Paris-Barhein
The rest of the flight went pretty much ok.
Once we had reached 10000ft, the flight attendant asked for my choice of meal (which you have to pick up from a list) : appetizers, main, cheese and dessert. I don’t remember what I picked, I wanted to eat fast and sleep. However, I felt hungry when there was a good food smell coming from first class. In Gulf Air they have the Sky Chef : there is an actual cook getting meals ready in a small kitchen in the plane. They also have a Sky Nanny : a dedicated flight attendant taking care of children during the flight.
Although having a chef looks to me as an excessive luxury, the Sky Nanny is a good idea. For children in the first place, as she must be trained to handle fears and expectations of the little ones onboard. For the parents of course, who can rest a little during a long haul flight. For the rest of the passengers, since you have less “baby generated noise”. It must be a tough job since you have to communicate with children speaking different languages, some of them you may not understand.
The meal takes forever… They set up your table with steel cutlery and serve you one dish after the other. Just like in a good restaurant. I had some wine with it, a Merlot from Bordeaux as I can remember. Not my favourite but good enough. The food, served in china, looked good and actually was good. You have a basket of different breads to choose from. I picked several of them but they were all dry and tasteless. I have not tried the many cheese offered. I haven’t tried the Cognac and other alcohols offered at the end of the meal. I had already put my seat in the bed position. The whole process took like an hour. One hour less to sleep…
I realized afterwards there was a fast meal served in 15 minutes available anytime during the flight. I should have taken that.
In the comfort of a horizontal seat with a fluffy blanket, I soon fell asleep. I woke up one hour before landing and was offered an ice cream (mango cream).
I expected the crew to be from Middle East but it was not. About half of them were, the rest was from Europe for what I can tell.
The rest of the flight was OK. I stopped in Barhein but had to rush to get the next plane (hopefully I went out first from the first airplane).
Once we had reached 10000ft, the flight attendant asked for my choice of meal (which you have to pick up from a list) : appetizers, main, cheese and dessert. I don’t remember what I picked, I wanted to eat fast and sleep. However, I felt hungry when there was a good food smell coming from first class. In Gulf Air they have the Sky Chef : there is an actual cook getting meals ready in a small kitchen in the plane. They also have a Sky Nanny : a dedicated flight attendant taking care of children during the flight.
Although having a chef looks to me as an excessive luxury, the Sky Nanny is a good idea. For children in the first place, as she must be trained to handle fears and expectations of the little ones onboard. For the parents of course, who can rest a little during a long haul flight. For the rest of the passengers, since you have less “baby generated noise”. It must be a tough job since you have to communicate with children speaking different languages, some of them you may not understand.
The meal takes forever… They set up your table with steel cutlery and serve you one dish after the other. Just like in a good restaurant. I had some wine with it, a Merlot from Bordeaux as I can remember. Not my favourite but good enough. The food, served in china, looked good and actually was good. You have a basket of different breads to choose from. I picked several of them but they were all dry and tasteless. I have not tried the many cheese offered. I haven’t tried the Cognac and other alcohols offered at the end of the meal. I had already put my seat in the bed position. The whole process took like an hour. One hour less to sleep…
I realized afterwards there was a fast meal served in 15 minutes available anytime during the flight. I should have taken that.
In the comfort of a horizontal seat with a fluffy blanket, I soon fell asleep. I woke up one hour before landing and was offered an ice cream (mango cream).
I expected the crew to be from Middle East but it was not. About half of them were, the rest was from Europe for what I can tell.
The rest of the flight was OK. I stopped in Barhein but had to rush to get the next plane (hopefully I went out first from the first airplane).
Barhein-Muscat
The second flight was running very late (more than 30min) because of a delayed flight with transferring passengers. It was an OK flight, there were many German in the business class. They were loud and demanded Champagne instead of the regular wine.
The second flight was running very late (more than 30min) because of a delayed flight with transferring passengers. It was an OK flight, there were many German in the business class. They were loud and demanded Champagne instead of the regular wine.
Arrival at Muscat
On arrival at Muscat airport, I had to pay the RO 6 visa fee. So I gave 15€ to the and they handed me back RO 1. Then I waited for about one hour to get through the immigration process. A Bristish Airways plane had just landed before us and I had to wait for all the tourists to go through. I was thinking that my priority handling of the luggage was useless now.
Eventually, I got my one month visa, got my luggage and went through customs. The hotel doorman was waiting for me with a sign. After waiting for another passenger, in vain, we headed to the hotel bus. It was midnight and I had been travelling for 16hours. When we stepped out the airport terminal, I was struck by the temperature. Despite the time of the day (or the night I should say), it was still about 30°C (86°F).
The good things of my trip : the personal care in Business, the horizontal seat providing good rest, the quality of food
The bad things : people in business think the world revolves around them, the lounge in Paris, the delay of the 2 flights.
Next message will probably be about my first days in Oman.
On arrival at Muscat airport, I had to pay the RO 6 visa fee. So I gave 15€ to the and they handed me back RO 1. Then I waited for about one hour to get through the immigration process. A Bristish Airways plane had just landed before us and I had to wait for all the tourists to go through. I was thinking that my priority handling of the luggage was useless now.
Eventually, I got my one month visa, got my luggage and went through customs. The hotel doorman was waiting for me with a sign. After waiting for another passenger, in vain, we headed to the hotel bus. It was midnight and I had been travelling for 16hours. When we stepped out the airport terminal, I was struck by the temperature. Despite the time of the day (or the night I should say), it was still about 30°C (86°F).
The good things of my trip : the personal care in Business, the horizontal seat providing good rest, the quality of food
The bad things : people in business think the world revolves around them, the lounge in Paris, the delay of the 2 flights.
Next message will probably be about my first days in Oman.
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