At the Airport

Check-in Counters

EgyptAir departs from London Heathrow Terminal 2, the Star Alliance Airlines hub. EgyptAir check-in counters are located at Zone B, in the terminal’s centre. The five EgyptAir check-in and ticketing counters do not operate 24/7; they are open at 6.30 pm for our 10.30 pm flight. Two of these five counters, from B18 to B22, are dedicated to Business Class. There was no separate queue for passengers who had already performed their check-in online. Despite only one passenger ahead of us in the queue at the Business Class counter, we still had to wait for 10 minutes to be checked in. The ground manager operating the counter was very busy multitasking, performing check-ins and sorting out any issues (which seemed to pop up every now and then) with passengers flying out that evening. The ground manager was very friendly and apologetic for the delay in check-in. She gave us directions to the nearest lounge to wait for our gate to be announced. She even reminded us as Business Class passengers, we were able to use the Gold Track immigration lane, which has a much shorter queue and granted us access to the airside within minutes.

Lounges

Lufthansa Business Lounge

The Lufthansa lounges are located in the main terminal building at London Heathrow Airport, to the right after immigration, about a 5-minute walk away. There are two lounges past the main door of the Lufthansa Lounges: the Lufthansa Business Lounge, serving passengers flying Business Class on all Star Alliance Airlines, and the Lufthansa Senator Lounge further in from the main Business Lounge, which mainly serves First Class passengers flying on Star Alliance Airlines and passengers with gold status in the Star Alliance network. The Business Lounge was about 60% full. The lounge has three distinct sections: the blue carpeted area in the main lounge space with armchairs for passengers to lounge around; the wooden parqueted flooring with dining tables and buffet spreads for passengers to dine; and another carpeted area behind a wall panel, just after the reception for passengers to work on. The lounge layout was rather open, except for the work area. The Lufthansa Business Lounge felt more functional than luxury. Food was limited, with only five hot foods in the buffet zone, but sufficient to fill our stomachs before our next flight. A separate counter with finger food, such as biscuits and a salad bar. Drinks are conveniently placed in both the hot and finger food sections. As it was the Christmas festive season, Lufthansa Business Lounge set up another counter serving Christmas treats for passengers. The lounge does not have any showering facilities.

Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge

There are three more Star Alliance Lounges in the Satellite Terminal, about a 15-minute walk from the main terminal, operated by Air Canada, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines. Air Canada Maple Lounge and Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge were opposite each other. During our visit, the Air Canada Maple Lounge was closed, and we did not check if United Airlines was open as it was some distance away. We went to Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge mainly to use their shower facilities. The Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge felt a little dated; the wooded furnishing used in the lounge looked old, and there were signs that the lounge lacked maintenance. Despite the dated design, Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge is a great place to relax and wait for flights. The dining areas in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge are tucked to the sides, facing the walls near the main buffet area. The lounging area was filled with armchairs and booths that looked like the long-haul Business Class seats onboard Singapore Airlines in a rather sizeable area further into the lounge. There is only one showering room in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge. We had to register with the staff outside the shower room to use the shower facilities. The shower room was nothing luxurious and felt dated, and the dental kit was only available upon request. Compared to the Lufthansa Business Lounge, there seems to be more food offered in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge. The hot food section had up to six selections of mainly Asian food, while the cold food section was stocked with fruits, cheese, and sandwiches. Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge also has a large table of Christmas puddings and pies in the food section. Drinks are conveniently located in the food and lounge areas for passengers to help themselves. A bar in the lounge area serves cocktails and the famous Singapore Sling in the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge.

The Aircraft

There have been equipment changes over the months since we booked our flight. EgyptAir originally assigned B787-9 for this LHR-CAI leg. However, sometime on Mar 23, the airlines changed their aircraft to their latest addition of the A320neo but then changed the aircraft type again to A330-300.

The Cabin

EgyptAir A330-300 has 301 seats in two cabins, with 36 in Business Class and 265 in Economy Class. The Business Class cabin onboard EgyptAir A330-300 looked dated, mainly due to the cabin’s layout and the dark blue leather seats. The white-coloured walls and the white lights used during boarding made the Business Class cabin look bright and airy. The white bulkhead at the front of the cabin was painted with papyrus motifs, giving the cabin an Egyptian identity. The airline’s signature blue colour scheme reinforces the product identity as it has the same colour as the Horus logo painted on its fuselage.

EgyptAir allocated two lavatories serving 36 Business Class passengers in the front and between the aircraft’s Business Class and Economy Class sections. The lavatories are decently sized and were kept clean throughout the flight. The only amenities in the Business Class lavatories are limited to hand soap and a box of disinfectant wipes. EgyptAir did not stock their lavatories with additional dental kits or air sickness bags, as the dental kits are already inside the amenity kit distributed during boarding, and the air sickness bags are placed in the seat pockets.

The Seat

Business Class seats onboard EgyptAir A330-300 are arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration, each of the 36 seats having a seat pitch of 60″ and measuring 25″ wide. The Business Class seats have three set modes: upright mode for take-offs and landings, lounge mode for a slightly more reclined position, and flatbed mode for sleeping. I found the seat very comfortable due to its thick padding and the comfortable headrest. EgyptAir’s website advertised that its Business Class seats were fitted with a massaging function, but this function seemed out of order for my seat. I favour the lounge mode the best, which is between the upright and flatbed positions and is perfect for watching movies and dining. I was also able to adjust the angle of the recline for the lounge mode to my liking with the buttons on the side of the seat. EgyptAir A330-300 Business Class seats can be reclined into flatbeds but at an angle of about 160°. Despite not being a true flatbed, I still find the Business Class seats surprisingly comfortable when in flatbed mode, partially due to my tiredness and the thick cushioning on the seats. EgyptAir provided their Business Class passengers with a thick pillow and comfortable fleece blanket. I like the firmness of the pillow. I managed to doze off for 2 hours after a meal on the comfortable seat.

EgyptAir A330-300 Business Class seats are fitted with a personal reading light on top of the seat shell, in addition to the overhead reading light. A small centre divider was fitted between the two Business Class seats, which only provided partial privacy for the passenger sitting in the window seat. Else, the other seats felt rather open. As the A330-300 was an older aircraft (over 12 years old), the only avenue to charge our mobile devices was via the only USB-A socket fitted between the two seats. There are no power sockets for passengers to charge their laptops or devices that use USB-C. EgyptAir A330-300 Business Class seats also suffer from a lack of storage space. Besides the seat pocket fitted onto the bulkhead, we can only rely on the cubby under the IFE controller for storage. Fortunately, the small cocktail table between the two seats offered some form of storage space, but we would have to hold our stuff during take-off/landings.

The EgyptAir A330-300 Business Class table is stowed inside the consoles between the seats. To access the table, we would have to open the drawer-like latch and pull out the table. The table was folded when we fished it out of the latch, but it could expand to a full size for passengers to work on their laptops.

Inflight Entertainment

Each Business Class seat on EgyptAir A330-300 was fitted with a 15.4” TV screen stowed inside the centre consoles between the seats for the bulkhead seats that we occupied. The TV can be deployed with the push of a button. These personal TVs do not have a touchscreen function; scrolling through the menu relies on the IFE controller stowed in the cubby inside the seat’s armrest. Despite being an older aircraft and IFE system, I did not experience any lag on the system. Besides controlling the IFE menu, the call attendant and lighting buttons are also fitted into the controller. EgyptAir provided its Business Class passengers with over-the-head headphones that do not come with noise-cancellation functions. However, it does the job of providing audio on the movies that we were watching. EgyptAir has a very intuitively designed IFE menu, which is well laid out in menus that are easy to scroll through. The airlines loaded its IFE system with the latest Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows, to name a few.

Meal Service

Wblockbustersd welcome drinks the moment we got settled into our seats. Despite being a short 4-hour red-eye flight, EgyptAir surprises me with its full dinner catering. The cabin crew sprung into action immediately to prepare for dinner service as soon as the aircraft reached cruising altitude. One of the flight attendants went around laying tablecloths in each seat and another serving a tray of appetisers. Shortly after, yet another cabin crew approached us for our choice of drinks. Instead of giving out menus and taking orders, EgyptAir flight attendants went around the cabin in a trolley with all three options for mains for passengers to choose from. Pushing mains on a trolley is getting rare these days. For mains, we were given three options: beef, salmon and cWet for the beef with basmati rice, and my friend opted for the Salmon with scrambled egg and vegetables. The portions for the meals served were rather huge. I found the beef very tender and flavourful, complementing well with the rice. However, my friend commented the salmon was a tad salty. There might be dessert after the mains. However, we fell asleep after finishing our mains.

Service

The service onboard was surprisingly good. After reading reviews, I had low expectations for the services onboard EgyptAir flights, which generally ranked the service onboard as poor to mediocre. However, this was not the case for my experience onboard this flight. The flight attendants were welcoming and wore their smiles greeting passengers, despite already working for 4 hours when the aircraft flew into London (this is a turn-around flight). As soon as we settled into our seats, the flight attendant would come by almost immediately and serve us the welcome drink, and another would come around, presenting us with the amenity kit. As my seat did not come with a pillow and blanket, I requested them with the cabin crew, who was serving us a welcome drink. I understand she was busy serving welcome drinks to other passengers and was willing to wait until she finished her assignment. To my surprise, the cabin crew kept updating me that she was about to finish her task every time she walked past me. I thought this was a very good gesture (though unnecessary) in assuring me that she still remembers to bring me a set of bedding. Indeed, the said cabin crew immediately came to me with a set of bedding the moment she was done with welcome drinks.

After finishing my meal, I held on to my drinks to ensure they did not spill over as there was turbulence. I dozed off while still holding onto the glasses. To my surprise, I found the glasses and my table was cleared carefully by the cabin crew (I was asleep throughout). They even kept the table and placed two chocolates on the cocktail table. I thought this was a very nice touch. I observed the cabin crew diligently patrolling the cabin and even worked through turbulence to ensure dinner was pushed out quickly and passengers could have more time to rest. The cabin crew was seen smiling constantly to passengers despite feeling tired from the previous flight. I thought the service onboard was great, unlike what I had read before my first experience with EgyptAir.

Afterthought

Despite being an old product, I found Business Class seats on EgyptAir A330-300 very comfortable and great for sleeping and lounging. Food was generous in terms of portion size and choices. For a short flight, airlines these days give passengers two choices, whereas EgyptAir gives us three choices. I find it refreshing to see main courses being pushed down the aisle for passengers to see and decide which option they want. The biggest surprise for me was the service onboard. I found the cabin crew on this EgyptAir flight very friendly and attentive. The cabin crew also came across as being sincere and warm. I had a great time on this flight with EgyptAir and looked forward to my return flight with the airline to Paris.