Report for the way back BKK-JED-TUN
- the 787 BKK-JED simply was great, lie-flat and great meal service
- I did manage to book a free stopover hotel in JED but failed to get the stopover visa via the SV website, and also via the KSAvisa.sa website things went astray, despite me paying 25 Euro's as reported here (post 200) Saudi free stopover visa - Page 14 - FlyerTalk Forums
- So I took my loss and booked the Aerohotel for some 110 Euros, happy with that choice since that avoided a sleepless night as reported by one of the previous posters in the Alfursan lounge
- Had an ok breakfast at Alfursan lounge before heading to TUnis (although the coffee machines were gone and had to ask for a barista to show up and was lucky the guy making fried eggs showed up). It was not warm, but somehow I did not hear the dreaded music (it may be gone, or I may have become so used to it ;-))/
- JED-TUN was on a very old A330 with seats that reclined maybe 40%, but ok for the 4 hours plus
- For the first time I took the modest risk of not having a night in Tunis - with the 9:40 am planned arrival of JED-TUN the AF 16:30 flight to Paris and from there to home seemed safe enough
- At TUnis there is no way to take a connecting flight path - you have to clear immigration, go landside. If you want to go airside again, before security they insist you have a boarding pass from the counter, nothing else works. Indeed, I could register for check-in via the app but it does not give the boarding pass.
- Unfortunately for me, the ladies that just had closed the AF morning flight when I arrived at the counter around 10-10.15 said they could not give me a boarding pass for the afternoon flight yet
- So I ended up doing some work in the Aeroclub with a pizza and wine costing nothing compared to other airports, until I can pick up my boarding pass from 13.30 on and continue with freebees in the lounge.

My conclusion - invest in the Aerotel in Jeddah for a good sleep, and the same-day connection in Tunis with AF is then ok if you can spent your time usefully. The only real risk is a cancellation of the JED-TUN flight making you miss the connection. Of course it stays a major detour - a direct evening flight from Bangkok (I left now 15.30 local time yesterday) would have brought me home early morning and now I arrive late night. But the luxury of J for a fraction of the price of any more direct flight and the host of miles/XP you get is worth it for me.