Riyadh Air is one of the most ambitious and well funded airline startups we’ve seen in a long time, and the airline expects to launch operations in the coming weeks. The company has already revealed many details of its inflight experience, and has now given us a good sense of what we can expect on…
Continue reading: Riyadh Air Unveils Flagship Hafawa Lounge Riyadh, Ahead Of Launch
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I don’t drink anymore but in my early 20s a non alcoholic lounge would have been a complete non starter.
I'm guessing that the average business class passenger's age is rather higher, though?
Now we just have to see when the airline actually launches operations, because that’s kind of a big detail
Hopefully, it'd take less than Allegris 😛
Airline won't survive without alcohol, unless they are significantly cheaper in fare than me3, if the business class seat riyadh charges is same as qsuite, why choose the no alcohol option for those who drink at all
@ Luke -- While we'll see how it plays out, keep in mind that the claim is that Riyadh Air primarily wants to serve traffic to and from Saudi Arabia, rather than connecting traffic between other regions. Saudi Arabia has a much bigger population than the UAE, Qatar, etc.
@ Mike -- They just announced that they're actually launching in just a few weeks, but in a quirky way:
https://onemileatatime.com/news/riyadh-air-london-flights/
Not sure about other markets but ages 35-54 drink more than other in the UK. Individuals may have stopped drinking compared to their youth but there's still a large bulk of people for whom it is an important part of their relaxing ritual.
"When it comes to eating and drinking, there’s no shortage of options."
I can think of a few.
Come for the mocktails, stay for the hijabs.
Delta customers sure are in for a fun surprise if they think they're flying to an equivalent DOH or DXB.
Duh.. unless you’re an alcoholic. The raisin d’etre of an airline is not its wine selection. To add, alcohol doesn’t taste the same at altitude and negatively affected people faster than it does on land.
Yeah but a lot of ME3 premium traffic travels from/to Saudi Arabia. Some Saudi officials have been vocal enough to complain about this. We will see how much of that traffic would rather have a dry direct flight on Riyadh or a connecting "boozey" flight on ME3 or a direct flight on almost any other carrier serving RUH...
Without alcohol, what really differentiates this new airline from pre-existing Saudia which already has pretty decent hard products in premium cabins
are you actually this bored Fake Julie ?
jesus. Tim Dunn? is your life this boring to hijack other usernames like this? how can anyone be this lame and embarrassing to themselves?
--Real Julie (as usual... with my usual delta shade)
this person that can't seem to find their own identify (tim - well known for fake usernames), feel free to ask Ben to hop in with a request for which username is using the usual username and username.
Get a life, it's so tiring to have you impersonate me and act like it's not the case.
-- actual Real Julie
Ben,
you've done this with other guest users and blocked access to the username except from the actual email that started the account. You know who the original Julie username/email is and who the other one is. Do you mind blocking this person? We all have a fun time on this site but it's a lot when this Julie (Tim) keeps trying to use other usernames to harass others.
--Julie
sweetie, all you have to do is register your account.
Playing guest vs. guest is not how it works.
we're waiting for the "I forgot my meds" post
The lack of self-awareness to not realize that YOU are the one harassing people.
One can always count on Tim Dunn to reinforce that he's the one behind using other names.
Thanks, "sweetie"
And then the fun follow up from him immediately after as Julie to just reinforce who the fake person is... no surprise. what a loser.
*sigh* I just want daylight and apron views
Agree. Seems very claustrophobic and a bit 1980s disco. I’d just prefer big windows and light looking at planes.
Just my opinion.
It’s amazing Ben and Nonstop Dan think their elite status will protect them in Saudi’s Arabia.
What’s amazing is how Ben talks about being gay and the intricacies on how that integrates with travel often except when he is gushing over how great Saudi Arabia is.
I wonder if he realizes how that totally invalidates any of his reviews. If you can’t even trust him to state the obvious, how can you trust anything he writes about?
@ BjornFree -- I'll address this in a post tomorrow, but this is a mischaracterization. I'm not "gushing over how great Saudi Arabia is." I'm reviewing one specific lounge and one specific flight. In the past, I spoke very poorly of Saudia, when their passenger experience was poor. Was I gushing over Saudi Arabia then? No. I was just objectively reviewing my experiences. Obviously I have my thoughts on the government, but I review airline products based on the quality they offer, and not based on their governments (even though I totally understand why that would impact whether or not people want to fly a certain airline).
I appreciate your response and am looking forward to your post tomorrow. You asked someone else” @ Jayson -- Pray tell, what laws did I violate in Saudi Arabia?”
Being gay is illegal.
@ BjornFree -- "Being gay" isn't illegal. Same sex sexual activity is. To be clear, I'm not justifying Saudi Arabia's laws or doing PR for the country, but I'm just explaining that I didn't violate any laws in Saudi Arabia, since that's what the accusation was.
Surely being gay, is a law-violation in itself ;in this awful country. After years of banning infidel tourists; the Government and Royals are plowing billions, trying to make Saudi into a tourist friendly destination. But this still remains incompatible to the country's fundamental strict theocratic nature.
Looks stunning but rather ‚dark‘. No daylight? Is the lounge also in the lower basement level? All I see are walls.
Looks stunning but rather ‚dark‘. No daylight? Is the lounge also in the lower basement level? All I see are walls.
Looks stunning but rather ‚dark‘. No daylight? Is the lounge also in the lower basement level? All I see are walls.
I thought they managed some kind of “royal exemption” and that part of the reason for Riyadh Air’s existence as a brand separate from Saudi was that they planned to serve alcohol?
For a moment, all that dark red-ish/purple-ish furniture made me think of Qatar Airways...
It looks like the government building from Soylent Green. Which makes sense, as the Saudi government likes to cut people into little parts.
I was thinking it looks like a modern multimedia art gallery. But now you’ve mentioned Soylent Green I can see that too.
TBH I'm a little underwhelmed by the design. It is cool and flashy, but it doesn't seem as elegant and beautiful as Cathay or Qatar.
Ben, the lounge was designed by Yabu Pushelberg, the same designers at the original EDITION hotels, among other 5-start hotels.
Was there a play area for kids? Saudia's lounge in RUH is decent, not really up to the same standard as their Gulf rivals, but it has a fantastic play area for kids which really makes a difference when travelling with the family. And makes the rest of the lounge more peaceful and calm, as they're not bored and causing mayhem in the main areas.
Hopefully not. Lounges should not be day care centres. It’s amazing that people with very small children seem to have no concept that you pay to be in a quiet place of tranquility and then you’ve got the two-year-old running around screaming because they are so selfish sorry hopefully there’s no play area for young children.
That's exactly why great lounges should have play areas, keep the noise in a segregated area. If they're entertained they're not throwing tantrums and then they sleep better once on the plane.
@ Paul -- Yep, there was a play area for kids, and I'll have pictures of it in the full review. 🙂
Not a single window.
It’s quite obvious when someone sells out.
@ BjornFree -- a) There are windows, though not many b) when most flights depart in the middle of the night, natural light isn't such a big deal c) this is only a preview post, and not the full review d) there are plenty of widely well regarded lounges with very few windows, like the Al Safwa and Al Mourjan Lounge (or maybe you're going to argue those aren't good lounges?)
True, the AS and AM (not garden though) does also not get a lot of windows or natural daylight. But because of the high ceilings you don't get the same feeling of dark dungeons that some of the pictures here do convey.
It seems like the Qatar first class lounge is nicer? Especially given the alcohol selection. Same with Emirates lounge even if it's not super nice the alcohol is quite top tier and you can find a quiet place given the size, even if it isn't modern.
Dry lounge. Dry airline. Hard pass.
Good to see the a la carte, people are tired of buffet slop. No one wants to eat reheated piles of dog chow en masse.
I'm just here for the comments
this is very impressive but the extensive investment in the lounge makes me feel riyadh air is going to be in the existing terminals at RUH for a while despite their rapid growth, which is certainly unfortunate. they're not the worst, but it reminds me of the less-than-ideal situation at AUH back in the day before terminal A opened, with a bunch of mediocre and aging small terminals stressed by transfer passengers they were not designed for
Looks like a lot of stark, wasted space and as clinical as the EK first lounge in Dubai which also has the worst shower rooms I have ever used.
All good but no booze is a huge downer