Up the stairs and turning left, I was surprised and excited to see a lie-flat business class product.

This is the high-low arrangement, where one seat is very high off the ground and the other is very low. Philippine Airlines was the first to introduce it, and now Royal Air Maroc has it on their 787s, as does UX.









I was actually not aware that UX was installing this business on their 330s, so this came as a pleasant treat. As I found out from a crew member, only two (out of 17) have the new product.

Waiting had become accepted with this experience, and it was no surprise to be standing on the tarmac for one hour. Luckily, unlike in Lisbon, though the APU appeared to be INOP, an air conditioning unit was hooked up, making it very pleasant on board.

As it turned out when the captain finally made an announcement, 47 passengers were stuck at the gate. The thought had crossed my mind that with the schedule change two days prior and limited communication effort, the changed departure time could easily be missed.

Eventually, a pre-departure beverage was offered - water or melon juice (delicious):



Along with newspapers and magazines, all in Spanish.

The cabin ended up 11/24 (exactly as on the manifest I spotted), and surprisingly the Diplomats were in economy, along with two Cubana pilots. The latter I found especially bizarre, but perhaps it was due to the charter and an actual cost associated with each passenger in business class?