LOT flight LO 471 WAW -HEL

Departure: 16.50 (16.35)
Arrival: 19.20 (19.20)
Inflight service: Baguette a la LOT

Was great to be back in Warsaw. Had the opportunity to visit one of my absolute all-time favourite restaurants "Gessler Restauracje u Kucharzy". The restaurant is located in the old kitchen of Hotel Europejski. The fun part is that it's still the kitchen, but now it's also facilitating the dining area. I.e. you are eating among the chefs performing their duties. The food being served is a typical blend of traditional Polish dishes, in other words "nothing to write home about" - it's the atmosphere that makes it so unique. However, one dish they serve is something out of the extraordinary - The Beef Tartar. It's heavenly and divine...absolute top notch. If you go to Warsaw, a visit to u Kucharzy should be mandatory.

Picture: http://www.gessler.pl  

The flight back home was a pleasant one. The dry bread roll had been replaced with a decent baguette and now they also served the "Prince Polo" chocolate I was craving for on the flight to WAW.

LOT Flight 458 ARN - WAW

Departure: 19.10 (18.50)
Arrival: 20.50 (20.40)
Inflight service: Bread roll a la LOT
Landing: Yep, we did it with landing gears ;-)

Getting onboard a LOT flight always make me feel quite at home. This is due to the fact that I used to live in Warsaw for one and a half year. And exactly as Finnair gets me "Home by night" today, LOT did it back then.

I have to admit, I've only been to Poland once since I left 3 years ago. But I guess nothing much has changed. At least boarding the LOT flight tonight felt exactly as it did 3 years ago. Was looking forward to getting the traditional LOT tray consisting of a sandwich, Prince Polo chocolate and last but not least - ketchup!? Unfortunately this traditional dish was nowhere to be found. Instead they served the driest of bread rolls - "Bon Appetit"!

Blue1 flight KF 425 HEL-ARN

Departure 9.30 (8.00)
Arrival 9.28 (8.00)
Inflight service: Wasn't able to stay awake, so I wouldn't know.

Landing: Surprisingly smooth. 
Looks like the weather finally has taken its toll...First big delay due to weather this winter. With last winter fresh in mind a 1,5 hours delay feels like a fart in the universe :-)

Blue1 flight KF 428 ARN-HEL

Departure: 18.05 (18.05)
Arrival: 20.05 (20.05)
Inflight service: Coffee on the house
Landing: Kinda Blueish

Blue1 should definitely change the marketing agency / copy writer! First they came up with the name Blue1 and now this found on Blue1's B.O.B* menu:

"Hunger is the BEST sauce in the world."! What the heck are they trying to say? Are the products really so bad that you have to be hungry to enjoy them...?

Blue1 flight KF 425 HEL-ARN

Departure: 7.52 (8.00)
Arrival: 7.58 (8.00)
Inflight service: Coffee
Landing: A little bit shaky

Calm and quiet when getting to the airport at 7.00. I guess there must have been some Christmas hangover in the air? At least I found this at Gate 14...

For a change I flew Blue1 today. The after math of yesterday's storm was still noticeable, which meant a lot of bumps in the road but the flight was on time, and that's what matters the most.

I wonder what on earth the branding agency was thinking of when they came up with the name Blue1? 

Is it Blue as in depressing??? Adding number 1 doesn't help a bit, that just makes it the most depressing!

According to me Blue1 must be one of the worst airline names around. What about you, do you have similar examples or can we unanimously vote Blue1 as the most depressing airline name ever?

Finnair flight AY 650 ARN-HEL

Departure: 20.40 (20.37)
Arrival: 22.45 (22.25)
Inflight service: Coffee
Landing: Kangarooish

The lack of Christmas spirit onboard Santa's official airline is striking! It's really strange that Finnair doesn't take more advantage of a superbrand like Santa???

Enough of grumpy comments. Xmas is anyways over in a few days and you can find my earlier comments on the topic here and here.

Finnair - What do you say about spicing up next Christmas with a little bit more of this?

Picture: http://blogs.finnair.com

Finnair flight AY 643 HEL-ARN

Departure: 8.30 (8.00)
Arrival: 8.20 (8.00)
Inflight service: Coffee...where's the Glögi, it's Christmas and everything?
Landing: Did we land already?

Really crowded in the departure hall but the Fast Track did its magic, due to 2 screening devices in use (earlier comments regarding the Oneworld fast track can be found here).

Pre-flight visit to the Schengen lounge. Hardly noticeable that Christmas is a few days away???? Finnair's official Santa airline profile is taking a hit here. On top of that, no Cristmas music and greetings like on the Norwegian flights last week.

Note to Finnair: With being the "Official Santa Airline", comes great responsibilities, e.g. spreading the Xmas spirit! Santa is not happy with you right now ;-)

Picture: http://terrygrayshon.blogspot.com/

Norwegian flight DY 5819 LGW-HEL

Depature: 20.18 (18 .45)
Arrival: 00.41 (23.45)
Inflight service: B.O.B* Red wine
Landing: No comments, you can see my last comment here.

On top of being delayed with 1 hour, we got a bonus spelled STAND ARRIVAL. That's it folks, sorry for being grumpy!

Norwegian flight DY 4459 ARN-LGW

Departure: 18.18 (18.20)
Arrival: 19.47 (19.55)
Inflight service: B.O.B* Red wine
Landing: Come on guys, you have to treat the bird gently. Maybe some "crash courses" at Finnair could make your landings smoother???

Jihaaa - SKY interior, exit row and free WiFi. Doesn't get much better on a budget airline, does it?

Thanks Norwegian for boosting my Christmas spirit! The Christmas music played when boarding and the little Christmas greeting on the screens made me realize that Christmas is just a few days away. This makes me wonder whether Norwegian should be the official Santa airline instead of Finnair?

Norwegian flight DY 4280 HEL-ARN

Departure: 6.50 (6.50)
Arrival: 6.50 (6.50)
Inflight service: B.O.B (buy onboard) Nescafé
Landing: Well, let's wait and see (posted up in the air)

Have to say that I really like the new SKY interior onboard Boeing 737-800. It really makes the cabin feel light and spacious.

Picture: www.nowegian.com

The draw back of no newspapers onboard is more than compensated with free inflight WIFI. Thumbs-up for Norwegian on this point, I like :-)))

A humble question to Norwegian: it seems you're into high-tech...but why no web check-in? It is year 2011, right???

Finnair flight AY 634 HEL-ARN

Departure: 13.00 (13.00)
Arrival: 14.55 (15.00)
Inflight service: What, no coffee???
Landing: Soft as cotton

Got a bit grumpy due to lack of coffee onboard. Only juice and water served...strange I must say.

Thumbs-up for the professional Miss Sunshine, greeting everybody traveling in coach. A smile and a friendly welcome onboard can really light up even the darkest of days. Thanks, you made my day!

Finnair flight AY 643 HEL-ARN

Departure: 8.14 (8.00)
Arrival: 8.06 (8.00)
Inflight service: Coffee
Landing: Smooth Finnair standard.
Boarded late so no newspapers available. I wish Post Man Pat would have paid a visit to my seat :-)

Finnair flight AY 648 ARN-HEL

Departure: 18.34 (18.40)
Arrival: 20.21 ( 20.35)
Inflight service: Coffee, what else???
Seating: Hey, someone nicked my exit seat?

Landing: Some bumps in the road down.

@Finnair, thank you for taking me home, well ahead of schedule. But hey, since you are the official Santa airline, why not serve some Glühwein onboard your shorter flights before christmas? Non-alcoholic of course ;-)

Finnair flight AY 643 HEL-ARN

Departure: 8.06 (8.00)
Arrival: 8.13 (8.00)
Inflight service: None, slept the whole flight
Landing: Kind of hardish, not regular Finnair style
Seating: Sniffing the divider

Cosy flight, read the news papers before take-off. Dosed off during ascent. Woke up for a brief moment when some water was spilled on me. But hey, it wasn't coffee :-)

Finnair flight AY 648 ARN-HEL

Departure: 18.29 (18.40)
Arrival: 20.17 (20.35)
Inflight service: More coffee
Landing: Finnair standard, smooth.
Missing the good old days when you at least got a bread roll to chew on.

Finnair flight AY 643 HEL-ARN

Departure time: 8.09 (scheduled 8.00)
Arrival time: 8.16 (8.00)
Inflight service: Coffee
Landing: Smoothest ever

I guess winter is on its way, first de-icing for the season :(

Flight deck announcements

Last week on flight AY 1919 from Helsinki to Aqaba the first announcement from the flight deck was, how shall I say it, not up for a flying start. Shortly after take off the captain's confident voice was heard over the speaker system: " Good morning, this is Captain Jones (name tampered) and with me here in the cockpit I have co-pilot Smith.........(a few seconds of dead silence passed)....sorry, this is Captain Smith and with me here I have co-pilot Jones...".
Mixing up your name with your colleague could either be a sign of severe nervousness or fatigue, conditions not ranking high when your supposed to take a plane full of passengers from point A to B. Well, I guess mistakes happen and the ride to Aqaba ended up being a real charm.

The importance of flight deck announcements are on some airlines underrated. The other week on a China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Singapore the crew on flight deck must have been mute. Not one single announcement, not a single word was heard from cockpit during the entire flight. Not even when encountering severe turbulence. In my world that's strange. I find it encouraging when the captain or co-pilot bothers to say a few words if something out of the ordinary happens.

On the other hand we have the pilots suffering from oral diarrhoea. The first five announcements can be funny but when the pilot has decided to guide you through your whole flight of 4 hours, being constantly "on the air" I think he should have applied for a job on the local radio station instead of flying passenger planes.

Too much or too less is never good. But if had to choose between mute or diarrhoea I would go for the latter one.