Review of Middle East Airlines flight Beirut Frankfurt in Business

Flight ME217
Class Business
Seat 4F
Aircraft Airbus A320
Flight time 04:10
Take-off 11 Feb 13, 07:20
Arrival at 11 Feb 13, 10:30
ME 66 reviews
PilotEchoMike
Published on 15th December 2019

Hello folks! I have found an archive of pictures, and will be reporting on a Business Class flight to Frankfurt from Beirut with Middle East Airlines. 
From the conventional Cedar Lounge, long before the renovations that were completed two years ago,  below is a little shot taken featuring the cedar tails and one Turkish airlines A321 that slept in Beirut overnight. 


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Just after a warm breakfast in the lounge, it was last call for MEA217 bound for Frankfurt, the aircraft was parked on gate 8. Registration of the aircraft back then was F-OMRN, before being registered shortly after to OD-MRN. 


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Departure announcements started, and shortly after we started pushing back. Plenty of legroom right?


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This cabin is equipped with one power outlets per seat, totaling to two. Right above are the headphone jacks. 


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Once we got airborne, the advertisements on all screen started, as you may already know, it is one annoying feature on the ME flights, but for such services the airline has got to do some more revenue, and I don't blame them. I think it wouldn't hurt that much to have advertisements running for 15 mins only, when you have a flight of 4 hours ahead of you. Shortly after, the cabin crew started to prepare for the breakfast served on board. Now I apologize in advance, I have only got a picture of the starter, I couldn't a picture of the main course, but I recall ordering the Knefeh, a famous Lebanese breakfast. It was delicious! 

The headphones were distributed, much better than in economy, but still lacks when competing against the top tier Middle Eastern carriers. 


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This was the starter, a very generous portion of Labneh (Lebanese Spread Yoghurt), fruits, cheese, honey and jam! You may choose a vast variety of breads also. One thing I always appreciate on board MEA, is the generosity of their inflight meal, regardless of the class or route. 


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Just to be fair, this is the aftermath of my breakfast. Can't complain! Note the cutlery are stainless steel and branded MEA. 


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There is always an accompaniment of chocolate on MEA's business class, prepared by the famous luxury chocolate brand Patch from Lebanon, which labeled and branded for MEA. Of course it doesn't beat SWISS' signature chocolate, but it is also a good chocolate! 


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Meanwhile watching a movie on board, note that all movies are subtitled in Arabic. Although you have the option to watch the movie in either French or English languages. Except of course for Arabic movies, that are aired in Arabic, but subtitled in either French or English. 


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Remote control


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Entering Turkish airspace over land


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Since the aircraft was particularly empty in Business Class, I had the liberty to jump around the cabin, and take pictures from a different view. 


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This is what my seat looked like, with the airline provided headphones. 


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In the armrests you will find the tray table, seat config and massage buttons.


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Over Istanbul


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During the whole trip, we were flying over overcast clouds, which means no view from below the clouds at all. 


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We began our decent into snowy Frankfurt, we entered quite severe turbulence, and landed in Frankfurt with very low visibility, CATIII category. This is a wrap for this flight report, I hope you enjoyed it! Apologies for the missing pictures.

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Verdict

Middle East Airlines

9.0/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew9.0
Entertainment/wifi8.5
Meal/catering10.0

Cedar Lounge

9.1/10
Comfort10.0
Meal/catering9.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Services8.5

Beirut - BEY

6.6/10
Efficiency6.5
Access7.5
Services8.5
Cleanliness4.0

Frankfurt - FRA

8.4/10
Efficiency7.5
Access9.0
Services8.5
Cleanliness8.5

Conclusion

Flight went very smooth and was enjoyable, crew was very professional, the food was great and entertainment was enough for the flight back in 2013. If I were to rate it on a similar flight this year, Entertainment would go down to 6.5 as it lacks a vast majority of movies, and most airlines now have WiFi on similar routes worldwide. To note, MEA will introduce WiFi on board their flights starting the delivery of their A321neo!

Hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for more!

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