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Old Dec 7, 2016, 5:35 am
  #1  
Palal
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: PEK
Programs: A3*G, UA Gold EY Silver
Posts: 8,925
TAAG (DT): LIS-LAD-WDH and return

TAAG was having a promo for going to southern Africa from Lisbon, including Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. I booked LIS-LAD-WDH-LAD-LIS for a total of 280€ in Economy.

Both of the long-haul flights were redeyes on a brand-new 777-300ER, with what looked like 36" pitch all over economy in 3-3-3 config, and a new Android-based IFE (though the IFE did not have too many movies or TV programs). J looked like it was in 2-3-2 config with lie-flat seats, and F seats were also lie-flat.

LIS-LAD
I checked in online 24 hours before and got both of my boarding passes. Kiosk check-in was also available in LIS.

Boarding started super early. Visibly-large carry-ons were weighed (5kg limit for economy), but my 1+1 was not checked.
Economy was maybe 60-70% full. After doors closed, I found myself a row of 3 seats in the back.

We pushed back 10 minutes early at 22:50.

Dinner (good catering from LIS) was served 30 minutes into the flight. Standard drink choices, with beer and wine available. Coffee was of the instant-coffee type, and tea was some weak herbal stuff which was not drinkable. Sugar was handed out only one packet per customer, and when someone asked for a low-cal sweetener instead of sugar, they had to give back their sugar packet.

I managed to get some shuteye for 5 of the 7 hours of flight time.
A measly breakfast of a bread roll, a crossaint, and butter and jam were also served.

After landing in LAD, Y pax disembarked using the rear door, while premium pax exited through the front (something that seems to be true for TAAG whenever both exits are open). Buses took us to the terminal.



After a brief stop at the transfer desk and a brief security check, I went upstairs to find a priority pass lounge to spend the next 2.5 hours in.



The lounge had no food, and mostly alcoholic drinks and working internet. I was warned about lack of aircon at the airport, but found it to be not any warmer than a southern European shopping mall in the summer.

LAD-WDH
"Boarding" started an hour prior to departure, where everyone was escorted into the departure lounge for gate 3. The airport only has 4 bus gates. What is shown on the monitors does not match reality.

The TP LAD-LIS that was departing an hour before my WDH flight had its gate changed 3 times during the boarding process.

Finally 45 minutes late we boarded a bus to the 737-700. Checked bags were on the tarmac, and pax had to point out theirs when disembarking the bus. The bags were then promptly loaded onto a cart, and onto the plane.



The 73G plane interior was a bit dated (partly due to the gray seat covers) and it could use a nice deep clean. It reminded me of US planes back in the day

Overhead IFE was playing some videos (without sound).

Again, Y pax boarded from the rear, F pax from the front. F seats were like US airline domestic seats. When I gave the FA my log book, she got really excited. This was the only FA that was in any way interested in providing good customer service during the trip.

We pushed back and arrived in WDH an hour late. A full warm meal was served during the 2-hour flight, with the same set of drinks available.

After landing at WDH:



WDH-LAD
After returning the keys to my rental car, I went to the check-in, which was staffed by Air Namibia personnel. No online check-in was available for this segment, but I did check-in for LAD-LIS online. There is a priority pass lounge available in WDH. It has a nice choice of cold and hot food, and various drink choices. They're renovating the main lounge, so they had to move the lounge to before passport control, which was not an issue as there was no line to go through passport control.

The inbound plane was late by 2 hours, but it had a 4 hour stop in Windhoek , so the outbound departed more or less on time. After passing through the gate, we walked a few hundred meters a la ryanair to the plane, up the stairs. This 73G (D2-TBK) was a convertible 737, which lets the airline convert it from a passenger 737 to a freight one in an hour.


Again, a full hot meal was served in both classes, and we arrived at LAD pretty much on schedule.



I had a 5-hour layover, and got myself a transit visa to go outside to meet some friends for a few beers.
I did not print my BP for LAD-LIS, and there was nobody at the transfer desk. The foreigners line was almost empty and I was quickly through passport control, and then had to get my bags scanned through an xray at customs. All in all I was out in 10 minutes tops.

LAD-WDH
Before leaving for drinks, I got a BP from the check-in counter, which just opened. Yes, people were queueing up 5 hours in advance.
Got back to the airport 90 minutes prior to boarding. The screen was already showing "boarding" even though boarding would not start for another 45 minutes.

After going through security and passport control, you also had to talk with the customs guys, who ask if you're carrying large sums of money, or ANY kwanzas (local currency). I didn't have any of that, and off I was to the departure lounge.

Boarding started 45 minutes prior, where we were let into a waiting area, and then put onto buses.

Economy was maybe 70% full, but I got lucky with an empty middle. We were about 30-35 minutes late pushing back. I was a bit worried since I only had 2:05 to make a connection on a separate ticket in LIS, and that connection would require going home to change clothes.

When we started pushback, I passed out from exhaustion, and woke up 4 hours into the seven hour flight.
Breakfast was served an hour before landing. I managed to talk my way to let me exit with the biz class pax.

We landed at 6:25 (instead of 6:10), 10 minutes to taxi, 10 minutes for the bus to get to the terminal, another 15 minutes to get through passport control and get to the curb (around 35 minutes total). I caught a taxi at 7:00, and at 7:30 I was back at the airport in a suit and tie, ready to go on another work trip.


Overall impressions
The long-haul hard product is good, but the cabin crew is not really interested in providing service - made me appreciate normally indifferent TP FAs. The food was quite decent.
Don't expect the short-haul flights to be on-time.
LAD is a mess, though not as much of a mess as I expected, probably due to low number of flights.

Also check out this thread

Last edited by Palal; Dec 7, 2016 at 3:41 pm
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