Review of Saudia flight Jeddah → Beirut in Business

At The Airport

Saudia airline operates from the south terminal in Jeddah and they are the only airline that operates out of the south terminal. All other airlines operate from the north terminal. Saudia offers a whole kiosk consistent of 6 counters for their First/business class passengers and Sky Priority members. Going through immigration you will be able to find a sky priority counter, however, no one enforcing that only SkyPriority members are allowed so every now and then someone slips in the line but it is still much fewer people than going through other counters. Saudia doesn't offer a SkyPriority lane for the security check.

Lounge

After going through security you will find the duty free and to the left of the duty free entrance, you will find the entrance to the Saudia Al-Fursan lounge. it is not the biggest lounge out there however it is always clean and neat there is a buffet that offers food depending on the time, a cold snack bar, couple coffee machines spread around the lounge. and a variety of cold beverages. As for seating options you get a couple there are some lounging chairs with a little table you could pull in to be more convenient if you wish to work wich I did and it was very comfortable I was able to get almost all my work over with wich left me to enjoy my plane ride with no work to do.And then there is the couch option it is convenient if you are a family or group of friends traveling together. The lounge does announce when flights start boarding.

Boarding

Right after my flight was announced boarding in the lounge I packed my things and headed towards my gate.Skypriority gets their own useless lane and I say useless because after boarding you go down the stairs and there you meet all other passengers and you have to wait just like any other passenger on the flight for the buses to arrive. On Saudi Airlines's website, it is stated that board will be proceeded by zones (http://www.saudia.com/TRAVEL-INFORMATION/Airport-Services/Boarding-by-Zones), however, that is now true I have been flying Saudia for around 10 years now and I have never seen them board with zones business class passengers get the same bus trip to the plane as economy passengers. But you get to board the plane from the front end of the plane while other passengers board through the back end.


Seat/Servieses

After a short (it is not always short it could take up to 10 mins) bus trip to the Airplane we were greeted by a lovely A330 ( Saudia only offers this airplane on specific dates on this route I usually make sure it is an A330 on the day I am traveling because Saudia usually operates an A320 or an A321 on this route and the business class product on Saudia's narrow body airplanes is absolutely terrible and worthless I would rather take an exit row seat in economy than a business class seat ) First, you get greeted by the lovely Saudia crew members waiting to welcome you on board and show you to your assigned seat. as I walked into the cabin I have realized that it was the newly renovated Bussines class seat so I was pretty excited. it was a 2-2-2 configuration making the window seats have no direct aisle aces, but the cabin was not filled and I was lucky to have an empty seat next to me.


Saudia usually offers Arabic coffee prior to departure however they didn't on this flight they offered after departure, However, they did offer a variety of juice I went with the minted lemonade.


Shortly after take off a hot towel and the Arabic coffee (i don't like it personally so I didn't get any) where offered.


I then changed into my PJ's ( not offered by Saudia I usually carry my own in my carry on bag ) and headed back to my seat to relax for a bit. I asked for a pillow and a blanket before heading to the restroom to change and when I got back I found them on the seat next to mine
the flight time was 2:30 so turn down service was not offered but the bed turns full flat if you want to sleep

I did try to sleep but I wasn't able to the cabin temperature was not cool enough for me. so after around 10 mins of lying in my seat trying to sleep, i got up and immediately the flight attendant assigned to my seat came and asked me if I would like breakfast now or a bit later. For breakfast, there wasn't much to offer the menu only had two dishes and some beverages were offered.

I took the omelet option. It was pretty good. and shortly after I took the photo a flight attendant passed by with some tea and coffee. I went for the coffee.

shortly after I asked for another cup of coffee and the attendant was more than happy to get me another one

Entertainment


in my opinion, Saudia's IFE is one of the worst IFE systems I have seen, but keep in mind that other than Saudi I usually travel Emirates and Etihad and they have award winning systems you kind of have to try it on your own to decide. As a Saudi frequent flyer, I am prepared and get some sort of entertainment with me whether it was a book or movie on my laptop. on this flight, I had my laptop with my own noise canceling headphones.
Saudia usually offers a decent pair of headphones for business class passengers however I wasn't offered a pair this flight I don't know why.

Arriving At Destination

Buessines/First class passengers get to leave the airplane before economy passengers which made immigration a breeze since we where the only flight arriving at the time.In almost no time the course started and the luggage arrived, however, luggage was not prioritized and after waiting for a long while my bag arrived with no priority tags on it. this is the first time happening to me with Saudia but it didnt realy matter anyways since the lugagge wasnt prioritized.