Originally Posted by
Romanianflyer
Sure, IST-RUH and JED-IST were super comfortable on a 2-class A330 (2-2-2 layout) with lie-flat seats and good food. Those flights were both excellent with zero complaints whatsoever.
Which A330's are we talking about specifically? Afaik, SV's A330 aircraft come with a 36 seat (6 rows 2-2-2) recliner business class and none have lie-flat.
Originally Posted by
Romanianflyer
The RUH-MNL and JED-MNL flights were however operated by a much, much older B777 in a three-class configuration (with additional first class cabin). The business class seats (again 2-2-2 layout) in this plane are awful, as they are not fully flat but rather some slippery slope kind of seat. Food was also rather mediocre on these flights, especially on the MNL-JED flight where it was nearly inedible. The crew was great on the RUH-MNL flight but horrible again on the flight to JED (probably the - mostly Filipino - crew was not really looking forward to return to Saudi Arabia to work).
Which B777-300ER's did you fly? Because the only -300ER's with a First Class are the very new ones.
Oldest have full flat old style 2-class layout with 5 rows 2-2-2 seating (e.g. HZ-AK11 etc, commonly used to MNL)
The following range have full flat new style 2-class layout with 5 rows 2-2-2 seating (e.g. HZ-AK23 until 35 ; also common to MNL)
The newer ones have a 3-class layout with First class in 1-2-1 layout, business class in 1-2-1 layout and economy. (very uncommon to MNL, but are used sometimes)
So, I wonder what you mean with a 3-class 777... there are a couple of -200ER flying, but their business class is 2-3-2 recliner and not operating to Manila.
Re the crew; I spoke with a lot of SV crew in my life and they tend to love working for SV because they are Manila and Jakarta based and can just live at home in their own countries , usually with 5 day breaks between their duties for SV, which is very generous for people from these nations. Of course, there might also be people be based in the KSA, but still SV is one of the better employers when it comes to annual leave and rosters (according stories told to me by the crew)