- Introduction: Flying With Royalty (Or Not)
- Review: Air Canada Premium Rouge 767 Tampa To Toronto
- Review: Sheraton Gateway Toronto Airport
- Review: EgyptAir Business Class 777 Toronto To Cairo
- Review: Cairo Airport Lounge Terminal 2
- Review: Royal Jordanian Business Class Embraer 175 Cairo To Amman
- Review: Grand Hyatt Amman
- Review: Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman Airport
- Review: Royal Jordanian Business Class 787 Amman To Kuala Lumpur
- Review: St. Regis Kuala Lumpur
- Review: Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur
- Review: Royal Brunei Business Class A320 Kuala Lumpur To Bandar Seri Begawan
- Review: Radisson Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei
- Review: Royal Brunei Lounge Bandar Seri Begawan
- Review: Royal Brunei Business Class 787 Bandar Seri Begawan To Dubai
- Review: W Dubai Al Habtoor City
- Review: St. Regis Dubai
- Review: Emirates Business Class Lounge Dubai
- Review: Emirates Business Class A380 Dubai To Los Angeles
My flight from Toronto to Cairo was scheduled to depart at 12:45PM. In the morning the flight still showed on-time, though like any experienced traveler I checked the status of the inbound flight, as I knew the plane was coming from Cairo. Well, the plane was way late — it departed almost seven hours late, and was due to arrive six hours late.
Fortunately EgyptAir plans a lot of ground time for the plane in Toronto, though I still expected we’d have a 2-3 hour delay, given that the plane was arriving in Toronto 15 minutes after we were scheduled to depart.
I still decided to head to the airport at around 11AM. I took the train to Terminal 1, where I found a long line for EgyptAir check-in. Fortunately I had already been issued my EgyptAir boarding pass in Tampa, so was able to bypass that and head straight to the lounge.
Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1
The airside at Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1 is quite nice, and I headed straight for the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, which EgyptAir uses for their premium passengers. I won’t be reviewing it again, given that I reviewed it just last year.
Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1 airside
Eventually the flight posted a delay until 3:30PM, though at 1:30PM I decided to go to the gate and see what was going on.
Toronto Pearson Airport departures monitor
My flight was departing from gate E72.
Toronto Pearson Airport Terminal 1 airside
Rather than giving passengers food vouchers for the delay, they put out orange juice containers and sandwiches.
Snacks & drinks for delayed EgyptAir passengers
I headed back to the lounge for a bit, and then returned to the gate at around 2:30PM. Finally at 2:50PM boarding began for passengers in wheelchairs (there were lots of them), and then at 3PM business class boarding began.
EgyptAir 777 Toronto Airport
EgyptAir 996
Toronto (YYZ) – Cairo (CAI)
Tuesday, January 3
Depart: 12:45PM
Arrive: 5:55AM (+1 day)
Duration: 11hr10min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 15C (Business Class)
I boarded through door L2, where I was greeted by a smiling flight attendant and pointed right towards my seat. EgyptAir’s 777 business class cabin consists of a total of 49 seats. The seats are in a 2-3-2 configuration, with the forward cabin (between doors one and two) having four rows, and the rear cabin (behind door two) having three rows.
EgyptAir 777 business class cabin
I had assigned myself seat 15C, which is the aisle seat on the left side in the last row of business class.
EgyptAir 777 business class seats
EgyptAir 777 business class seats
While the seats themselves were comfortable and legroom was excellent, I’m not a fan of the fact that they have middle seats in business class. Then again, even top notch airlines like Emirates do.
EgyptAir 777 business class seats in the middle section
My seat had plenty of legroom, with the television screen on the back of the seat in front of me. There was also a magazine pocket, as well as a storage compartment for shoes.
EgyptAir 777 business class legroom
The seat controls were on the aisle-side armrest, and were easy to use.
EgyptAir business class seat controls
On the bottom left of the center console was the entertainment controller, which was the same you’ll find on many other airlines.
EgyptAir business class entertainment controls
Also underneath the center armrests were power outlets.
EgyptAir business class power outlets
While these seats don’t afford much privacy, I appreciated that there was a fairly sizable partition you could extend between seats, which seems especially handy when sleeping.
EgyptAir business class privacy partition
The tray table could also be extended from the center armrest, and could be folded over so you could use the whole thing, or just half of it.
EgyptAir business class tray table
Waiting at my seat were a pillow and blanket. While I commend EgyptAir for branding everything, I wasn’t a huge fan of the blanket, which wasn’t competitive with what other airlines offer in business class. The pillow was nice and firm, though.
EgyptAir business class pillow & blanket
Row 15 is right next to the front of the engine, so has a great view.
View prior to pushback in Toronto
A few minutes after I settled in, someone took seat 15A. She was a lady in her early 30s, and I’d guess she was Canadian-Egyptian. She boarded with a big bottle of water, and seemed to just want to sleep the whole way.
Shortly before boarding I had looked at the seatmap and saw that the five seats to the right of me showed as blocked, so I was curious what the story there was. I was hoping to switch to one of them so I could have an empty seat next to me.
EgyptAir 777 business class legroom
The flight boarded pretty efficiently, and interestingly after about 15 minutes they closed the curtains between business class and economy class. I suspect this was due to the number of people who tried to self upgrade after seeing empty seats in business class.
Once the curtains between cabins were closed I asked if I could switch seats, and the flight attendant said that was fine. So I moved to 15D, the center aisle seat, hoping I’d have the whole row of three seats to myself.
New seat in EgyptAir business class
As boarding finished up, the crew came through the cabin with warm towelettes.
EgyptAir business class pre-departure hot towel
Then at around 3:45PM they offered everyone pre-departure beverages, with the choice between guava or apple juice — I chose the guava juice, which was refreshing (not that there’s much of a need to be refreshed in Toronto in winter).
EgyptAir business class pre-departure guava juice
A few minutes later they came around the cabin with a cart containing newspapers, headphones, amenity kits, and service stickers.
EgyptAir business class headphones and amenity kit
The service stickers are a cute concept, as you can state whether you want to be woken for food, duty free, etc.
EgyptAir business class service stickers
Unfortunately the headphones were flimsy and disappointing, similar to what you’d get in economy. That being said, I think many of us travel with our own headphones nowadays, so that’s not a huge deal.
EgyptAir business class headphones
The amenity kit was also quite disappointing. It was in a bag that seemed to be a similar material to a trash bag, and had eyeshades, socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and in-ear headphones.
EgyptAir business class amenity kit contents
By 3:50PM the door was closed, with 39 or the 49 business class seats taken, and almost all seats in economy taken.
As we pushed back a prayer played over the PA, and then moments later the safety video played. Rather bizarrely, the safety video shown was for an A330 — it showed the emergency exits for that plane, even though we weren’t on it. I’m not sure how that’s even possible — surely EgyptAir wouldn’t even bother programming a safety video for the wrong plane?
EgyptAir pre-flight prayer
As we taxied out to the runway, the crew dimmed the cabin lights and turned on the ceiling stars, which is such a cute touch that really helps with sleeping at night.
EgyptAir business class ceiling stars
As we taxied out, the lady in the window seat across from me had already reclined into the bed position. Despite the crew making another pass through the cabin, they didn’t ask her to put her seat upright for takeoff.
Lady across from me reclined before takeoff
There were no announcements at all from the pilots, though the lead flight attendant announced our flight time would be 10 hours.
Our taxi was slow, and finally at 4:10PM we were cleared for takeoff.
About five minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off. I had a look at the forward business class cabin, which was mostly full.
EgyptAir 777 business class cabin
I also checked out one of the two lavatories located between cabins. While they didn’t have much in the way of amenities, they were clean at least.
EgyptAir 777 business class lavatory
Service began with landing cards for Egypt being distributed.
Landing card for Egypt
After that the menu for the flight was distributed.
EgyptAir business class menu
Maybe 10 minutes after takeoff the captain came into the cabin and greeted an older man seated in front of me who I assume he knew. A couple of kisses on the cheek later, he left again.
Around that time, a guy in a suit came and sat down in the aisle seat across from me. I was a bit confused by who he was. At first I figured it was a flight attendant, as that wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen flight attendants simply sitting for most of the flight.
However, upon further investigation I reasoned that it was actually an Egyptian air marshal. The guy was wearing a suit that looked like a uniform, though he didn’t have any flight attendant “wings,” or anything. He and another guy switched seats a couple of times throughout the flight — I suspect they traded between sitting in economy and business class. He simply watched movies the whole flight, and (fortunately) didn’t seem to bat an eyelid at all of my picture taking.
I eventually tried to recline my seat all the way to get a picture of it, though once it got about halfway down, it wouldn’t move. I called over the crew, and they didn’t seem to be very surprised. They disassembled the seat a bit, and then it worked again.
At around 5PM, 50 minutes after takeoff, tables were set in anticipation of the meal service. The menu read as follows:
The drink list read as follows (yes, EgyptAir is a dry airline):
As soon as tablecloths were placed down, the crew immediately distributed the trays with the appetizer, salad, and cheese. They actually only came through with drinks afterwards, so the below picture was taken about 10 minutes after the tray was served, once I had a glass of water.
I find it a bit odd that EgyptAir doesn’t first do a round of drinks with nuts or canapés. However, I suppose that drinking isn’t quite as “festive” on a dry airline. At a minimum they should serve drinks immediately with the appetizer, and not afterwards. Speaking of drinks, while I respect their choice to be a dry airline, the complete lack of inspiration when it comes to soft drinks was disappointing. They didn’t even have sparkling water.
EgyptAir business class dining — appetizer, salad, and cheese plate
My starter consisted of marinated shrimp, smoked salmon, and mango salsa. It looked pretty decent, but didn’t taste very good.
EgyptAir business class appetizer — marinated shrimp, smoked salmon, and mango salsa
The side salad was perfectly nice, and had tomatoes, peppers, etc.
EgyptAir business class seasonal salad
The cheese plate, while small, at least had decent quality cheese.
EgyptAir business class cheese plate — camembert and and harley blue goat cheese
I was also offered a bread roll with the meal.
EgyptAir business class bread roll
While the Carr’s crackers are pretty good, the fact that they use Kraft dressing is a bit… cheap.
EgyptAir business class dining — Carr’s crackers and Kraft dressing
Once appetizers were cleared, the crew rolled a cart down the aisle containing the main courses, so you could look and decide which one you wanted. I chose the cod fillet and shrimp with nantua sauce and rice, baby carrots, and french beans. The dish looked pretty decent to me, but was tasteless. The shrimp tasted off and the sauce wasn’t good (in fairness, I had no clue what “nantua sauce” was, which might be the problem).
EgyptAir business class main course — cod fillet and shrimp
After that a cart was rolled down the aisle with fresh fruit, and you could choose what you wanted. I chose some melon and pineapple, which were good.
EgyptAir business class fresh fruit plate
Lastly there was a cart with dessert. I chose the chocolate cake with raspberry coulis. The cake was downright hard, so was disappointing.
EgyptAir business class dessert — chocolate cake with raspberry coulis
I had a mint tea to go along with the meal — I love the Egyptair teacups, and the mint tea was tasty as well.
EgyptAir business class tea saucer
At the conclusion of service bottled water was distributed.
EgyptAir business class bottled water
The entire meal service was complete about two hours after takeoff. The crew serving me was quite friendly — they were all well intentioned, said “you’re welcome” when I said “thank you,” and smiled. However, they certainly weren’t attentive, and I thought the overall service procedures were a bit sloppy (for example, not only was my first glass of water served 10 minutes after the appetizer, but I was never offered a refill).
As far as the food goes, I was disappointed by the quality. They should really be able to do better than this. Perhaps my biggest disappointment was the lack of Egyptian food. I’ve had some fantastic Egyptian meals, so it’s puzzling to me why they don’t have food from the region.
After dinner, with about eight hours left until our arrival in Cairo, I browsed the entertainment selection.
EgyptAir business class entertainment selection
The movie selection was pretty good, and there were a couple dozen movies that were decent enough.
EgyptAir business class entertainment selection
EgyptAir business class entertainment selection
However, there weren’t very many sitcoms. There are some sitcoms you’ll find on almost any airline, though not on EgyptAir.
EgyptAir business class entertainment selection
EgyptAir has the same airshow system used by many airlines, which I quite like, thanks to how customizable it is.
EgyptAir airshow enroute to Cairo
EgyptAir airshow enroute to Cairo
At this point we were starting our Atlantic crossing, as we were just north of Gander.
EgyptAir airshow enroute to Cairo
EgyptAir airshow enroute to Cairo
I’ve read conflicting reports as to whether or not EgyptAir’s 777 business class seats are fully flat. I always thought that was odd, since it’s usually pretty apparent. Well, now I get the confusion. In terms of the bed, EgyptAir’s business class seat is virtually identical to Emirates’ 777 business class seat. That’s to say that it’s technically not quite fully flat, but damn close. However, given that planes are at a nose-up angle at cruise, I’d say it’s fully flat, for all practical purposes.
I’m someone who is very sensitive to angled seats, but I found it very comfortable in the reclined position.
EgyptAir business class reclined bed
Even though the bedding wasn’t great, I managed to get some solid sleep thanks to how comfortable the bed was. I slept for about five hours, and woke up 2hr30min before landing. The flight was really smooth, which probably helped.
Around the time I woke up, the crew came through the cabin with sandwiches and mixed nuts. It’s nice that they have snacks, though probably unnecessary, given that it was almost time for breakfast.
EgyptAir business class snack
I got a bit of work done on my laptop, and at this point we were over the Aegean Sea.
Airshow enroute to Cairo
Airshow enroute to Cairo
About 90 minutes before landing the breakfast service began. The menu read as follows:
First they distributed trays with everything except the main course, and then they rolled a cart down the aisle with all the mains. Unfortunately they were out of foul medames, which would have been my first choice.
EgyptAir business class breakfast
So for the main course I selected the creamy mushroom omelet. It was tasty, though the quantity of cream was perhaps unnecessary. 😉
EgyptAir business class breakfast — creamy mushroom omelette
There was a nice little bowl of fruit served with the meal, and a small plastic container with yogurt.
EgyptAir business class breakfast — fresh fruit and yogurt
Then there was some cheese and tomato, as well as a croissant and pita.
EgyptAir business class breakfast — tomato and cheese
EgyptAir business class breakfast — bread
The orange juice I had with breakfast did indeed seem to be freshly squeezed, which impressed me, as there aren’t many airlines that offer that.
At around 8:30AM local time we began our descent. Around that time I tried to put my seat back into the upright position, though it wouldn’t move. Therefore I had to sit in the middle seat, next to the air marshal, for landing.
At around 9AM we touched down in Cairo. I wish I had a window seat, as the views looked great, from a distance.
Airshow approaching Cairo
Airshow approaching Cairo
At 9:05AM we arrived at a remote stand.
View upon arrival in Cairo
Usually I hate remote stands, though I was sort of excited about it in this case, because it would afford me a good view of the exterior of the plane, which I didn’t have in Toronto. EgyptAir’s 777 livery is gorgeous.
EgyptAir 777 upon arrival in Cairo
EgyptAir 777 upon arrival in Cairo
They also had a bus exclusively for business class passengers, so the bus left quickly, and within a few minutes we were at the terminal.
EgyptAir business class bottom line
No, EgyptAir’s business class isn’t world class, though it many ways wasn’t as bad was I was expecting.
They can improve the food, bedding, and service procedures, for sure. The fact that they showed the wrong safety video altogether is also a bit concerning.
However, the seat was extremely comfortable for sleeping, the flight attendants were well intentioned and friendly, and there didn’t seem to be any smoking during the flight. That might seem like an odd point to make, but I’ve heard stories of entire EgyptAir crews smoking in the galley, which can ruin a flight pretty quickly, as I learned on a recent China Eastern flight.
So if the fare is right or they fly where I need to go, I wouldn’t hesitate to fly EgyptAir again. But I also wouldn’t go out of my way to fly them, and there are a lot of airlines I’d choose over them. Still, a (mostly) flat bed is a (mostly) flat bed.
Thanks for your review. If you don’t like Egypt Air, why are you traveling on it? Seek another airline. The picture of the food looks like your at a restaurant. Your even complaining about a blanket and the water that they didn’t refill, so why didn’t you ask for another bottle of water. Did you travel on other airlines to see if the other ones were dry or not. If you didnt have the ticket...
Thanks for your review. If you don’t like Egypt Air, why are you traveling on it? Seek another airline. The picture of the food looks like your at a restaurant. Your even complaining about a blanket and the water that they didn’t refill, so why didn’t you ask for another bottle of water. Did you travel on other airlines to see if the other ones were dry or not. If you didnt have the ticket free, you would never be in the business class because your not use to a clean airline like that. Your talking about Egyptian food. What food are you expecting to get on the airline and aircraft from Egypt. This is international food. And I hope you never ever travel on Egypt Air again because we travel on it and we know how they are. The crew is nicer than any other airline because we travel on every airline we know the difference between others. Thank you again for your lovely review.
I can only assume you’re an employee of MS. Having just flown on the airline from EWR to CDG via CAI, I can assure everyone that not only is this review correct, but it’s actually kind. The entire airline should be overhauled and it—along with the CAI airport and the revolting, crumbling lounges—should be a huge embarrassment for the county of Egypt!
I'll take an Egypt air flight over a Canadian airline any day
Lots of hate in the comments... we all know why people hate Keep on trollin.
I'm flying egypt air from JFK to Cairo. If I pick up some scotch from duty free, would they allow me to consume during the flight? Are there any set rules?
@ Robert Hanson - Many Mullahs drink alcohol and have Swiss bank accounts, including the mullahs of Iran whom are afraid of another revolution and terrified that they are going to hang by their own turbans from the trees of the boulevards of Tehran by the Green movement revolutionary students.
Like religion is not behind the oppression of gays and women in the US.
The Baptists in the US like do whatever they...
@ Robert Hanson - Many Mullahs drink alcohol and have Swiss bank accounts, including the mullahs of Iran whom are afraid of another revolution and terrified that they are going to hang by their own turbans from the trees of the boulevards of Tehran by the Green movement revolutionary students.
Like religion is not behind the oppression of gays and women in the US.
The Baptists in the US like do whatever they want, but their law is not the law of the land here.
I flew MS on their A330 from DXB-CAI three years ago on my way from Seychelles via Addis Ababa to Casablanca. A routing that was done by US Airways and it was only 55k in business roundtrip. However as soon as I got on board I was told to move, because of a snooty French couple that did not want to move from our pre-assigned seats and the Purser kept asking me to sit in the first row where both air marshalls were standing and chit chat was going on at 4 am. I knew from my many years of experience on United that this was going to go on for the entire time of the flight. So, I asked them kindly to let us sit on in our originally assigned seats four rows back, therefore the French couple had to move and they were not happy and the crew seemed to be mad at us. They were way better than United, AA, or Lufthansa crew, but not as good at Turkish, SQ or Qatar or Thai. The most attentive Flight Attendant was the lady who was wearing the Hijab, while the other Flight Attendant looked like Elissa the Lebanese singer whom was wearing lots of make up and looked very European. The male Flight Attendants seemed lazy and gathered in the galley and chit chatted, specially the older fat male Purser who did not do much. The meals were somewhat better than what United and American offer in their First Class cabin. However on these pictures it seems that the quality has deteriorated from the last time we flew on them. This 2-3-2 configuration would not work for us unless we were seated in A/C seats. The amenity kit looks worse than what TK and Qatar offer in Economy cabins. The cabin looks very old and they should have offered beverage and cocktail nuts first. United crews often times would be lazy and they call this a combining service which they are not suppose to do, but they do it often to have a longer break, because the crew break starts from the time, all cabins have finished their service and often time it takes longer in premium cabins and if they cut that part off, in all cabins the service will get done faster. That is why often times you will hear UA crews bickering in the AFT galley that some crew members want to combine the service, their excuse being a late departure, a delayed departure or they will have turbulence as their excuse. So, maybe perhaps this MS crew did not care or they wanted to get the service over faster because of their late departure.
I have been checking for Business seats from MRU-IST on to CMN (Casablanca, Morocco), in June and I kept seeing a combination of South African and Egypt Air. Well, I have flown South African a few times and their crew remind of UA/AA/Delta, just as lazy and just as trailer trashy. On one of my flights from Hong Kong to JNB they even took the last two rows of business on the A330 and went to sleep. Some even were hanging around in the galley with their flip/flop type home slippers and they had no interest in serving their customers, even too lazy to offer me a bottle water on an 11 hour flight in Business. They also had no interest in a small chat as I was trying to get some info in regards to Safaris and wineries.
Same with Egypt Air crews. I went to the bathroom and I asked for a cup of tea and the Male Crews were more interested in a warm heated chit chat with lots of energy at wee hours of the morning and were not interested in serving me or acknowledging my existence.
So, I have been desperately looking for a TK space and ironically thanks for this article that is keeping up late on a Saturday night/sunday morning just found 2 seats in Business on Turkish. I just snagged the only 2 Turkish business class seats that was available the entire month of June from MRU to IST. I love Turkish service much better on board, although there needs to be improvement with their baggage services and their customer relations which have no intention of getting back to anyone. The TK Flight Attendants are much nicer and warmer than any airline and less robotic than their Asian counterparts. Sometimes they come across aloof, detached and reserved as they want to act like the European LH, OS or LX crews.
I think if they keep their original Turkish hospitality they will do even much better. If Singapore could get their act together in their customer relations department and luggage services I would fly them as I love their female in-flight crews not that I am straight, I just love them. I do not like their older male Pursers. I get way better service from their younger female crews. The older senior SQ sometimes think they are the queen of the Universe or they are something special. But all these people need to realize that they are simply waiters and waitresses in the sky, period!
Oh, I also like to sit by myself when I travel alone. I do not want to get involved in a chit-chat as much as I like to talk but not on the airplane. People often times ask me all sorts of personal questions, in regards to what I do for work and travel so much... and blah blah blah... and plus I am working on my travel documentary and I hate answering so many stupid questions. I much rather do my travel research, take pictures, make videos, watch movies, pop my ambien and go to sleep!
I also, do not understand all these alcoholics on this forum. Drinking on flights is terrible for your system. You are best off to hydrate and drink water and juice. Why so many people say that they do not want to fly a dry airline??? Plus, there would be no drunk episodes that we see on UA, BA,AA and all others. Add the false self authority of US airline crews and drunk passengers and you go yourself a volatile flight experience!
@Melissa - Ben's stated many times that he's been concentrating on trying new airlines, and since he'd already reviewed the usual high-end carriers, it's bound to look like a step down. Would you rather he just review Singapore, Lufthansa, Emirates, and the like over and over again?
Thanks for the Review Lucky, i am flying FCO to CAN in the next month and EGYPTAIR had a great deal. I was hopping to read a nice review of the airline.
The only thing that i am not sure about is the seats, i am in the second row of business, but i am a little worried about the pilots smoking (i had read about it a lot, no recent reports but it keeps me thinking)
Hi Lucky,
Thanks for all your great reports and providing many of us with worthwhile, and helpful, information (I really enjoyed reading about your thoughts on BA business class and then experiencing it myself).
I'm a little naive, though.
Why do you travel on airlines, and to destinations, that so openly discriminate against people; especially gay people?
A dry airline but they still serve shrimp?
I really can't understand what Melissa is on about?
What's wrong with not wanting someone sitting next to you anyway?
I massively prefer to have space around me. Doesn't mean I'm unfriendly or lack social skills - I'm an introvert, I like having the ability to have peace and quiet when I'm travelling.
Don't see that is any bad thing at all.
I am totally shocked that the oldest 77W in the fleet of EgyptAir is 7 years old!
watching the pictures from this flight it looks like a plane from the 1980s
I'm surprised that Egyptair would be dry - the country isn't. Or is it? Regardless, the food looks gross.
@Credit No need for the mullahs to have mistresses, as the Koran specifically allows multiple wives, and both Shia and Sunni have interpretations that allow payment for "temporary" marriages. (sic) Nor is there anything in the Bible proscribing alcohol. In fact the first miracle Jesus preformed was turning water into wine, and we are told it was very good wine at that. ;)
But keep on trollin....
Wow, looking at the service, amenities and meals, it looks like the quality has deteriorated from the last time I flew them 5-6 years ago between Europe and Asia. The worst seems to be the amenity kit - they used to give some solid rather large amenity kit with quite a lot of items in it. When they used to have First class, they even had PJ's.
The meal looks quite close but the...
Wow, looking at the service, amenities and meals, it looks like the quality has deteriorated from the last time I flew them 5-6 years ago between Europe and Asia. The worst seems to be the amenity kit - they used to give some solid rather large amenity kit with quite a lot of items in it. When they used to have First class, they even had PJ's.
The meal looks quite close but the number of prawns and from your description it being tasteless seems that it is either a catering problem @ YYZ or cost cutting.
A nice review so that I will avoid them (now that their Business fare don't look that interesting anymore compared to 5-6 years ago when normal Biz fare was sky high).
Cheers!
Lucky, you've said earlier in your post 'The Next 16 First & Business Class Products I'd Like To Review' that as much as possible, you don't want to commit to a longhaul flight on Philippine Airlines, presumably because of the angled seats? You've survived this longhaul flight on Egypt Air, surely you will survive this as well. PAL has exactly the same seats on their 777-300ER, slightly angled-flat. If you're lucky to fetch one of...
Lucky, you've said earlier in your post 'The Next 16 First & Business Class Products I'd Like To Review' that as much as possible, you don't want to commit to a longhaul flight on Philippine Airlines, presumably because of the angled seats? You've survived this longhaul flight on Egypt Air, surely you will survive this as well. PAL has exactly the same seats on their 777-300ER, slightly angled-flat. If you're lucky to fetch one of the newer 777s on JFK-YVR-MNL, it features fully-flat seats just like Turkish Airlines.
Also, Manila has seen new hotel openings since you last visited in 2009. Raffles, Solaire, Nobu, Hyatt, Marriott, Okada, and Shangri-La The Fort are some of the latest. The hotel you stayed on before, Intercontinental Manila, has been closed since 2014.
this entire experience looks pretty grim, think I would quicker take a connecting flight than fly EgyptAir....just my preference
Surely the seat number you've said you were in is incorrect. Both the seat plan and your description of 7 rows of business class seats would put 15c in economy? Interesting review of an unusual airline, but one that looks pretty poor
The amenity kit is worse that what Qatar Airways gives to economy class! :-P
I know this sounds crazy but I sleep way better on Americans slightly angled seats than on the flatbeds
Thanks for the detailed review Lucky. It's helped me confirm that I will never choose to fly on Egyptair. Not having the correct safety video shown aboard the aircraft, allowing someone to sleep after takeoff in a reclined position, faulty chairs, a terrible sounding and looking menu and the fact that it's a dry airline with a limited non-alcoholic selection have all confirmed it for me lol.
And Credit strikes again. Always entertaining to say the least.
2-3-2 seating and Dry to boot--No, thanks! Also, the food looks pretty poor.
Sauce Nantua is a classical French sauce made from Bechemel , cream and crayfish. Essentially a shellfish sauce often used to garnish lobster. I do find the amount of shellfish they used to be interesting considering how verboten it is with their assumed clientele base.
@Mike S - I can't speak for the Cairo airport but at Fiumicino (Rome), they take the disabled down on a truck lift, similar to the ones they use for loading the food carts.
Ok, Lucky. I've been an avid reader and fan of yours for the last couple of years. You influence the way my wife and I travel. Seriously. I save your blogs for a few days and then binge.
While it's neither here nor there, one trait always seems to pop us in your writings. That is your strong preference to fly with no one beside you. Ever. It is glaring in this post only...
Ok, Lucky. I've been an avid reader and fan of yours for the last couple of years. You influence the way my wife and I travel. Seriously. I save your blogs for a few days and then binge.
While it's neither here nor there, one trait always seems to pop us in your writings. That is your strong preference to fly with no one beside you. Ever. It is glaring in this post only because the woman who initially sat beside you wanted nothing but sleep yet you still chose to move to an empty row. I'm trying to put together the idea of someone who is not seeming to be very social with someone who writes exceptionally and travels non stop together.
Obviously nothing to comment on if you so choose but it is rather interesting.
@ John -- Actually there's a very innocent explanation. I literally take 300+ pictures per flight, so my strong preference for not sitting next to anyone is because I don't want to disturb anyone else. To take good pictures of the meal, etc., I need good lighting, and I didn't want to turn on my reading light when the lady next to me was trying to sleep. I'm simply trying to be respectful to my fellow passengers -- that simple. :)
Probably not my first choice over the Atlantic, but still better than Premium Rouge...
2550.7
Emirates A380 to São Paulo!
@ anon, no typo, I was corrected at at resto, it's pronounced "fool" , not "fowl".
Is "Foul medames" a typo in their menu? Google pops up "Ful medames," a veg Egypt and middle eastern food.
"Finally at 2:50PM boarding began for passengers in wheelchairs (there were lots of them)"
How did all those people deal with de-boarding at the remote stand ? Did they have the same number of wheel chairs waiting for arriving passengers >
@ Mike S. -- That's a good question, didn't see any wheelchairs on the tarmac. I imagine that was tough.
Hi Ben, thanks for your comprehensive review. How on earth did your seat companion get her bottle of water through security despite it being a LAG?
@ Brad -- I imagine she bought it past security.
I don't get why you said there's no Sparkling Water. I can clearly see it listed both as Sparkling Water and Schweppes Gold. Did you just not ask for it?
@ Callum -- I specifically asked about it (and pointed to it on the menu) and they said they didn't have it.
You can bet your gay ass most of the mullahs are hypocrites like the religious right preachers in the USA. Drinking alcohol at home and having mistresses.
Lucky wrote: "Even though the bedding wasn’t great, I managed to get some solid sleep thanks to how comfortable the bed was"
Sure could use an editor here. I'm noticing through all of these reviews, the choice of airlines have been deteriorating. Hmmm....must be those devalued FF Miles. lol. Gary "Left" Leff is probably next to collapse.
Nice lucky