Saudi Airlines?

[square earth]

They came in the cheapest , so we had to go with them ! London -Riyadh-Manila
i think a 4 hour stop. Wife and 2.5 year old only (I have to work)

how bad are they ? ! and what is Riyadh Airport like ? some say its hell...
But they tend to be on travel sites and i question a lot of those comments !

[6th Gear]

The airline/airport are fine. The only thing you will be sacrificing is a Proper Drink.

[sneijder]

How much did you save?

[square earth]

£400
Wife drinks very little. so will not worry her ! In fact i am happy when people on planes do not drink..last time in USA was a killer for me. loads of very immature men on the plane getting excited and causing mayhem .

i gather SA has a modern fleet and the in flight entertainment is ok.Food is meant to be fine
and the stop over is not 8 hours. It all adds up with a little one

[square earth]

And been a more honest forum member.... that saving is a lot of money for us. I know so many here have their own jets etc and are so rich they can afford to spend a lot of time on a forum ! :-)

we could not afford the other prices offered

[Tallow]

I've not flown them but my brother works in Saudi, and absolutely refuses to fly Saudi Airlines (he uses BMI). I think there are a number of reasons for it (booze being only one of the contributing factors). As a one off though, I don't think it would really bother me.

[Orcain]

Do you know if you are allowed to leave the aircraft in Riyadh or is it just a 4 hour transit for fuel and scheduling purposes?

It's normally a 777 I see at Terminal 4 and Saudi use a 2-5-2 layout in economy so if you get a choice of seats I'd guess Window-Aisle-Aisle on the left or Aisle-Aisle-Window on the right would be the most comfortable choice for you. They don't like people taking pictures on board from what I've heard but other than that it should be fine.

[sneijder]

square earth said:

that saving is a lot of money for us.

Tell me about it, my daughter just stopped being an infant and turned 2.

Goodbye getting away with murder with excess baggage, hello travel expenses going up 1/3.

[square earth]

I have read my wife the riot act about excess luggage . Filipinos dont tend to understand simple things !
i know one that paid £300 to take cheap sweets over there. £300 would have bought 20 x the amount of sweets there !

she will not bring any items that are not included in her allowed weight

I agree with the airlines on this one. some people have no idea about what is sensible !

[StevieBee]

Have done several trips with them - Riyadh and Jeddah. As stated, no booze but food, leg room in cattle class, service, etc, all excellent.

[J4m80]

Another positive post here, used them many times from Riyadh with no real complaints. In fact I quite like the rearmost seats because they are next to prayer room so you have nobody on opposite side of the aisle. Had some shoddy service on business class internal flight last week but otherwise good and was a brand new plane. But no booze.

I will say that Riyadh airport hasn't got a lot going for it. I guess you will be coming into terminal 2 and in common with the rest there are 4 coffee shops (starbucks, costa, etc), a food vendor and a small shop and that's yer lot. I had the misfortune to be stuck there for 5 hours a couple of weeks ago due to delayed flight (not Saudi Airlines) and it wasn't a great experience.

[square earth]

the short stop over will be good to let the little boy run around and tire himself out ! Wife is very simple with food and others have mentioned the food on the Airline is ok . I have bought her a little netbook and loaded a few kids stuff for him to watch. Not sure what the quality of kids stuff will be like onboard or even if it will be in English?
I dont envy her at all...! but i am sure knowing filpinas she will make friends with others going home and she can find a on board baby sitter , so she can get some sleep etc .

cheers for your help !