Continuing with my adventure in CMB..

The complimentary car transfer for the airport came at 9pm. Three hours prior to departure.. I already have my boarding passes. That was printed out in Singapore.

The car took me to the special Business Class check in - it seems its at a side entrance. No, its not like AA's check in at Heathrow, or Qatar's check in in Doha. Its a side entrance with 4 UL women manning the tables. And one security person scanning your bags. CMB airport checks everyone's baggage going into the airport. The airport has been targetted in recent years by the Tamil Tigers and so they are a bit cautious.

Anyway, from the check in area, I was led to the main departure hall and then directed to the immigration and then the lounge.

The lounge. Ah. This is the Serendip Lounge. UL's flagship lounge in CMB. Let me warn you. It is small. Functional. But nothing like the other OW partners' lounges eg CX's Wing, QF's Club, BA's Terraces. Even MH's Golden Lounge seems heavenly compared to this. Again there were nothing fancy to indicate UL joined OW other than the OW logo on many of their signs. I was told I had missed the celebrations the day before.

There is one shower stall at the men's room. It looked like it has hardly been used.

Boarding was 45 mins prior to departure.

At the gate, the security screening is done there. Belt off, shoes off. Then the security personnel double checks everyone's passport with a magnifying glass. Then I boarded the A330-200 aircraft.

The plane had the newish leather seats. The IFE looks decent but airshow was not working. The seats do recline flat and are quite comfortable.

The menu : (I'll fill this in later)


Then lights off. It was fairly uneventful except the Chief Purser came round to all (it seems) OW partner's FFP and said thank you for flying with us.

Breakfast menu (will fill this in later) - funny that they served breakfast 3 hours prior landing. In fact, there was still 2 hours of flight time to go after breakfast was cleared.

Update : Overall I like UL. They were very hospitable - more so than BA when I asked for tea, and they asked 'One lump or two'. You certainly don't get that sort of service even in CW on BA anymore.

UL is a good airline for service and they are trying hard to impress since joining OW. They have reasonably good fares that's good for BA's Tier points accrual for those who want it. But for better service, there's QR.