HFM328, operating as Global Airlines' second ever inaugural flight! (9H-GLOBL)
The 'Sky Pub' aboard 9H-GLOBL.
Seat 22A in Business Class on the Upper Deck.
The first Global Airlines service. As I was upgraded, I received the 'Global Traveller' (Economy) meal. This consisted of a herbed chicken ballotine with heritage carrots and garlic crushed confit potatoes. The starter was a caprese salad consisting of coloured cherry tomatoes, bocconcini mozzarella and fresh basil. There was a seeded bread roll with butter and oil and balsamic vinegar and dessert was a lemon and lavender tart with French meringue. This is hands down one of the best meals I've ever eaten on a plane.
The second Global Airlines service - afternoon tea. A selection of sandwiches ranging from salmon and cucumber with lemon cream cheese, beef and horseradish, egg mayonnaise and coronation chicken. A fruit scone with butter, clotted cream and Tiptree Strawberry Jam and a slice of my all-time favourite cake, Battenburg. This was served with hot Assam tea and a choice of drink from the bar - I went for an orange juice.
Interesting, this is the only positive review I've seen on Global airlines limited flights thus far. Perhaps the upgrade or the fact that it was the 2nd (or 3rd) flight helped make it a more positive experience, but the inaugural flight looked to be a disaster service-wise, where they didn't even do a second meal service on an 8h TATL! As far as the hard product it is comically far off from the amazing industry-leading cabins we were promised for years. It's just an old China Southern interior--which wasn't even really cutting edge 10 years ago, much less today. And the lack of working in-seat IFE or USB ports is truly embarassing. Thank goodness at least there was streaming IFE. The one positive I see is the Economy meal looked to be quite good by Y standards.
As an AvGeek, I always want new airlines to do well, and I especially love different and quirky service, but so far I've seen nothing of Global that looks appealing or really differentiating from the competition. Not that there's much opportunity to fly them since they've only done a few of these charters operated by HiFly so far. I wish them well, but so far what I've seen has been a big let down. Thanks for sharing!
I think we can be in danger of being wholly-cynical sometimes, I took a different approach on this flight and embraced it for what it was - a 'trial' essentially. Yes the IFE wasn't working (to me it really doesn't bother me as I either nail through a load of work or just sit back and enjoy the switch off, but I can absolutely understand this would be a disappointment to others. The 'Global Times' feature was good though and worked very well upon testing. The catering was certainly the best economy meal I've ever had - and I've travelled extensively as well as operating as Cabin Crew in the past.
I absolutely agree that everyone's opinion on something like this is going to be different - and this was just mine. I'm not saying it was right or wrong, but I enjoyed my time on-board and wish the team the very best. They're exceptionally passionate, friendly and welcoming people - and if anyone deserves to pull it off, they do!
There's also a lot of other positive reviews online (I'm not the only one!) albeit yes, I think the Glasgow inaugural got off the ground with quite a lot of teething problems (to be expected, no?).
Thanks for your support! - James 😀