This time I booked my flight via Saudi Arabian Airlines. You can feel that it’s not the top notch airline as Emirates for example but all in all its definitely a good option to choose. If they offer a cheap flight, you can definitely take it without any hesitation.
Food
Based on my experience of the two flights (one to Jeddah and then to Kuala Lumpur) the food was okay. It wasn’t the greatest but it wasn’t yucky at all. On my first flight I had the choice between chicken with potatoes and grilled yellow bell peppers, fish on rice, and pasta (they didn’t specify what kind). I chose the chicken dish even though I was very curious what the fish would’ve been like afterwards.
Some small details where you notice that Saudia is a bit of a smaller airline than Emirates, Qatar Airlines, Etihad, Swiss airlines or similar ones are for example that you don’t get a menu of what is going to be served beforehand. On Emirates and Swiss Aircrafts you’ll always find small booklets either already at your seat or handed out during the flight where you can read up on the different dishes and have time to decide what you want. I tried searching the entertainment system for Infos about the menu but I couldn’t find any.
Other details that I noticed were that they didn’t server proper milk for tea and coffee but only had creamer powder, instead of trays you got a paper matt for your table (which if the trays on other airlines would get thrown away, I would definitely prefer), and that the staff hands you your drinks instead of serving it on a tray from which you can pick it up.
These details are all super nitpicky and don’t really ruin the flight, but might take away from the experience a bit. The only real thing I find sad though is the part about the milk.
One thing to also keep in mind when flying with Saudi Arabian Airlines is that this airline does not serve alcohol, in case that is of importance to you. (On that notice also, you can’t bring any alcohol in your hand luggage to Saudi Arabia, even if you are on a transit flight and you bought it at the duty free shop and got it in that sealed bag [I think cities in the UAE allow that, it’s only Saudi thats super strict about it]).
Movies
Ayyyy, my favorite section of every journey: small humans movie recommendations!
The first movie I watched this time was a Chinese animated movie called “I am what I am”. Although the animation might not be Pixar level, after watching the movie for a bit you appreciate the charm it adds to the movie and it’s nice to see animation styles that are not completely like the western norm we see in so many movies. It tells a beautiful story of the young boy named Gyun who wants to be a lion dancer and the struggles of finding a team and training hard enough to compete in a championship. Besides this story, the movie perfectly encapsulates the struggles of families during the industrialization where families had to move away from the village into the city to work and support their relatives in the village while having a hard life themselves in the city. A lot of ups and downs and in my opinion a very nice and heartwarming and inspiring story that is being told. Still, you can’t forget it’s a animated kids movie so it’s not blockbuster-level deep drama in there^^ but definitely worth seeing if you want to watch a eastern animated movie 🙂
The second movie I watched was an Indonesian dramedy about a guy who quit his job and persue his job of owning an independent business himself. He opens a laundry service with a lot of funny and crazy employees. This business has a lot of ups and downs especially after a laundry business opens up right in the other side of the street! I think it’s pretty entertaining and a nice story to watch. 🙂
The third and last movie was the Japanese con-artist movie, the confidence Man JP. It follows the adventure of a japanese con-artist trio that challenge each other to steal a ancient greek figurine from a retired spanish drug Lord living in Italy. This might already sound crazy but you’re not prepared for what is coming. This movie has soo many twists and turns and double crosses and reveals that your head explodes! It follows the scheme of heist movies but x100! Very funny, some might find it over the top and to much, but if you have nothing to watch and you wanna watch something new, it’s definitely worth watching! 😀
What’s complicated about the entertainment system saudia is using, is that the movies you marked as favorites can not be found in any favorites folder/playlist. I searched everywhere but couldn’t find where I could view all my marked movies. To avoid this, I recommend you clicking on “Add to playlist” rather that giving them a heart.
Other stuff
The second flight was better in terms of overall experience than the first one. Before takeoff we got hot wet towels handed out and during the flight a hygiene pack with hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and face masks as well as a sleeping kit with socks and a eye mask.
Another cool feature this plane had, was tinting windows. You could change the windows tint by the press of a button and there were sic stages to choose from. The tinting happened quite fast, only the ‘un-tinting’ took one/two mins. I tried the whole flight to find out how the tinting works and my best guess I could come up with, was a colored gas that might be blown into the middle of the two windows and according to the setting it increases or decrease the amount of gas in there. But that seems at the same time pretty crazy so I don’t know. Maybe one of you guys knows and and lets me know in the comments 🙂 otherwise I’ll just get my lazy ass to Google it^^
A very nice feature I came across in the entertainment system this time was that you could set alarms named “wake me up for food” and “wake me up for landing” in the settings menu. That’s probably nothing new for most, but I just now found it and I think it’s super handy to have as I already slept through a meal once on a flight before ;-;
