Guided by the Stars (Alliance)

[Scarlett]

MS749 CAI-ATH
B737-800 SU-GDZ
Dep: sched 1635 / actual 1648
Arr: sched 1835 / actual 1833

Boarding was via a bus gate, which meant a slower than normal process, but a little tour of the tarmac out to our aircraft.





There are plenty of negatives about MS, but one of them can’t be about their livery: I think it looks great.

We drove past these forlorn looking MS ERJs, covered in dust. Whilst taxiing we passed another regional jet graveyard. I guess domestic tourism has really stagnated during and post-pandemic.






Nacelles but no engines.

Our B737 had seen better days, but the J seats were proper recliners which reminded me of QF international J in the 80s/90s timeframe. No eurobusiness cheapskatery here. Plenty of leg room too, as I was in row two and the guy in front of me in row one was reclined when I boarded (and remained that way throughout - either the seat was broken or the crew didn’t care) but I could get in fine.



A full meal was served with two main choices: beef or fish, I had the former and it was a little tough on some pieces but tasty enough. Two bottles of water were already in the seat pocket in front. There was also an individual entertainment screen on the seat back in front but on mine it had a permanent distortion line through the image and the screen size was the same as when Virgin Blue were offering live TV early in their existence. Same credit card swipe slot on the bottom too. I think some modern phones have bigger screen real estate! Seats looked like they had lived a long life.


Crossing the Egyptian Mediterranean coast at Alexandria. This is the sort of land work the Singaporeans would be proud of.


This is why I like the window seat. This looks like an air mass in the style of a river, with two distinct riverbanks of cloud on either side. Was quite distinct seeing it real.


Anyone an expert at naming Greek islands? Our routing took us close enough that you could see plenty of the Greek islands and Türkiye in the background.

A bit of a circuitous routing to landing at ATH and then a short taxi and onto the gate a couple of minutes early. Pleasant flight and service.

 

[Scarlett]

The first question I had transferring at ATH was whether I needed to collect bags, even though they’d been tagged through to LIS. Wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to collect them to go through customs when first entering the EU. I checked with one customs staff member but even though I tried asking the question three times and emphasised the part about entering the EU, once she’d heard me say ‘collect bags’ as part of the question, she just kept telling me to go to the airline baggage agent.

Agent confirmed I collect them at LIS, so I followed the ‘connecting flights’ signs and that just took me to baggage claim, past check in and back through security with everyone else departing. Another walk though a shopping centre masquerading as an airport and I found the A3 Schengen area lounge: functional, but small and busy on a late afternoon weekday. I’d previously been in the non-Schengen lounge at this, A3’s home port, and found it excellent. I guess you could consider that one as their ‘international lounge’ and the one I was in for this trip as their ‘domestic lounge’ or standard QP. Pity the LH lounge next door wasn’t open as that may have been better.
Found a seat relatively easily, had some food and snacks and waited for my connecting A3 flight to LIS. This was the seventh lounge visited as part of this outbound trip, actually eighth as I visited two at BKK.

 

[Scarlett]

A3722 ATH-LIS
A321-200neo SX-NAA
Dep: sched 2115 / actual 2136
Arr: sched 2345 / actual 2335

Flight time 4 hours. The flight was completely full. There were four guys waiting around the gate clearly on standby and the agent was joking around with them and keeping them updated on their chances of getting on the flight. Other pax in the boarding line must have been from the same group and there was some banter in Greek going on. No J / status boarding or separate line, just join the back of the queues. I did see at least one of the standby group boarding, but not all of them.

Eurobusiness seating is the standard at A3 and on this aircraft they had the little table fitted onto the middle seat for use by aisle and window pax. Legroom was barely adequate and it did not feel in any way like a business class seat. PDB offered.

A hot meal was offered in J with two choices indicated on a menu. I had a chicken meal brought out to me, first in the J cabin, as I had apparently pre-ordered it. I don’t remember doing it when booking the ticket but must have.

The seat and lack of room to move about it in became annoying at the two hour mark and remained uncomfortable until arrival in LIS.


This is what the heel of the boot of Italy looks like at night.


Crossing overhead Barcelona.

Bags took far too long to come out at LIS (over 40 minutes) and again, the Star Alliance Priority tagged ones came out in the last 25%. My golf clubs took even longer to appear on the oversize baggage belt. So long in fact that I just made the last Metro at 0100, to get into the city and the hotel which Mrs and Mstr Scarlett had checked in to earlier in the afternoon.