On January 14th, 2015, I visited Dubai for toursim and shopping. I had flew on MEA A330… check the report below:
http://flight-report.com/en/report-9142.html
Accordingly, After spending 4 days visiting Dubai – UAE, and after exceeding the limit of my VISA card doing shopping, it was time to go back to my home i.e. Beirut – Lebanon. As usual, my trip to Beirut will be via Middle East Airlines – MEA.
I arrived to Dubai International Airport 3 hours before departure time. After a quick check-in I head immediately to the departure hall “C”.
Since I hold a VISA platinum credit card issued by BANKMED, I was entitled to enter Dubai International Business Class Lounge. The lounge is very neat with plenty of food & beverages, cheese, wine, desserts.
Soon it was boarding time. My seat will be 26A, however due to unexceptional heavy rain storms, our aircraft delayed for 15 minutes. We waited at gate C13, before the elegant cedar lady arrived. There were also a lot of Emirates A380 departing.
As I said, due to heavy showers, our plane was delayed for one hour. Accordingly our flight details would be as follows:
Flight Number : ME427
Aircraft : A320-232
Reg : OD-MRT
Duration : 3hrs & 30 mins.
STD/ATD : 13:30 / 14:30
STA/ATA : 15:00 /16:00
The seat pitch on MEA’s A320 is quite good. Soon we headed to the runway and had a bumpy take-off from runway 12R.
Soon we reach our crusing altitude of 34,000 feet. As we were passing by Bahrain, food menus were distributed. The food menu is prepared in a form of newspaper, showing some travel advices, travel news, MEA vintages, and the served dishes.
For today’s flight MEA is offering fish fillet with rice or chicken fillet with lemon sauce and pasta. I opted for the chicken. After clearing the thunderstorms, the crew started the drinking service. The drinking service was conducted by two elegent female cabin attendants. The drinking service offers high class Lebanese wines, whisky, beers, fruit juice, soft drinks, vodkas, tea and coffee. In fact Lebanon is well known for its high quality production of wines (red, white, rose) especially from KSARA & Kfraya (Bekaa Region in Eastern Lebanon).
Few minutes after the service initiation, I received my meal with a tomato juice and a glass of diet Pepsi. The meal was accompanied by silver cutlery, fruit cake, cheese, bread rolls, Greek salad, Nescafe and coffee-mate. It was a real yummmmmy meal which made me feel full. In fact, MEA is one of the most generous airlines when it comes to meal portion served.
After the yummy meal I slept for an hour before we entered the Lebanese airspace where we were welcomed by the snow covering the Lebanese mountains. In fact, Lebanon is well known for having the highest and the best skiing slopes in the Middle East region after the Swiss slops. Snow covers Lebanon from December to April of each year.
We passed over the Lebanese forest of God’s Cedars
Then we continued our descent over the Lebanese cost and landed at Beirut softly.
.JPG)
Thanks Jamil for this Fr on MEA. Maybe you should edit the report and hide the personal details on the boarding pass ?
The catering is ,a s usual on MEA, very nice and full and I must say that your flight attendants were beautiful.
The views over the snowy mountains and beyrouth are great too.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Dear sir,
Thank you for your positive feedback..
I don't mind showing my personal details cz it is already in the context of the report
Thanks for the FR Jamil!
I have a couple of comments which might be considered nitpicking but I believe they are important to get our facts correct:
- MEA does not provide silver cutlery in Economy, they provide stainless steel.
- As SKYTEAMCHC said, I think it would be best if you hide your personal information.
The Lebanese mountains sure look gorgeous, catering & IFE are also excellent. As for the Crew, they are lovely but I never understood why they are dressed in such a dreary blue color with Asian-like motifs instead of something more traditional in terms of color and design that is inline with the country they are representing.
Note To Admin: This lounge featured in this FR is not an Emirates-managed one. It's called Dubai (T1) DCA Business Class Lounge and it's open to all passenger of all classes against a flat fee. Kind of similar to the iCare lounge at CDG but much better.
Dear sir,
Thank you for your feedback... MEA had assigned a new cabin crew uniform designed by the famous Lebanese fashionest Elie Saab. The new collection is expected to be released in May 2015 when celebrating MEA's 70 years anniversery
That's Awesome News! Can't Wait To See t! :D
Thanks for the great TR. I can't wait to try MEA. Also the aerial picture city is Kuwait City not Qatar area, maybe the flight map was not accurate.
Dear sir,
Thank you for your feedback... In fact the view is for Bahrain ... I will rectify report accordingly
Thanks for sharing. MEA seems to be a nice airline to fly with, and you seem to have especially appreciated the meal !
Very nice views over the lebanese mountains, I did not expect Lebanon to be so snowy.
I confirm the city is undoubtedly Kuwait, not Doha or any other Qatar City.
Thank you sir for liking my report. ln fact Lebanon has the most famous skiing slopes in the Middle East... The snow covers Lebanese mountains from December till later April
Thanks for sharing this flight report. Pitch looks really good for Y (depending on your height) and the catering looks good for a flight of this length. The chicken doesn't look dry and the quantity of the tray is good, but the dessert doesn't really look very visually appealing at all. Also, beautiful aerial shots on your approach into Lebanon, it's amazing how quickly you can go from snow-covered mountains to a warm Mediterranean coast in a couple of minutes.
Thank you for sharing this report! I always want to know how other Middle East regional carriers are doing now considering the big boys in the Gulf are stealing the show with their bling-bling aircrafts and services. The on-board food looks tasty to me :D. I never knew the snow is very extensive in Lebanon until I see your photos above.
Thank u sir for your comments😘😘... Hope u liked my report
Thanks for sharing this FR
The menu's presentation is very nice
The catering is generous but the pasta seem to be a bit dry
I didn't know that Lebanon was producing wines
Thank you for your comment.. The overall meal was excellent including the pasta... Lebanon produce high quality wines
Thanks for this interesting report, Jamil! It left me speechless in many ways:
1) Rain in Dubai!?!? This shows how ignorant I am. I thought it never rained there.
2) The snow in Lebanon and what you said about the resorts! It's beautiful!
3) Beirut looks great! I remember hearing a lot about war-torn Beirut on TV when I was a child back in the 80s, and that was the image I kept for years in my mind. So glad to see things have changed for the better over there!
4) The in-flight food! Is that really economy class??? Looks wonderful. And you can even choose from a menu!! Amazing.
5) The plates and trays! That's paradise for a souvenir lover like me!