StarMegaDo2

With so many good reports of SMD2 on FT I won’t bother with many details, it’s sufficient to say that I had great fun! Highlights for me were visiting Lufthansa’s training facilities and flying the Beechcraft simulator in Phoenix, and naturally visiting the Boeing factory in Seattle! It really was unbelievable that we got to see the insides of both a Dreamliner and a Dreamlifter! Once more thanks to the organizers - you really went above and beyond once again!

I enjoyed Seattle, had never visited before, and did some shopping too. The U.S. is simply much cheaper so I did my best for the U.S. economy!


AC540 (E90) SEA-YYZ in C

Early Sunday morning I had yet another change from daylight savings. A quick 20 minute car drive from downtown to the airport where I checked-in all the way to Helsinki. Security was quick so I made my way to RCC where I had some breakfast.

Boarding the Embraer went quickly and I made my way to seat 2A. It was a quiet Sunday morning in Seattle so we were up in the air in no time. Unfortunately it was cloudy first but as the flight progressed the weather got clearer and I got to see Rocky Mountains from above. Beautiful!

Breakfast was a choice of waffles or an omelet, I chose waffles which really wasn’t anything special. After breakfast I watched Toy Story 3 - a great movie for adults too by the way! As a snack we were offered cookies and ice cream, very nice.

Had a great view of downtown Toronto as we landed from the east, total flying time was 3hrs 58 minutes.

I hadn’t known that I would need to fill out immigration forms to Canada as I was not going to stay in Canada but heading straight to the international gates. Luckily the immigration officer didn’t mind me coming without the form, I quickly filled one, was admitted to Canada and made my way to the Maple Leaf Lounge at international gates. I liked the lounge, good offerings of drinks and some food, and the atmosphere in general was very nice. I stayed at the lounge for an hour and made my way to the gates.


OS72 (763) YYZ-VIE in C

I asked the gate attendant if the flight was full in C. It wasn’t, so I asked to change my seat from 4D to 5A, I like having a window with an empty aisle. Then I made my way onboard the plane. I had heard of interesting color choices onboard and it really looked strange. Blue seats with wooden panels in the back, and floors were ugly green.

Before taking off the chef came around to present the dinner and asked for orders. After a quick taxi we were soon up in the air and were quickly served a prawn amuse bouche with a glass of champagne. As dinner I had first excellent gravad lax, then a tasty and warm tomato/pepper soup and as a main course I had a fillet of beef café de paris which luckily was not over-cooked. For dessert I had strawberry ice cream with strawberries - very nice!

Seats seemed really old and trying to sleep on them fully flat (non-horizontal) it proved impossible as I really was falling forward all the time. Sleeping in a cradle position proved to be a good choice, fell asleep immediately after dinner and woke up first when breakfast was served. Unfortunately we had very strong tailwind to Europe so I got to sleep only for 3,5 hours.

I had an excellent breakfast with fruit, corn flakes, smoothie, croissant and scrambled eggs! After breakfast we quickly landed about one hour ahead of schedule. I would rather have flown for an hour longer, would have been able to sleep more as I now had three hours in Vienna. The flight time was 7hrs 33mins.

Flying Austrian intercontinental in business was interesting. I really really liked the food - the best I have ever had in business class, almost as good as first class on LX. Hardware though was old and uncomfortable, my outbound flight on AC was much more comfortable.

After passport control and security I made my way to the main OS business lounge in Schengen area. I asked for showers but unfortunately they didn’t have any… Only the non-Schengen lounge would have had showers. As I had already made my way from there I couldn’t be bothered to go back - not sure if I would have been allowed back there either. I stayed in the lounge for about two hours and then made my way to the gates.


OS345 (F100) VIE-HEL in C

Gate area was full and after a while we were bused to the plane. I don’t recall ever having flown a Fokker 100 before, always nice to try new planes. Economy class seemed to be full, business had three rows and only three people. I moved from 1D to 1A in order to sit by the window, the left side seemed to provide some more leg space too.

We were served a warm lunch which was ok, as I was quite tired at this point I forgot to write down the meal so I can’t be more specific on what I was served.

The weather was clear and sunny all the way from Lithuania to Finland, I had fantastic view of Tallinn and then Southern Coast of Finland as we were approaching Helsinki. I must have landed in Helsinki hundreds of times but the view had never been this good. I would have loved to be in the cockpit, the view from there must have been amazing!

Total flight time was 2 hrs 12 mins. For once in Helsinki the luggage started to arrive soon after I arrived at the luggage claim. Both my bags had made their way from Seattle to Helsinki, I grabbed them and took a quick taxi home.

It felt good to come home but also a bit sad that this great trip had to end. I got to do a lot of flying in first and in business, met great people - thanks everybody! - and got to see things that regular travelers never get to see. So now I am following thread Ideas for StarMegaDO3 closely so that I won’t miss out on StarMegaDo3!