Sminty

Hi everyone,

I am booked for J flights on Saudi Arabian Airlines, however the two segments to/from JNB and JED have been the result of an equipment change. The flight details are as follows:
SV446 17 December 2016 (JNB - JED)
SV447 07 January 2017 (JED - JNB)

I have already pre selected my seat options for what was initially a 777-200, however, now when I check the flight status on the Saudia website, it merely states that there has been an equipment change.

Any idea how I could find out what equipment will be used for those two segments and would I have to select seats once again?

Eddizle

hi mate, i think it may be a change to the 77l aircraft, which is a 3 class flight rather than the 2 class 777-200er I got this from this source,

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...16/?highlight= saudia Johannesburg

I am not sure how reliable this website is. Anyway, I have a booking from MNC to JHB via JED in mid January returning after 10 days and would be keen to hear how your overall experience of saudia goes, I have just booked this airline after i after i found a great price for J without having read a lot of the reviews online, now that i have read some of the reviews including Ben's from onemileatatime, my expectations have been somewhat lowered, .

Sminty

Hi @Eddizle

I have flown Saudia in J this year in May/June.

Usually I only used to fly Y, and my first J experience ever was on Saudia. Thats why I would say it was good, as I have never experienced any other J product before. The fares on Saudia were very cheap, almost as cheap as booking Y on other airlines.

Well, from what I read and observe, the experience on Saudia J is not as great as other airlines, but still far better off than Y. I suppose by not expecting too much, you will not be disappointed.

KL803

SV will receive new Boeing 773 aircrafts these days. The equipment of the CDG-RUH flight has changed from a three class 772 to the new 773. The layout is somewhat strange: 1-2-1 (business class?). My partner and I have row 16D/H booked at the moment for a flight in December. I'm really curious about the new layout, it looks like similar to AF BEST configuration.



BTW, I took SV earlier this year CDG-RUH-MNL-JED-CDG and must say it was a very pleasant experience. The new lounge in RUH is very nice, awesome food, fast internet and even has 3 or 4 quiet rooms where one could take a nap, no showers though. The JED lounge is much older, more crowded but food is also very tasty. There's only one shower, but it seemed that even there were many people in the lounge, nobody used it except me. The planes I flew with were the 3 class 772, two class 773 and the new 787. Only the 787 had complete lie-flat seats, the other two were angled lie-flat but comfortable enough for a decent sleep on the RUH-MNL leg. Catering was very good with a decent selection of meals, the only thing lacking was the drink service - and I don't mean alcohol of course. But I had to ask explicitly for soft drinks otherwise only water would have been served. The crew was very chatty and hospitable, about 75 % Filipino.

Concerto

Did you have a long wait in RUH or JED, or even an overnight stop? How does it work with overnight layovers in those airports? Are there hotels airside?

KL803

No overnight stop, just a layover of 4h30 outbound in RUH and 5h30 inbound in JED. The lounge especially in RUH is very much OK for such a layover, in JED quite crowded, so I prefer RUH as connection point. No airside hotels, just a small duty free and the general gate areas. Even traveling in economy class, there's free food in front of one of the gates. It will be announced several times when and where.

Concerto

Any suggestions what to do if you have an overnight layover? Slum it in the lounge? I guess I should open a thread about this in the Middle East forum.

KL803

There's nothing else to do I'm afraid. Otherwise you would need a visa for going landside.

AurelAF96

I also saw that new seat map on a SV flight from DXB to RUH
Do you have any idea about that, or picture about that seat?
I recently flew SV from JED to CGK on a B777-300 with the new cabin in business class with flat bed that was very nice

KL803

I will know in 8 days how it looks like.

AurelAF96

Great let me know

KL803

So the new plane is rather nice. The seat map isn't accurate as it's missing first class (yes, there's actually first class - the new first class suite - but it can't be booked on the CDG-RUH leg). Here are some pictures:



The seat, it's completely lie-flat




Cabin view, my wife looks like she's enjoying it quite a bit




view from my seat




Seat controls






Meal service

To conclude: a very nice experience, the flight is just a bit too short to enjoy it. But the same aircraft does serve the US routes, so that's of course a major improvement.

KL803

SV has also new two class 773's with lay flat business class in 2-2-2 configuration. So at this point equipment may change more frequently as there are now three different configurations on the 773's. The 772's are now pretty old and it looks like, SV doesn't use them to Europe any longer.

Fahad1

Saudia to retire the whole fleet of 772 this year , since they are expecting to receive also this year 5 more 773 (with first class suite config.) , 6 787-9 & 10 333R.