Saudia Business Class IST-JED-SUB, Positive First Impression

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Feb 4, 2020, 3:02 pm

#16

tvnwz

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Quote:

Originally Posted by offerendum

You mustn´t open a new thread for every leg of the flight. It´s much more conveniant if the whole trip is in one thread.
Never heared of Air Atlanta Icelandic.

Disagree. After awhile all the pictures can bog down the browser cache. Separating trips takes care of that.

Feb 4, 2020, 3:43 pm

#17

gaobest

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Quote:

Originally Posted by MRTY

Thanks for the advice. Air Atlanta Icelandic is based in Iceland and mainly provides chartered flights to other airlines. Saudia is one of their biggest customers.

Great TRs - happy honeymoon!!! Sweet that they brought a birthday cake. I know it wasn’t exactly what you requested but...

both flights seemed nice.

I am surprised that you didn’t want to see any movies etc on IFE.

how do you compare Saudia with Air Garuda??

Feb 4, 2020, 6:54 pm

#18

MRTY

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Quote:

Originally Posted by BobFF68

Thanks for sharing.
It seems SV is doing efforts in improving their FA skills, as you got 2 good crews on 2 flights. I had a similar trip two years ago (MXP-CGK and 9.5 hours layover in JED) and the crew on the JED-CGK leg left me unimpressed, almost zero interaction, food service rushed, while hard product and food quality OK.
Tempted to do again a ATH-CGK with family end of this year as it has a very good J rate, hopefully by the time all flights will be already moved to the new JED terminal and new lounge.

It's a good thing to hear that Saudia has improved ever since. It's a must if they want to really compete with other ME carriers. Hope you'll have another great trip with them and have the chance the be in the new JED terminal and share it here with us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by allset2travel

Interesting report, thank you.

Did they serve the date without a wrapper or small dish?

They did use small dish on IST-JED for the dates and put all dates inside a small basket before letting us choose. But, there was no small dish on JED-SUB leg.

Feb 4, 2020, 7:10 pm

#19

MRTY

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Quote:

Originally Posted by gaobest

Yes, indeed. I was impressed by their effort despite of the mistake. I usually do not watch movies on flight, my only entertainment is to watch the flight map or to look outside the window to see the clouds. Well, sometimes I'd listen to some music too, but movies, games and stuff are not my preference.

In terms of hard product, Garuda Indonesia and Saudia both have really identical seats, like GA F and SV F are basically the same type of seat. GA business in A330-300 and SV business in A330-300 also have that same Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seats. They also offer extensive menu and beverages on board, despite that Saudia is a dry airline while GA is not. I've always found that the service from GA crew is impeccable, thorough and attentive since I travel a lot with them. And from this very first experience with SV, I could tell that SV crew that served us on board have done a remarkable job with also good attitude. This sole experience would probably not represent what the reality is out there, but at least that's what I felt on these particular flights with SV.

Feb 5, 2020, 9:24 am

#20

DYKWIA

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Great report

Saudia is not really an airline I've considered, despite them flying from MAN. Mainly because I enjoy alcohol too much

Feb 6, 2020, 6:25 pm

#21

MRTY

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DYKWIA

Great report

Saudia is not really an airline I've considered, despite them flying from MAN. Mainly because I enjoy alcohol too much

I agree that some people might have same preference as yours, but you could give it a try on short haul though, just to have the sense of their service. For me, their date smoothie and mango smoothie are must-try items

Feb 6, 2020, 7:53 pm

#22

gpeso8

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Great report, I didn't realize that Saudia uses the old T1 at SUB.

Feb 6, 2020, 8:43 pm

#23

MRTY

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Quote:

Originally Posted by gpeso8

Great report, I didn't realize that Saudia uses the old T1 at SUB.

You remind me to mention one thing. Saudia parks at T1, but for us as non umra passengers, we were sent off by bus to T2 after disembarking to clear immigration and retrieve our luggage, while the rest of umra passengers stayed at T1.