Air Serbia Airbus A330 Business class trip report
Forty years ago on June 15, 1976, JAT Yugoslav Airlines started service between Belgrade and the United States, and at one point, JAT flew to New York, Chicago (via Cleveland), Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles using DC-10s. However due to the UN sanction (because of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia) in 1992, JAT stops flying to the United States and Canada. Air Serbia, which is an Etihad Airlines partner, decides that it is time to expand into the transatlantic market, and has leased (not sure if bought) an ex-Jet Airways Airbus A330-200 to begin this five times weekly flight between New York JFK and Belgrade. 40 years ago, JU 500 was the flight number used for the JFK flights too.
When I saw Air Serbia launching service, I immediately researched on flights and fares. Ideally, I wanted to fly the inaugural Belgrade to JFK flight, but one way fare is prohibitive, and there are not many cities that I can play with. While other airlines offer decent Belgrade to US fares, Air Serbia is not one of them. I ended up settling on the JFK-BEG-ATH roundtrip flight for a little less than $4000USD including tax and fee. It is still higher than I want to pay, but since Air Serbia is an Etihad partner, I felt more confident. While I just don’t think the price tag is justified, especially the lack of any festivity for the return JFK to Belgrade flight, Air Serbia really needs to step up on many aspects of the hardware before they can claim to be a boutique airline. The recycled Jet Airways herringbone suites are not good, and I will even prefer the Etihad updated business class suites to these herringbone suites. Catering needs some overhaul and there needs to be better amenities. The only positive asset is the flight crew and the F/As are nothing but great and attentive. There are some communication issues, but they tried very hard. Considered it was the first flight, the service flow was good, and they obviously have received good training, but caterers forgot to load some items. Anyway, here is my full story:
Full album link: (I am not sure if I will write about the shorter segments between BEG and ATH, I will add photos to the album, so if you check it throughout the weekend and early next week, there might be additional photos.)
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...%20June%202016
June 23, 2016
JU 500 JFK-BEG Lv1440 Arr0530 Airbus A330-200 YU-ARA “Nikola Tesla”
Schedule:
I don’t normally discuss the scheduling aspect of flights, but JU schedule is definitely not ideal at all. I am pretty sure that it has to do with slots. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, the eastbound flight departs at 7:30am from Belgrade, and departs from JFK at 2:40pm, and only on Fridays and Saturdays, they have a more normal 12:55pm departure from Belgrade and 7:55pm departure from New York. The flight don’t connect well with many Air Serbia intra-European flights and the early morning departure from Belgrade almost makes no sense, and the only flights that work well is the 5am Athens flight, which I will take. Unfortunately I don’t see the issues being resolved unless JU gets many slots. Given the full load though on the inaugural JFK to BEG in economy class, I guess most passengers are point to point.
Booking:
Air Serbia’s website is pretty easy to use and I am able to book the flights, get my e-tickets quickly and choose a seat from an actual seat map. I am sure Etihad’s partnership ensures a seamless booking experience.
Check-in:
JFK has yet to put up any Air Serbia sign this morning, but I am sure that will be fixed. To no surprise, Etihad handles all the ground operations. For business class passengers, the counters don’t even feature any Air Serbia signage. There are two bell staffs handling all the first and business class passengers, and once I mention that I am flying business, they assist with my luggage. The check-in agent was polite but obviously was still not used to Air Serbia lingual yet. You can really tell a difference between flying an American and even an European carrier and Etihad right the way. With no queue, my bag was checked through to Athens and two boarding passes were given to me with the seats that I have selected. My Etihad number was in the system. But I have to remind the agent that I am not transiting at Abu Dhabi.
Main cabin check in area
TSA was a nightmare, not because of long queues, but because of the rudeness of the staffs. The TSA agents snapped at passengers, especially those who obviously are foreign tourists.
Thankfully, I managed to be by the windows, when I saw the inbound flights landed from Belgrade twenty minutes early.
The water canon salute shot was awful, as it was far away.
Coming to gate A4 – notice the flags waving from the cockpit
Eithad Lounge:
As expected, Air Serbia uses the fabulous Etihad Lounge at JFK. As expected, the lounge was nice with the bar overlooking the apron. The staffs are friendly and helpful. The agent carefully explained the features in the lounge, and I took the chance to ask if they were doing anything special for the inaugural flights. Unfortunately, the answer was “no”. They were doing a ribbon cutting for arriving passengers (quite odd if you ask me).
Forty years ago on June 15, 1976, JAT Yugoslav Airlines started service between Belgrade and the United States, and at one point, JAT flew to New York, Chicago (via Cleveland), Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles using DC-10s. However due to the UN sanction (because of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia) in 1992, JAT stops flying to the United States and Canada. Air Serbia, which is an Etihad Airlines partner, decides that it is time to expand into the transatlantic market, and has leased (not sure if bought) an ex-Jet Airways Airbus A330-200 to begin this five times weekly flight between New York JFK and Belgrade. 40 years ago, JU 500 was the flight number used for the JFK flights too.
When I saw Air Serbia launching service, I immediately researched on flights and fares. Ideally, I wanted to fly the inaugural Belgrade to JFK flight, but one way fare is prohibitive, and there are not many cities that I can play with. While other airlines offer decent Belgrade to US fares, Air Serbia is not one of them. I ended up settling on the JFK-BEG-ATH roundtrip flight for a little less than $4000USD including tax and fee. It is still higher than I want to pay, but since Air Serbia is an Etihad partner, I felt more confident. While I just don’t think the price tag is justified, especially the lack of any festivity for the return JFK to Belgrade flight, Air Serbia really needs to step up on many aspects of the hardware before they can claim to be a boutique airline. The recycled Jet Airways herringbone suites are not good, and I will even prefer the Etihad updated business class suites to these herringbone suites. Catering needs some overhaul and there needs to be better amenities. The only positive asset is the flight crew and the F/As are nothing but great and attentive. There are some communication issues, but they tried very hard. Considered it was the first flight, the service flow was good, and they obviously have received good training, but caterers forgot to load some items. Anyway, here is my full story:
Full album link: (I am not sure if I will write about the shorter segments between BEG and ATH, I will add photos to the album, so if you check it throughout the weekend and early next week, there might be additional photos.)
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...%20June%202016
June 23, 2016
JU 500 JFK-BEG Lv1440 Arr0530 Airbus A330-200 YU-ARA “Nikola Tesla”
Schedule:
I don’t normally discuss the scheduling aspect of flights, but JU schedule is definitely not ideal at all. I am pretty sure that it has to do with slots. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, the eastbound flight departs at 7:30am from Belgrade, and departs from JFK at 2:40pm, and only on Fridays and Saturdays, they have a more normal 12:55pm departure from Belgrade and 7:55pm departure from New York. The flight don’t connect well with many Air Serbia intra-European flights and the early morning departure from Belgrade almost makes no sense, and the only flights that work well is the 5am Athens flight, which I will take. Unfortunately I don’t see the issues being resolved unless JU gets many slots. Given the full load though on the inaugural JFK to BEG in economy class, I guess most passengers are point to point.
Booking:
Air Serbia’s website is pretty easy to use and I am able to book the flights, get my e-tickets quickly and choose a seat from an actual seat map. I am sure Etihad’s partnership ensures a seamless booking experience.
Check-in:
JFK has yet to put up any Air Serbia sign this morning, but I am sure that will be fixed. To no surprise, Etihad handles all the ground operations. For business class passengers, the counters don’t even feature any Air Serbia signage. There are two bell staffs handling all the first and business class passengers, and once I mention that I am flying business, they assist with my luggage. The check-in agent was polite but obviously was still not used to Air Serbia lingual yet. You can really tell a difference between flying an American and even an European carrier and Etihad right the way. With no queue, my bag was checked through to Athens and two boarding passes were given to me with the seats that I have selected. My Etihad number was in the system. But I have to remind the agent that I am not transiting at Abu Dhabi.
Main cabin check in area
TSA was a nightmare, not because of long queues, but because of the rudeness of the staffs. The TSA agents snapped at passengers, especially those who obviously are foreign tourists.
Thankfully, I managed to be by the windows, when I saw the inbound flights landed from Belgrade twenty minutes early.
The water canon salute shot was awful, as it was far away.
Coming to gate A4 – notice the flags waving from the cockpit
Eithad Lounge:
As expected, Air Serbia uses the fabulous Etihad Lounge at JFK. As expected, the lounge was nice with the bar overlooking the apron. The staffs are friendly and helpful. The agent carefully explained the features in the lounge, and I took the chance to ask if they were doing anything special for the inaugural flights. Unfortunately, the answer was “no”. They were doing a ribbon cutting for arriving passengers (quite odd if you ask me).
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