A firsthand look at Royal Air Maroc's 787 business class on the Casablanca-Miami route: cramped top/bottom seats, solid food, and inconsistent service.
"Before someone yells at me, let me acknowledge that it’s a privilege to fly in a flat bed across an ocean, so of course this was better than economy."
Is this like the frequent flyer version of a land acknowledgement? Why is it a privilege? You're paying for it, whether in cash or miles.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- Sure, fair enough, but people stumble on reviews online, and some people aren't consistent readers. I acknowledge it would seem pretty tone deaf if I described a flat bed seat as "awful" without context, when a vast majority of people are traveling in crammed seats, where their knees are jammed up against the seat in front. So that comment is intended to at least acknowledge that.
So what were the wines? You always go into such extensive detail about just about everything except the wines. Seriously. You can't just say they provided a red wine or a white wine. Tell us what kind. Take a picture. You take a picture of everything else. At least show us the menu -- if there's a printed wine list.
As for service flow, ideally, they should take one drink order for pre-order. Then before serving the main take another drink order. Then after that drink arrives, serve the main.
@ FNT Delta Diamond -- This is the preview post. As you know, I always post the full menus and drink lists in the full reviews, and this will be no different.
But you didn't tell us who was on the top and who was on the bottom. 😉
@ Jack -- Lol. Well, Ford and I both prefer window seats, but when we travel together, I let him have the window seat, so he was in the "top" seat. No innuendo there, but hopefully answers your question. :p
While I wish this were a better overall product, I still think it’s pretty cool that RAM flies to MIA. (That top/bottom footwell configuration is wild.) How full was the flight would you say?
@ 1990_ -- Indeed, it's nice to have some nonstop flight to Africa! The flight seemed to be totally full, and every seat in business class was occupied.
Looking forward to it as we are on their flight to LAX in March next year and are interested in all the details!👍
These are not even that efficient considering most other airlines fit 18-20 seats in either 1-2-1 or very spacious 2-2-2 Aura lite seats without foot coffin.
As for service, I suspect it is to do with culture where premium passengers (assuming Govt officials and rich local people as well) are used to ask (read order) the crews so they don't offer service proactively to not be a bother unless called.
My favourite on their TATL flights is when the meal is served to each passenger, then come the drinks. You can easily finish your meal if you’re one of the first passengers served before you have a chance to see a drink (any drink, there’s not even water served directly with the meal). It’s almost designed to piss you off. And clearly it’s by design, it happened on every flight I was on.
Royal Air Maroc has actually just announced that they will refubrish the cabins of all those 787-8 next year, to bring them to the standards of their 787-9 cabin.
I'm taking this flight in a few weeks and trying to figure out which seat to select. Are the 2 seats in the middle also top/bottom?
@ Ross -- Correct, no climbing over the other person, but you're basically still cuddling.
Definitely will not be flying for the Meals or Business Class Seats.
This is why I'd fly Air France or Turkish when going to North Africa, parts of North Africa and even into Central Asia. Sure, there are some interesting national flag carriers that would be great to check off the box. But there's also a lot of mediocre to awful airlines too.
The craziest part is that they could have just installed regular Collins Aerospace Diamond seats at the same (or possibly even slightly higher) density. While not amazing, at least the possess proper separation from the neighboring seat in bed mode
@ travelingposer -- Yep! Collins Aerospace Diamond is even denser than this, so it's wild that they didn't go with that, if density was such an important consideration.
Exactly! And what's even more fascinating is that Biman Bangladesh fits another 6 seats of the Stelia Equinox 2D seats between doors 1 and 2 on their 787-8 (the same seats as RAM -- which has Equinox 3D seats -- but without the bi level footwell). Biman does have 3 less total seats, but that gains SIX business class seats.
And Air Europa has 4 more Equinox 2D seats (22 total) while maintaining a total seat count that is 18 higher than RAM.
Oh, and RAM, Biman, and Air Europa all have a 31" pitch in Y. Absolute incompetence!
Flew Air Maroc 787 business class earlier this year and this review is spot-on.
Are these seats worse than old British Airways seats?
That top-bottom seat is wild. Weirdly invasive with your neighbor unless you're traveling together. Not sure how anybody who'd been out in the world before would have picked those seats INTENTIONALLY for their long-haul fleet.
I have said this before. For a good night’s rest, nothing beats the old forward facing 2-2-2 biz seats one can find on the older TK, AI, LO. They may not be ideal for the window seat due to no direct aisle access, but space and sleep quality remain unmatched, especially compared to the new generation of seats with a cubby to place feet into.
These seats look downright horrible.
Interested to read the full review! Service sounds similar to my CAI-LAX flight recently. Food was supposed on demand, but never offered and when I asked, they seemed confused. The second meal was served mid flight, not towards the end, which was weird. Empty things left out for a long time. Dessert was never served. And then the mattress pad was also in the overhead bin. Found it after I took my nap haha. At least the seat was a lot better!
@Lucky Would it be all right if you also took photos of what your traveling partner had for his/her meals? For example, you mentioned that you and Ford each had a separate appetizer but you only took a photo for one of the appetizers. I also remember when you traveled with your dad and you would only take photos of what you ate but not ‘Lucky Senior’.
I assume he did and will post them in the full review. When travelling with Ford this is usually the case.
@ Stanley C -- Worry not, I have photos of everything, and will post that in the full review. 🙂
That food looks awful but having said that you are a contradiction in this review saying it is generally bad but then saying it was also fine so it is difficult to decide if you enjoyed it or not.
@ Jules0760 -- Maybe I'm missing something, but I believe I said the seat was awful, and everything else was fine, not bad, or more or less as expected, no?
I do wonder how much more pleasant this flight would have been had it been operated with a 787-9 instead. Like, if this gets a 2-star review from Lucky, would the 787-9 get a 3.5?
@ Aaron -- Seats definitely matter, and that would probably bump it up something like 1.5 points, for sure. I've done the carrier's 787-9 business class, and it's pleasant enough:
https://onemileatatime.com/royal-air-maroc-787-9-business-class/
"But there’s just zero sense of service ever being proactive. This seems to be a common thing in the region, so I just have to accept it. For example, not once would they offer to refill an empty glass, not once would they clear a dish or glass unless they were explicitly there to do that, not once did they proactively come through the cabin to see if anyone needed anything, etc."
TBH I just flew four sectors in biz on Qatar Airways and found exactly the same issue. Nice food and drink, polite and efficient FA's but zero proactivity. It was just like being on an assembly line, Not on one sector was I proactively offered a drink top up. Crew were also pretty invisible in between services yet quick to respond to the call bells some people were using.
Similar thoughts. With the exception of international first class, I don't remember having seen any "proactivitity" on any airline, for quite a long while. Yes, I fondly remember some Singapore Airline flights about 20 years ago, but even they are no longer "proactive" ...
Ironically, I find that the western carriers tend to be better at this although it is inconsistent. Maybe it is just the culture is a little different with western airlines encouraging their crew to think outside the box and be intuitive whereas the eastern mentality is a little more 'follow the laid down service standard to the letter'.
Consistency can sometimes be a double edged sword.
Best flight service experience I've ever had was on Qatar Airways. Have flown them in business about half a dozen times and it was the same fantastic level of service. Condor, oddly enough, was probably my second best experience insofar as service goes...wasn't expecting much from a discount business class product and was pleasantly surprised.
@ Duck_Ling -- I agree, it's totally inefficient, which is also what makes the product so poorly thought out.
Regarding Qatar Airways, that's totally fair, and you're right, not all airlines are proactive in business class. The single biggest failure, as I see it, is that they just keep letting glasses and plates stack up, even as you finish them, and even as they bring out new ones. At least on Qatar Airways they'll typically (hopefully?) remove your appetizer plate when your main course is brought out, right?
Qatar Airways flight attendants are in my opinion the most overworked in the industry, given the dine on demand concept, and how extensive the meal service and table presentation is.
QR crew do work hard, you are right.
But in fairness, I think they also have a fairly high crew:passenger ration, especially in business class so this kind of helps a lot. How these crew manage to organise themselves in the tiny 787/350 galleys though, I will never know.
As an IFM myself for a western (non US) carrier there are primarily two barriers to us upping our game: 1) we just do not have enough crew. 2) Even if we did have more crew the galley space on the more modern aircraft (eg 787/350) is just totally insufficient.