Kuwait Airways Business Class
KU301 MUMBAI – KUWAIT
I took advantage of a low Business Class fare from Mumbai to London (Around USD 1100 all in). From Mumbai to Kuwait, it is a B777-200/ER sold as 2 classes so Business Class customer get to sit in First Class cabin. Some lucky economy class customers get to sit in Business Class which almost looks like Premium Economy these days. I paid an upgrade about 600 USD from Business to First on the next sector from Kuwait to London.
I started the night before from Abu Dhabi in First Class on Etihad A340-600 to Mumbai. Arrived in BOM at 4am under heavy monsoon rain. I was the only passenger transiting onto Kuwait Airways so they have to call a KU handling agent to issue me a boarding pass and through security to departure. To my horror, there is no lounge to use from KAC. I browse through the brand new International Terminal at BOM and found it very impressive and pleasant, a sharp contrast to the old one. I especially like the marble floor and the lights and glass everywhere. (better than the carpet one in Delhi IGIA in my opinion.)
KAC flight carries mostly labours from India to Kuwait.
Looking at the boarding agent screen, Business (First Class cabin) is lightly loaded with 3 passengers. One of them is a security guard in 4C. It is strange to think of why India flight receives security guard frequently but not Europe flight?
9K-AOA arrives at daybreak around 5:45am with a very fast turnaround to depart on-time at 6:30am.
Welcome onboard KAC First Class! Love the lazy boy chairs.
Welcome drink was water or juice and peanut at 6:30am.
We push back quickly and headed to the threshold of Rwy27
Passing through Mumbai slums around airport and famous Jari Mari (Mosque on the hill overlooking planes on taxiway)
Air India maintenance adjacent to the runway. Some B777-200/LR are parked without engines.
I caught the security man taking photo of the engine. So I asked to join in and moved myself to the other side to film the takeoff.
After takeoff, I was invited to sit next to him to take more photos. A good start!
Amenity Kit for 3 hours flight and magazine.
Old school seat control, all electronically operated.
Full recline, almost 165 degrees! Very comfortable, really no need to be full flat.
A one tray breakfast was presented 20 minutes after takeoff. No menu card was given. It may look dry but it was absolutely delicious, it wasn’t a quiche, but more of an egg pancake filled with mushroom, sausage and other herbs.
After this picture, the security man had enough and broke out his silence. He told me to go back and then summoned the purser to make a huge complaint of me taking photo of everything. They continued the conversation in Arabic with a lot of hand movement. I fell asleep at the main time……..
I woke up after we started descending into Kuwait.
Flight time was 3hours and 45 minutes. We arrived on-time around 7:50am.
Conclusion
I had some excellent rest and good breakfast onboard and didn’t let the abrupt behaviour of the security man affect me. I thank him and the purser before deplane. The seat was excellent despite the older look. I slept really well on it. I would have no problem flying their B777 non-stop to US from Kuwait. I was so sleepy that I didn’t get a chance to have a look at Business and Economy cabin.