Monthly Archives: February 2017

Black Caviar service on Lufthansa, Thai and Asiana. Which one is better? 

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Flying first class is exciting, especially if you get to enjoy delicious black caviar complimented by expensive champagne.

Lufthansa, Thai Airways and Asiana Airlines provide excellent first class service onboard, which includes  sturgeon black caviar service.

Lufthansa black caviar service

  • The only airline out of three that is serving black caviar as a portion from a bigger can, rather than as a personal jar in Thai and Asiana, therefore the portion can be smaller than a jar, or much more generous, depending on the flight attendant mood.
  • Recently introduced, as a cost reduction measurement, a gradual switch to some Chinese produced black caviar rather than authentic Beluga option
  • Great presentation with classic garnishes, including egg, onion and sour cream
  • Accompanied by Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle champagne

Thai Airways black caviar service

  • Standard portion of black caviar in a glass jar
  • The best presentation with a pearl plate and spoon
  • Boring and mismatching bread combination
  • Accompanied by Dom Perignon champagne


Asiana Airlines black caviar service

  • Same as Thai Airways, Asiana serves a personal glass jar of black caviar
  • Accompanied by tiny, tasty and cute blini (Russian pancakes)
  • Served with standard garnishes
  • Accompanied by Pol Roger’s Sir Winston Churchill champagne

Thai Airways Royal First Class review: Bangkok to Milan on TG940

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Thai Airways Royal First Class review

Thai Airways has several first class routes from Bangkok to Europe. They fly directly to London, Paris, Milan and Munich. While London and Paris routes get to enjoy new Thai first class cabin on A380, routes to Munich and Milan on Boeing 474 have an old cabin.

I was sceptical about taking an old cabin flight, irrespectively of the airline, it is usually worse experience than a new cabin. For sure, would not like to take old Lufthansa First Class cabin.

Thai first class flight came as a pleasant surprise after not so impressive Thai Royal First lounge in Bangkok.

 

Cabin overview

As expected, the cabin was looking old. Very old. The oldest one so far. Let me tell you, it was older than I am and it didn’t even have a wall between First Class and Business Class, it was only a curtain separator.

 

My power outlet refused to work during entire flight, so had no way of charging my phone. Thanks to Xiaomi powerbank bought in Malaysia to keep it working.

Thai Royal First cabin on 747 is located on the lower deck, meaning you have boring wardrobe in front of you to stare at during 10-12 hours of flying. It is a common issue for any airline using lower deck for first class. Yes, it’s more spacious area, but damn the wardrobe is boring, even if you put some screensaver on it.
Surely the seat transforms into a flat bed (you can build your own with Sleep Essentials), which is quite comfortable but not as  much as competitors renovated  first class seats. Also, Thai Royal First lacks an additional mattress under, which results in you feeling each single corner and pointy part of the seat.

Entertainment system


Have no idea about how good or bad Thai entertainment system is…

I’m always way too drunk to remember or even try to use it, when I’m flying first class on any Star Alliance flight.

Food and drinks served in Thai Royal First class

The most important part of any first class flight, is definitely what champagne is served on board. Thai Airlines Royal First does not disappoint here. They serve Dom Perignon Vintage 2006, and have it enough in stock, compared to Asiana First Class flight Seoul (ICN) to Frankfurt (FRA).


My next favourite part, black caviar. Delicious, luxurious, fishy and yammy.


It is served on a nice pearl plate and accompanied by what is called “traditional garnishes”. As Russian who knows what black caviar is, I can tell you that much: egg and sour cream are not traditional black caviar garnishes. Either eat it on a piece or bread, or better blini, or just straight up. Do not destroy poor delicious black caviar by mixing it all together with onion, sour cream, egg and lemon juice. You destroy all the flavour!


Amuse bouche is nothing to remember. Some nuts, some pate on a piece of bread and a wrap with coconut rice.


Appetizer was not my favourite either. Some meat slices with veggies. For my taste, it was more of a school lunch.
I ordered one of the Thai Royal First Class signature dishes, their butter lobster. I guess it is as good as you can expect from a lobster flying 10km above the ground.

As any seafood, especially so delicate as lobster, if it is not prepared fresh, it becomes rubbery and tasteless. It was a bit heavy and rubbery, but was eatable for airline meal. So for, Thai Airways Royal First has nothing on Asiana First Class on food side.


Desert… Fruits… Melon, pineapple, watermelon and dragonfruit. Nothing that is not available in Thailand on each corner.

Thai Royal First Amenity kit

I love airlines amenity kits, when they are good.


These tiny Rimowa luggage cases became iconic and always get frequent flyers excited! Some travellers even change their travel dates to catch a particular amenity kit, if it is offered seasonally.

Thai Royal First amenity kit is a similar to Lufthansa First Class Rimowa amenity kit, but only on the outside.


While Lufthansa First Class is offering superior La Prairie cosmetics and Swiss Smile toothpaste, Thai Airlines Royal First settles for some cheap Monteil creams and unknown dental supplements.

Service:

After several travels to Thailand with Thai economy class and generally annoying experience with endless tuk tuk, massage and ping pong offers, Thai First Class service was a pleasant surprise. The flight attendants were very professional, attentive and yet not overwhelming. They were always there to serve another glass of Dom Peringon and fix anything needed during the flight.

Overall:

Thai Airways Royal First definitely has a room for improvement, starting with Royal First Lounge in Bangkok and putting more effort in amenity kit products.

Even though Dom Perignon is a great champagne option, the wine list could be improved, as none of offered wines were tasting particularly good.

Food is simply good enough, not as great as Asiana First Class Bibimbap, but definitely not lagging behind Lufthansa and ANA.

Fuego at Troika Sky Dining review- latin american disasterious food in Kuala Lumpur

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Fuego by Troika Sky Dining

Is one out of three high class restaurants currently present in Kuala Lumpur.

It’s advertised as Latin American fusion cuisine complemented by a stunning overview of Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur.

But is it really that good as it’s TripAdvisor reviews are saying?

It was my second New Year trip to Kuala Lumpur, one or my most beloved cities in Asia. And as much as I love KL, I always find it extremely hard to find a decent restaurant there. Tried everything from Hyatt rooftop restaurant, which was not good whatsoever, to small food trucks in the middle of the city, I have decided to book a table at Fuego just a few days before New Year celebration.

Arriving on time to the restaurant, the table was not ready. I personally believe it’s a trick to sell additional drinks in a tiny bar before the restaurant, as everyone was escorted to the bar before entering restaurant.
The drinks in the bar were quite good, but priced ridiculously for Malaysia.

Anyways, after a drink our table became all prepared and available so we followed the host to it.

The immediate disappointment came from the fact that promised spectacular view on Petronas Towers is blocked by a new sky scrapper construction. So we can cross that one out.

We were offered a wine list and food menu.

We decided to try Misha’s vineyard wine, simply because of it’s name. It was not the most expensive wine, but definitely not the cheapest on the menu either.

Misha’s vine from New Zealand was not appealing to my taste, but the biggest issue with it was that the waiter refused to change it. He brought a bottle, showed it to us, poured some wine in a glass and asked to try. When I said I really don’t like it and could we please change it, the answer was simply “NO! You ordered it”.

So if the restaurant refuses to change wine in case you don’t like it, why do they bother with all that trying it? Just bring a bottle, serve it and run away before your clients try it.

In a place that claims to be one of the higher class places in the city, wine policy of Fuego is definitely poor.

Appertizer:


Main dish


Lufthansa First Class lounge Munich MUC airport

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Lufthansa’s First Class Lounge (FCL) in Munich (MUC) airport is considered to be ‘creme de la creme’ of the first class lounges all over the globe in Star Alliance network. There are not many airlines who manage to provide such top notch experience as Lufthansa in their first class lounges in Munich (MUC) and Frankfurt (FRA), perhaps Singapore Airlines and ANA airlines, the rest fades away like United Airlines with plastic wrapped sandwiches and paper cups.

It starts with the efficient, personal, yet not annoying service, continues with a great selection of food, and finished with a great selection of drinks and beverages.

My most recent visit to Lufthansa First Class Lounge was on December 26th 2016, and they had really cute Christmas decoration in the lounge.

Check the video to get a quick overview of the lounge.

Here is the drinks and food menu

SAS EuroBonus Amex Classic or MasterCard credit card, which one is better?

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SAS Scandinavian Airlines is currently offering two similar EuroBonus co-branded credit card: SAS EuroBonus American Express Classic Credit Card and SAS EuroBonus World MasterCard. Both cards cost the same and have a flat rate of extra points accumulation: 10 points per 1 euro spent.

Here is a brief comparison of both SAS EuroBonus American Express Classic Credit Card and SAS EuroBonus World MasterCard that would help you to choose the best option.

SAS EuroBonus MasterCard – more points on daily shopping

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SAS Scandinavian Airlines is offering two options for co-branded credit cards. First option is SAS EuroBonus American Express, which is a great offer for travel lovers and points freaks.

But SAS EuroBonus Amex has two obvious cons, it is expensive and not accepted in most of the places.

As a great backup option, SAS is offering SAS EuroBonus Mastercard, which is also connected to EuroBonus account and would accumulate additional EuroBonus extra points on each purchase in the places where MasterCard is accepted.

When you sign up, SAS would reward you with 4000 introduction extra points if you make a purchase within 30 days after receiving credit card.

This SAS EuroBonus credit card has a flat earning rate of 10 points per 100 SEK spent, or simply 1 EuroBonus point for each euro spent. It is not as good as American Express Elite and Premium cards, but it costs only 20 euros first year, and 40 euros service charge next years.

You can apply for the card at SAS EuroBonus World MasterCard homepage .

Remember, that you need Swedish Social Security number in order to apply.

Start paying with your EuroBonus MasterCard as soon as you get it and in all places where American Express is not accepted in Scandinavia and worldwide.

SAS Enjoy x2 points private offer

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Following the 25th anniversary EuroBonus points bargain offer, SAS sent out email to all Gold and Diamond members, which includes a personal link to Enjoy x2 Points sign-up.

You can sign up for  double the points offer before 1st of March.  You would receive x2 EuroBonus points on all SAS travels between 6th March and 10th April 2017.

Note:

  • Double points received are EuroBonus Extra points, which are not counting towards status qualification.
  • Only reservations made after signing up and made on SAS webpage would get double points. Previous reservations do not qualify.

It’s a very generous offer, especially if you have SAS long haul flight in Business Class.  If you have a business class trip already booked within those dates, you might consider cancelling it and rebooking after signing for x2 points offer. 20+k points are very handy.

SAS EuroBonus Points Bargain offer for Gold and Diamond statuses

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Celebrating Scandinavian Airlines frequent flyer program EuroBonus turning 25 years, there are some nice points bargain deals to fly with SAS within Europe and Scandinavia, but only if you have EuroBonus Gold or Diamond status.

Travelling in SAS Go starts from as low as 5000 EuroBonus points and within continental Europe from 35 000 points, which is a nice points redemption.

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New Swiss Airlines Bombardier CS100 series

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Given that it was an economy 55 minutes flight from Zurich to Rome on Swiss Airlines flight 1732, I would have never written a single word about it.

But! It was a brand new Bombardier CS100 series aircraft, which had a stunning cabin! Currently, everyone is praising Dreamliner (which still has not learned how to get airborn, given the endless engine problems) and A350, which is actually quite nice.

But if you live in Europe, where the longest flight is usually less than 3-4 hours, you will not experience A340, A350, B777, B747 and A380… The maximum you can expect is A321/B373, which are not that impressive at all.

Swiss Airlines brand new Bombardier CS100 is something that makes intra-EU travel fun again! They have one of a kind seats, which some might find insanely annoying, but if you consider it is 1 hour flight, you might find a reasoning to enjoy more foot room rather than space for your iPad or laptop. It is also giving a luxurious feel by using leather, stitched leather headpieces and stainless steel (or some metal) in front of you.

It looks neat, cool, new, fresh, fancy and rich.

Thumbs up for Swiss Airlines new Bombardier CS100, which they currently have 6 in operation and 8 more to come on order!