Two Unique Flights to Europe and back
Jul 2, 2018, 7:33 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 56
Two Unique Flights to Europe and back
Trip Overview
Long time reader, first time poster. Originally, I had no intentions of writing a trip report (hence the lack of pictures and details). But two unique flights, which I thought this community would be interested in, led me to change my mind.
As an airline employee, I was flying to Split, Croatia to position for a week on a yacht. The original plan was to fly through MUC, but with seat availability dwindling the plan changed to LHR on BA. Then on the back end of the trip, I was leaving out of MXP and knew Air Italy had just started service to JFK so I wanted to try that out. The trip ended up looking like the below.
Outbound Flight
Being a peak summer Thursday night, all flights to Europe/London were sold out or overbooked. I was hoping for misconnects but the 6:30pm flight we were looking to take ended up full. Needing to make the connection in LHR, when offered the jumpseat I immediately took it. And hey, not everyday you get to fly a 7 hour flight in the jumpseat.
I was assigned “J15” or jumpseat 15 which was located in the second galley on the main deck facing the rear. This is where I sat during take off and landing, but spent the majority of the flight in the jumpseat at the back of the plane by the bathrooms.
The flight attendants could not have been nicer about having us encroach on their space for the flight. Ended up sharing the jumpseat with the flight purser which led to some interesting discussions. Once we (travelling with a coworker) were moved to the back they served us a business class meal and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages to “make the journey more comfortable”. I was surprised at the lack of rules or procedures needed in order to sit in the jumpseat. We were not even required to wear our employee badges which led to a lot of confused customers asking about our seats.
While the seat certainly wasn’t the most comfortable, legroom was infinite and I may just have had the biggest tray table on the plane. While I certainly wouldn’t want to travel this way again unless necessary it was a unique experience to say the least.
Once on our connecting flight to SPU, we were generously upgraded. I have seen a lot of smack talk on CE, but I was generally impressed with the quality of service and food on the short flight to Split. Although I found the fish cake main course choice strange. It also helps that I didn’t pay the full price
Beet salad with goat cheese
Return Flight
I flew MXP-JFK on Air Italy flight 901 roughly 3 weeks after they had started service. While I flew on an A330, plans are to use Air Italy 787s they will receive from Qatar to operate this route. The flight attendants were all ex-Meridiana 767 flight attendants and still wore their Meridiana uniforms.
You could definitely tell this was an old Qatar plane with a brand new paint job.
There was a slight delay for loading cargo before we set off. Once in the air, economy passengers were handed menus which it seems they use for all long haul flights.
We had some beautiful views on the ascent.
I was in the complete last row of the plane, 41A, however meal service only began 2.5 hours into the flight which felt super slow. Maybe it is the crew just getting a hang of a new aircraft?
Presented
Unwrapped
Snack
The meal was fairly decent. While there were two choices, for both meal services I received whatever was left which ended up being gnocchi for the first meal service. The second meal service was a snack and was actually not one of the options listed on the menu. It was only lukewarm and on the cusp of inedibly bad.
The flight had a host of movies, TV shows, and a couple channels of live TV, but no air show which was strange. The size of the monitor was rather large, but responsiveness and quality were poor. It is World Cup time so I ended up watching live games for the duration of the 8 hour flight which made the time fly by.
I flew FCO-JFK less than a month ago on AZ and thought the experiences were pretty comparable. I thought that only having a snack for the second meal service was a little cheap. Entertainment systems were pretty comparable. However the IG seat was much more comfortable and I thought leg room was superior. At the end of the day, I would fly whatever is cheaper but it sure was fun flying such a new airline!
Thanks for reading. Receptive to any feedback or comments and happy to answer any questions!
Long time reader, first time poster. Originally, I had no intentions of writing a trip report (hence the lack of pictures and details). But two unique flights, which I thought this community would be interested in, led me to change my mind.
As an airline employee, I was flying to Split, Croatia to position for a week on a yacht. The original plan was to fly through MUC, but with seat availability dwindling the plan changed to LHR on BA. Then on the back end of the trip, I was leaving out of MXP and knew Air Italy had just started service to JFK so I wanted to try that out. The trip ended up looking like the below.
Outbound Flight
Being a peak summer Thursday night, all flights to Europe/London were sold out or overbooked. I was hoping for misconnects but the 6:30pm flight we were looking to take ended up full. Needing to make the connection in LHR, when offered the jumpseat I immediately took it. And hey, not everyday you get to fly a 7 hour flight in the jumpseat.
I was assigned “J15” or jumpseat 15 which was located in the second galley on the main deck facing the rear. This is where I sat during take off and landing, but spent the majority of the flight in the jumpseat at the back of the plane by the bathrooms.
The flight attendants could not have been nicer about having us encroach on their space for the flight. Ended up sharing the jumpseat with the flight purser which led to some interesting discussions. Once we (travelling with a coworker) were moved to the back they served us a business class meal and copious amounts of alcoholic beverages to “make the journey more comfortable”. I was surprised at the lack of rules or procedures needed in order to sit in the jumpseat. We were not even required to wear our employee badges which led to a lot of confused customers asking about our seats.
While the seat certainly wasn’t the most comfortable, legroom was infinite and I may just have had the biggest tray table on the plane. While I certainly wouldn’t want to travel this way again unless necessary it was a unique experience to say the least.
Once on our connecting flight to SPU, we were generously upgraded. I have seen a lot of smack talk on CE, but I was generally impressed with the quality of service and food on the short flight to Split. Although I found the fish cake main course choice strange. It also helps that I didn’t pay the full price
Return Flight
I flew MXP-JFK on Air Italy flight 901 roughly 3 weeks after they had started service. While I flew on an A330, plans are to use Air Italy 787s they will receive from Qatar to operate this route. The flight attendants were all ex-Meridiana 767 flight attendants and still wore their Meridiana uniforms.
You could definitely tell this was an old Qatar plane with a brand new paint job.
There was a slight delay for loading cargo before we set off. Once in the air, economy passengers were handed menus which it seems they use for all long haul flights.
We had some beautiful views on the ascent.
I was in the complete last row of the plane, 41A, however meal service only began 2.5 hours into the flight which felt super slow. Maybe it is the crew just getting a hang of a new aircraft?
The meal was fairly decent. While there were two choices, for both meal services I received whatever was left which ended up being gnocchi for the first meal service. The second meal service was a snack and was actually not one of the options listed on the menu. It was only lukewarm and on the cusp of inedibly bad.
The flight had a host of movies, TV shows, and a couple channels of live TV, but no air show which was strange. The size of the monitor was rather large, but responsiveness and quality were poor. It is World Cup time so I ended up watching live games for the duration of the 8 hour flight which made the time fly by.
I flew FCO-JFK less than a month ago on AZ and thought the experiences were pretty comparable. I thought that only having a snack for the second meal service was a little cheap. Entertainment systems were pretty comparable. However the IG seat was much more comfortable and I thought leg room was superior. At the end of the day, I would fly whatever is cheaper but it sure was fun flying such a new airline!
Thanks for reading. Receptive to any feedback or comments and happy to answer any questions!
Last edited by viewfromthewindowseat; Jul 20, 2018 at 9:18 am Reason: Add Pictures
Jul 5, 2018, 4:58 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,146
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29913533-post9.html
Jul 9, 2018, 8:05 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 56
You can also host pictures here on FT ... I've just been through that process with all my 'signature TRs'. Works a treat, a quick and easy "drag and drop" once you've clicked on the photo icon.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29913533-post9.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29913533-post9.html
Thanks for the suggestions and help! Much appreciated. Will try to get changes ASAP.
Jul 21, 2018, 6:13 pm
#8
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: MIA
Programs: AA EXP (AC), DL G (SC), Bonvoy LTP, & IHG AMB
Posts: 1,798
Very interesting way to cross the Atlantic; thanks for sharing your experience! Seat aside, much like the revenue passenger experience, the crew really makes or breaks the experience. I'm glad that you had a friendly crew to make the experience better; although, in all honesty, I'd prefer a jump seat over Y seating 
Jul 22, 2018, 8:29 am
#9
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: LAX and LHR. UA lifetime Gold 1.9MM 1K , DL Gold Medallion, HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold, Avis President's Club
Posts: 3,592