Review: Saudia First Class 777-300ER Riyadh To Dubai

The beef pastry is called Samboosa. 🙂

The pastries are called "Kubbeh" I believe.

Do kuwait airways 777w first class. Sam Chui did it.

I have a stupid question that someone here can probably explain well:

Why do international carriers use big, fancy planes for shorthaul routes, while US domestic carriers use craptastic 737s and Embraers for similar routes?

I'm pretty sure the green line over Qatar was a line showing the direction of Mecca for prayer purposes.

@Ben -- the answer to your question lies within 3 factors: prestige, demand, and frequency.

Airlines here in the US see value within the frequency of service. As a result, airlines tend to have multiple "banks" of departures from hubs to maximize connections and to make the time to get from point A to point B via point C as seamless as possible with as many different combinations as possible to allow the customer to choose. If, for example, Delta wanted a route between LAX and HNL, they could if they so chose put 3 777s on the route. Instead, they have 5-6 737s to ensure both that LA-originating passengers have options on when they wish to leave and so that people connecting through LA have a choice of when they'd like to connect, their aircraft type, price, etc. As a result, you see many frequencies of aircraft on a route rather than one large frequency. The same applies to smaller aircraft -- why fly 2 A320s when you could fly 5 E175s, which connected to 4x the number of cities?

Next comes demand -- some routes obviously have more demand than others. United, for example, operates domestic 777s from SFO-HNL because they have the demand for it, with every flight departing (nearly) full to maximize possible revenue and the number of seats they carry. It wouldn't be convenient for UA to fly 14 737s/day from SFO-HNL, so instead they use 6-8 777s to carry the same capacity. High-frequency shuttle routes like those in Japan and Korea sustain large aircraft because it's the only way that an airline can carry so many people without having flights every 10 minutes or so.

And lastly, prestige. On very important routes (like JFK-LAX), some airlines use widebody equipment simply because the hard product is worth it. If DL so wanted to, they could send over a dozen 737s on LAX-JFK, but because of the premium people are willing to pay and the need for a better product on such a route, Delta chooses to put internationally-configured large aircraft on routes due to their product. The same applies on routes to very large or important cities like London, Paris, etc., which can be seen by airlines like EY sending the A380.

Of course, other factors impact what aircraft is put on a route. For example, there's the downtime between flights. Rather than have a plane sit on the tarmac, airlines would rather have them fly short routes to make some money rather than cost money to sit idle. In the US, positioning flights from one airport to another can also facilitate the use of wide-body aircraft on short routes, such as the 777 that DL uses from ATL-LAX so the plane can continue to SYD.

Kibbeh

Please, please, please stop telling us the nationality of the crew on the airplane.

Did you ask those two Filipino flight attendant about their sexual orientation? Any missing organs? Deceased parents or children.

What a hypocrite you are, Benjamin.

@WilliamC

Are you okay...?

@WilliamC- i feel the same.
The crew comes from planet Earth. Just like the passengers.
I'd rather be interested in what languages do they speak.

Thank you for the review, Ben ! First time i heard about date juice 🙂

I believe that the beef pastry is called "Farmoza" (فرموزة). It originated in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It was popularized in the Hejaz region of the Arabian Gulf and the Levant.

Ben - how do you find out if it's a boeing 777-300ER with newest seating flying your route?
If I would like to know my type of plane flying from Jeddah to Jakarta in december consists of the new first class suites, how can I find out?

Thanks!