Introduction: An Orient Express Adventure Via Africa

Welcome to my next trip report series, covering a trip that I recently wrapped up, which will include reviews of flights and a cruise. This will be a relatively short series, since the trip didn’t last that long, and had a specific purpose. However, as usual, I tried to take an unconventional routing to get to and from the destination, so I could review new experiences.

You can expect reviews of Air Algerie and Royal Air Maroc business class, as well as a review of Orient Express Sailing Yachts, which is Orient Express’ new cruising venture. In this post I’d like to share a basic outline of the trip, and then I’ll have individual review installments in the near future.

More from OMAAT Lol: Beond Airlines & Air Cairo Plan All-Business Class Carrier In Egypt Read more

The reason for this trip was to take a cruise

The primary reason for this trip was simple, and it was to take a cruise with Orient Express Sailing Yachts. It’s a fascinating time for the luxury cruising industry, and in particular, the increasing number of new lines associated with existing luxury hospitality brands.

Prior to this year, I hadn’t taken a cruise with any cruise line since I was a child, so I’ve been curious to check this all out. At the beginning of the year, I reviewed Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, which was surprisingly lovely, and a very nice reintroduction to cruising.

Then over the summer, I reviewed Four Seasons Yachts, which was definitely upmarket, but had some growing pains.

The newest entrant into this market is Orient Express Sailing Yachts, and arguably it takes luxury cruising to a new level, so you can expect a full review of the experience. Full disclosure — Ford was invited on the sailing (so traveled as a guest of Orient Express) and I tagged along. I’ll still review the experience objectively, of course, but I’ll say upfront that Orient Express simply nailed it, and this matched the feedback Ford has received from clients who have sailed with the company.

Anyway, we sailed with Orient Express Sailing Yachts on a four night journey that started in Marseille, France, and ended in Malaga, Spain, so we needed to position to and from there.

The airlines I flew on this trip

I’m of course always looking for an interesting airline angle when I travel long haul, since my goal is always to try as many new airline products as possible. So rather than flying to Marseille and from Malaga on the “typical” airlines (Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, etc.), I tried to see if I could instead check some airlines off my list that I’ve been wanting to try. I accomplished that, and below is what my routing looked like.

While I sent Ford direct, I booked a four segment routing for myself, spread across three different tickets.

I had heard a lot about Air Algerie over the years (and not in a good way!), so I decided I finally had to give the carrier a try. Air Algerie typically has very high business class fares, despite the carrier’s lackluster product.

However, I found one decent fare on the carrier’s only route from North America, from Montreal (YUL) to Algiers (ALG) to Tunis (TUN). Okay, that doesn’t start where I’d like to start, and it doesn’t end where I’d like to end, but that has never stopped me if the price is right. 😉

This included a flight in Air Algerie’s Airbus A330-900neo business class across the Atlantic, and then a connecting flight in Avion Express’ Airbus A320neo business class for the short hop in Africa (this was a wet leased flight operated on behalf of Air Algerie). So I booked the following in business class for $1,171 in cash:

10/03 AH2701 Montreal to Algiers departing 4:10PM arriving 5:00AM (+1 day)
10/04 AH4000 Algiers to Tunis departing 7:10AM arriving 8:30AM

From there, I of course had to get from Tunis to Marseille (MRS), so I had booked Tunisair’s A320 business class for $270, with the following schedule:

10/04 TU902 Tunis to Marseille departing 1:05PM arriving 3:40PM

Unfortunately I ended up being downgraded shortly before departure due to an aircraft swap. That’s because the flight was swapped to a wet leased Fly2Sky Airbus A320, and I guess they don’t offer business class on those planes. I’m still waiting on any sort of a refund.

Suffice it to say that the outbound wasn’t that smooth, between Air Algerie just royally sucking, and Tunisair downgrading me. I’m happy I had the experience, though!

I should also mention that I had to position to Montreal, so I did that in Air Canada Rouge economy, and flew the following for 11,500 avianca lifemiles plus $54 in taxes & fees:

10/04 AC1651 Miami to Montreal departing 7:55AM arriving 11:28AM

The return portion of our trip was a little more straightforward. Our priority was to get home the same day as our cruise arrived, since we wanted to minimize time away from our kids, and had a family event the next day. So we booked the one routing that would best get us home the same day, which was on Royal Air Maroc, from Malaga (AGP) to Casablanca (CMN) to Miami (MIA), with the first flight in Royal Air Maroc’s Boeing 737-800 business class, and the second flight in Royal Air Maroc’s Boeing 787-8 business class.

I booked one ticket using 57,500 American AAdvantage miles plus $85.72 in taxes & fees, while the other ticket was booked with cash, at the cost of $1,620, with the following itinerary:

10/09 AT989 Malaga to Casablanca departing 2:15PM arriving 1:30PM
10/09 AT204 Casablanca to Miami departing 3:00PM arriving 7:45PM

Obviously paying cash for a ticket wasn’t ideal, but that still ended up being less out of pocket than flying British Airways business class through London on awards, factoring in the carrier surcharges.

The hotel we stayed at on this trip

On this trip, we just had a single hotel night ahead of our cruise in Marseille (in order to build in a buffer), and we decided to stay at the Hôtel Dieu Intercontinental Marseille. I booked this using an IHG free night award, and it cost 60,000 points before applying the award, so I just had to redeem the difference in points.

I had intended to review the hotel, but I have to apologize, it just didn’t end up working out (since I pride myself in thoroughly reviewing hotels). To be honest, I was dead tired from the journey over, and then we had some drama to deal with back at home most of the afternoon. Then the next morning I prioritized sleeping in, as I was just getting over a cold, rather than getting up at 5AM so I could photograph all parts of the hotel.

So I’m sorry about that. My conclusion is that the hotel has a central location, and from the outside you’d think it’s super charming, but the interior feels mismatched and rather uninspiring and generic.

Bottom line

We had an absolutely amazing time cruising with Orient Express Sailing Yachts, and I was blown away by the experience. What I was less impressed by was my flights to and from Europe, which I routed via Africa in both directions. Air Algerie was downright terrible, while Royal Air Maroc was just unnecessarily bad.

Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!