Is This The Dumbest Award I Could Possibly Book?

Published: January 1, 2016

I’m on a bit of a kick this week when it comes to booking flights on new airlines I want to review (as I explained in my post from earlier about the 16 airlines I want to review in 2016). It started with booking Hainan Airlines business class, and I followed it up by booking Air India first class and Finnair business class.

The ticket in Air India first class is routed from London to Delhi to San Francisco (as one does).

I’m still not sure exactly what I was thinking. Air India gets pretty terrible reviews, so one flight on them sounds pretty bad, let alone two. But hey, spending 30 hours on Air India will make an interesting story, if nothing else.

Well, that might only be the second most ridiculous routing I’m booking. I was just looking at award space through Air France’s FlyingBlue program for travel from London to Los Angeles. The intent was to fly Aeromexico business class through Mexico City, which is quite reasonably priced at just 62,500 miles one-way. And sure enough space opened up on the date I was looking at:

AF-Award-1

It’s sort of generous they let you route that way, though I doubt many people would go out of their way to fly Aeromexico between Europe and the US:

LHRMEXLAX

As it turns out that was only the second most ridiculous routing option the website was displaying. Are you ready for a routing which I can’t imagine anyone would voluntarily take? It appeared immediately below the two options I showed above.

Here we go, and viewer discretion is advised:

AF-Award-2

Yep, how would you like to fly from London to Los Angeles via Jeddah… with an eight hour layover where you can’t leave the airport without a visa… in Saudia business class?

LHRJEDLAX

Saudia-Business-Class-1

Saudia is a dry airline and doesn’t even have flat beds.

Saudia-Business-Class-2

Am I completely out of my mind for being extremely tempted to book this?

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Abdulaziz Guest

March 6, 2016, 2:25 am

Michael Haddad as worker in Saudi Arabia, you can choose any airlines you want but for sure you travel by Saudia as your work pay it for you, no your self. people here talking about the airlines and the route not about what you see in premium class ( ok we now know you travel in premium class).

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PM1 Platinum

January 3, 2016, 8:33 pm

Take one for the team Lucky! I wanted to fly their business class product a couple of years ago (SkyMiles redemption) and my wife wouldn't let me fly them or transit through Jeddah. I've been curious ever since!

Tim Guest

January 2, 2016, 12:53 pm

Lucky, you need to try to book this as TIJ-MEX-LHR! dreamliner lie-flat on the TIJ-MEX segment. Les you try the Cross Border Xpress ! we just positioned ourselves in CUN, flew CUN-MEX (23hr stop to add passport pages), enjoyed NYE in Mexico City, and then flew the Aeromexico dreamliner from MEX-TIJ so we could try the Cross Border Xpress. Priced as an awesome 1 way fare in business class, and awesome experience. Enjoyed two Aeromexico Salon Premier lounges. Email me directly if you want me to send you photos and a quick write-up.

Hiro Diamond

January 2, 2016, 7:03 am

Like Bgriff mentioned, there are full-flat Business Class seats on selected aircraft. However, I do disagree that B772 with 2-3-2 arranged seats not comfortable. I've been on it and even though it was big squishy it did get angled lie-flat, and I felt pretty comfortable (similar to Space Bed on old SQ aircraft). I think this will be a great trip. I found SV service pretty decent, and crews were polite. The only complaint, apart for being dry, is there were virtually no drink services and had to ask every time for a re-fill when needed (but then crews responded well). Food was great! I've had one of the best biryanis on plane. IFE selection was not bad either. What I'll not like about your itinerary, is that there will no place for a shower (I may be wrong). In 2014 when I made a transit through Riyadh, despite being a decent lounge, there was no shower booth. And Riyadh lounge is (was) supposed to be better quality than Jeddah one. Hope to see your report on SV experience!

W Gold

January 2, 2016, 5:04 am

Next time, you should fly Garuda between Tokyo and Amsterdam via Jakarta!

Is This The Dumbest Award I Could Possibly Book?

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