Saudia isn’t an airline that gets talked about a whole lot in the points and miles world, for various reasons. Some of those reasons include that it’s a dry airline (what, no Krug?!), layovers are often long, and there are few flight options from the U.S. Not to mention that very few people are actually traveling to Saudia Arabia, unless it’s for work. I had the opportunity to book a $500 one-way business class flight from Milan, Italy (MXP) to Jakarta, Indonesia (CGK) on Saudia, so I figured it was a great opportunity to try out a new airline and save a few miles — in fact, I earned miles instead, 10,995 of them!
Overall, flying Saudia was a pretty pleasant experience. The seats were more comfortable than I was expecting, the food was quite good, and nothing was lacking about the service. The biggest downside to my flights is that I had a 10-hour overnight layover in Jeddah. I elected to spend the night in the lounge, which was sufficient, but far from great but a HUGE step up over the insanely crowded airport terminal. In general, the whole airport terminal situation was a bit ridiculous. People were sleeping all over the ground and there was some issue with the flight monitor because it never posted a gate for my flight. I was extremely lucky that I heard the final call.
Now… onto the flights.
Saudia Business Class A320 Review (MXP – JED)
