BRU-HER-BRU (with FQ and DE)

[Air_Lac]

On 1 July 2004 we departed from Brussels for our summer vacation to Crete:

The flight outbound was:
Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium)
FQ4512
Airbus A-320 (OO-TCI) (picture found on airliners.net: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/600760/M/ )

It was one of my/our most enjoyable flights. Check-in went quickly (we took Premium Class - for a relatively small additional amount youget dedicated check-in, seating in front of the aircraft, and taxi service to an from the hotel).
The service was very friendly, the breakfast was okay. We sat in rows 1 and 2.
Inflight movie :'Cheaper by the Dozen'.
Excellent informatin on the routing. Beautful weather on almost the entire flight.

Of course the flight was full.

The delivery of the luggage at HER took quite some time and it was rather hot (38°C!)

After a lovely 10 days in Crete (36°C to 38°C and a nice wind making these temperatures bearable) we returned to rainy Belgium:

The flight back was
Condor (in the Thomas Cook powered by Condor livery)
DE8977 (initially we were to fly FQ back, but the change was made only 1 week before departure).
B-767-300 D-ABUZ (see picture not by me: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/586489/M/
What a nice surprise to have a 767 on the way back. As we were almost the first to check-in we got seats in Condor's 'Comfort Class' - which proved to be very comfortable indeed (picture again not by me: http://www.airliners.net/open.file/356759/M/ ). I am not sure if all Premium Class passengers have been seated in the Comfort Class as it has only 24 seats.
HER airport has been quite chaotic with hundreds if not thousands of passengres crawling everywhere. We were quite happy and relieved when we had passed the security checks, where things got a little bit quieter.
Again the service was very good and friendly. No film but only some cartoons and Thomas Cook videos.
The channels were clearly aimed at German passengers, with German songs, German jokes, German kids channel. No on board shopping (the systems of Condor and Thomas Cook Airlines are for some strange reasons not or not yet compatible - I just wanted to buy a model aircraft.
The take-off and the landing was transmitted on to cabin screens.

We had a beautiful view of Athens and its airport and a bit later of Frankfurt and the airport. The flight back was +/- 20 minutes longer (less direct routing).

The flight was full again.

Catering, handling etc. on both flights is really performed by Lufthansa.


HER was intersting for spotting
on arrival: 767 China Airlines, 757 Sun d'Or, A321 Finnair old colours, 737-800 Malev (charter service), 737-800 Travel Service, A330 My Travel, A320 My Travel, 737-700 Transavia and a white MilMi 24 helicopter.

on return: A321 Livingstone, A320 swiss sun, A320 Condor (old livery, but Condor markings again), 737-300 Aegean, 737-400 Air One, 757 Dutch Bird, 757-300 Thomas Cook (powered by Condor) A320 Thomas Cook, A320 Volare Web, A320 Volare, 737-700 Transavia.


A nice experience...contrary to expectations. Often charters flights are not really what you are looking forward to. It was much better than any of the scheduled flights I had taken the last few years.

Air Lac

[liebensd]

Nice report Air Lac


Greetz,

Dave

[Avro]

Thanks for this very nice report Air_Lac.

Chris

[speedbird1]

Glad that you had a good time. All of my experiences of charter flights ahve been good too!

Emirates

[flyinghigh]

Very nice report Air Lac.
Hope your next charter flight will be to Thessaloniki (Chalkidiki is a really nice summer destination and SKG airport interesting spotting place during peak season).

[Robin_Bamps]

Very nice report Air_Lac. As Condor is one of my favourite airlines (I really loved their yellow livery they had just before the merger with Thomas Cook), I'm glad to hear that it's also a good airline in terms of service.

D-ABUZ is quite often operating flights for FQ in the last couple of weeks. I pictured the airframe on July 4 on rainy finals to runway 25R :

http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.cgi?230381

I still had one question for you Air_Lac... from which runway you departed at BRU to Crete, and on which runway you landed at BRU after your return flight to Belgium?

Regards, Robin Bamps.

[sn26567]

Nice report Air_Lac. You had a similar experience to mine when I flew to Lanzarote in Premium class (https://www.aviation24.be/modules.php?name ... pic&t=5131 and https://www.aviation24.be/modules.php?name ... pic&t=5132): FQ outbound, DE inbound). But you were lucky enough to sample the 767

Inflight movie has not changed in 2 months !

A few questions: on the return flight, was the crew entirely German (as imposed by regulations), with an additional Belgian purser for the French/Dutch announcements?

What about the meals? Flight time?

I did get inflight shopping on Condor, but the items on sale were very different from the FQ ones.

[Air_Lac]

Here are some answers on the questions:
@ sn26567: The crew was indeed entirely German. all announcements were made in French, English and German. The security announcements were also made in Dutch (video). Inflight entertainment as I said English/German - except for the Thomas Cook Video which was in French and possibly in Dutch - I did not check.
For meals, it was a warm meal (choice between chicken or pasta). It was okay, there was butter and cheese but no bread. (On the first flight - just cold breakfats, with croissants though).
Flight time outbound: 3h01, inbound 3h18

@ Robin_Bamps:
Runways outbound: BRU 25R / HER 27
Runways inbound: HER 27 (nice view of Heraklion) / BRU 25R

Air_Lac

[sn26567]

Thanks, Air_lac

For meals, it was a warm meal (choice between chicken or pasta).

Apparently there is not a lot of variety on Thomas Cook. I had exactly the same. Twice!

[Robin_Bamps]

Thanks for the extra information Air_Lac.

Regards, Robin Bamps.

[B744skipper]

Very interesting report to read. Thanks for sharing.