JU501 JFK-BEG

June 24th, 2022

Posts in this series:

Introduction - Surf & Turf From the Aegean Coast to the Saharan Desert

Review - Air Serbia Business Class A330-200 New York JFK to Belgrade

Review - Metropol Palace Belgrade, A Luxury Collection Hotel

Review - The Bodrum Edition

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Istanbul

Review - Turkish Airlines Business Class B737-8 Max Istanbul to Marrakech

Review - Amanjena

Review - Royal Air Maroc Business Class B787-8 Casablanca to New York JFK

Check-in:

If you read my previous post on JW Marriott Guanacaste, you know I’ve had a rough first half of the year work-wise. Needless to say this trip came at just the right time before I was about to burn all the bridges and give my two-weeks. However, this trip had been in the works for quite awhile. I’d been wanting to go to Bodrum even before the pandemic - I made a reservation for summer 2020, but y’all know how that went.

Two years later, we revisited the idea of going to Turkey, which, for those of you uncultured bunch, has renamed itself Türkiye. Apparently the country's leadership didn't want to be associated with the poultry anymore? Of all the things they shouldn’t want to be associated with… You know what, I’m gonna keep my opinion to myself since, first of all, I’m not Turkish; second of all, nobody asked for it. Imagine a world where people would have this kind of awareness.

Anyways, I’ve long yearned to visit Turkey, oh pardon me, Türkiye ever since I got a first taste many years ago on a layover in Istanbul. I’ve been to many sprawling metropolises in the world, but the vibrancy of Istanbul left a deep impression on me. Therefore, in a fashion typical to this household where I get everything I want, “we” decided we were going to Türkiye for my birthday and our anniversary.

For our first real trip to Türkiye, we decided to hit the two most popular destinations - Bodrum and Istanbul. For those of you not familiar with Bodrum, think of it as the Turkish St. Tropez. Bodrum is normally quite a scene in the summer, and with the sanctions on Russia this year, I knew Bodrum was going to be 🔥.

I booked this trip quite early in the year, so it was before the revenge travel to Europe really got wild. To get there, Air Serbia had three award seats open for our date on its flight from JFK, so that worked out wonderfully for us. Air Serbia had been on my radar well before the pandemic, and it even got a new second-hand Airbus A330 this year. I booked our tickets from JFK to Belgrade and then to Bodrum using Aeroplan miles, at a cost of 75,000 miles plus fees in business class per person. Normally this itinerary would’ve cost 70,000 miles, but I wanted to have a stopover to visit Serbia so I paid an extra 5,000 miles for that. Aeroplan is a transfer partner with both American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. Alternatively, you could also book the nonstop flight between JFK and Belgrade using Etihad Guest miles for 64,082 miles. But you have to pay separately for each additional connecting flight, and it requires booking by phone. It’s 2022, and I did not have the patience for that.

On the day of our departure, I logged off from work early and headed to JFK at around 4pm for our 7:30PM flight. In the past I’d never arrive at an airport right when check-in opens. But we live in strange times where every person you know is in Europe for the summer (recession who?), coupled with Friday afternoon rush out of the city, I thought the better of it and left earlier than usual. As it turned out, we needed every minute of that 3.5hrs, as we made it to the gate right as boarding commenced.

Air Serbia uses terminal 1 at JFK, which is my second least favorite terminal at the airport. Too many European airlines use T1, and most flights to Europe leave at the same time. The check-in counters for Air Serbia were at the farthest end of the departure hall. The area wasn’t crowded, as most people had already checked in by the time we made it out of traffic. There were two dedicated business class counters, so we were helped immediately. The girl at check-in saw we were headed to Bodrum and told us that she had a blast there. Her exact words were “I’ve never been waited on so well in my entire life.”. Well that’s promising.

Check-in was relatively quick, while waiting the Serbian man next to us had 8 giant Home Depot boxes plus a 65” Sony TV and an inflatable pool. Nothing screams the American dream than a flatscreen TV and backyard toys. Shortly with our boarding passes in hand, we made our way to the serpentine security check queue. I’m running out of references to describe how long a line is. Let’s just go with “the waitlist to buy a stainless steel Daytona”.

Am I the only one who finds it extremely annoying when a Pre-Check lane isn’t a full Pre-Check lane? Like you still have to take out your electronics and stuff? My partner’s bag got pulled because he forgot there was a Kindle inside. Naturally there was no TSA agent to perform secondary screening, not until the bags backed all the way up to the agent sitting by the monitor, then somebody finally showed up. It’s quite painful to see humans function at such de minimus capacity. There were only 5 passengers in front of us, but it was well over 45 minutes before our turn. I want to mention that there were 4 agents standing behind the metal detector not doing anything. When approached by one of the passengers, they responded they couldn’t leave their station. I was highly skeptical that it would take 4 people to man 1 detector. I was soon proven right as the agent by the monitor started yelling at the other agents to come check the pulled bags.

So many complaints already, and we aren’t even on the plane yet.

Boarding:

We skipped lounge as we were short on time. If you do, Air Serbia uses the Primeclass Lounge in T1, which also belongs to Priority Pass. Boarding soon commenced with passengers needing extra time to board first, followed by business class.

We boarded through door 2L. Before turning left I snapped a quick picture of economy class, which was in the standard 2-4-2 configuration.

Back in business, I assigned us 1H & 1K - the first row on the starboard side. Air Serbia has Thompson Vantage seats in business class, which you can find on Aer Lingus, Swiss and Austrian. The seats are by no means cutting-edge, but it’s an upgrade over its older herringbone seats when the airline leased a Jet Airways A330.

While the plane was retrofitted, it didn’t feel particularly fresh. The finishes are pretty neutral, with the headrest being the only pop of color. Shortly after we settled down, the flight attendant on our aisle came over with a tray of non-alcoholic welcome beverages. We both chose water.

Most airlines either don’t serve or serve cheap alcohol when on the ground in the US to avoid paying the alcohol tax. I wouldn’t have minded if I was traveling for business, but in the case that we were traveling for a special occasion, I wish there were at least some prosecco to get the party going, yaknow?

Awaiting at our seats were amenity kits, menus, headphones, blankets and pillows. There was a proper turndown service after dinner with additional mattress pad. The amenity kit was basic and had the same products as Etihad Airways.

Evening rush at JFK finally returned, as we sat at our gate for about an hour after our scheduled departure time. I took this time to browse through the menu, which reads as follows:

Personally I found the menu to be more than adequate. This flight is longer than most flights to Europe due to Serbia’s geographic location, so the airline even served two hot meals. I want to commend Air Serbia for offering a true dine-on-demand in business class, which as you all long-time readers know is more of a first class service. The flight attendant explained we could have any of our meals whenever we wanted.

The legroom for our seats was plentiful, thanks to the bulkhead position.

Parked next to us was an ITA Airways A330. When I first saw ITA’s new livery I was a bit shook by how bold it was, but I must say after having seen it in real life it’s one hell of a gorgeous plane.

At this point the captain made his welcome announcement, which was one of the most detailed I’ve ever listened to. He mentioned all the cities that we were going to fly over. This was also when the safety demonstration was performed by the flight attendants manually. It occurred to me JFK is Air Serbia’s only long-haul destination, which explains why there’s no safety video. During pushback we were treated this sunset over the city in the distance, as well as a long queue of aircraft awaiting takeoff.

Inflight:

We first flew towards the Atlantic ocean, then turned north towards Connecticut.

Before not too much time had passed, our FA came over to take our orders for apéritifs and meals. We asked if we could do a tasting of the traditional rakia, a Serbian brandy, which she gladly obliged. Served alongside rakia were some actually warm nuts.

Our tables were quickly set up for dinner service. I appreciate prompt meal service on an eastbound transatlantic flight, given how short the durations usually are. Everything was placed by the FA on the table directly, with no meal trays involved.

For starters, I went with the niçoise salad, and my partner went for the Serbian meze with corn bread, cottage cheese, kajmak, prune with walnut and cheese, beef salami, tomato and beef prosciutto.

Overall the starters were fine. Although my salad didn’t have any dressing, the vegetables were all quite fresh. I just improvised and added the balsamic vinegar and olive oil to my salad, which turned out nicely. The Serbian meze didn’t look quite as appealing as Arabic mezze on Emirates.

For main course, I selected the trout with vegetables and lemon slice, while my partner chose the Karadjordjeva steak, served with tartar sauce, french fries and sautéed carrots and peas. The Karadjordjeva steak tasted like a mix between pork schnitzel and chicken kiev. I think it’s supposed to be filled with cheese so it’s kinda like a juicy Lucy too? To accompany our main courses we ordered the two Serbian reds Trianon and Tri Morave. Both were excellent. I LOVE Serbian wine.

Both main dishes were decent. There wasn’t anything gourmet about either, but they were serviceable. To conclude the meal, we shared a chocolate tartlet with fruits, paired with the Serbian dessert wine Bermet Beli. Comparable to the other dishes, the dessert was fine. I guess the bar for catering among European carriers is just so low so Air Serbia didn’t try much either.

I want to share a few ruminations about inflight service. The crew worked incredibly hard for dinner service, which was finished within 90 mins of departure. It was impressive given they served course by course, instead of putting everything on one tray. There was never any rush in the service, as courses were done at a personalized pace. The crew was generally great about refills as well.

After dinner, our FA offered to make our beds for some rest, which was much appreciated. We were also offered a set of pajamas and slippers, which I did not expect.

Similar to most European airlines, there were no individual air nozzles, and unfortunately the cabin got quite warm towards the second half of the flight. Albeit the adversity, I still managed to sleep for a solid five hours, which must have been my personal record for a flight this length.

With under two hours left, the crew offered to serve us breakfast. We chose the American pancakes with berries and vanilla sauce, and the ciabatta sandwich. I ordered these as I was up anyway, otherwise I wouldn’t have woken up for breakfast.

Soon enough we started our descent into Belgrade.

On Arrival:

We touched down in Belgrade roughly 30 mins behind schedule. Upon debarkation, I snapped a few pics of our bird today.

Immigration was a breeze, however, we waited 45 mins before we retrieved our bags. I think the wait was a bit excessive, especially the priority bags ended up coming out last.

That said, I’d definitely recommend Air Serbia in a heartbeat. Its hard product and catering are mostly on par with its competitors. It’s not like the seats and food on Lufthansa or Iberia are any superior. However, Air Serbia is in a higher league when it comes to soft product. It has a true dine-on-demand menu, where you can choose to eat whatever you want whenever you want. Granted the menu selection is no Qatar Airways, but it’s a genuine attempt at great customer service nonetheless. The FAs were diligent and friendly - they poured each wine at seat, proactively offered turndown service, interacted professionally and politely. I had never been to Serbia, but the FAs acted as ambassadors of their country. In our time in Belgrade, the Serbians we met were equally friendly and welcoming.

Undoubtedly there was room for improvement - the IFE selection was extremely limited. There were maybe 40 movies on offer, and most of them weren’t from the past 5 years. The catering could’ve been much better should they want to differentiate themselves even more. All in all, though, I’d fly Air Serbia with no hesitation.