Haji Airlines, World Airlines. Review on Saudi Arabian Airlines

HAJIS & OTHERS!! AIRLINES

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

I am flying this Airline since 15 years, I made around 35 trips from Saudia to Mumbai or

Hyderabad, in my 30 trips or so, I never had an occasion to complain about my baggage, flight timings, and cabin crew, check in, food, ground staff and any other normal aspect of travel.

This Airline has many aircrafts in their fleet, some of them I give them below: B747 - 468 first Class 36seats 32 Business Class, 290 Economy seats B747 - 368 first Class 36seats 38 Business Class, 319 Economy seats B777 - 268 first Class 30seats 31 Business Class, 183 Economy seats

They have many other Aircrafts in their fleet, I always flew between India, Saudia, UAE, I don’t know about other sectors, but in my sector the food is as per my taste, spicy, they used to serve non-spicy before 1995 but now their menu is compatible to the sector requirement, Hyderabad their boarding cards are issued on Indian Airlines stationery, it seems ground services of Saudi Airlines in Hyderabad are being taken care of by Indian Airlines, they have their appointed travel agents in all major cities of India, in Hyderabad it is AARAFAT TRAVELS, you should take your passport at the time of reservations and other requirements, I asked the counter person why we must have passports, he said this is for Visa Check, Saudi Arabian Visa is stamped in Arabic Language and they follow Hijri Calendar (Lunar Calendar) usually passengers do not know what dates are equivalent to Gregorian Calendar, that is the reason the staff check the dates of visa for us and help us out with status and other things.

It is well known that Saudi Arabia has 2 holy cities of Muslims, MECCA and MEDINA and Muslims from all over the world come to these Holy places during Hajj month (It is the 12th month of Lunar Calender) They come to Saudi Arabia in millions and also they have visitors all the year round coming to perform UMRA (Minor Hajj) This is the reason the Airlines has become very efficient handling all nationalities of this world. The cabin crew are conversant with 4 or 5 Languages easily including Arabic, The Gulf Countries all have foreign workers employed in all their airlines, this is also one of the reason you find staff knowing many languages.

Saudi Arabian Airlines is known to purchase brand new Aircrafts direct from the manufacturers, that is the reason all Aircrafts are new and in very good conditions, I have never heard on their public announcement systems that we have to make a emergency landing because of a technical snag, I have also never been delayed using this Airline. I flew with them on their domestic flights, even their domestic services are smooth and easy like grease, now a day you see lot of Saudi Young boys as cabin crew and also you hear many pilots are Saudi Nationals. In flight entertainment has 1 Big screen on each partition of the Aircraft 100 or more seats and they have TV monitor embedded in the back seat headrest for every class passenger, on the big screen you can watch a movie chosen by the projector staff, we have around 12 Video Channels to choose from, Hindi, English Movies, English Soaps, Arabic Movies, Arabic Soaps, English Songs, Arabic Songs and Quran (Majd Channel) We have a choice of Audio Channels, one of the Audio Channel is recitation of Holy Quran continuously till the end of our journey, we have also choice of video games from the same monitor,

There are 2 player games, board games and chase games, these all can be accessed with a wired remote control from the hand rest of your seat. Menus are easy to access and channels are easy to change. We are given immediately after boarding a perfumed napkin and some fruit juice of your choice and later the foods and unlimited black tea, they provide also pillows, blankets, eye mask and ear phones to each passenger even extra pillows are provided if you request for it.

The overhead compartments are spacious can hold 3 hand carry’s easily. Al Fursan is the name of their frequent flyer program, this card is acceptable for discounts with many leading card services provider like Sheraton, Hilton, Budget, Avis etc., http://www.saudiarabianairlines.com is their website where you can know about every service they provide, you can do reservations online too on their website.

They have code sharing agreements with many leading airlines of Europe, Asia, and Americas. You can take home the airlines complimentary magazine called Ahlan Wasahlan (WELCOME) this magazine has good write ups about travel destinations of the world and also some nice features on wild life of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. In flight sales accept all major credit cards, they sell perfumes, jewellery, watches and many others branded items they swatch, radon, ysl etc., with them, they also have SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES products made for the in flight sales specially items such as watches, bags , toys , perfumes etc., which are a lot cheaper than other branded items. They are a good buy. You can buy nice DATES and date biscuits and other date mixed products in the flight, they sell rosaries too.

Thank you for reading Misba