I flew home from Istanbul on Air Serbia, allowing me to try out the recently-delivered Airbus A330 in business class from Belgrade to New York. The flight was very good, though one thing was lacking.
Air Serbia A330 Business Class
Air Serbia recently took delivery of an Airbus A330-200. Formerly part of the Aeroflot fleet, this A330 was retrofitted with a new staggered business class product similar to what you can find on Aer Lingus or SWISS and painted in a livery featuring Nikola Tesla, the famous Serbian-American inventor.
The seats are comfortable. I had assigned the one throne seat in the cabin, 3K, but ended up switching out so I could sit with a friend in row two.
Lunch was served after takeoff and I ordered a tasty turkey dish, not something you usually see on an airplane. I tried several Serbian wines, but found them to be a bit too sweet for my liking. The cake was delicious!
An a la carte menu offered meals on demand for the remainder of the flight. Flight attendants were not very vigilant in the cabin, but responded immediately to the call button and were quite friendly. Before landing I enjoyed some “dumplings” with salad and freshly-squeezed orange juice.
Air Serbia still offers plush bedding as well as pajamas and slippers on demand.
But there was one thing lacking. Air Serbia’s prior A330 had wi-fi onboard (though it was ridiculously expensive). The new A330 has no wi-fi onboard, which made the nine hour flight to New York…long. I find it hard to sleep on daytime flights and hated to be disconnected for so long. I suppose I should have embraced it, but the IFE library was somewhat limited.
CONCLUSION
It was nice to fly Air Serbia again after a four year hiatus. The new configuration is comfortable and the food tasty onboard. Service is more reactive than proactive, but nevertheless friendly and professional.
Stay tuned for a full review of this flight.
The Pajamas have convinced me… Are these searchable on Aeroplan or Etihad award sites, or must you call a phone agent with either program to book something like this?
You can search on the Aeroplan site. ExpertFlyer only has economy class space and Etihad requires a phone call.
I class is business class (like Star Alliance carriers).
How to book Business award for Air Serbia? expert flyer only has economy booking class in N.
Aeroplan website.
Looks good. Personally I prefer not having wi-fi, so I can work uninterrupted on the flight. Just takes a little extra planning to ensure that you have what you need saved to your hard drive.
Note that, some days, the BEG-JFK flight leaves very early in the morning (around 7 am). This may be good or bad, depending on your perspective.
Will you do a more complete trip report complete with menu and lounge pics?
Yes, full report coming. Lounge is (still) great.
Look forward to the report. Now you have me searching for a quick turn out to BEG lol.
Plan a night or two in BEG. Hyatt Regency is highly recommended.
Thanks. Lounge is very good and takes Priority Pass.
It does and has to be my favorite PP lounge in world. Even if you don’t have PP, it is 18EUR/hr, which is worth it for the coffee and menu alone.
Belgrade is one of Europe’s most underrated cities. Yes, its gritty in a charming 1990s Eastern Europe way. But the food is spectacular, the rakia delicious, and the wines are generally great (sorry that Matthew had sweeter ones in flight – so many are dry, robust, and delicious. Croatia is the current darling of ex-Yugoslavia but I find Beograd to be warm, welcoming, and a great value.
Well, maybe that comparison isn’t the best when Croatia is a country and Belgrade a city…it would be like comparing Amsterdam to Denmark or Barcelona to Portugal…
I just had an awful experience in Belgrade a few years ago, but all reports I ever hear from it are great. The Air Serbia flight would be a great way to burn some Citi TY Points. Clearly I need to give it another go. Glad you enjoyed!
What happened in Belgrade? Is it on your blog?
Nice to see an option for Europe when nothing else is showing for points or discounted business. Looks standard but good in a pinch. Curious what the lounge situation is but I assume that’s coming!
Considering the fact that Nikola Tesla was from Croatia and not Serbia….Everything else Is very impressive !
And also potentially Austrian…but Serbia claims him as their own son.
Regardless of where he was born, Nikola Tesla was ethnically Serb, though in his own words, he was equally proud of his Serb origin and Croatia as his homeland (regardless of how much it’s status changed during his lifetime). The different ethnic groups in the Balkans were always spread out all over that area. Even today a little over 4% of Croatia’s population are ethnic Serb, while the Croatians in Serbia are a much smaller percentage of the population, 1% or less. Anyway…
Good too see at least the dining on their long haul flights is still decent, unlike the dining on their inter-European flights.
I’ll have a report on IST-BEG, but I thought the catering was very good on shorthaul – I just hated the dreaded slimline seat and still miss the “real” business class.
I like the wine label.
QANTAS used to fly to Belgrade ( reflecting the large number of migrants from the former Yugoslavia), via either SIN or DMK ( I forget), with an additi9nal stop at FCO IIRC. I took it only with a connecting flight out of Belgrade ( on JAT), because it was cheap. Didn’t last more than a few years. The airport was scary. C1975-78
Sure is. Nothing “bad,” just a very unpleasant experience. I didn’t feel very welcome.
http://bigjoutofla.blogspot.com/2014/06/bombs-over-belgrade.html?m=1
Interesting read. Too bad you seemed to be frowned upon. I don’t know that Belgrade has changed over the last seven years, but at least the hotel staff was very nice, particularly Nemenja in the bar. Air Serbia staff was also very nice. So give it another shot!
Correct, born in what back then was Austro-Hungarian Empire and now Croatia. Me coming from Croatia would say that Serbia is leading at the moment in the dispute over Tesla, after all BEG is named after Tesla couple of years ago, meanwhile in Croatia Tesla statue is put back on its original place in Tesla’s hometown only now, after it was devastated during the war because of the Tesla’s wrong ethnicity. On a funny side, the guy whose name is on the wine bottle is ethnically Croat coming from Serbia, very popular singer on both sides of the border (entered wine business lately), a friend of mine once said to couple of friends from Serbia “give us Zvonko Bogdan, we’ll leave Tesla to you”(:
looking forward to full trip report
my previous post meant to be reply to Matthew’s post “And also potentially Austrian…”
don’t know how it ended up here
Sorry, the reply button is broken and we don’t have a fix for it.
Meal service looks decent with individually plated dishes served on the table instead of a tray, glassware, etc. Air Serbia doesn’t appear to be using the covid excuse to cut back on everything in the premium cabin.
Tesla was born in Austo-Hungiran empire, nowdays Croatia in the region populated by Serbs. There is no claim by Serbia because Tesla was ethnic Serb through both parents. His father was even serbian orthodox priest. All his legacy was left to the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade including his urn with his ashes. The sad thing was that his monument in his born town was distroyed by croatian army during the wars.
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