Philadelphia International

At the US Airways Club at the A Terminal the escalator up to the lounge was not working and I had to take the elevator. I was greeted at the entrance and the boarding pass was checked against the passport at the entrance and my boarding pass stamped, I asked if the plane was equipped with the new cabin and was told this was the case, so no last minute equipment change. I was also given a drink voucher and offered a code for the Wi-Fi in the lounge.

I took a seat in the left part of the lounge which was less crowded than the right side of the lounge where the bar is located. I exchanged my drink coupon for a glass of white wine and spend the next hours in the lounge reading, updating my trip report, making a few calls and checking e-mails. As boarding time came, I walked down to the gate as my green I 94 form had to be collected as I entered the US during my trip to Canada by car.

N275AY was the plane for the flight to Munich, which was delivered on December 07, 2000 to US Airways. It made its first flight in Toulouse with test registration F-WWKH on November 15, 2000. On August 15, 2006 the plane was leased back from Aircastle Ltd, headquartered in Stamford, CT. Aircastle Ltd owns about 133 narrow and wide body jets. US Airways has leased 11 planes from Aircastle Ltd according to the annual report of 2011 and was the airlines with the most leased airplanes owned by Aircastle Ltd. Other customers of Aircastle are South African Airways, Hainan Airlines Company, Martinair, Iberia and Icelandair. US Airways currently operates 7 Airbus A 330-200 and 9 Airbus A 330-300. US Airways has also placed an order for 18 Airbus A 350-800 XWB and 4 Airbus A 350-900 XWB which will be substitutes for the 10 Boeing 767-200 in the fleet of US Airways.
The engines of our Airbus are PW4168, so it was again an A330-323X. In December 2011 the plane was configured with the new Business Class and now offering 28 seats in Business (Envoy) Class and 263 seats in Business Class.

As usual, the jetbridge was connected to the second door, which is an advantage, as this means no passengers back in the Economy Class Cabin have to pass through the Business Class Cabin.

20 February 2012
PHL – MUC
[Philadelphia International – Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß]
US 706 (US Airways); Airbus 330-300 (N275AY)
Gate A 23
18:40 – 08:55 [effective 18:31 – 08:53]
Envoy Class (Business Class)
Seat 02 F

I was among the first passengers to board the plane. I took the opportunity to take a few photos of the plane interior, which was equipped with the new Envoy Class as the Business Class is called on US Airways. The first impression was quite good. The seats looked good in design, quality and space. The window seats face the window unlike the seats on Air Canada or the one of Cathay Pacific’s older Business Class. The seats are similar to what other airlines have on board as well, e.g. the new Cathay Pacific seats.

The inflight entertainment system was working on the ground, but was switched off after the safety demonstration was done and one of the flight attendants asked several passengers to take off the headphones and listen to the safety demonstration (which could be heard over the headphones as well). It was done as demonstration, there was no video shown.

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

The seat offers a power outlet and an USB port; no empower outlet but one for the European and US plugs.
Amenity kits were already placed on the seats like pillow and blankets. Printed menus were distributed on the ground.

While we were at the gate the crew asked about our choice for the main course and what we liked to have as aperitif after take-off.

Time to have a look at the menu for our flight to Munich (opens new window)

I looked around the cabin, which was located between first and second door. The configuration of 1 – 2 – 1 is good; however for the middle seats one has to lean forward to see the person in the other seat. If one is traveling alone, a seat at the window is perfect and it is also nice, that every seat has direct access to the aisle.
I also noticed, that there is no overhead space above the seats 1 A and 1 H and the one over seat 2 A is limited due to the oxygen placed in this overhead bin. The position of the food rest is not a problem for me, from my impression there is enough space.

The seat pitch in Envoy Class is 94 inch and the seat width is 19.5 inch. All seats in Envoy Class are fully flat, i.e. they recline 180 degrees.

We were pushed back at 18:31 slightly ahead of time and taxied for the runway. There, we had to wait a couple of minutes before we were number one for take-off at 18:49 and the co-pilot powered the engines and we accelerated and wheels were up soon later.

The first beverage round started 35 minutes after we left Philadelphia with warm nuts and the aperitif which I choose at the gate in PHL while order were taken by one of the flight attendants.

Gin Tonic

First Course



Sesame and Soy marinated beef
with Asian vegetable slaw

Second Course



Pecan Crusted breast of chicken

Third Course



Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream

Soon later the tray tables were laid with linen. The tray tables are smaller in the new configuration than at the old one. There is not much space and the wine glass has to be placed on the space at the seat rather than on the tray.

After 50 minutes in flight the first course arrived. The service was done by cart and the tray contained cutlery, napkin and salt and pepper. I opted for a glass of white wine.

Used dished were cleared and soon later the main course arrived. My wine glass was topped up.

The dessert followed and I choose the Ben and Jerry Ice cream and asked for a Baileys which was brought soon later by one of the flight attendant with an additional small bottle to refill my glass.

I choose the Pecan crusted chicken and the quality was quite good. I have had worse food in planes and given that one has not so high expectations on US flights, I was again quite surprised. The food was in terms of quality and quantity okay and I could not really complain.
90 minutes after we left PHL the meal service was finished and everything was collected and bottles of water were distributed as he lights were dimmed in the cabin.

I played with the remote control for the inflight entertainment system which had from my impression the same selection as on the flight from MUC to PHL. Therefore it seems that the new Envoy Cabin had not wider selection of films and music. However, this is my impression and I just skipped through the selection as I had no intention to watch a movie or listen to music but to sleep.

I lowered my seat in a flat position and went asleep. Also I like the position of the Swiss Seat better as it is somehow cozier, I had not problem to find a good position and slept with a few interruptions until the lights were turned on 75 minutes prior to expected landing, which was at this time still over 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The slightly angled position of the fully flat seat is okay, I had no problem to sleep and the position of the footrest was no problem either. I was not disturbed in any way by my seat neighbor which I did not see that much.

I skipped breakfast and decided to sleep longer as I had enough time to have breakfast in the Senator Lounge in Munich.

The crew was okay, less attentive than their colleagues on the way to Philadelphia, but this time the flight was full and therefore they had more to do. The most passengers slept during the flight and therefore there was not much to do in the night. I made two visits to the galley during the night and the flight attendant noticed me, looked up from her book or paper and asked if I needed anything else than the orange juice and water, which was available in the galley. If I would have liked, I could choose from a selection of additional snacks (cookies, sandwiches, chocolate bars and fruits) and different types of beverage during the flight.

Given the earlier start of the service one had more time to have dinner and sleep a couple of hours. On LH I most probably would have skipped dinner and went to bed straight away as the meal service would have been longer.

Due to fog in Munich, we had to fly waiting patterns, so we unfortunately did not make it earlier into Munich as expected by the flight deck in Philadelphia. At this time we had an expected arrival in Munich as of 08:02. The captain gave us an update of the weather situation and the crew made a few funny mistakes while translating the announcement from English to German, e.g. translating the temperature of -6 °C mentioned by the captain in “sehr kalt” and made the speech for arriving in the US but noticed it. On the ground, we were welcomed in Frankfurt …. Could happen …and caused a good laugh by the passengers.

We taxied to our gate H 18 where we arrived at 08:53.

To my very surprise, two flight attendants blocked the aisle, so that passengers of Envoy could disembark first. This was a first time for me on US Airways. Soon I was on my way to immigration and customs.

Top

next flight