2 years of reckless travel had a big impact on my eating habits. I realized that I had to reduce my intake of carbs, protein & fat. Long flights serving 3 meals seemed like a low-hanging fruit. Without wasting time, I started experimenting with the various dietary meal options that most airlines offer – provided the request is placed 24 hours before the flight.
At first I switched to a fat free meal, which avoided gluten in the preparation and served fruits in lieu of an unhealthy dessert option. Together with this, I consciously reduced cola & soda intake and switched to juices or just plain water – lots of it. I refrained from all snacks, peanuts especially. But the meal still served a chunk Continue reading Staying healthy onboard→
I usually try flying Star Alliance (*A), especially with Air India (AI) on board. But there are still quite a few sectors where *A lacks good connections – like Portland for example. I’ve been consciously avoiding Air France (AF) after reading about their mistreatment of Indians. We did try booking easterly via Japan, but with just a week’s notice, even that was sold out. I was left with no option but to fly Skyteam all through BOM-CDG-SLC-PDX-AMS-BOM with AF-DL.
The numbers
The to & fro journeys happen to be my longest 2 ever: a whopping 32 hours end-to-end to Portland, and 25 hours on the return. It also has the highest meeting-to-journey (MTJ) ratio of 28.5 hours of travel per hour of business meetings 🙂 The previous record was 15 hours. CDG-SLC also happens to be my longest sector this year – 5072 miles.
BOM-CDG on Air France
Midnight snack on AF
Without airline lounge access, I used the Clipper lounge which seems inferior to the new CSIA First Class lounge. We had an on-time departure around 2am. On board the A330, the crew seemed very pleasant. They distributed headphones and a night kit with an eye mask & ear muffs. The light midnight snack was the largest served by any airline that operates flights post midnight. LH, LX, VS, DL all serve a puff roll with drinks. Apart from the hot snack, AF served fruits – really help keep you hydrated on long flights – and a granola bar to munch later in the night. They used an older In-flight entertainment (IFE) system Continue reading 2 days in the air with Skyteam→
I was scheduled to fly Air India just 1 day before its Star Alliance (*A) membership went in to effect, thus depriving us of our *G privileges. Nonetheless, most of us are delighted about AIs entry to *A which allows seamless transfer of miles, lounge access, priority boarding, to name a few.
Lunch: sans the typical bakery roll
AI seems to have taken their entry seriously – knowing that memberships have been revoked in the past. Most of our 4-leg journey was as scheduled. But there’s still a long way to go. The food menu needs to be more internationalized and most importantly, legacy crew needs a mindset change. The crew on the international sector seemed more geared up than their domestic counterparts. Continue reading 1st impression of Air India @ Star Alliance→
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