Rapid Travel Chai

I ate well, I slept as well as could with short tailwind-aided flight from New York to Madrid. The supplemental amenity kit is a L’Occitane pouch that my wife will like. That is pretty much my list for a business class flight. My first official toe wading into OneWorld was good.

Excuse me for doing something for stereotypically BoardingArea as writing about a business class flight while sitting in an airport lounge. Must be that I am heading to FTU Advanced San Diego and the vibes from the swarming attendees stretch across the Atlantic.

That flight was on the Iberia A330-300 and my several connections within Spain this week were typical European business class, standard economy seats with middle seat blocked, on their A321.

No, I didn’t lose my head and start redeeming for business class award tickets, this was a paid business trip, which always makes me more appreciate and a less harsh critic.

The seat is central and the A330-300 gives two different options. It is 2-2-2 and the middle seats alternate by row of far apart and then together, ‘kissing seats,’ good for companions. On the sides the the seats alternate between near the window and near the aisle. As both have direct aisle access, the ones nearer to the window are much more private and several people switched to those that were open. Only slight critique I give is that the footrest is narrow so when sleeping one foot tends to slip off.

Not too much storage space either, especially for magazines.

First meal the typical Continental fare is good. I am not a drinker so will take it as assumed that there are nice Spanish wines on the hefty list. I like the small cloth napkins with the meal service, they can almost serve as a really tiny pocket square. I skipped the arrival meal, which is generally weak on trans-Altantic flights across airlines.

Iberia Avios awards on Iberia are a good low fuel surcharge trans-Atlantic option and a good experience. I expected a more chaotic, shall we say vibrant Latin experience, rather it was very old Europe and well executed.

The 4 mb free internet car a nice topper.