Monday, July 28, 2008

Trip Report

I'm back in the States after nearly three weeks in Europe. I flew over in Business Class on US Airways and return on TAP Portugal and US Airways. I'll add a few comments about the return later on, but the highlight was the outbound on US Airway's fairly new 767 product.

US Airways #742
PHL (6:20 PM) - BCN (8:25 AM +1)
Monday, July 7

The trip started with a very typical US Airways experience. As we were relaxing in the US Airways lounge we noticed on the board that our flight had been delayed. There was a mechanical on the old 767. No big deal, the lounge staff told us they'd keep an eye on it and let us know when we should head down for boarding. So after about 90-120 minutes we got the word and headed down to board. It turned out the staff wasn't really paying attention and my wife and I boarded as they were closing the door, nearly missing the flight. Classic.

Once on board, though, I was impressed with the product. I've been spoiled by Eos for the past couple years, but this product definitely served me well. I even got a good nights sleep.

The service began with with olives and a wonderful “make-your-own” salad. I had the mahi mahi entrĂ©e and it was subpar. The fish was fine but it was incredibly dry with no real sauce to spice it up. I ended up dumping balsamic on it.

The personal entertainment device worked well enough, but the movie selections were lacking both in quantity and quality.

However, I was sleepy after dinner and I pushed the sleep button on the seat. These seats are lie flat angled seats so for a while you feel like your falling down the seat. But, eventually I got very, very comfortable. I'm only 5'10, so the seat fit me well. However, I'd imagine it would start getting uncomfortable for anyone over 6'0 ft. By the time we arrive in Barcelona, I was fully rested and ready to go to breakfast at Barcelona's famous Boqueria (I had octopus, pictured below).




No comments: