I boarded through door L1, where I was greeted by Ayman, the friendly cabin manager. He pointed me towards seat 3L, the window seat in the last row of the cabin on the right. While walking to my seat I noticed that seat 2H was broken. On my last flight there was also a broken…
Continue reading: Review: Saudia First Suite 777 Riyadh To Los Angeles
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@lucky - great review, food looked amazing! Would you take Rahmi over your chef in the Residence?
Is it just me or does 24R look really short? especially for a 777-300.
@patrick - 24R is the shortest LAX runway and the nose camera does make it look rather short but it's just shy of 9,000 ft (8,926 ft). Even for a large 777-300, that's plenty of room to safely land, especially at the end of a journey when it's really light on fuel.
Lovely review as always.
However, I really hope Lucky will consider giving us a more detailed account of his ground time in Uzbekistan. I had been looking forward to reading a post of his impressions.
Wow, so this would be 20 hours in economy when including the time in Jeddah. No wonder they were clapping!
The wifi pricing is ridiculus. The 1GB plan costs 200$, while 4x250MB cost 120$, and 10x100MB cost 100$.
@Lucky: You have had an international connection from Dubai at Riyadh. I so far hesitated connecting the KSA, because they don't issue visa and therefore, in case of an irregularity, you are stuck at the airport - which is not so pleasant, even if you have lounge access. Do you have any idea how the would deal with non-visa pax in case of irrops?
@ Lucky - So, obvious question: do you prefer the Lobster Thermidor on Saudia or on Singapore Airlines book the cook?
@Lucky you ordered lemonade instead of a date smoothie ? You're being over assumptious by claiming on 70% of your reviews these days that there are operational upgrades. That's not the case at all.
@ justin h -- How am I being "over assumptious?" That's what the crew told us.
@ Patrick -- In fairness I barely interacted with the chef I had in the Residence, as I almost exclusively interacted with the butler. So in terms of the interactions, I have to say that Rahmi was better than the Etihad chef.
@ Ric -- Yeah, I suspect the 1GB plan is really intended just for the first class passengers who get it for free. Agree that the pricing makes no sense.
@ Andy -- It's something I've wondered as well and even worried about a bit. Maybe someone else can chime in. The one decent thing at least is that there's a new transit hotel inside one of the lounges, which has private bedrooms. So worst case scenario I wouldn't mind spending 24 hours at the airport, if I had to.
@Francisco C I've been on 2 hr flights to Lebanon that end in clapping...it's just something that people here do sometimes 😛
Yay, Chef Rahmi!
I think you forgot your usual comments about how women are inferior citizens ... or was it how alcohol should be banned on flights? I seem to get your sharia law propaganda pieces mixed up.
"Interestingly I heard a lot of clapping from economy as we touched down."
No sh*t, their 20 hours of hell were finally over! hahaha 😉
You poor guy being stuck on an Islamist airline for all that time. Prayers!! What a joke. Can't get a drink or a wine and having bloody dates as an option. If flying a muslim airline and believe me would as a last resort at least Royal Brunei allow passengers to BYO on board so for a long flight a bottle of Bacardi helps and a nice red does well with dinner. Wouldn't fly Saudi on a free ticket.
@ Lucky The way you've written it, it sounds like you were still in bed for takeoff. Can I check whether this was so?
The food looks great. Just a note: you have "Saudia first class pizza" as the caption underneath the ice cream.
Thanks
@ Lucky
Just out of curiosity, which one was Ashley?
"I also ordered a mojito mocktail"
How was it? It is nice to see a dry airline put some effort into their drinks menu with mocktails.
Now you are broken in, do Emirates' longest. Dubai EK448 DXB10:05, AKL9:50 (15:45 hours). Then the killer return EK449 AKL20:40, DXB05:25. It's blocked at over 17 hours but averages about 16:30.
Great review. A chef on board prepping meals on demand to order would help me get over the alcohol ban.
Same seat and layout of GA... maybe one extra row of F... how do you compare GA and the service to this flight? GA in F from LHR were highly commendable from my end but it was, my firstborn first experience
Yep outstanding flight if you can handle the extreme censorship and don't want booze. Also, outstanding as long as you hide your sexual orientation or don't make jokes about the royal family both of which could result in you being put to death. Seriously no idea why the heck you would even consider setting foot in saudi arabia. They don't want you there and many would rather just kill you. I notice your air hostess is not from Saudi Arabia. The last I heard Saudi women are forbidden from working as an air hostess by the airlines (heck they are forbidden to even drive). Way to support women's rights with your choice of airline!
@Bill
Im a saudi arabian myself and i honestly hate to see women in saudi arabia being some sort of inferior citizens. But i heard that saudi arabia is considering to allow women to drive. Besides the law of women not driving is not from the religion its just a law from the country.
@lucky. Thanks a lot for this really nice review, i have just got awared of this review came out on 9th Sept. I was over busy with flying schedules.
@james Honestly, I am not really into socialy media follower due busy flying schedules and Family . I have got aware this review came out by my collegue so i got chance to replied to Ben Lucky. Probably I m the last person reading this what regards me. Anyhow thanks for you comment too.
Chef Rahmi is one of the great person i have ever met in early years, Glad to see him on the stage through By Ben Lucky and Matthew's page. He has so patient & extremely passion on his professional. I believe He had worked hard enough to gain culinary experience & knowledge while He had been working with celebrity and master chefs from all around the world. @massimobottura,Michealroux,Jamesmartin,jeanchristophenovelli,Claudiosadler there are many more to mentions. He has uses his wise personality as a communication key.
Which kind of miles did you used for this flight, or did you bought the ticket.
Saudia First Suite is crazy expensive.