A few days ago I shared my experience flying Adria Airways business class from Munich to Ljubljana. Generally I think there’s not much variance in terms of the quality of intra-Europe business class, though this flight was an exception in just about every way.
I was curious if my experience was indicative of the typical Adria experience, or it the airline had a bit more to offer. Fortunately a couple of days later I flew Adria Airways‘ business class on the CRJ-900 from Ljubljana to Skopje, to see how the experience compared.
Ljubljana is Adria’s hub, though they don’t operate their own lounge at the airport, but rather use the contract airport lounge, which is quiet and totally fine.
Perhaps the highlight of the airport was that a WOW Air plane was parked on the apron, as it had just flown in from Iceland.
The benefit of flying the CRJ is that it’s in a 2-2 configuration, and in business class they block half of the seats. Also, the legroom was generous, unlike on the previous flight.
Unfortunately the cabin wasn’t very well maintained, as the carpet was filthy and ripped.
On the plus side, just about everything else about the experience was significantly better than on the previous flight, and about in line with what I’d expect in intra-Europe business class. The flight attendant working business class was kind and well intentioned, which I can’t say about the previous crew.
Much to my surprise, there was a hot meal on this 70 minute flight.
The meal included a cheese plate, a piece of cheese bread, some beef with veggies and potatoes, and chocolate cake for dessert. The meal was mostly quite good, except the beef was as tough as leather.
After the meal I had coffee — Adria serves instant coffee, which isn’t exactly great.
The flight departed and arrived on-time.
Bottom line
Adria won’t be winning any awards for their onboard product anytime soon, but that’s also not that surprising. On the plus side, the CRJ featured significantly more legroom than the A319, and the service was also much friendlier. This plane sure could use a deep cleaning, though…
All things considered, I was expecting Adria to be better than they were, though.
Hi what was the tail registration on this aircraft?
Well, the newer and much better maintained aircraft (CRJ's and A319's) fly wet-lease for Luxair, Swiss and Austrian. Slovenians (and the rest of the Balkan where Adria flies to) gets cattle class.
To focus on just ONE glaring item: that dirty carpeting is just shocking. I've been on plenty of planes with a few stains here and there, but this is so bad. Surely aircraft interior condition would be on *A audit team's check-off list?
i never order steak/beef on airplanes, ever, cuz its always gonna be tough as a rock and mostly inedible. if I wanna eat a well done steak I will eat it at Fogo de Chao.
Adria and Croatia were "Star Alliance Regional Member" airlines since 2014, but then when *A killed that program they were "grandfathered" to full membership status. They're also a close partner to LH and even use Miles & More as their loyalty program, so they're not getting thrown out of the alliance any time soon.
I seriously thought they are a subsidiary of Finnair due to their livery font, oops.
@Lucky @FNT Delta Diamond Shenzhen Airlines has its own lounges though not many and only in Mainland China. It is called King Lounge. Shenzhen Airlines and Air China first or business class passengers can use it. Also, gold or platinum members of their Phoenix Miles program can also access it. Furthermore, Star Alliance Gold members can also use the Lounge. They have lounges in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Shenyang, etc. Also, the lounge in Guangzhou...
@Lucky @FNT Delta Diamond Shenzhen Airlines has its own lounges though not many and only in Mainland China. It is called King Lounge. Shenzhen Airlines and Air China first or business class passengers can use it. Also, gold or platinum members of their Phoenix Miles program can also access it. Furthermore, Star Alliance Gold members can also use the Lounge. They have lounges in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Shenyang, etc. Also, the lounge in Guangzhou can be accessed via Priority Pass and it is opened from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm every day. I hope that the King Lounge at Shenzhen airport will also be available for priority pass members in the near future.
@Justin
yeah it is understandable when an airline is just not in an alliance, but when it gets into one the home airport gets put onto the map sort of and get more exposure as well as traffic sometimes. Also one of the benefits is that elites get to access alliance lounges. Imagine my disgruntled voice when I was flying through LIM in Y as OW Emerald and had to line up 30 min...
@Justin
yeah it is understandable when an airline is just not in an alliance, but when it gets into one the home airport gets put onto the map sort of and get more exposure as well as traffic sometimes. Also one of the benefits is that elites get to access alliance lounges. Imagine my disgruntled voice when I was flying through LIM in Y as OW Emerald and had to line up 30 min for horrible coffee costing $4, completely caught off guard that there was nothing offered by LP.
Is this the only Star Alliance member airline without its own lounge? I don't even understand how such a small airline with no long-haul flights and an appalling level of in-flight service is even still in Star Alliance. It doesn't say much for Star Alliance. Maybe Qatar should have bought Adria instead of Air Italy.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- Hah, funny you mention that, because my next segment was on Croatia Airlines, also a Star Alliance member, and they don't have a lounge either. I'm not sure if there are any others. Maybe Shenzhen?
@beyounged: It was several years ago and my memory's fuzzy so I may be wrong, but when I flew Croatia Airlines out of Zagreb, I don't think they had their own lounge. The thing about Croatia and Adria is they're both really small airlines with small hub airports... airports which probably can't justify having more than one premium lounge.
If you don't proactively give feedback to the crew about the catering mishaps,how are they supposed to correct it for future service improvement?
@ JoeMart -- You're referring to the steak? Personally I expect steak on planes to be nearly inedible, and I'd never voluntarily order it. So my main piece of feedback would be to have more options. I don't think anything was wrong with the dish as such...
I'd be worried if their technical maintenance is just as bad...
Adria! Air India! PIA!
And the "winner" is .....
I am appalled..haven't seen such pictures in any airline! What,s Star Alliance doing about this?
if you deep clean that floor, you would see the cargo hold! that plane needs new interior, not a clean lol
curious what other allianced carriers do not have lounges in their home hub, only experienced it once before for LATAM Peru in Lima, came as quite a shock