Fourth season 2012-2013
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In season four, the storytelling will get a bit more rhapsodic. Memory is more hazy and with less novelty I guess less things makes an memory imprint. Travel also became a bit more family oriented and I guess some of the spice is gone - for now, I like to think. This season I won't make everything into a episode either.
The season total is 121 400 km BIS, and an impressive 91% of that in business class. Not bad for someone who thought flying life was over...
Season starts with a trip to CAN in july, for family reunion, to pick up some stuff and to move house even more than before.
Finnair doesn't serve CAN at this time, so I need to look outside the box. A mostly (to me at least) unknown and novel airline "Qatar Airways" does, and as they also offers decently priced one-ways (needed for some family members to join only on the homebound) it is an easy sell.
I am flying alone on the outbound and this allows me to experiment with routing. I've noticed pricing from Sweden is slightly better than pricing from my nearest airport CPH. OK, no worries, I can easily go to ARN to get the lower price. But of course, coming back with bags and an entourage, it surely will be easier to land in Denmark with only a short train ride back home.
I venture into the multi-city booking, and while I hate doing all the extra typing and clicking to get the interface working, I really enjoy the outcome. The open-jaw booking ARN-CAN-CPH results in an substantially lower price than any of the advertised campaign r/t fares. I try out a few other combinations, eager to learn if it was a fluke or a structural flaw in airline pricing. I guess it takes a few hours, but with a smile I realise I've found a strategy that can be used for future trips too.
Flight day has come, and I go to Stockholm by TF. In season 1 I had extensive experience with TF and I really enjoyed them, both for attitude onboard and simple pricing and ticketing.
Now, as a slightly more experienced high flyer, I am less impressed, but none-the-less it works. Seated next to me is a guy, I guess late 20's or early 30's and he is rather frolic. He constantly looks around and outside the window, almost like a kid flying for the first time. I strike up conversation, and it turns out he is flying for the very first time. And with a twist - he actually works for TF but has had zero flight experience!
Flying TF means I need to do a landside transfer BMA-ARN and while I am bag-less, I feel slightly annoyed and inconvenienced by this transfer. I'd rather sloth it out in the lounge!
My first flight with QR impresses. I had no special expectations choosing them, and with mostly Finnair to compare with, I now start to realise that all business class services are not created equal. Similiar A330, similar seat and cabin layout. But the food and drink service is way above.
What is often considered as a drawback of QR with hub in ME (the long flight into the hub) also allows for a very decent service. Surely unfair, but compared to a Finnair 2 hour narrow-body service, these 6 hours of the afternoon is a very very very nice way to start the trip.
I guess they catered this in Stockholm, but still very nice and surprising to be served breadbasket with Swedish butter with traditional imprint.
And then a starter
And then the main
And of course cheese-plate and new set of drinks
With a perfect afternoon dining, there is ample room for dessert.
I guess Finnair some 6 years later came up with the proper response - a cardboard packed rock-hard industry ice-cream with plastic spoon... No no. AY still has a very long way to go.
The transfer experience is less impressive, as this is the old Doha airport, with terminal buildings scattered over the apron area and runways shared with Qatari airfore. So it is stand arrival, and jam packed transfer buses (not cabin specific at this time!) that does loop traffic and has to take the long way around. However, they
have done things to make it slightly less chaotic - tickets are in a colour coded folder and I was instructed to hold the folder visible at all times and staff will guide me correctly. They do, and I manage to get off the loop bus at the premium terminal.
After a pretty sweaty ride (both physically and emotionally) I am now on a long escalator going up and fresh coolness gradually relaxes me. At the end of the escalator I find myself introduced to the grandeur that signifies QR lounges.
QR keeps on impressing but nothing special to mention, other than I notice how very serious they are to protect the integrity and exclusiveness of the J cabin. When someone wanders into J from behind, a staff member appears from nowhere in seconds to discretely escort the wanderer back.
Arriving back home to Sweden, one of the new family member notices the white noisy birds in the sky and I get a bit of the Chinese mindset:
- What are those?
- Segulls!
- Cool! Can we catch one and fry it for dinner?