I have never been on one of the Privatair 737s or A319s before. I will be on one from Amsterdam to Houston a couple of weeks from now. (Is that the longest commercial 737 flight at 11hrs 15 mins scheduled?) Anyone have any views? Having only 42 seats seems nice. No lie flat less so.
OK, so I just returned from Houston yesterday via Amsterdam. The PrivatAir experience has pluses and minuses:
Good:
- Very attentive cabin staff, since there are only 42 seats. (There were 38 passengers on the way over and 37 on the way back.) Crew was 100% Belgian in both directions, so good language skills.
- Seat comfort is good and the seats go almost flat. In addition, the go very low to the floor, so when you want to step over a sleeping person in the aisle seat, it is easy.
- Since there are so few people in the plane, we left early both times, since everyone was on board. Getting off was easy. Luggage delivery in Houston was fast, since there were so few cases. Since there happended to be nobody else at immigration, it took me exactly 15 minutes from being inside the plane to being outside the terminal, a record.
OK:
- Food just OK.
- There was a strong headwind on the way over. In a 737, that knocks more ground speed off compared to a faster large jet. Our flight was 11 hrs 15 mins in the air, meaning about 30 mins more than scheduled. I suppose a 747 would take about 10:30.
Not so good:
- Video on a DVD-less player that did not quite fit on the table behind food tray, and did not have much choice. Mainly romantic comedies. No blockbusters. Nothing like the on-demand video in most business classes.
- There was just enough power in the in-seat sockets to charge my PC, but not to power it while turned on. I get 8 hours on my battery, so not so big a deal. My neighbour could not work after one hour. Other seats did not appear to have the same problem.
Overall: My main criterion for selecting flights out of the USA is that they should leave as late as possible. Only the BA flight was later, and it cost double, so I could not take it. Air France used to have the last flight from Houston, but don't seem to have it at the moment. I suppose I would take the same flight again in the same circumstances.