Air Serbia A330 JFK-BEG Inaugural Business Class June 2016

[Carfield]

Seat 2A


Boarding began at 4:45am and I waited till the last before boarding, while reading news on my phone.

As usual two F/As were greeting us on the entrance. The male F/A was super hot - sorry I have to add that. He reminds me of a handsomer version of James Blunt. It was hard not to look away during the safety demo LOL.

Anyway, I was offered the usual pre-takeoff beverage, hot towel on a tray, printed menu, and newspapers and magazines, despite that most of them are in Serbian. Since I was the only one in business class, things went really efficient. The male F/A even asked me a few times if I wanted something to drink before takeoff.


Door was closed on time at 5am and we pushed back three minutes later. We had a really long taxi towards R/W3L, and Aegean Airlines A320 was following us. We took off at 5:15am for the 75 minutes flight to Belgrade at 36,000ft.

The service was pretty familiar and was definitely extravagant in European standard.

Warmed nuts again with my choice of beverage



Here is the menu:
Breakfast
Starters
Seasonal Fresh Fruit
Natural Yogurt

Mains
*Serbian Cheese pie (gibanica) served with broccoli, tomato and turkey sausage
Or
Scrambled eggs with asparagus, French toast, chicken sausage and Béarnaise sauce

Breakfast tray – I chose the Serbian cheese and spinach pie, which was delicious. The side dishes were different from those listed in the menus – Instead of broccoli potato is served.







A nice cup of tea and another hot towel after the tray was collected.


Sunrise


I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the business class cabin – I think this set looks better. I use the OLLO fish lens clip to take some of the pictures.

[Carfield]

Seat in recline with legrest raised – not sure if the leg rest was this useful. The seat is fairly comfortable for these short flights, but not sure if I will like them on those longer flights to Abu Dhabi. There is no power outlet and the seat pitch is around 37 inches. The leg rest is not that particularly useful too. There is no entertainment, but iPads are offered on flights above 90 minutes in business class.




There was a bit more chops, as we got closer to Belgrade, and descent soon began at 6:05am.




We landed on R/W30 at 5:30am, and parked at gate A3 three minutes later. There was an agent holding a JU 500 sign. The agent reminded me that I needed to stop by the transit desk.

[Carfield]

I guess Air Serbia’s agents outside of Belgrade does not have the ability to enter all these additional information for US bound flights yet. Since it was early in the morning, there was no wait. The agent kindly pointed me towards the Premium lounge. I have not much to add in this front, but the agents at the Premium lounge were friendly as usual. Air Serbia is sort of like a more personalized and boutique version of Etihad Airlines.

JU 500 BEG-JFK Lv0730 Arr1200 Airbus A330-200 YU-ARA

I have tracked the flight for the past few days, and they seemed to have some on time issues, especially with the late afternoon departures. I guess it was due to the weather in the East coast, as well as flying in a busier time. The only benefit of a 7:30am departure is less ATC issue, but I still think the timing needs to be adjusted.

The loading was pretty good in economy cabin (194 passengers to be exact out of 236 possible seats). Unfortunately it also meant that I was unable to get a picture of the economy class seats and gave you more information. Despite not knowing the yield, it was fairly impressive that Air Serbia can maintain a healthy load because this flight really relies on local traffic. However business class is not. I don’t think I have ever flown a transatlantic flight in business class as the only passenger. I don’t mind the more personal service, but for the airline, they really need to do something about it. It is time to do some promotions, as well as offering more discounted price. Let just be honest! The timing of their schedule is a really big turnoff for business travelers.




C5 was the only gate at Belgrade that handles wide-body planes, and there are extra security checks at the gate. When I flew to Athens, I did not need to take out my bag of liquids, but on this flight to JFK, I had to take the liquid pack out. As seen here, there is a separate priority line for business class passengers and Air Serbia elites.



Anyway, we got all-female crews on this flight, and the two F/As in business were friendly. I was told to ask them anything. They were definitely familiar with the service. I was offered the pre-takeoff beverage, newspaper, magazines, amenity kit, menu and hot towel. The F/A explained the menu concept, and another F/A told me about the features of the seats.


My seat 2A


View from 2A


Boarding was completed at 7:27am and we pushed back at 7:32am.

Air Serbia’s ATR-72 – strong fleet to nearby cities


R/W30


We took off from R/W30 at 7:46am with our nine hours and twenty-five minutes flight.


Routing – we first climbed to 36,000ft and flew north towards Budapest, Ostrava, Leszno, Ystad, Helsingborg and Vennesia before climbing to 38,000ft. We then crossed north of Faroe Islands, just south of Rejkavik, Iceland, and then Narsaq in Greenland. We then passed Postville, Canada, Presque Isle, Dover-Foxcroft, Portsmouth, Boston, Providence, Long Island and into JFK.

[Carfield]

Couple of cabin shot and seat shot – nothing too exciting








Last row of business class seat – Row 6 ADK– with a slightly larger side table – 6D photographed here


The service began with the usual aperitif and warmed nuts. I decide to go with a Mimosa this morning.


Here is the breakfast menu – if you need wine list information, please refer to Part 1 of this trip report.

A La Carte from Belgrade
Enjoy a full a la carte breakfast or select individual dishes from the Refreshment Menu.
All the dishes on the menu are available at any time during the flight. We hope you enjoy your dining experience with us today.

Selection of breads
Assorted Breads and Pastries

Starters
Fruit Smoothie Energizer Drink
Fruit Yogurt
Seasonal Fresh Fruit

Mains
*Spinach pie served with turkey sausage, potato, tomato and bean salsa
Frittata with spinach and vegetables served with ratatouille and chicken sausage
Spinach Omelet served with asparagus and cherry tomato

Dine Any Time Menu
Tortilla wrap with smoked chicken and peppers served with potato wedges
Toasted Panini with smoked beef, pesto and sun dried tomato served with chips and rocket salad
Serbian cheese and spinach pies (burek) served with local yogurt
Beef steak served with green beans, potato wedges, and cherry tomato

Green Salad
Plum dumplings
A selection of international cheeses
Seasonal Fresh Fruit
Assorted Ice Cream Flavors
Selection of cookies

*Serbian specialty dish

Setup – no tray used


Starter – fresh seasonal fruit – pretty good

[Carfield]

I love the mixed berries smoothie.


Two rolls – no breakfast pastries


Since I have already enjoyed the spinach pie on the previous segment, I went to the Frittata, which was fairly good.


Cup of tea to wrap up the meal



I went to 6A and snap this wing picture - but the windows are pretty scratched up though.


After breakfast, I decided to get ready for bed, since it was really late hours at New York, and I woke up early this morning. I snapped a few pictures with Air Serbian full sized pillow and polyester blanket.



All the sudden, the F/A asked if I was going to rest. I said, “yes.” She then tried to tell me that there was a turndown service, but not in these exact words. Then she asked, “Did I want to change into pajama?” I was confused for a minute. Then she gave me a set of pajama – Etihad branded, and told me to change in the restroom while she set up my bed.

It was nice to see the PJ and slippers, as well as the turndown service. I love the thicker blanket and the mattress pad. I slept for a few hours and my nose felt much better under the warm blanket, and the cabin temperature did not go nuts this time.



The service was just superb and they were always checking on me, and offering me beverages.


I did not use the WIFI on the return, since it was such a rip off! I don’t mind day pass, but data limitation is simply bogus.

I had my final meal around 90 minutes prior to arrival. Unfortunately, the selection is really limited to mostly sandwich, but I spotted the steak entrée, which seems appropriate for this hour. When I asked the F/A about it, she checked and told me that it was not loaded.

Sandwich with chips and salad

[Carfield]

Cheese plate



Tea to wrap up the meal


Of course more hot towel service


75 minutes prior to arrival, Air Serbia showed the USA immigration video, as well as passing out disembarkation cards.

Descent began at 10:48am New York local time, and since it was still rather early, there was not much holding or circling, and we landed on R/W22L at 11:23am, and parked at gate A3 at 11:32am.


Passing Etihad’s A380 – A6-APH – one of the new deliveries – heading to Abu Dhabi in the afternoon


Singapore Airlines A380 9V-SKM


Despite our early arrival, it took a while prior to the attachment of the jetbridge. Gate agent is still getting used to this mini Airbus, compared to Etihad’s giant planes used on this route. We also waited an extra minutes while paper works were being handed over. The purser was still new to the US flights.

A3 was one of the closer gate to the immigration hall, and with global entry, it took me literally minutes to go through. The first bag came out at 11:50am, within 20 minutes of our parking time.

Conclusion:
Air Serbia is an interesting airline and has lots of potential for business travelers. The intra-European flights are definitely where it shines but its international service, while featuring many of the same service, is not exactly “wow” and there are definitely things that need to improve.

First, the schedule simply sucks and I am still not grasping how the Belgrade hub works, especially in terms of bank of flights. I have a feeling that Air Serbia is not getting the slot that it needs for JFK. The USA bound flight simply departs a bit too early, and the Belgrade bound flight also departs way too early.

Second, Air Serbia is not allowing passengers to buy many city pairs, especially those in Western Europe. Yes it might be a bit back tracking, but people will do it if the price is right. My final destination was actually Dusseldorf and Air Serbia actually flew there, but would not offer me a thru flight.

Third, the crews are super-attentive and friendly, but I felt that English becomes an obstacle for better service. Despite my request for a plain tea, the F/A still comes with sugar every time. I also felt that they are a bit too much by the book. Honestly I was disappointed that the turndown service was not offered on the outbound flight. Surely it was the first day of service, but I found it a bit bizarre that the crews would forget to offer pajama and turndown service for passengers. Since there will be some communication problem, I don’t understand why Air Serbia does not simply print out these amenities on its menus too, or maybe provide a business class service placard on each seat. Air Serbia also needs to stock up English newspapers and magazines especially they can upload some New York Times for the return flights too. For magazines, I am sure you can get some Times and/or Newsweek.

Fourth Catering: The a la carte and on demand menus are simply not working for me. These are normal flights operating at normal hours with limited time zone differences. I prefer a more traditional menu to this on demand menu, which is odd. On the 2pm flight to Belgrade, the timing is less than ideal, but since it is a slot issue, JU just has to deal with it. Despite of the 5am arrival time, there needs to be a breakfast option pre-arrival, not just chicken wrap, smoked beef sandwich, and Serbian spinach and cheese pies. On the way towards JFK with 7:30am flight, people will expect two full meals based on the ten hours flight. The breakfast was fine, but the on demand menu was at best weak with no choices of real entrées. I prefer a more proper three-course lunch service. The entrée selection needs to include real dishes.

In addition, they provided the same pre-takeoff service and similar catering between their intra-European flights and these new long haul flights. For intra-European flights, you definitely got the “wow” factor, but for long haul flights, I had increased my expectation. I recommend a few more small touches, like canapés in addition to nuts with beverage, an additional soup/salad course, and an expanded menu. They also recollected their printed menus and reused them, and some of the menus were already in pretty bad conditions. It is just my personal pet peeve.

Finally, Air Serbia’s business class fares are simply too high for now, especially given how they are less well known, and their poorly timed schedules. They really need to get their names out there now, and I will try to avoid using so much Etihad branded stuffs, too. They need to be clearer on their brands. Economy class is certainly full now but how much does Air Serbia charge now? Can you rely on economy class cabin to make this route profitable? I really hope that Air Serbia can work with the connection flights now and try to make more connections possible, as well as allowing some connections to Western Europe. If your airline is good, people will fly you.

It is a fun experience and I hope you enjoy this trip report! I wish Air Serbia can make some adjustment and can see this service being successful.

Carfield

[SQueeze]

Thanks for the comprehensive review.

Looking at the pictures, I think it's a comfortable ride. I am probably one of the few who enjoy these older herringbones. The current herringbones I find rather claustrophobic.

The food looks good too but fair enough about your criticisms. I don't expect much for a European airline but looks like the plating is quite stylish probably influence from EY standard. And, The nut bowl looks like 3-4x more than what we get on SQ, haha

The NY lounge looks stunning, I think even more so than the new EY F flagship lounge in AUH