It’s happened to me before and (airline gods willing) it just might happen again.
Checking in for my 11-hour overnight flight from Perth to Johannesburg with South African Airways, I handed my boarding pass to the charming young lady at the departure gate.
She scanned my pass and immediately a red light started flashing on her console.
“Problem?” I enquired slightly nervously.
She checked her screen. “We’ve upgraded you to business class, Mr Underwood.”
Those seven words (technically eight) were pure manna from heaven. Seat 16a sounded a lot better than 54c.
And so it was that I took my window seat in the second section of the business class cabin on SAA’s A340. Despite a gate change, boarding was swift and easy as it often is when you’re in the ‘turn left’ queue.
There are 38 lie-flat seats in SAA’s business class cabin in a 2 x 2 x 2 formation, with 26 in the main section and a secondary pod consisting of only 12. Each seat is 23.7 inches wide and offers 73 inches of pitch.
Row 16 is teasingly situated just before the bulkhead separating business from economy. I know it’s not polite to gloat but I couldn’t help but smile as I glanced towards the back of the plane and those settling in for their trip to Joburg.
First impressions of my seat were very favourable. There was a stack of room between me and the seat in front and a decent barrier between me and the lady in 16c.
Searching around for airline goodies I spotted the amenities kit which contained all the necessities: socks, eye mask, hair clip, body lotion, toothpaste and lip balm.
A decent set of headphones were provided while a handy recessed compartment by my right elbow housed a bottle of water and the controls for my TV, which was stowed in the armrest, as was my folding table in the opposite armrest.
There was a tentacle-style light for reading and charging ports for laptop and phone, although these were tucked away and not particularly well placed, ergonomically speaking. Overall I found the space to be clean and uncluttered without a lot of unnecessary stuff.
As we settled in, Ignatius the purser came over and introduced himself. He was carrying a tray and offered champagne or a soft drink so it would have been churlish not to accept a glass of bubbles before take-off. I was also offered a magazine and, amazingly in this day and age, an actual printed newspaper.
Perusing the seat controls, they were located on the barrier between the seats and were of the slightly old fashioned push button style with diagrams showing full recline, half recline and variants in between. But with 10 different settings, it was possible to get the footrest, backrest and bottom of the seat into the ideal position for sleeping.
Shortly after take-off Ignatius informed us that a dinner service would commence shortly.
Dear reader, I would love to tell you what that meal looked, smelt and tasted like, but as I’d just flown from Sydney to Perth and then had a six-hour layover and it was past 2am AEST, I’m afraid I was ready for bed.
Bedding came in the form of a seat cover, a really cuddly duvet and a small pillow. I made the rookie error of not putting the seat cover on before retiring for the night, which meant the seat was less padded than intended. My bad back will never forgive me…
Having said that, I was asleep within moments, probably because even at 1.82cms tall I couldn’t touch the seat in front with my feet when my seat was fully reclined. The cocoon around the head area also meant most of the ambient noise was cancelled out.
Just before dozing off I glanced around the cabin and noticed many of my fellow passengers doing the same thing – it looked like a cabin full of mummies!
I slept for a good six to seven hours. On waking, I wasn’t stiff or sore and was sorely tempted to try and snuggle down all the way to Joburg.
However, breakfast was being served as we were only a couple of hours from landing so in the interests of this review I decided to peruse the inflight entertainment offering.
A fair selection of new release movies mingled with some old favourites (needless to say Blended made the cut!), plus TV shows, games, kids entertainment and the ubiquitous flight map.
I opted to watch a movie while chowing down on an omelette wrapped in a pancake (go figure?!?), a yummy yoghurt, croissants, pastries and piping hot tea.
We arrived a little earlier than scheduled and I practically skipped off the plane, ready for my next connection down to Cape Town.
Obviously I was delighted to be upgraded on this leg of my trip from Australia to South Africa and would have no hesitation in recommending you spend a little extra to get there comfortably and ready to explore this fascinating country.
# Customers travelling on SAA’s new A330-300 can enjoy a new design of flat-bed that’s almost two-metres long when fully extended. With an updated cabin layout, each of these seats has increased privacy, individual aisle access and offer even more personal stowage.
