- Welcome back.
So today's vlog is the last of four vlogs
I've made in Saudi Arabia.
Before the video, I want to share with you
a few things about Saudia Airline.
This airline has 150 aeroplanes in the fleet
so quite a large airline in the Middle East
with a young fleet, five years old average age.
But not very well known airline
because of maybe Saudi Arabia wasn't open before
in the past.
Saudia isn't quite Emirates,
their business model is not transporting
Western passengers through their mega hub,
connecting around the world.
In fact Saudia is quite a conservative airline.
There is a pray area at the back of the triple seven
and 787 aeroplane on Saudia.
And also Saudia never serve alcohol on their flights.
If you must drink, then Saudia is not the airline for you.
So so far in the Kingdom, I flown their short haul flight
from Dubai to Riyadh and also domestic to Jeddah.
And today is actually flying their smallest plane,
A321 on a six hour long haul flight to Geneva.
It's actually a very long haul signature service.
I'm not here to endorse Saudia
or try to tell you to fly Saudia, they're very good.
But I actually had a very pleasant experience
and I want to show you exactly what I got in the video
and hope you enjoy together with me.
(upbeat music)
Back at New Jeddah terminal, flying to Geneva.
There's actually a train here that take you
directly to the gate.
They're still trialling the trains,
so at the moment it's a walk.
Right now, not all the gates have been opened
so it's a rather short walk.
But by quarter one when all the gates are open
with the ATM, the mobility mover, the train
should take you all the way to your gate.
Currently very few flights are using the international pier,
only selected Saudia European flights and Gulf flights
and also Etihad.
So when I came here it feels like I own the whole terminal,
there's hardly anyone around inside the terminal.
So I'm flying out of new terminal for the first time
flying A320 to Geneva today.
Hello there. - Good morning sir,
welcome on board.
- [Sam] Oh there's a chef on board today,
hi chef how are you?
- May I assist you with your luggage?
- [Sam] No I'm okay.
- Hi, how are you? - All right hello,
good, good, very nice good morning.
Four this is my seat.
I must say I'm very surprised,
I was not expecting a fully flat bed on this
small aeroplane like A320.
I was expecting a regional kind of configuration,
but didn't know Saudia has now fully flat beds
on the A320.
- Hi how are you? - Good.
- So my name is Sheraz and I'll be at your service today.
May I offer you some fresh juice?
- [Sam] Yes sure.
- All right so we have lemon, we have carrot,
we have anti-oxidant that has mango.
Strawberry and cranberry, we have also orange juice.
- [Sam] Okay I'll have the anti-oxidant one.
- Perfect, I'll be right back. - Yeah thank you.
- From Jeddah to Geneva.
We going to expect the flight to be at 360,
it's going to be a smooth flight.
Time is going to be six hours flying time
and cruising at three six zero.
Enjoy the flight and thank you for choosing Saudia Airways.
- Hello again, so this is a newspaper.
Please enjoy the anti-oxidant and hot towel.
- [Sam] Where are you from?
- I'm half Tunisian, half Moroccan.
- All right thank you very much.
To me I think Saudia has really good in flight service
but I also expected ground service to be more improved
to be polished and
to match the same consistency level service.
- [Sheraz] Would you like to try our finest dates?
So we have sukania dates,
ajwa from Madinah, and we have Sabia with orange peel.
- Would you like some Arabic coffee.
- Let's have one yes.
Thank you.
That's amazing you know.
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
the text you are about to hear is a supplication
which Prophet Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him Used
to pray upon travelling.
(foreign language)
(dramatic music)
- I didn't expect to have such scenery,
this is not often I fly over the Red Sea,
see a little colour, looks like Maldives out there.
And then there's rock and mountain
and that backdrop, very scenic route so far out of Jeddah.
On the videos yes.
- You have to service. - I will say,
this back to the A320 it's actually very short.
There's only 90 seats here,
a very small section of Economy,
large section of Business Class.
Here I'm with lots of girls here,
where are you guys from?
- [All] Greece!
- Oh from Greece, so you've been on holidays?
- [All] Yes.
- So you live in Jeddah.
- [Woman] Yes.
- Do you like Jeddah or you don't like?
- [Woman] Of course.
- Why, the camera you say nice things.
- No actually yeah it's really nice.
- It's a little bit hot. - Little bit hot.
Now I figure you're flight attendants,
flight attendants Saudia.
I met on Dubai to Riyadh. - The best airline.
- The best airline?
Nice to meet you all. - You too!
- I usually prefer big aeroplanes ,
Dreamliners, triple sevens and bigger aeroplanes
because I always think bigger aeroplanes
have better leg room.
I'm pretty surprised that a A320 on Saudia
also has very good leg room.
- Amenities.
- [Sam] Thank you.
- [Sheraz] This is the tapas,
the pina colado, the pecan beetroot
with a rosemary feta and the nut indulgence.
- [Sam] All right thank you very much.
- Please enjoy, thank you. - Thank you.
Very unique, not the usual nuts.
This is feta cheese, beetroot and pina colada,
non alcoholic of course.
- So the concept is actually to dine on demand,
any dish at any time.
And we have two sets of the cuisine,
we have the Arabic and the Mediterranean.
And the Arabic comes in a two courses
and for the Mediterranean it comes in appetiser,
the main course and we have the sides.
Would you like to try any of it?
Please enjoy the lemon cured salmon
with a cauliflower tips.
- [Sam] Very yummy meal, I wonder what's next
because it's been so good so far.
Wow that's very generous, that's a large bowl of soup.
- [Sheraz] The chef likes you.
- [Sam] Oh really, oh thank you very much.
- Enjoy.
- The soup according to the menu is zucchini,
zucchini and shallot soup like pepper, blue cheese compote.
That meal was huge, that kofta,
this is super legs size I struggle to finish.
Beautiful, beautiful presentation
for each course, the soup, the salmon,
it was plenty of food it was huge.
- Perfect, so may I offer you some desert?
- Oh no no room now, I'm going to take a nap now,
I'm getting really sleepy but
thank you very much. - All right enjoy.
- So I passed out after that massive meal,
I sleep about tow and a half hours.
Now we're just about 40 minutes before landing.
Trying out the flat bed, the flat bed is really good.
It's not too narrow for me.
The thing I don't like is if you have a full flight,
you might have to cross over someone to get out
so there's always pros and cons in every type of seat.
- Hello Mr. Sam. - Hello there.
- Here is your red tea.
- [Sam] I'm continuing my meal, that was massive,
very abundant, very very rich meal.
Thank you.
- [Chef] Please enjoy your raspberry pudding
with the creme anglaise and mini ice cream.
(upbeat music)
- So we just flew past those beautiful European Alps
and now we're over Lake Geneva
on the final landing into Geneva.
(upbeat music)
We just landed back to the cold, getting my sweater out.
Saudia really surprised me,
it was a great flight, a great product on the A320.
There's a little tip I want to share with you.
If you have Skyteam miles or Saudia Alfursan miles
it's very, very easy to use the miles
to fly Saudia business class.
I think Saudia has great potential
with the new Jeddah terminal open,
there's a lot of great connectivity between Euro-Asia
so there's a great potential.
I hope you liked the video,
thank you for watching.