Last week I shared the details of the trip I most recently booked, allowing me to finally review China Eastern and Royal Air Maroc.
The trip was planned around a super cheap ~$620 business class fare Qatar Airways published between Colombo and Casablanca, which allowed booking on a combination of Qatar Airways and Royal Air Maroc. While Qatar Airways unarguably has a better product, reviewing Royal Air Maroc was a lot more tempting. Then to position myself in Colombo I booked China Eastern from Los Angeles to Shanghai to Colombo.
Now I realize this trip is completely irrational by normal people standards, but the primary reason I travel is to review airlines, so in my case it was quite logical. 😉
My friend Matthew from Live and Let’s Fly is going on this trip with me, so last week we also asked how we should get home. There are lots of cheap business class fares published out of Colombo, so there are many options to choose from. The most obvious option was to book Kuwait Airways, given that I’ve been wanting to review them for a long time, and they have really cheap business class fares.
However, Matthew encouraged us to get more creative than that, so we came up with three potential options for getting home, and had you guys chime in on which you most wanted to read about. Here are the poll results:
[poll id=”84″]
After you guys chimed in, we’ve finally decided on our routing — we’ll be flying from Colombo to Chicago on a combination of Kuwait Airways and Royal Jordanian.
Kuwait Airways has ~$450 business class fares between Colombo and Cairo, on their ancient, horrible A340 aircraft:
From there we’ll pick up a Royal Jordanian paid business class ticket rom Cairo to Chicago via Amman, given the very reasonable fare, which will even allow us to earn American AAdvantage miles:
I’m excited about this for a couple of reasons:
- Kuwait Airways’ A340s are way past their prime (if they even ever had a “prime). Kuwait’s 777s also have an old product, though it’s not quite as outdated. However, it seems like a bit of a waste to fly it on a longhaul, given that Kuwait is in the process of refreshing their fleet and introducing a new product (which still doesn’t look good, but…).
- I said I’d never fly Royal Jordanian again after my last experience with them, though I figured it’ll be good for me to totally overcome any fear of flying I had by taking them again. I’m also excited to review their new 787 business class product.
Royal Jordanian 787 business class
Now for my next crazy trip I’m thinking of going back to the Middle East, flying in one direction on EgyptAir, and in the other direction on Saudia. I’ll need a drink after that one…
So, did we make the right decision?
You're such a crazy, out there guy Ben!
Really hoped you would review Saudia since I wanted to see your opinion on it (I fly Saudia often since I'm Saudi and live in Riyadh which makes Saudia a no brainer for many trips) but a review on Jordanian 787 would also be great :D
I would recommend waiting till next year for saudia as they plan on opening up thier 'world class' airport then.
thought you weren't gonna fly Royal Jordanian ever again after that horrible turbulent flight ?
You might be better off having a few drinks BEFORE the EgyptAir / Saudia adventure. Anytime I get stuck flying long haul couch I make sure I'm sozzled.
That's awesome - looking forward to the trip report! I flew RJ's old business class round trip ORD-AMM. While the leg room was unparalled, it was basically a glorified recliner seat. The flights were half empty and the staff was inattentive.
@Lucky, How do you feel about mobile boarding passes? I travel mainly on intra-Europe routes and consider them a big time saver, especially because I rarely check any bags. Also they seem to accept them at just about every airport by now (at least in Europe). I'm curious if you use (or have used) them at all or if no, why? Do you think mobile boarding passes will be more widely used in the future or is there something about the check-in process you would miss?
@Jordan I think they still fly to New York but do not have pick up rights from London
You get to fly First Class section on CMB-KWI since no F is offered in this sector.
Didn't Kuwait stop flying from NYC because they don't allow Israelis, which violates regulations and various laws
Naughty Matthew! I can see his barely there smirk now..... "What?! So Ben cried and almost died....."
Forgot to add, we landed PVG just after 4am, international transfer desk did not open until 6:30am. Small waiting area, alternative is to go through customs and immigration but I didn't want chance it.
Looking forward to your take on China Eastern. I'm now in Singapore, I flew MU from JFK-PVG-SIN.
The 777-300 layout was nice but the seats are VERY HARD. Sitting was uncomfortable but I didn't mind sleeping as I prefer a hard mattress. Actually slept a good 8 of the 14hour flight. Lastly, the food was OK but portions are SMALL. The midflight Western snack was a small piece of toast with equally small piece...
Looking forward to your take on China Eastern. I'm now in Singapore, I flew MU from JFK-PVG-SIN.
The 777-300 layout was nice but the seats are VERY HARD. Sitting was uncomfortable but I didn't mind sleeping as I prefer a hard mattress. Actually slept a good 8 of the 14hour flight. Lastly, the food was OK but portions are SMALL. The midflight Western snack was a small piece of toast with equally small piece of smoked salmon..... Seriously? PVG-SIN was an older A330 not bad to 5 hr flight.
@Ben
Can you ask to board early and get a couple snaps of the economy on Royal Jordanians economy class too. I am from Chicago and want to visit my friend in Palestine. This is the most direct route and would most likely fly economy vs business.
No way would I get on an Egypt flight or SA
do china eastern first class!!!!! Is it possible to book it for this trip lmk!!
I think you will have a panic attack when you board the Royal Jordanian ;) Good luck!
Well, damn. I was really looking forward to a review of a long-haul flight on EgyptAir. Still, this Kuwait/Royal Jordanian routing does have the potential for providing some entertaining experiences.
Any idea as to what you'll be doing during the long layovers in CAI and AMM?
This sucks! I wanted a Saudia review so badly :(