Munich Franz-Joeef Strauß

I arrived at the airport early at 09:20 and walked to the check in desks of US Airways. There were long lines for Economy Class but at the Envoy Class / Star Gold Counters only two passengers were queuing. It took approximately two minutes before it was my turn. One agent at the entrance to the counters asked me about my destination and my luggage. It was the usual questioning for security reasons and finally I was allowed to approach the check in desk. There were self check in facilities but two Lufthansa agents were assisting passengers. The machine acknowledged the icon of the reservation but was not able to get the status right – something I have experienced numerous times. So the Lufthansa agent had to type it in manually and finally my boarding pass showed the correct status (“Star Gold”) on the boarding pass and in the system as well. I was told that two pieces of hand luggage were okay, but I should try to store my shoulder bag into my carry on while in the lounge.

I left the check in desk and walked upstairs to the security checkpoints. The early morning rush was already over and the lines were not that long anymore. The Star Gold First Class line were not empty, but the lines not very long. Unlike in Düsseldorf my carry on was manually searched due to the many electronic gadgets I had in my carry on.

After I had passed the security check point I walked to the Senator Lounge close to gate G 28. The lounge is usually less crowded than the other Senator Lounge in the G concourse and also than the Senator lounge in the H concourse. I mentioned to the agent verifying my boarding pass that I knew I had to go upstairs, but would prefer this lounge over the more crowded lounge upstairs and that I would go upstairs half an hour before scheduled boarding time. She smiled and mentioned she was about to tell me exactly that I had to go upstairs early enough to pass immigration in time. I made also a quick visit to the other lounge which was also not that busy.

In the lounge I checked e-mails and grabbed something to eat from the buffet and spent the next 40 minutes in the lounge before I left it and took the escalator upstairs to immigration. There were a lot of people queuing but the designated immigration counters for first class, business class and Star Gold passengers were not that long and moved quite fast.

There were 30 minutes left before boarding time was announced to start and I decided to visit the newly refurbished Senator Lounge at the H concourse. The lounge was not only refurbished but also extended. There is now a bar serving alcoholic beverage in addition to the self service buffet in the front part of the lounge. Lounge chairs in front of TV screens are featured in the rear part of the lounge while lounge chairs and regular chairs and tables are available in the front part of the lounge. The color scheme is the same than in the lounge in the G concourse, variations of brown colors and wooden elements with light brown tiles. A picture / photo with motives from the Alps were at the window in the ceiling. I got another cup of coffee from the self service machine and spent the next 20 minutes in the lounge. Ten minutes before boarding time I decided to slowly walk over to the gate H 18.

There was the additional security check in before I was able to access the gate.

The nice thing of Munich is you can see the plane and so I did what I always doing before a flight, I looked for the registration of the plane. Our plane today was N270AY, an Airbus A 330-300 or Airbus A330-323X to be correct. What does this ‘323X’ mean? Well, this is quite simple. The plane is an Airbus A 330-300 and the last digits are describing the type of engine. It is 23 because the plane has PW4168 engines of Pratt and Whitney. The X after the 323 is an indication for higher take off weight and greater range. Most Airbus A330-300 delivered after 1999 are -300X. The PW 4168 have a thrust of 68,600 lbf or 305.14 kn. The fan has a diameter of 100 inch, which equals 2.54 m, why the engine is sometimes named as PW4168-100.

Boarding started at 11:10 with passengers who needed additional assistance. Nobody boarded at this time and soon later passengers traveling in Envoy Class were invited to board the plane. I was the second passenger boarding the plane.

16 February 2012
MUC - PHL
[Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß – Philadelphia International]
US 707 (US Airways); Airbus 330-300 (N270AY)
Gate H 18
12:00 – 15:25 [effective 12:06– 15:19]
Envoy Class (Business Class)
Seat 04 F

At the door I was greeted by a flight attendant and asked if I need directions which I declined as I knew where my seat was located. Turning left and the second seat in row 4 was my seat for the next 8 hours or so. I used the opportunity to take a few pictures of the cabin. The plane had the old seats. At the time I bought the ticket it showed the old configuration but soon later it showed the new configuration before if switched back from an Airbus A 330-200 to an A 330-300 with the old configuration for the next couple of weeks. Than it was a bit of back and forth with old and new configuration. Two days before departure it suddenly showed the new configuration, but unfortunately switched back to the old one a few hours later. In the end it was the old configuration. Well, since I used miles of US Airways and booked a Saver Award that was not that much of a problem and it was a day flight. And of course there was still hope for my returning flight.

Soon after I had taken my seat a flight attendant offered to hang my jacket. Pre departure drinks were offered, which were a choice of sparkling water, champagne / sparkling wine and orange juice. Menus were distributed while we were still at the gate and also the amenity kits were offered. While I nipped at my champagne I looked around to get an impression of this Envoy cabin which will soon disappear as US Airways was about to reconfigure all flights with the new Envoy Cabin as I took my flight in February 2012.

Pre Departure Dink
Bottega "il Vino dei poeti" NV Proseeco DOC

The first thing I noticed, the old seats only offered an empower power outlet. No big issue for me. The batteries of my Acer laptop run close to 10 hours in power saving mode and so there was no need to charge my laptop during the flight as the battery were fully charged.

The Envoy Cabin was divided into two parts; there are the former first class section with row 1 with a seat pitch of 94 inch and a seat pitch of 19.5 inch. Those seats recline more or less fully flat. The remaining seats and the one I had were standard slanted flat seats which recline round about 160 degree. The seat pitch of these seats is 60 inch and the seat width 19.5 inch.

As a sidenote, in the meantime US Airways has finished retrofitting its longhaul fleet with the new Envoy Seats and those Airbus A330 planes with older configuration have already disappeared.

We were still on the ground as the headsets and the printed menu were also distributed and another flight attendant took our orders for our main course and asked for our choice of aperitif. I choose a glass of the Australian Chardonnay with the assorted nuts.

Time to decided what to have for lunch (opens new window)

The captain came over the intercom and welcomed us on board. He informed us about the weather in Philadelphia. We could expect an on time arrival in PHL and the weather would be rainy with about 8°C.

Business Class was not full and the load was around 60 percent with 10 open seats. I was one of the lucky guys with a free seat next to me. This was really nice and I could use the seat next to mine to place items.

The safety demonstration was done on the ground as we were pushed back at 12:06. It was performed by the flight attendants rather than showing a video.

After a short taxi to the runway it was out turn. The captain asked the crew to take their seats and pulled the thrust level and the two 305 kN P&W engines accelerated the plane to take of speed and we left Munich and climbed into the sunny sky at 12:10.

It did not take a long time and the crew left their seats and began to prepare the service. In comparison to Lufthansa it was a much shorter time which we had to wait before the first beverage round started. But first a hot towel service was done soon followed by the fist beverage round approximately 15 minutes after we left Munich. No comparison to the waiting time of usually around 45 minutes before the first beverage service started on Lufthansa flights.

Chardonnay
McWilliam's Hanwood Estate

Tray tables were laid with linen and soon later the glass of Chardonnay and the assorted nuts arrived. The service was done individually and no cart was used. This was a nice touch and I think it was due to light load compared with the service procedures on the flight back.

First Course



Grilled chicken and pepper skewer

Second Course



Breast of Chicken

Dessert



Ice Cream Sundae

Half an hour after we had left MUC the meal service started with the first course. This was served using the cart and came with the tray with cutlery and napkin. I was asked of my choice of topping for my salad. Rolls were offered as well and my glass of Chardonnay was topped.

Used plates were collected individually by the flight attendant and refills of wine and water were also offered. The crew was attentive, but did not address the passengers by name. To me, there is no question, that I prefer an individual service over a personal greeting without personal service. Sometimes you can discover this – personal greeting without personal service – in Economy Class, if the purser is not serving your part of the cabin but as much as I can somehow understand, that such a personal service is not possible in Economy, it should be done in Business Class if a personal welcome is performed by the purser.

The main course – I had opted for the chicken – arrived soon later and my glass of Chardonnay was refilled. The flight attendant had noticed what each passenger had ordered and if one stayed with the same sort of wine there was no need to inform the flight attendants about the wine, she just came around with the bottle and topped it up with the right one.

First course and main course tasted quite good. Once again I could not join the many frequent flyers bashing US Airways. The service was excellent and on the same level if not better than on Lufthansa. This might be due to the light load, but even than Lufthansa as well as United used the cart on flights with the same load and did not serve customers individually.

Dessert was served from the tray and it was a choice of cheese, ice cream and cannoli, I opted for the ice cream with a strawberry topping. I was offered as glass of Bailey with the ice cream which I accepted.

Soon later the items from the meal service were collected and the lights were dimmed and the sun shades lowered.

I skipped through the inflight entertainment system but the sound was not really good. Plugging in my own headphones did not help and I think that either the music selection was somehow bad (in terms of playing quality, the options were not bad at all) or the outlets. So I used my own MP3 player. The malfunction was not so nice and worse than on LH, as Lufthansa usually cares a bit more about everything working properly, but I have had malfunctions there as well. What I disliked what that the audio port at the empty seat next to my seat does not work either.

The flight attendants walked thought the cabin frequently and collected used items and asked if everything was okay. They offered new bottles of water and asked if one wanted to have a coffee or something else. They were seen frequently and did not disappear like a few of their colleagues on earlier flights.

I worked on my trip reports and a few hotel reports during the flight time and enjoyed several mugs of freshly brewed coffee.

Approximately 70 minutes prior to landing the cabin crew switched on the lights and began the lunch service.
Time for another quick look at the menu (opens new window)

Light Meal



Entrée Salad

The tray tables were laid with linen and freshly brewed coffee and tea were offered. The meal service was done from the cart as the captain came of the microphone informing us of an expected arrival of around 15:00 which came a bit by surprise for the crew as this meant the remaining flight time was only about 30 minutes. They had to speed up things a bit. They also run out of salads for a few passengers, as nearly everybody went with the salad and not the pizza.

The salad was okay, nothing special and the chicken was only two slices of chicken breast. Rolls were offered as well.

The captain came again over the intercom while the crew was clearing the tray tables. He informed us we had to expect a bumpier arrival and we would be also delayed a bit bringing our arrival back to 15:15. This gave the crew a bit more time to prepare the cabin. Due to the announcement of landing at 15:00 the service was a bit more of the hectic side than usual.

I slowly began to store my belongings. The arrival was indeed a bit bumpy but nothing serious.
We touched down at 15:15 and after a short taxiing arrived at our gate 21 at 15:19.

I walked to immigration, were the lines were not that long. Unfortunately one of the passengers in my line had not filled out something correctly and there was also a communication problem and an agent able to speak French had to be called for assistance. In the end I had to wait close to 20 minutes before it was my turn, but the other lines were not that much faster and I had plenty of time for my connecting flight.
Finally I made it though immigration and customs and headed down to the connecting flights.

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