jerrychuang

I live in Stockholm and I favor some juicy and sweet tomatoes. However after my thorough and scientific tastings, I am convinced that tomater från svensk gårdar is really not a thing. Fortunately just like anybody living here, I have a Greek friend, who suggests to me that although slightly out of season, the sun-kissed goodness can still be found in tomatoes produced in the great Mediterranean nation. He also suggests that to thank him for the invaluable information, I should smuggle a generous chunk graviera and a tin of the finest chocolate crepes <<caprice>> back for him. Then I realize that the very best A3 changed their rules for elite qualifications. With such righteous justifications, I set out to book my trip to a grocery shop 2000km away.

jerrychuang

I was A3*G for many years but it was not a status of much use in the US so I later decided to solely use AA. I had many fond memories with A3 so I am quite enthusiastic about the status qualification fun. Although ticket prices on the direct A3 flight to Athens are not high, I could not actually clock my first A3 segment yet since I at the time had 34400 tier miles but no A3 segments already accrued. That means by A3’s new rule I was at the edge of wasting most of the tier miles to count towards gold. So to make things a bit more interesting for an Avgeek (for normal people the word is unnecessary), I booked an award ticket to Athens via Oslo. SAS obviously frequents the route, but I don’t believe anyone could resist flying a wide body jet on a lie-flat bed for 50 minutes on the best African airline on this Nordic shuttle route. ET714 is a peculiar fifth freedom flight that it was an extension of the ARN route. As ET tries to keep a fast turnaround so its crews rotate at OSL, the stopover at ARN would not have any cleaning and catering services nor shift change for the crew. To achieve that, the aircraft would stay in the non-Schengen part of airside, and passengers have to clear the immigration twice despite it’s a intra-Schengen flight. There is a message sent to passengers reminding them a multiple entry document to Schengen zones is required to board the flight 16 hours prior to departure, but I’m not sure the choice of timing is particularly bright. ET often dumps dirt-cheap economy tickets on this leg to fill the seats, but they never sell a discounted J ticket. Even weirder.

The flight utilizes a whopping 2 counters in a dark corner to satisfy the demand of the few passengers in ARN’s terminal 5. To my surprise, the business class boarding pass does not grant the access to fast track security check.






Passing the immigration. After the immigration booth there is absolutely nothing but a small waiting area and 7 gates. Again, quite poor and boring design almost characteristic of ARN.



ET seems to be very “flexible” on dispatching equipments as I quite often see CHG on the schedule. The flight, supposedly a 787-9, was operated by ET-AQL, a 10-year old Boeing 777-200LR. 787-9 has the latest reverse herringbone seats in business, whereas the 777 is equipped with a very outdated 2-3-2 config. Nowadays 777-200LR is a rarity, so I have no problem with the equipment change. As long as it’s not a 14-hour TPAC flight, I quite enjoy the roars of GE90-115B.



As no catering is done at ARN, I brought my own kardemummabullar. Sorry cinnamon buns, you just can’t beat it. The flight attendant was very welcoming and hospitable, and repeatedly asked me if I want some champagne or other alcoholic beverages. They almost sounded like they were trying to maximize my ticket values for me. (What kind of idiot buys a €700 business class ticket for 50 minutes, they might think). But as it’s barely 7am, I thanked them for their offer and proceeded with some water and (not good)orange juice.



I do not get lavatory checks. As far as I recall, the safety card checks are the graceful golden standard of trip reports.



Unsurprisingly using a very reduced power settings and very short runway distance, the Boeing 777 quickly took off from ARN into the Autumn morning sun.

SanDiego1K

I will be curious to see how many tomatoes you can bring safely back undamaged.

What a fun reason to travel.

jerrychuang

The autumn morning was tranquil, but good weather like this is increasingly rare entering late October. Soon miserably grey skies and chilling precipitation would take over. We flew towards west, as if we were following E18.



As a consequence of stuffing 2-3-2 in a 777, the seats are incredibly narrow. I am quite slim, but I can barely fit into the seat once lay flat. Sleeping in this seat would not be ideal.



The equipments are showing some wear and tear…




To my pleasant surprise, the inflight magazine was of high quality. DC has a very big Ethiopian diaspora, and in Shaw the Ethiopian neighborhood is booming. I miss some delicious injera.




We quickly started our descent into Oslo, where the sky and the terrain almost blends together in the same color.



Since there was no cleaning at ARN, when I got off I noticed that the cabin was messy here or there. I think the tired crew did try to clean visible places (my seat’s vicinity was pretty spotless), so can’t really blame them.

jerrychuang

SAS lounge in Oslo features an uninspiring buffet, confusing positioning of some soy sauce, and a kid that was screaming in a regular pattern.



The boarding started, so did the rain.


It was nice to escape the gloomy weather and it was even nicer to be back on A3 again. I haven’t flown with them for quite a while. Still not very used to the new livery.



I originally thought that the A3 crew was so considerate they actually put a chocolate in my magazine pocket but it later seems that the cleaning crew wasn’t paying too much attention…



Attendants presented passengers with a well printed menu on big, heavy paper. The wine list features local productions, whereas the liquor list actively encourages people to get drunk.

The flight was one of the most noisy ones I have ever been on, the two passengers in the front row never stopped yelling, and the alcohol surely didn’t help. The nice gentleman sitting next to me dressed like James May, and was quite annoyed. He gave me a feeling that he was on flyertalk, though.



I wanted to have the chicken with aubergine but at the turn of my row there was no such choice available. The beef was not bad, though. The salad had three slices of prepackaged eel kabayaki on it, which was slightly funny.



After the entree, a gigantic chocolate tart was served. I have simply not seen anything of this portion for an airline dessert. It was quite tasty, but I was sure that if I finish more than half of it I will get diabetes.





As we approached the Attica peninsula, sunny coastlines appeared in sight. Once I saw Hymettus, I knew we were on the final to ATH.



I saw there is a store of AB Vassilopoulous, a Greek supermarket chain so I immediately proceeded to inspect the fruits and vegetable selection. However there was none but some packaged tomatoes in the fridge. I was slightly disappointed knowing that I could not defer all the shopping until the last leg back home.



I have decided to raid a masoutis in Thessaloniki instead.



Priority pass holders can either use skyserv of goldair lounges in the Schengen side. Goldair is A3’s ground handler but there was a long line to enter the lounge. So I went to the other one, fewer people, but incredibly dull and somehow smelly.

jerrychuang

My plan was to fly ATH-CFU-ATH-RHO for three legs. But there are two single points of failure. ATH-CFU-ATH is on the same aircraft, but the turnaround time is 40 minutes, and I didn’t know if I have to clear security again. The RHO flight has a connection time of 1h15min, but the schedule change one day prior made it only 50min. If you’ve been to ATH, you know A3 does not like using jet bridges. The ground handler is not slow with bussing passenger to the terminal per se, but it still takes longer. To make things worse, A3 is essentially Greek in the reflection that its scheduling is organized around the assumption that they could do minimum turnover time anywhere (45min in ATH, a bit too ambitious) and the airtime buffer is not fat enough to cancel the delay. The dispatching department must be juggling everyday since the a/c scheduled to be used for ATH-CFU was changed three times on the day. At the time the repatriation operations for the war not far away were in full swing, and ATH was quite busy.



The UA 787X ferried in and out from EWR operating a non-scheduled flight.



Boarding only started at the supposed time for departure. Not a good sign, I thought. To make sure I can get out a bit earlier, I purchased a front row seat, but how much advantage was that going to give me?



I really like the A3 logo and frankly speaking I don’t love the new livery.



The chock-off time was approximately 35 minutes behind schedule and the captain announced that we would be having a 45 minute flight. That means if the A/c performs the turnaround efficiently, all in all I still would catch my connecting flight. I chatted with the crew upon boarding, and the captain commented that I should probably run.



My 1st water plus chocolate cookies. Papadopolous also makes caprice. These cookies are really tasty on air, but the sleeve I bought to bring home was somehow bland. That kind of defies physiology laws? The taste buds are supposed to be less sensitive when flying.



We flew the famous Corfu approach in darkness. I tied my laces and got ready to eject. Fortunately the apron in Corfu, unlike Rhodes, is close enough to the terminal so no shuttles are required. Without any time to spare for a photo, I sprinted out, spooking every single ground agents trying to form a line to prevent people to get into active aircraft movement area.



I knew there were only a few intra-Schengen flights departing at the time, but after I reached the security checkpoints I found a line resembling CBP line in LAX in peak hours. Damn, I thought. I tried to seek help from the line attendant, but she could not care less. Miraculously the line was moving at a moderate speed, and by the time I only had two more rows in the flight back to ATH started boarding. However right in front of the scanners the queue slowed down, while the status of the flight became final call. Luckily in front of me there were many very kind British tourists, and they quickly let me through. A senior gentlemen wished me good luck with a thick scouse accent. Thank you sir, YNWA indeed.



Once I made this flight I was less worried, since until RHO it is on one ticket, so A3 has to find me somewhere to sleep regardless. My suite reward got cleared in the Sheraton already, so I still hoped I could make it to Rhodes to get some Aegean breeze in the morning not totally exhausted.



We touched down in ATH with 45 minutes to departure time but we landed in 03L. After an atrociously long taxi, it appeared that we were heading to the remote stand. But again miraculously, we docked at the furthest jet bridge gate.



I ran down and I found the gate to show last call but not closed. I joined the last group on the shuttle bus and happily notified the hotel I would make it. The reception people seems equally hyped, the reply I got constituted of five exclamation marks.




I got my third set of fine catering of the day.



And upon landing the corandon 737 that was supposed to trail us actually arrived earlier. The tracks show that they took a dramatic short approach. A fire truck was following them and the passengers were not deplaned yet.

JapesUK

Subscribed. Enjoying your style and not at all envious of the “fine catering “

offerendum

Definitively not nice to watch

jerrychuang

As I am well aware of the fact that the word speed limit does not exist in most Greek’s dictionary, I didn’t bother to grab a taxi upon arrival and went right to the bus station to catch route 50. The schedule says it takes 33 minutes to cover the 11km distance to Sheraton. What a sacrilegious offending statement!



…It only took this MAN A31 Lion city with its approximately 300hp engine 13 minutes to go through the narrow streets of Rhodes. Sorry, taxi gotta be Luc Besson style to be as fast.



The Sheraton is built on the hill so travelers need to ride an elevator. I decided to walk the steep way up. The reception warmly greeted me, and while he was checking my documents, I pulled up the Marriott app only to find that the room type was showing a presidential suite. I felt the front manager must be properly hyped when I sent the message telling them I would make it, as if she was the audience at Anfield cheering and I was Divorck Origi scoring the 4th goal against Barcelona. Defying odds. I have to say the staff I met that day were role models of the hospitality industry. It has been a very long time since I had an experience where I felt well taken care of.








Frankly speaking I don’t like staying in rooms that are too big when traveling alone because it could be somehow spooky at night. The room feels hollow, and the rather classic interior design created a horror game feeling. The room was a whopping 120 square meters and I was initially lost going into the room.





The design style of the washing basin in the main bathroom strangely reminds me of this secret bathroom that was supposed for the principal and other “top men” hidden in the end of my high school’s hallway, many many years ago. It is almost bigger than that too! And the sheer amount of amenities on the bathtub counter was amusing. Do presidents take baths five times a day and that’s why we, who don’t take baths so often, are mundane?





The second morning I went to investigate the real quality of Greek veggies. I was impressed by how sweet supposedly out of season cantaloupes and watermelons still were. The tomatoes taste of tomatoes, unlike the bland rubber thing we have in the north. The bougatsa and orange cake was also pleasant.






I partook the fruit plate while enjoying the warm Aegean see breeze and watching planes land at RHO. Again, the deliciousness of stonefruits which were even more out of season amazed me. A very relaxing morning passed by quickly.

jerrychuang

I again took the bus back to the airport. A friendly reminder that there is zero chance buses run according to schedule especially further away from the starting station. The bus company website clearly marks that passengers need to be at the station minimum 15 minutes before departure time. The real time bus position app does not work, so don’t bother to download it.



There is an active vehicular lane between the terminal building and the apron in RHO so even though it’s only a fifty meter straight line walk, the bus has to drive much longer than that to shuttle the passengers.



With three full size shopping bag I arrived into Thessaloniki. SKG saw a new terminal building erected in 2021 but this airport serving over 800,000 people still refused to get a jet bridge.



Since my flight leaves 6am the second day I booked a hotel near the airport that provides free shuttle. The Avalon airport hotel claimed itself as a 4 star hotel, but it really wasn’t. Uber only became legal recently in Greece through a local proxy platform, and getting a taxi wasn’t too easy in the rural location. By the time I hopped in the taxi the sun started to set.



The taxi took an impressive mountain road to get off the highway and we spiraled down to enter the old town. Many locals came to watch the sunset and two sides of the road were full of cars.



Local friends recommended an unpretentious taverna near Thessaloniki University called Doksa. At 7pm I was the only early bird per Greek standard.





The price was so cheap that my intuition was I needed to order maybe three plates to be full but the owner stopped me at plate number two, saying “enough, too much”. They ran out of the famous leek sausages so I ordered an eggplant salad and a chicken liver plate instead. As a professional Asian who has a high standard of offals, the grilled chicken liver and hearts stroke me as moist, tender and very well seasoned. The whole menu with drinks cost me 9 euros.


After I was happily fed, I wandered about a bit before heading to the supermarket. The Saturday streets were lively, decorated with people casually drinking beer and having pastries.



The fruit selection in the supermarket was not huge but the essentials were available.




I was excited as I found a great variety of squid but quickly entered a psychological battle on if I could bring them back without spoiling them or ruining my luggage. On the one hand squid currently runs for about €40/kg in Östermalm saluhallen and I did have insulated bags. On the other hand I couldn’t find ice packs and I don’t want to ask the hotel people to retrieve some frozen squid from their freezer at 4am. I ultimately had to give up.






All in all, I bought a kilo each of green peppers, mandarins, pears, pomegranates, tomatoes, and eggplants together with three varieties of honey, and three bottles of dirt cheap but quality extra virgin olive oil. I would later also fill the shopping bag with a couple packs of leek sausages, a good chunk of graviera cheese, a box of sweets and some tsoureki, the Greek brioche from a Thessaloniki bakery.

jerrychuang

The new terminal building of SKG is bright and modern. It also features a big shopping area ahead of the gates.





I couldn’t count exactly how many times I have climbed up the air stairs in the past 36 hours. But here was another one. The horizontal stabilizer indicator was clean and neat, I thought.



Just at the time I was expecting my nth mini sleeve of chocolate Oreos to arrive, a pack of mastíha cookie landed on my tray table. What is mastiha, just wondering.





The new A3 lounge at ATH was opened not too long ago and it was a Great Leap Forward compared with the old lounge. The breakfast served in the lounge was phenomenal, with a variety of pastries like bougatsa. The soft muffin with seafood was great, and I filled my yogurt can with granola and pecans.



Greece seems genuinely nice in October. The weather was fantastic, the food great, and the millions of tourists lacking. I shall see the Aegean Sea again next qualification cycle.



The breakfast served in the business class is a savory crepe with eggs and cheese filling. While this might look like a typical unappetizing offering on AA’s first class, it was tasty. The fruit plate did not cease to amaze as I had the best pineapples probably anywhere.



Stockholm had a couple of windy days in the week which blew away all the clouds. On the descent to Arlanda I enjoyed some nice views from the skt of the city and spent no time to find my place.





Maybe due to terrain effects the approach was always pretty bumpy into ARN. As I stepped out of the cabin I finally became A3*G again after many years.

jerrychuang

Finally to answer SanDiego1K : everything made to my kitchen in one piece except for one cracked tomato. It was still salvaged as a part of my omelette. The pears unavoidably got some bruises, so they immediately became a slowly simmered pear stew as my dessert that day. The leek sausages were beautiful after a quick sear. Eggplants and peppers along with some potatoes were fried till crispy then coated with some soysauce in a stirfry. I can confidently conclude that it was a highly successful run to the grocery shop.

Special thanks to the gurus in the A3 forum giorginho and romans . Thank you for reading and hope you have a great day!

SanDiego1K

That was a fun story! Thank you for reporting on the tomatoes. I'm glad they mostly made it intact.

zip10001

Bruised pears can be used in a Pear Crumble Pie.
Thanks for the TR.
I showed it to my wife, so she knows I am not that crazy when I fly TATL for 36 hours on the ground lol

Parterre

Definitely one of the more unique TR's I've read! Tickled pink by ET's appearance, if not necessarily the 777-200, and even more so by Selamta's cameo (it was reported a few years ago that ET had discontinued it "for good", so good to see that it's made a comeback). Did you freeze/can/pickle/otherwise preserve anything?