Howdy. Here's my first attempt at writing a trip report. Now this is not going to be an international nr. 1 bestseller, but I hope there's some good info for someone.

31 Mar 2008
Geneve-Cointrin (GVA/LSGG) - Riyadh King Khalid Airport (RUH/OERK)
Saudi Arabian Airlines SV 124
Boeing 777-200ER
HZ-AKD (cn 28347/103, delivered Dec 1997)
17:25-23:45
Business class, Seat 20A/16L (assigned/ended up sitting)

"You're flying in business class today." The Swissport gate agent at GVA had just made my day with those simple, but unexpected words and directed me to their lounge after passport control. After a quite er.. lively weekend skiing at Tahkovuori in Eastern Finland, driving home 6 hours, sleeping hardly at all and waking up at 5:30am, I sure wasn't feeling too energized. A run-of-the-mill AY flight to GVA in an Embraer 170 had been ok as usual, but the weather in GVA was not too welcoming. I wasn't in the mood for walking extensively in the rain, so after a brief stroll in the old town and a quick lunch at an okayish kebaberia I headed back to the airport. Musee de l'auto had sounded interesting, but the total lack of signage at the site put me down, so I abandoned the idea of spending a couple of hours there. Later I found out, that the museum had been closed for good in order to grow the annual car show(?).

After enjoying my last beers for probably 3 weeks, I headed over to the gate, where HZ-AKD was already awaiting for us. There was another Saudia plane sitting on the tarmac nearby - an MD-11 (Cargo, I presume). The flight was actually estimated to leave 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. At the door I was greeted by a female F/A, who had covered her head, but otherwise was wearing a typical uniform. I noticed that the ladies travelling on the flight generally did not wear an abaya at this point of the flight. The flight SV 124 has an interesting route: MAN-GVA-RUH-JED. I was onboard only for the GVA-RUH leg, although when booking the tickets I had an option to fly to MAN and take the same flight from there. The price was about equal. Funnily AY HEL-MAN and HEL-GVA flights left from adjacent gates in HEL at about the same time. In order to maximize my OW mileage and being the mileage slave that I am, I had chosen the longer AY flight and flew to GVA.

My seat was occupied by an elderly man and the seat next to him was occupied by his wife. The lady moved away, as I started to wonder about my seat. A few minutes later a flight attendant came to me and asked if I could change my seat, which I happily did - especially since the row 20 did not have a window. The seats in business class aren't the fanciest there are. No lie flats or such over here, although the recline was quite generous. The first class on Saudia matches probably what many operators nowadays sell as business class. My seat also seemed to recline gradually by itself, so after the takeoff I was leaning completely back.

Oh yes, in case you were wondering, Saudi Arabian Airlines *is* a dry airline. Before the take off we were given a small cup of coffee and dates instead of the usual bubbly stuff. Quickly after the take off menus, a nice sturdy pair of noise cancelling headphones, a rather well-equipped amenity kit and flip flops were distributed.

The menu for the Geneva-Kingdom leg was:

Starters

Arabic appetizer
- Hommus, taboulleh, magdous and stuffed courgette with rice

Balic Salmon (maybe Baltic?)
- Centre cut slices of smoked salmon with rosette of cream cheese


Salad

Fresh green mixed salad
- An assortment of fresh crisp salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, radish slices, topped with finely cut carrots & peppers, and cress served with your choice of salad dressing


Soup

Roasted tomato and red pepper soup
- A delicious soup made with roasted tomatoes and red peppers

Creamy vegetable soup
- Fresh vegetables cooked and thickened with cream


Hot Entrees

Lamb Tandoori
- Gently braised lamb shank in Indian Tandoori spices, along with biriyani rice, grilled zucchini and roasted red onion

Halibut with Lime sauce
- Grilled halibut fillet, coated with lime cream sauce presented with saffron potatoes, ribbons of courgettes, carrots and baby spinach

Chicken Madini
- Succulent breast of chicken marinated in yoghurt, saffron and eastern spices, served with machbous rice, tomato sauce, and aubergine masala

Tortellini with wild mushroom
- Tortellini pasta cooked with tomato and basil sauce on a bed of sautéed spinach


Dessert

Ice cream - Mango mousse
Fresh seasonal sliced fruits


Then I spent a while with the IFE. The screen was maybe 6" and of acceptable quality if a bit grainy. There were plenty of both Arabic and Western movies in the system. In the menus, the movies had rather descriptive yet unimaginative names like "Action movie 1", "Drama movie 1" and "Asian movie 1". Wonder how they were cut. There was a movie on the main screen as well. The two onboard cameras were not functional. In the end I just put the moving map on anyway. Never during the flight I saw any cities in Israel on the map. Watching down at the snowy mountains of Northern Italy made me miss skiing already. When coming back from the Kingdom the season would be very likely over.

When the time for dinner came, I opted for the Arabic appetizer and lamb tandoori. For some reason the soup was not served at all. The F/A seemed to be in quite a hurry, so I had to specifically stop him in order get another glass of water. The meal itself was tasty - I was especially happy with the nice and soft lamb I had. There was no ice cream, but I had the mango mousse, which was rather bland.

Rest of the flight went on quietly. The son of the elderly man came to sit next to me and had a chat with me. Seemed like a nice fellow. They were on a pilgrimage trip to Mecca and thus continuing towards JED from RUH. Landing to RUH was smooth and we taxied quickly to the gate. There weren't many people deplaning in RUH.

The flight was a first for me in many categories: first flight on SV, first flight on a dry airline, first flight from GVA, first flight to RUH, first flight on a 777, first time upgraded to business (without using points). Now I have only flown in business class a couple of times before, but somehow I felt that the service could have been a bit more attentive. I didn't have any major issues with anything, but of course it would be nice to have a completely flat bed, like so many carriers nowadays do - somehow the product felt outdated. Naturally I cannot complain, as I didn't pay a single eurocent for the flight and was expecting to sit in the economy class. And actually even that was something I was looking forward to! So far Riyadh has been a nice experience, but that's another story.