Here is another report on my experience with AZ. Again, I did not plan to make a report of this, but since I have some free time and things are still rather fresh in my memory, I am writing another one. Hope you will enjoy it.
Background: This flight was booked months in advance as early as June. I was going to Bulgaria to visit a long time friend whom I have not seen for nearly 5 years. When I booked this ticket, I thought it was an ok price. However, when the time came nearer and I checked around, I noticed that SN had a really good offer to use miles for this trip, only 5000 miles! and CSA had a cheaper deal via PRG. But, since my ticket was non-changable nothing could be done.
BRU-MXP
AZ 145: MD 80
Had to wake up really early about 0300 to walk about 1/2 hour to the next city to catch the first train to the airport
However, when I arrived at the train station, I discovered that I was 1/2 hour too early 
Anyway, waited and arrived at BRU a bit over 0600. Check-in desk at the AZ counters were already full of people (lots of people connecting through MXP to some place). Since I have status with SkyTeam, I could use the Biz counter. In front of me was an old Italian couple. They were speaking in Italian to the guy, but I guess I could make out what was happening, they were trying to check-in for the 0630 flight to FCO that morning! When it was told that the check-in for the flight was closed, I think they insisted that they were given the wrong information about the check-in counter. Later this guy told his other colleague that they said that they saw on the information board that the check-in counter was all the way at the Iberia counters.. 8O . They finally went to the ticket counter to solve their problems. Did feel pitiful for them.. Anyway, was checked-in fast and proceeded to the dreaded long distance haul to Terminal B. I thought that it would not be so bad at the security check, but gosh, it was long long lines.. luckily all the points were open, had to wait in line for less than 20 mins to be screened. Seems that todays flight was full in Y, but empty in C. Boarding was on-time. Had an emergency row assigned and I was one of the lucky one to have had the sit next to be blocked as it was full in Y. Sat next to this rather cute Dutch guy.. (knew he was Dutch due to his way of speaking Dutch, though I could be wrong
). Anyway, a rather uneventful flight. Again, no Alisnack box. Got just a small piece of cake and a drink. We landed on time. Before landing, this guy a few seats in front of me wanted to take some pictures as he took down his camera bag from overhead. However, his hopes were dashed caused as soon as the FA saw this, she sounded him about it. So, for those who are thinking that rules have changed on AZ, beware.Luckily we were parking at the airbridge, so no bussing. I think this was done because the majority of passengers had connecting flight, so this was rather time saving. Went directly to the security to go to non-Schengen terminal and gosh, again long lines at security check points. It did not help as at the same time the flight from AMS landed too (as I noticed lots of Dutch people, indicated from the shopping bags they were carrying..
). I think lots of them were going off to India, as there were loads of people Indian origins. However, lines moved rather fast and was in time for the boarding of my next flight to Sofia. This time was boarding via bussing. The lines again were long.. MXP-SOF
AZ 522
MD80
Since it was such a long line, I just stood aside first due to the the lines spilling into the stairways. There were flights departing to Morocco, to Atlanta (don't understand why they board with busses) and to Tunisia. After a while the my line started to move forward and I went into line since now there was space again. Noticed that most travelling were actually Bulgarians with just a handful of non-Bulgarians. This was a code-share flight with Bulgarian Air. Well, when it was my turn.. the machine spitted out my boarding pass.. and voila.. there was my upgrade to C class.
It was a good surprise since I was looking forward to checking out the service in Prima (though to be disappointed). Anyway, boarded the plane, got seat 3A. I was thinking that it would be full too in C, but turned out that there was just 7 of us in C. But I guess Y was completely full. My seat was already not in perfect order as the headrest would not stay where it was suppose to be, so I later changed seat a row behind. Seats were ok, wide but legroom was still a bit cramped, especially when the passenger in front reclines his seat. Reclination was a bit more compared to Y. Soon, an FA offered to hang out jackets. However, no pre-departure drinks or anything else offered. Anyway, departure was on time. Soon after take-off, we were offered warm towels (or rather semi-warm towels). I was thinking that we would be getting our meals soon.. but no, had to wait for another 20 mins or so for the meal service to start. I noticed that behind the curtains, drink/snack service had already started. On my way to the toilet, noticed that the inflight service manager was preparing the meal. Anyway, got the meal and it was rather disappointing meal, just two warm rolls, with a small plate of fruit and a small yoghurt. He did the service as if he was so tired.. offered no drinks except coffee or tea 8O . I requested for a white wine and he had to search for that..though this time we had some proper china for the food, but cutlery were still plastic. After serving, he just disappeared. He did not appear till later. I was thinking that he would do another round for coffee/tea, but no.. he just came to collect the trays. I requested for a cup of tea and it seemed liked I asked for the moon. He looked so reluctant to go back to get the tea. Anyway, after that no more service was done. No one walking to see if anyone wanted drinks or anything else.. I can't believe that anyone would pay so much for such service.. really bad. Is this normal for Prima service? Landed on time in Sofia airport. I sneakily took out my camera to catch a few shots of Sofia and the airport.
Downtown Sofia
Another view of Sofia
Sofia Airport
New Terminal: Opening Soon
Hemus Air Bae
Was bussed to the terminal. There were just a few counters opened for passport control. We were lucky as we landed ahead of a Austrian Airlines from Vienna. So, when they joined the line, it was really long. I read that this is a normal problem at the airport. To many flights land at the same time, but the amount of counters open are just too few. Since I had no baggage to collect, went directly out of the arrivals to be greeted by my friend.
After a few good days in Bulgaria with mixed weather, it was time to leave. This time my flight was SOF-FCO-MXP-BRU. Yeah, a bit mad, but i thought why not...
more take-off and AZ experience SOF-FCO
AZ 521
MD-80
Check-in was ok. I think the handling agents were from the airport authorities. However, they do not seem to honor the seat request properly. Sofia Airport is ok, small, but functional. One thing that I have not heard anywhere before was that they annouce the opening of counters for checking in and they also annouce which alliance an airlines belong too, eg: Lufthansa a member of Star Alliance flight to xxx or Air France member of SkyTeam flight to xxx. Nice touch. I did not dare take any photo of the airport since I do not know how sensitve they are to such things. It had only 6 gates, but a rather big variety of Duty-Free goods. Prices were also ok compared to downtown, so could be a way to save time.
Boarding was on time, though they really wait to fit as many passengers as possible into the busses before they leave. Boarded the MD80 and noticed that it was a rather light load today. I noticed that the check-in lady did not assign any seats in front to anyone, she just assigned seats from row 10 or so and packed everyone together.... I don't understand this? Anyway, enquired from the FA is it was possible to change seat to the front and was given the green light. Got 3 seats to myself. Later in flight people started moving themselves over the plane. Again, no AliSnack on this flight. Got a nice cherry pie. Slept most of the way since I was not feeling that well due to a sore throat
. FA's was rather cheery on this flight. They were handing out some questionnaire, which I saw later at the end of the flight when they were collecting it back. We landed earlier than scheduled. Again sneakily got a few shots after landing.Coastline of Italy
Rome Fiumicino
Air One
CSA going back home
Another Air One
We were parked at the airbridge, I thought that we would be going all the way via the airbridge, but turned out we had to go down through the side stairs down to a bus. Realized that we were parking at Terminal A (I think this would be the schengen zone), thus needed to be bussed to Terminal C (non-Schengen). Arrived and had to go through security check again.. hmm.. and they only opened one counter (later another one was opened). This was when a Thai Airways had just arrived from BKK (and I wonder if it was going to MAD). Line was moving slowly, but it did not matter for me since I had a long connection time. After that I thought of exploring Terminal C. So, tracked back and went to the the satellite of Terminal C via the Skytrain. The satellite was nice since it was new. Explored a bit of it and decided to go to Terminal B for my flight. Signage was rather terrible as I could not find the correct way to the Skytrain, so just went back down the same escalator I came up from earlier which was actually not right. But, got on the Skytrain and rode back to the main terminal. After we got down, there was this security guy that checked to make sure no one stayed onboard. This was to make sure that they had to go through security again since if the door opened from the other side, they could skip security check. Went through security and walked the length to passport control into Terminal B.
FCO-MXP
AZ 1048
Airbus 321
Boarding was suppose to start at 1740, but did not start until about 1830. The line was already snake-like long. There was no annoucement of why the delay everyone was just waiting. There were lots of AZ cabin personnels and other staff on this flight. Also some AZ express staff with a cute FO
. Anyway, this was a full full flight, both in C and Y. Though majority in C were AZ staff. For this segment, I managed to change my assigned seat to a seat nearer to the front.. which was good. (still do not understand why the check-in at Sofia gave me an original seat all the way to the back of the aircraft!). The captain told us that although we were slightly delayed, we would still make it on time in MXP (which was one big fat lie ) Safety demo was done via overhead screens. During the flight to MXP, there were some slight turbulence. FA's was ok, though one was rather rude. He bumped the cart into a passenger's leg and he did not even apologize, just smiled at him and continued on. Got a choice of sweet or salty biscuit. During the whole flight, I was actually getting rather worried as my next flight to BRU would board at 2000. We started decent at 1945 and by the time we arrived at the gate, it was 1950. I was totally freaked out.. there was another guy who later told an FA that his flight to MAN would be departing in 40 mins and he needed to still go through security and passport... 8O . The whole situation was made worst when those AZ staff in C started doing small talk during disembarkation. At this point, I was just losing my patience as I did not want to miss the flight. It was like eternity getting to the gate. Noticed on the monitors that it did not show boarding yet. Arrived at the gate and noticed that the flight was delayed for 20 mins.. Approached the lady manning the desk to enquire, she said she did not know why there was a delay.MXP-BRU
AZ 154
MD80
After catching back my breath, boarding started soon around 2020. Again, another bussing event. The line formed again another snake-like one. As usual, after the first load of bus was full, the wait for the second one was like eternity. There was this guy behind me who actually sweared so loud due to this (and he was in C, as I saw later). Anyway, got into the second bus later. On the way to the aircraft, we came across a whole row of Police and Cabinari going to the aircraft parked next to ours. Wonder what was that about. Anyway, it was a rather full flight again. Unlucky me did not check, but the silly check-in lady in Sofia assigned me a middle seat (though I requested for a window)
Anyway, the captain apologized for the delay, again without reason and said he will try his best to reduce the delay. FA's on this flight was ok. This time we got the famous AliSnack. Though it really sucked, the bread was nearly unedible.. dry and the pathetic piece of so called omelette was so small. There was also a small piece of Cherry pie and a sweet. I guess the pilot stepped on the gas during the whole flight as in the end, a delay of nearly 40 mins was reduced to only about 20 mins. I was of course glad since I did not want to miss my last train back to my place (or another 30 mins walked back home ). Overall AZ again was AZ. Nothing special nothing less. I guess with AZ it is a sort of love hate relation. I of course wish them all the best in their bad times.
Hope that this had been an enjoyable read. Thanks for reading.
for just a few €€ extra. Though for me, there are risks involved when I take flights that arrives BRU after 2200.