Heidelberg Barbie

Now that all the A300s have been upgraded with the new seating config in Envoy for TATL, how's the service been in Envoy? Are the amenities what you expected?
Food quality?
IFEs (working?)
How about the 'goodies' bag, any changes there?
Big or small pillows? (should one bring ones own neck pillow anyway?), nice comfy blanket?
Drink service good with a good selection of spirits and wines?

Would love to read about raves :-: and rants of the "NEW" Envoy.

PHL

There are many threads here about this. The summary is:

1.) All A330's have the new suites and people love them.
2.) IFE is upgraded on the 330-300's to the same new one (Panasonic) on the -200's, which is a big improvement over the old system (Sony)
3.) Food choices, pillow, blanket, etc. are all on par with the other carriers.

seattleBH

While I agree that the seats are great, the service is just average. And the wines are (in my experience) the worst of any TA business class.

morrisunc

Agree on the wines. The suite is as good as any product out there. Food is like any us carrier in biz. They should go a-la united with a much better blanket/comforter.

Heidelberg Barbie

I know there are several threads dealing with bits and pieces of the new suite on the TATL A330s but hunting for specifics is difficult, frustrating and time consuming so I was hoping to have a consolidated thread here so all questions could be answered, all comments could be aggregated.

If pillow is same as Econ, then perhaps I should bring my little comfy neck pillow?

ericcheung

US does have a nice collection of spirits. I do like the Glenlivet scotch..

The seat is amazing.. IFE is great. Amenity kit is decent, but the presentation is poor.

geo1005

I love the hard product on the A330 fleet! The Suites are great! ^

As others have said, the food is on par with other USA-based carriers which is to say it is OK but not great.

The wine selection is pretty bad for business class. The wines served are all of the $8 to $10/bottle variety and average at best.

For me the make or break variable for US in Envoy is the crew - I've had some wonderful crews and I've had some pretty bad ones too.

lydia

The seats are great but NOT for a short person like me (5'1"), there is no footrest attached, so my legs just dangled and I can't reach the leg rest unless I was totally reclined.

Sleeping was great with the full flat seat.

Conversing with your travel partner (husband, wife, etc) is inconvenient with the way the seats are angled).

My flight attendant to MUC on 9/22 was exceptional!

Heidelberg Barbie

I have heard that if one flies FROM Europe then the food is better, if one flies FROM the USA then the food is "OK but..."

I hope someone from the food service of US Airways is reading some of these... wine and spirits, food quality... all an important part of the experience of the New Envoy Suites.

Heidelberg Barbie

I had also heard that the new angle of the seating with inconvenient for a couple to have a conversation. Perhaps there should have been some sort of removable partition between the seats for flexibility. Reasoning would be that others would want some privacy if in the angled seats and not traveling with someone.

I too am short "5'3" and I hope that I wont 'dangle' ... my feet tend to swell if they do that.

zbenye

Excellent. Helps keep the cabin quiet for the rest of us.

I fly solo and love US for the single seats. In row 1, it feels like a private plane. For the last couple of years I've been trying my best to fly on US (TLV) vs UA or LH due to the suites. The food is OK, and I'm one who can't tell between a $100 wine and a Two Buck Chuck.

And the domestic leg PHL-DEN is nicer on US than on UA.

The only downside is US Club at PHL doesn't have showers.

Heidelberg Barbie

Flew in the new Envoy cabin yesterday (14 Oct) and it was very nice. However the seats are a bit shy of a foot rest for short people. I had to make several adjustments before I could get my feet supported. Had to redo this each time I got up.

Food was good, the "signature steak" was tender but the roasted sweet potato ws dry. Salads were all excellent and fresh. Wine selection was limited. Dessert was cannoli with a Bailys.

I always complement the FA's for the great job they do. Both in Economy and Envoy. Bravo to those ladies and gents. ^

Annerk

I found the service to be acceptable. Lots of people in that Envoy cabin--some very demanding--and it seemed the FA's had a hard time keeping up.

The food was decent--overcooked steak as to be expected. The wines are barely passable, this is someplace that US still has a long way to go. I don't drink spirits but the selection seemed at least passable. The snack basket was left out in the galley area if you got hungry.

I think my biggest beef was that I woke up before the other Envoy passengers about 90 minutes before landing and asked in the galley for a cup of coffee. It was made, I could smell it. I was told they'd be around with it when they started breakfast service in half an hour or so. Wrong answer, I should have been brought a cup on request in my opinion.

IFE's were great, no problems there at all. I was able to charge my iPhone via a USB port in the seat.

Goodie bag was typical. Socks, eye mask, lotion, lip balm, pen, ear plugs.

The pillows were OK, about 16" square. A little hard but not terrible. Blankets were a bit scratchy, I wish they'd go with the cotton comforters like other carriers.

My husband and I also wish the partition between the center seats could be lowered. We don't chatter non-stop, but it would be nice to be able to have a conversation during the boarding process and over dinner.

savekenny

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone know if and when US will start flying TA flights from PHX?

hch

I was pretty excited about my first long-haul trip in Envoy. The seats are the best international C I've been in so far, and I'd say they are even better than some F seats I've used a lot (UA old and new F, LH old F) because they actually allow me as a 1.90 tall with broad shoulder to have all the space I need.

As mentioned before the pillows are a bit lacking, but that seems to be the case on just about any airline, my usual workaround is to wear a soft sweater and use that as a second pillow.

The service was about as good as I want, attentive FAs but nothing fancy with a full Envoy cabin both ways.. I too had the same overcooked steak mentioned before. Normally I try to avoid eating on planes, but the horrible food option in the PHL A terminal had me still hungry on the plane, after only grabbing two cups of soup in the lounge.

The only real downside of this trip were the PHL-SFO transcon trips attached to it. US F seemed to have even less than regular F on AA or UA, and I'm not even talking about their special products ex-JFK. Internet in the air was nice to have, but without a power port it's only half as useful (and I only noticed after purchasing the internet access). The lack of any lounge access in SFO is a bit annoying, but so is T1 in SFO in general.

So would I do US Envoy again? Any time as long as I go to any place in short reach of PHL or CLT, but probably not to the west coast again. Then again the other option for this price would have been a double connect on BA/AA so it probably wouldn't have been that much better.