Originally Posted by
A350CZ
Don't forget SV is one of the worst airlines in the Middle East, if not globally. They do not serve alcohol, which is their decision, but transfer/hotel is not as smooth as described above. It really depends on what immigration officer you get. I stayed in the airside hotel - absolutely terrible. People trying to get inside my room in the middle of the night, felt extremely unsafe. The worst is that all Indonesia flights are flown with the 2-2-2 old business class - which is OK for short middle-East hops, but not on 10-hour flights. Avoid it if you can. Honestly, it's worth paying the extra $800 bucks or so for TK or QR.
I flew JED BKK today on an amazing 787-10, 1-2-1 configuration in Business and it was AMAZING, the service was impeccable, the seats were the most comfortable leather I have ever been on, much better than the now hardened Q-Suites even. IFE was state of the art, the 3D mapping was like I have never seen. One meal I had was as good as I have ver had. Seriously. So don't write Saudia off, sure, some of the aircraft are shockers, like the flight I also took today from TUN JED. I was sitting on the seat, not in it, bloody terrible and so crammed. So choose your routes, choose your aircraft and you can have a great time on Saudi. If you can't live without alcohol for a few hours, sure, fly someone else and visit AA when you get to your destination.