AF / MEA ABZ to BEY and Return

chunk · Post by **chunk** » 29 Mar 2005, 14:58

Well - time for our holidays and we booked the cheapest possible tickets to Beirut. Of course about 20 seconds after I paid for them on Expedia the bomb went off killing ex-PM Hariri. Still - though tense - the airlines were still flying and I couldn't get a refund on insurance so we went anyways...figured that if it got really nasty we could just fly to Jordan or Egypt from there...anyway...

21/3 - ABZ - CDG AF operated by Regional - ERJ145 Dep 0630 - Arr - 0930

I am no great fan of this type - a flying smartie tube with engines strapped on but actually it wasn't too bad. Enough room for my big frame and didn;t take the bumps too badly. Serive was ok - coffee and a croissant. Only problem was a delay in taking off to about 0700 and therefore arriving late at 0945 - our connection was at 1025 so we figured we had no chance, especially when we saw the bus waiting for us where the plane parked! In addition - for some still unknown reason ABZ airport could not issue our boarding passes for the connection though they could put the bags through. They told us to collect the pass at the next gate....problem was you needed the pass to get through security at CDG! So we are sent ot the chaotic transfer desk - where there are queues everywhere. Eventually I left the queue and explained our situation. To be fair the Air France lady - she saw we now had bout 15 mins before scheduled dep so she ran off and got us boarding passes. Fast tracked through scurity and up to gate F53 where we were the last ones on yet another bus to catch our MEA A321 flight (AF codeshare). Not only did we make it - but AF staff told us our bags had too!

CDG - BEY MEA A321

The MEA flight was excellent. Very new aircraft - all seats with PTV's though we didn't use them. Crew all spoke at least 3 languages and were totally stunning as well as vvry friendly. We had exit seats which gave us great legroom and we took off on time amazingly. Drinks service followed to I sampled Al-Mazza Lebanese beer for the first time - not bad! The came the food - smoked salmon salad, tortellini in cheese sauce, dessert and cheese and crackers....pretty good for economy I'd say. We then sampled Lebanese wine with it - also excellent!

Beirut and Lebanon is one of the most wonderful places we have ever been - despite the current tension. I have never felt so safe in a city of that size and made so welcome by everyone. Hopefully the current 'wwarning shots' of small bombs will stop and the tourist sector can get back to growth as it was last year. We honestly didn;t want to leave..the hotel (Gefinor Rotana) was top drawer also as was the weather...about 23 each day.

BEY - CDG MEA A330-200 - 28/03/2005

We first sampled the MEA Cedar Lounge at BEY - it was actually ok - thanks to the KLM plat elite card!

The return was on the larger A330 but the service standard was just as good. Breakfast was served as a choice between Omlette or Knefe - a Lebanese speciality. I chose the Knefe and it was great. I then settled down to watch Collateral on the PTV - great movie. THe four hours just flew past though I notice the crew did tend to disappear for large periods this time!

Landed in CDG early after a smooth flight and had 3hrs in the business lounge to kill before connecting back. Met a friend coincidentally in the lounge so we killed time by drinking 1664 (all they had) until the ABZ flight was called!

AF - ERJ145 CDG - ABZ

This was much like the flight down with limited serivce but went very fast. Took 1.5 hrs rather than the scheduled 2 hrs so we landed back in ABZ ahead of shcedule - load was low - maybe 50% compared to 100% on the way down on the red- eye!

Overall - MEA were great and would fly on them any time. The AF flights were on the midget jet and quite short so not fair to comment on them. I should get a chance next week - suppesed to be on AF Biz class to Houston so will write up if it happens....

MSS658 · Post by **MSS658** » 29 Mar 2005, 16:24

nice report

Humberside · Post by **Humberside** » 29 Mar 2005, 19:21

Great report

Post by **sn26567** » 30 Mar 2005, 09:48

Vacation in Beirut? Only chunk can provide us with such stories

I am not at all surprised by your story of chaos at CDG, but what does surprise me is the efficiency of Air France staff who sorted out all the mess.

Glad you had great flights.

chunk · Post by **chunk** » 30 Mar 2005, 10:28

sn26567 wrote:Vacation in Beirut? Only chunk can provide us with such stories

Thats what a lot of people said when we went! Actually it was on the holiday programme here not long ago (before the recent problems) and I knew people that had been and raved bout it. You'd be surprised how many tourists were there!! It really was fantastic..