TRIP REPORT: Air Serbia, New York - Belgrade

TRIP REPORT

Submitted by Tom Janković

I took flight JU501 from New York to Belgrade in April. Air Serbia is based at JFK's Terminal 4 where Etihad is also located and it does check-in procedures near the Etihad check-in desks. Today's flight to Belgrade was full and I would say some 60% of passengers were transferring onwards from Belgrade. There were passengers from literally everywhere - Greece, Israel, Russia, Albania and Turkey. While I was waiting for check-in near the gate, I was sitting next to two older Croatian couples who were connecting onto Zagreb. I was particularly surprised by the number of Montenegrins onboard. They must have made up the absolute majority of the connecting passengers. It was easy to spot them since the entire plane seemed to know each other. I was seated next to one Montenegrin guy heading to Podgorica who seemed to know half of the passengers onboard since he was chatting with everyone.

Long lines at check-in, even longer at security

Air Serbia ticketing desk

I found it amusing how JFK staff lined up Air Serbia's wheelchair passengers for boarding. However, business and Etihad Gold member passengers were invited to board first. The flight from New York to Belgrade is also codeshared by Etihad, Montenegro Airlines and Atlasglobal. Boarding for economy passengers was done based on rows. 

Wheelchair passengers lined up for boarding

Air Serbia gate

Air Serbia A330 at the gate

I was seated next to the window, with the seating in standard A330 2-4-2 configuration. Waiting at the seat was a pillow, blanket and small headphones. Each seat has a personal TV screen but there are no USB or power sockets.

After we departed an unseasonably cold New York I decided to watch some TV but realised that my headphone jack, which is in the armrest, wasn't working properly. The headphone plug could not go into the jack. I realized that for the next 10 or so hours I would be unable to watch anything with audio since I also forgot to charge my ipad. The flight was packed to the very last seat so there was no point in asking to move somewhere else, although I noticed many passengers didn't even turn on their screens seeing as a large majority were over the age of 70 and probably didn't know how to use the screens anyway. I resigned myself to reading.

After departure we were distributed with menus which read as follows.

I ordered the beef which was quite good, even though it does not look too appealing in the photo. Interestingly, Air Serbia uses metal cutlery and glassware in economy.

The seat pitch is around 32'' though I can't say I was too comfortable. With a full flight, a Russian girl behind me constantly coughing, sneezing and obviously suffering from the flu, the guy next to me chatting with the person in front of him, with the lady across the aisle, and trying to engage me numerous times in his conversation about migrating to New York 30 years ago, interrogating me when my parents emigrated to the States and whether I was interested in him introducing me to a nice Serbian girl, being unable to watch anything on TV and my phone low on battery I was counting down till touchdown in Belgrade.

I have to give full credit to the crew which really did a great job. As I was unable to sleep I saw them pass through the cabin numerous times, and I really mean numerous times, at least once per hour with drinks, snacks, chocolate bars and fruit. It was a nice touch. Also, since the lavatory was very close to my seat, I saw the crew go in and clean it every hour (and noticed the numerous passengers who failed to realize that you have to lock the door when you enter the lavatory so there were several surprise walk-ins).

Before landing, passengers were offered sandwiches (which I didn't take a photo of). I think they used to serve a full breakfast once upon a time but I guess their cost cutting measures have also been extended to the New York flight.

We touched down in Belgrade on time at around 5 AM. The Russian girl behind me finally stopped blowing her nose and asked the lady next to her, which I assume was her mother, if they are in Siberia to which the lady answered back something in Russian.

Overall, the flight was just OK. Nothing better or nothing worse than other airlines operating the transatlantic run to Europe. Having a nonstop flight and avoiding London, Paris or Frankfurt is definitely a plus though. Special mention goes to the crew which was polite, hard working and very patient and courteous to the numerous number of senior passengers. The passengers were very colourful characters