes out from Doha the FO gave some arrival information and I was offered a hot towel and something to drink (I had a apple juice). Despite leaving CMB a little late, we landed at Hamad early and I prepared, reluctantly, to leave the confortable confines of the Sri Lankan 330-300.



It has to be said that the CC on this flight were wonderful. The purser spent a lot of time with me and was very fun to chat to and kept my water and wine topped up at all times. All of the CC seemed to be really happy with their jobs and were friendly, personable and relaxed. This had been a truly excellent flight and also met the lofty standards that Qatar had set a few days prior. On leaving the plane, Ricardo shook my hand, wished me a great onward journey and said he sincerely hoped to meet me again someday. I thanked him and his crew for making the flight so memorable. It just goes to show you how important the crew are in making a flight truly special.

Now I had another 4 or so hours to kill in Doha (a truly horrible prospect in the al Mourjan lounge) before embarking on my final business class flight of the trip back to Frankfurt.

VH-RMD

Great report, just did the UL DOH-CMB-MLE rtn myself but had 3 weeks in the Maldives.

UL have quite a good J product and on-board service but are very let down by their generally incompetent check-in, lounge and ground staff at CMB, almost to the point I would probably not use them again if I had to experience them again. I used them earlier this year for DOH-CMB-NRT rtn in J.

That storm that came through on Thursday was wild! Came out of nowhere, lasted all of 15 minutes but dumped many buckets of water, glad I was not flying through it and was enjoying a late lunch.

milesaddict

Many thanks for your report and very informative since I booked one for myself.

What's the name of your hotel in MLE ?

UL is a good airline, too bad they no longer serve CDG.

roadwarrier

An amazingly well written TR with some great pictures!! Many thanks.