STL-CDG and return on TW (TransWorldOne)
 

My girlfriend and I just returned from a great holiday trip to Paris. Flew TW's nonstop STL-CDG service in their Trans World One cabin- a premium business class.

TW 818 STL-CDG 767-200

Arrived at Lambert to find that TWA had reconfigured some of its check-in areas, and for some reason, no separate line for TWOne was to be found, just an international checkin area. The board was showing 3 flights, CDG, LGW and YVR. There was a short line, but it moved quickly, and we were checked in by an efficient and friendly agent. After passing through security, we headed up to the Ambassadors Club, located between the B and C concourses at STL.

The flight was scheduled for a 655pm departure, and began boarding around 615. The plane was a 767-200, still painted in TWA's old livery. The airline is returning a couple of its -200s to the lessor this month, so this may have been one of those planes. TW configures its TWOne cabin on the -200s with 24 seats in 4 rows. The front cabin was about half full for this flight, with economy being almost 100% full. Each seat had a pillow and wool blanket on it for the overnight flight, as well as an amenity kit with a few basic items.

Seats are comfortable, if a bit on the narrow side. We had one of the bulkhead rows, which means less legroom than the rest of the rows, but no one reclining into one. On course, another disadvantage on the overnight flights is the traffic and light due to the proximity to the galley.

The seats have a lot of recline and a fair amount of legroom. When fully reclined, the seats are nearly flat- in fact, too steeply reclined for me to sleep comfortably. Each seat is equipped with an individual video monitor that plays small cassettes- a choice of 14 or 15 is provided.

Upon boarding, we were greeted warmly by several flight attendants, and jackets immediately taken. Pre-flight champagne and orange juice was served, menus distributed, and pre-flight drink orders taken. Due to a slight delay in leaving the gate area, meal orders were also taken prior to takeoff.

Hot towels were distributed immediately after takeoff, followed by a snack of smoked salmon, artichokes and olives with a drink.

Dinner service then followed. Appetizer choices were a Chicken "Napolean" and a Warmed Maryland Crab Cake. A baby spinach salad was served seat-side, with a variety of garnishings available.

Wine selections- Stevenot Merlot 1996, Chateau Trebiac 1996- Graves, Arciero Central Coast Chardonnay 1997, Chateau de la Guice 1998- Montagny, and Domaine V. Sauvestre 1998, Chablis.

Main course choices were a Chateaubriand, Breast of Chicken, Pan-seared Sea Bass and a Braised Shank of Lamb. Both the Chateau and the Sea Bass were excellent.

Dessert consisted of a variety of cheese selections or a pumpkin cheesecake, followed by coffee service.

Everything that we tasted was very good, and attractively served on individual settings. On this flight, with only 11 or 12 passengers and 3 Flight Attendants, things moved at a very good pace.

Service throughout the flight was excellent, and passengers were addressed by name throughout. The F/As were friendly and geniunely seemed to value our business. They circulated frequently around the cabin to make sure that no one needed anything. It also happened that I had met our Captain before on some previous TWA flights, and he came back to say hello.

I got a couple hours of sleep, and had a fresh hot towel to wake me up and a quick continental breakfast before landing at CDG. Despite taking off about 30 minutes late, we pulled into the gate at CDG about 10 minutes behind schedule. Immigration was quick, and we proceeded to the baggage area in Aerogare 1. After about 10 minutes, the first set of bags from our flight came out, but none of the TWOne bags. They followed in the second batch, after another 10 minutes or so.

This was my first true TWOne experience, and I came away quite pleasantly surprised. The shortcomings of a 6-across 767 cabin aside, TW puts out a very competitive product. It may not have all of the bells and whistles of a DL or CO Premium Business product, but the smaller, more intimate cabin and the friendliness of the crew was more than enough for me.

After a terrific week over the Christmas Holiday in Paris, we returned to STL this morning, which I'll cover later.


[This message has been edited by socalterp (edited 12-27-2000).]

nice report!

Great job.....Excellent detail.

Looking forward to the next report! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Hi socalterp,

I am pleased to see (finally) a TWOne trip report. I was going to post my last two trips, but haven't gotten around to it.

I am glad to see your opinion that they have a competitive product. I often wonder based on scantness of the amentity kits. Only one smint per passenger, strange given all the stilton they serve :0.

I love the STL fc service, the NY crews are
not as professional and the service lacks.

I am hoping to upgrade stl-lgw on Jan 1st. I love that flight...

Are you going to post your return trip?

lalala

I'll post my return trip later tonight. The catering out of CDG is really good.

As for STL vs JFK crews, didn't get to do a (very unscientific) comparison, but I know that there are some excellent JFK based crews.

The amenity kit consisted of socks, an eyeshade, toothbrush/toothpaste and maybe another item or two. At least the bag that they come in is recycled.

OK,

The return portion of the trip.

TW 819 CDG-STL 767-200

We were originally scheduled to go through JFK to connect to STL, but a nice agent at the TWA CTO in Paris changed our reservation so that we could save several hours by taking the nonstop.

Arrived early at CDG due to a very fast cab ride from Paris. Check-in for the 855 AM flight opened a little before 7. TWA operates from Aerogare 1 at CDG, with separate ticket counters for the main cabin and TWOne. Check-in was efficient and accompanied by a battery of security questions. After finishing there, headed up to the Ambassadors Club located above the duty free shops. It's a pretty nice area, with an open-bar and those terrific chocolate croissants in the morning. Spent about an hour at the club before heading for the gate, and more security questions. TWA runs a very nice operation at CDG, probably from the days where the airline had a mini-hub at the airport.

The weather in Paris was foggy w/ a very low ceiling that morning. The inbound plane from New York was a little late, and we began boarding around 845, 10 minutes prior to departure. This time, the TWOne cabin had 17 passengers, with 5 being non-revs.
Prior to takeoff, a round of drinks were offered, as well as menus and movie selection cards.

Since it was a daytime flight as well as being longer than the Eastbound, there was more meal service featured, which I'll detail below. We were seated in row 3 this time, which did have quite a bit more legroom than the bulkhead row. The plane was painted in the nice, new TWA colors and in very good shape inside.

Lunch orders were taken right after takeoff, followed by the hot towels. Before the snack service started, a tray with linens and all the accompanying silverware, salt/pepper etc is wheeled around the cabin.

The "To start" snacks accompanying the post-takeoff drinks weren't all that good, but everything else I had was excellent. I had heard that the catering from CDG was among the best in the systen, and it certainly proved to be true.

Picked the chilled lobster and salmon appetizer over the escargots in puff pastry- both looked terrific. The salad was again served from a cart by your seat, this time with seasonal greens and accompaniments like chicken, fresh mushrooms, etc.

Main course selections were a New Zealand Rack of Lamb, Tenderlon of Beef, Breat of Quail, and a Seafood Bouillabaisse. I ended up w/ the lamb, which was cooked to order and quite good. I was tempted by the bouillabaisse just to see what it would taste like on a plane...A cheese board and a Pineapple and Kiwi Tart served as dessert, along with a basket of fresh fruit with the dessert tray.

About halfway through the flight, a movie snack of Haagen-Daz ice cream was served. Then, about 45 minutes prior to landing in STL a snack of chilled shrimp, prawns and scallops was served, accompanied by a warm Croque Monsieur (basically a ham, cheese and egg sandwish) This was followed by an extremely rich, warm Pear in Puff Pastry dessert.

Service was again very good, though not quite up to the standards of the STL-CDG flight. Again 3 F/A's working the FC cabin. My girlfriend slept through the lunch service, but when she woke up, an F/A came right and offered to make her a large salad, some cheese and fruit, etc...we watched the Replacements on the main screen and The Patriot on the personal tv (you can plug both headsets into one armrest for audio)- a nice feature for those traveling together and wanting to watch the same movie.

The flight was mostly smooth until we some pretty heavy winds coming down over Canada. Still not bad for this time of year. Prior to landing in STL, one of the F/A's came around to each passenger and thanked us for our business and wished us happy holidays and that they would see us again in the future.

We landed in STL in some light snow and low ceiling conditions about 30 minutes early. St. Louis has a very small immigration/customs area located below gate C32 (only a few gates are "sterile." Immigration was quick, bags came out relatively quickly, and we cleared customs within 15 or 20 minutes of landing. Unfortunately, due to the location of the customs facility in STL, even passengers terminating in STL must put checked bags back on a conveyor belt to reclaim in the general baggage claim area. I was told that this is because there is no space for a tunnel from C32 to the baggage claim (if you've been through STL, you know that it's a long way) and that checked bags can contain items not allowed in carry-ons, thus these bags cannot be taken through the passenger areas of the terminal.

Anyways, both flights were quite enjoyable and certainly made the entire trip all the more pleasant. TWOne is quite a nice product that is made even better by the quality of the crews.

[This message has been edited by socalterp (edited 12-28-2000).]

[This message has been edited by socalterp (edited 12-28-2000).]