Trip report, A333 Envoy PHL-MAD-PHL
 

First, a big thank you to everyone who hangs at this very helpful forum.
I'm pretty much a lurker but really appreciate the replies to my questions and the many posts I was able to read and glean info from.

Please see my pictures of the Envoy lounge and seats/food at http://community.webshots.com/user/bballinger - I've named the pictures with what they were vs trying to tag after uploading. The quality is going to vary as some were taken with the iPhone, some with my old Lumix, and some with a much nicer Nikon depending on what was handy.

This was our first flight in Envoy and I went in with almost zero expectations. My husband is 6'4", 250lbs and had a disc laminectomy a few years ago, so we figured this would be much more comfortable for him than coach.

We arrived at PHL on 2/15 under threat of yet another snowstorm. The snow was pretty bad on the drive down, but much lighter at the airport. We parked at FastTrack Parking on Essington and took their shuttle to the airport.

Checked in at the desk, agent was a little snarly. Rolled her eyes at me when I didn't hear a question she asked and thought to myself, "Oh boy..." We then went immediately to the Envoy lounge and were chastised by the older gentleman at the desk because our passports had our full middle names and our tickets did not. We were lectured that we would eventually be fined for such an error and that we should insure it didn't happen again. This went on for about 5 minutes. Seriously. Finally our passports were returned and we headed in to the lounge.

We went left to self-serve instead of right to the bar, and it was very quiet with a great view of the falling snow. The wine/beer and food was constantly being checked and cleaned by staff, no fewer than 5 and all of which at one time or another let us know that the full bar was on the other side of the lounge if we wanted anything. It was very quiet, dimly lit, lots of outlets for plugging in and I saw no more than 10 other passengers. Nice comfy chairs, and we had some fruit, toasted bread, cheese and olive spread and it was fine. The staff kept everything topped off, you couldn't put a plate down before it was removed or pour a glass of water before the ice bucket was refilled.

Upon boarding our coats were hung and we were offered a pre-flight champagne, mimosa, or plain OJ. Once seated and served, we were asked what our cocktail preference would be once we were in the air and handed our headphones for the IFE. We sat in 3G-H out, 3A-B in and had no problems with our seats, although coming home some passengers were juggled because their IFE systems didn't work. FA's seemed a little flustered by this, apparently the info wasn't provided before they got everyone settled in.

We found the leg room great, although the fixed sides of the seat makes it feel a little tighter than expected (I missed being able to raise the arm rest between us somewhat). I found the angle of the seats a little odd as well; I either had to sit all the way up, with a pillow at my middle back, or reclined with my feet up to be comfortable. The default position of the seat made me feel like I was slouching, no matter how I sat.

The husband fit fine and was actually able to stretch his legs all the way out, although to pop out the control for his IFE he had to slide out of the seat (also to plug the headphones in) since it was under the side of his thigh.

I have scanned the menus in with my pictures as well, and I was pleasantly surprised by the food. I took pics of all food going over, forgot completely on the way back, sorry! I had the Teriyaki chicken and while it was fine, the wild rice side was terrible (both crunchy and underseasoned) so it stayed on the plate.

We weren't all that impressed with the lounge at Barajas. There was coffee, alcohol, and a few bowls of olives. Great views, but it was somewhat dirty and had an overly bright and cafeteria-like vibe. After espresso and cleaning up a bit, we moved on to get something to eat downstairs.

All flight staff ware very nice, I have no complaints at all. I do have one odd note: All Envoy pax were using the lav in the front by seat 1A on the way over, in addition to the ones in the rear; on the way back we were blocked from doing so, and I was actually turned away and told to use the lav in the back, "...in Envoy". Isn't that lav in the front also in Envoy? On that leg the only people in the first row were US Airways employees (in uniform), so maybe that was why? At one point or another all of the attendants gathered in the front to hang and talk to the traveling staff, sitting on seat arms, standing at the bulkhead, so I felt like maybe they didn't want us busting them up trying to get through.

Also on our return flight, a Policia van came screaming up the tarmac, a man in handcuffs was dumped on the plane, screaming all the time something about how this was wrong, he could prove he was married, etc. After some confusion the attempted deportation was aborted and the man was removed again. There are going to be some odd pictures of that as my husband tried to capture the chaos.

All in all we had a great trip and I hope I hit on everything that people would want to know from a flight report. If not, please feel free to ask! Thanks again for everything.

thanks for posting this trip report. Reminds me of the good old times I used to fly SFO-PHL-CDG in F/Envoy thanks to the space available vouchers that you could find on ebay for 100$. That was a long time ago!

I LOVED using those when I was still in college, I enjoyed taking my breaks to Europe, CLT-LGW. Ebay a few weeks before, and boom, living large across the pond. I guess technology made those obsolete and they don't exist in paper form anymore.

Terrific trip report and great pictures! I am jealous! Thanks for posting it.^

Looks like you were on the A333 as expected. Row one was sold as internation FC when the 333's arrived and has full horizontal lie-flat seats and the divider separating it from "just Envoy". Sounds like the crew decided to make that their rest and recreation area and didn't want passengers disturbing them by using the front lav.:td:

Jim

I get a broken link to view the pics does anyone else?

Just copy and paste the link. It will go the OP's page with all their photos.
Then, choose the particular album.

OP - Thanks for this nice TR!

Thanks for the replies, I'm not sure why the link shows up but isn't live. Sorry about that but yes, copy & paste and all should be fine.

Funny side note - on the way out to Madrid someone in the second row grabbed one of the FA's and half stood out of his seat looking very irritated. All I heard were the words "Status," "Upgrade," "First Row," and "First Class," in a very testy tone.

The FA gently disentangled herself from the man's grip and said, "Sir, you have ALREADY been upgraded to Envoy class. The first row happens to be lie-flat seats that are available at an extra price to Envoy customers."

He threw himself back into his seat, acting disgusted and drank his champagne, saying something to his seatmate about his status (I don't know on what airline). I almost leaned over and tapped his shoulder, saying, "Dude, if you'd ever read flyertalk.com you'd have known that already."

Nice trip report! I'm looking forward to flying this route in a few weeks.

Envoy is already sold out so I am hoping to try to snag row 1 at check-in. :D

Oh!...you really could get those on ebay?!?!?!

:D


Meal-list me! Class-R, here I come. :p

IMO Row 1 on the A333 is over-rated. I've flown it twice; once back in the day on PIT-FRA route and again later to FRA out of PHL (and actually a 3rd time on PHL-SJU). Yes, it is a slightly better seat for sleeping but given the service is the same as the rest of the Envoy cabin I would never pay $500 to get it. If you can snag it with status or because the cabin is full and they move you there, that's great. But again, it's not worth the hype IMO.

Yeah, agreed. I've flown it to/from SJU. I just want it for sleeping on the outbound but no way I would pay an extra $300 per segment for it! If I can snag it at the airport, that's great. Otherwise I'm still very happy to be up front. :)

Is there a reason why Webshots wants to pop-up an advertisement each and every time we load a picture?? :td:

(I just noted that if you choose a slideshow, you don't have to deal with the pop-up!)

I'm sorry about the popups, I wasn't aware. I use Firefox with AdBlockPlus and have never gotten them.

No problem - worked around it...

Thanks for the TR!

Also, an eye-opening awareness of US airlines' FA's taking over the flight for their own benefit...not good!