For the subsequent portion of my journey to Japan by way of Mongolia, I flew MIAT Mongolian Airways’ Boeing 787-9 enterprise class on the eight hour in a single day flight from Frankfurt to Ulaanbaatar. MIAT Mongolian Airways lately modernized its fleet, because the airline is changing its Boeing 767s with Boeing 787s, so I used to be wanting ahead to experiencing the enhancements on the airline.
How was the MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class expertise? Properly, the airline has a wonderfully nice however generic reverse herringbone product, which might be the most effective a part of the expertise. The meals, drinks, leisure, and facilities had been all exceedingly fundamental, extra according to what you’d anticipate in premium financial system than in enterprise class. However then once more, the airline has very engaging enterprise class pricing, so I feel the worth is there.
How I booked my MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class ticket
I booked my MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class ticket utilizing money. Thankfully the airline has engaging fares in enterprise class, no matter whether or not you propose to journey to Mongolia, or simply need to join there. I booked the next for $1,113.40 one-way, which I’d take into account to be an incredible deal:
1/27 OM138 Frankfurt to Ulaanbaatar departing 2:30PM arriving 5:40AM (+1 day)
1/28 OM301 Ulaanbaatar to Seoul departing 7:45AM arriving 12:05PM
Sadly there are not any sensible methods to redeem miles on MIAT Mongolian Airways. Which will change finally, because the airline has expressed curiosity in changing into a oneworld Join member, as a part of its aspirations of flying to the USA.
MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class lounge & boarding
MIAT Mongolian Airways sends its enterprise class passengers to the Primeclass Lounge Frankfurt, which I reviewed within the earlier installment. I had checked in on-line for the flight, so was capable of skip the check-in counter.
I headed straight to the departure gate in Terminal 2. Gate D1 was getting used. This certain is an fascinating a part of the terminal, because the Iran Air flight to Tehran and Turkmenistan Airways flight to Ashgabat had been each departing across the identical time. Discuss a novel set of locations!
MIAT schedules a good flip in Frankfurt, as there’s solely 90 minutes between the arrival and departure of the 787, leaving no room for delays. The inbound flight was a bit delayed, so I watched because the beautiful 787-9 pulled into the gate — I actually do like MIAT’s livery!
Boarding ended up beginning round 20 minutes delayed, at 2:05PM, with enterprise class passengers being invited to board first.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 enterprise class cabin & seats
MIAT Mongolian’s Boeing 787-9s are gently used, as they’ve been acquired from Suparna Airways. This can be a Chinese language airline that’s a part of the struggling Hainan Group, which additionally owns Hainan Airways. This explicit Boeing 787 was first delivered in July 2019, so it’s nonetheless a reasonably new jet.
On condition that MIAT acquired these 787s secondhand, the airline didn’t spend a lot cash on the interiors. I’ll take it a step additional — I don’t suppose these 787s might have extra generic interiors, and the one splash of coloration within the cabin are sponsored, disposable headrests. Anyway, I’m getting forward of myself…
MIAT’s Boeing 787s have 30 enterprise class seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration. These are reverse herringbone seats, and particularly are the Safran Cirrus product, which is much from the most recent era reverse herringbone seat available on the market. So whereas MIAT has totally flat beds and direct aisle entry, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles, or stage of consolation, that you simply’d discover on another airways.
These touring with a companion might need to choose the pair of seats within the middle part. Whilst you can’t simply discuss together with your seat mate (as a result of how the seat is positioned), it’s nonetheless simpler to benefit from the flight collectively than if seated by the home windows.
These touring alone, or those that similar to a window view, might need to choose one of many solo seats by the home windows. And let me notice that whereas this wasn’t the best flight when it comes to views (it was an in a single day flight in winter), Mongolia has a number of the most beautiful views you’ll discover wherever, so I’d suggest a window seat if attainable.
I assigned myself seat 19A, the window seat on the left facet within the final row (enterprise class goes from row 11 to row 19).
So far as seat options go, there’s a console to the facet of the seat, with a studying flight, the leisure controller, the headphone jack, a USB-A outlet, seat controls, and an uncovered storage compartment (the place you possibly can dangle headphones).
The tray desk folds out from beneath the console to the facet of the seat. The tray desk may be folded over in half, although that’s extra an area saving mechanism for when it’s saved, slightly than a sensible function for when it’s getting used.
Beneath the tray desk you’ll discover the AC energy outlet, plus one other small open storage space.
The footwell on this seat isn’t too restrictive, which is good, and it acts as an excellent ottoman even when the seat isn’t reclined.
The leisure monitor swings out from the seat in entrance, and is a good dimension.
Then on the aisle facet, there’s an armrest that may be raised, in addition to a storage compartment. The armrest must be lowered for takeoff and touchdown.
As talked about above, nearly the one pop of coloration within the cabin is the headrests, that are sponsored by TDB (Commerce & Growth Financial institution).
Sadly MIAT’s Boeing 787s don’t function particular person air nozzles, not that that is terribly shocking.
This can be a completely comfy exhausting product, even when that is as fundamental as reverse herringbone seats get. Additionally understand that MIAT’s earlier plane had been 767s with angled enterprise class seats in a 2-1-2 configuration, so this represents an enormous enchancment.
MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class facilities
You actually don’t fly MIAT Mongolian Airways for the facilities, I’ll let you know that. MIAT affords enterprise class passengers a pillow and blanket, although these must be among the many worst that I’ve seen on any airline in enterprise class, as they’re marginally higher than what I’d anticipate in financial system.
Shortly after boarding, every passenger was provided the selection of glowing wine or orange juice, and I chosen the latter, which was served in correct glassware.
Afterward within the boarding course of, amenity kits had been distributed. Oddly every particular person merchandise was wrapped in plastic, which appears pointless (I unwrapped them for the beneath image). The package contained a comb, a dental package, earplugs, eyeshades, flimsy slippers, mouthwash, lip balm, and lotion. The package felt low cost, however did the trick.
Every enterprise class passenger was additionally provided a pair of fundamental noise canceling headphones.
Lastly, bottled water was distributed.
From a passenger expertise standpoint, I feel the most important shortfall right here is MIAT’s bedding, which might simply be improved with out an enormous funding. Then once more, I’m undecided MIAT would actually see a lot of an ROI on bettering its product, because it’s a reasonably area of interest airline.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 enterprise class leisure
MIAT Mongolian Airways’ 787 leisure system is… unusual. The seat again leisure monitor has a wide range of motion pictures and TV exhibits, although none in English.
There have been a few dozen Mongolian motion pictures…
Way more fascinating to me was the handfuls and dozens of TV exhibits, together with episodes of Dancing With The Stars Mongolia, The Apprentice Mongolia, The Voice Mongolia, and Shark Tank Mongolia.
For a rustic of only a few million folks, am I the one one who finds it fascinating how Mongolia has so many of those common worldwide TV exhibits? Despite the fact that I couldn’t perceive a phrase of those applications, I couldn’t assist however watch, and so they had been endlessly fascinating.
Thankfully the map function was obtainable in English, and I loved maintaining observe of the progress of the flight, since this isn’t a route that you simply get to fly each usually these days (because the flight is usually over Russian airspace). The map isn’t very customizable — it simply rotates views, so you possibly can’t choose which vantage level you need to see.
In the event you’re searching for leisure choices in English, MIAT affords streaming leisure, so you possibly can watch these choices by yourself units.
The choice wasn’t in depth, however was higher than nothing. For instance, there have been a complete of 5 new launch motion pictures, 18 basic motion pictures, 4 comedy exhibits, six documentary exhibits, and 5 youngsters exhibits.
MIAT sadly doesn’t supply Wi-Fi on any of its plane, together with the brand new Boeing 787s.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 departure from Frankfurt
MIAT Mongolian Airways has soothing boarding music, which I loved listening to all through the boarding course of. Whereas the principle a part of the boarding course of wrapped up rapidly, the door remained open. At 2:35PM, the primary officer made his welcome aboard announcement, informing us of our flight time of eight hours.
He defined that we had been nonetheless ready on a couple of passengers, and they need to arrive inside quarter-hour. That ended up taking about double as lengthy, and the final passenger lastly boarded at 3:05PM, at which level the principle cabin door closed. I’m curious if these had been connecting passengers, or what…
There have been initially 14 seats taken in enterprise class — all of the window seats had been occupied, whereas not one of the middle seats had been. Nonetheless, there have been then six upgrades of family and friends, together with a household of 4 that sat proper throughout from me. They clearly knew the captain (who got here into the cabin to speak to them), although they ended up solely getting financial system meals. MIAT doesn’t appear to be very strict with its guidelines round who can sit in premium cabins, as I noticed one thing related on the connecting flight.
We lastly pushed again at 3:15PM, at which level the handbook security demonstration was carried out.
We had an extremely quick taxi — it was one minute from the time that we began our taxi till we had been cleared for takeoff on runway 25C.
The views on our climb out had been stunning, because it was a (uncommon) beautiful clear winter day in Germany.
The seatbelt signal stayed on longer than on most (non-US) airways, and ended up being turned off round 20 minutes into our climb.
MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class dinner service
MIAT Mongolian Airways serves dinner after takeoff on its Frankfurt to Ulaanbaatar flight. MIAT doesn’t have menus or drink lists, so sadly I can’t share these.
Service was actually sluggish to get began after takeoff. There was no service for the primary hour, although at that time heat towels had been distributed. They had been good and thick — I used to be considering of simply asking for a couple of extra of these for when it was time to sleep, since they had been thicker than the supplied blanket. 😉
Drinks began to be served off a cart round 65 minutes after takeoff. The drink choices had been fundamental — suppose one purple wine, one white wine, one glowing wine, and a really restricted liquor choice.
I made a decision to order a glass of glowing wine. I requested to see the bottle, since I used to be curious what was being served. MIAT serves Kupferberg Sekt as its glowing wine, which retails for beneath $5. For the value, it was surprisingly drinkable (or possibly I used to be simply tremendous bored and hoping that alcohol would assist me sleep).
It could be good if MIAT provided some kind of a snack or canapé with the preliminary drink service. I even requested if that they had nuts or pretzels, and so they mentioned they didn’t.
A few minutes after drinks had been served, one other flight attendant was within the cabin with the meal cart. I used to be provided the selection of fish, lamb, or beef, with no additional description of the choices.
Apart from dessert, every little thing was served on a single tray. This included two appetizers (which is… oddly beneficiant?), comprised of shrimp with quinoa and asparagus, in addition to smoked rooster with veggies. I chosen the fish for my foremost course, which appeared to be some kind of a sea bass with potatoes and a really creamy sauce.
As soon as the meal tray was cleared, I used to be provided a small chocolate cake for dessert. That was the extent of the choices, as there was no fruit or cheese.
The most effective a part of the meal service was most likely the beautiful sundown, which might be the final daylight I’d see till after takeoff on my subsequent flight.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 enterprise class bathrooms
MIAT Mongolian Airways has two enterprise class bathrooms on the Boeing 787, positioned on the entrance of the cabin (those behind the cabin are for premium financial system passengers). There’s one toilet proper by the cockpit, and one toilet on the entrance proper of the cabin.
These had been your commonplace Dreamliner bathrooms, with very restricted facilities. The bathrooms had been okay, although the crew didn’t do a lot to maintain them clear through the flight.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 enterprise class mattress
After dinner, it was time to get some relaxation, so I reclined my seat into mattress mode. Oddly the seat didn’t go totally flat — I think about there was some subject with my seat, or one thing. Nonetheless, I didn’t thoughts, since I wish to sleep at a slight upward angle anyway, particularly given the small pillows.
I ended up going to sleep with slightly below six hours remaining to Ulaanbaatar, simply as we had been coming into Russian airspace…
…and I wakened with round 2hr30min remaining to Ulaanbaatar.
MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class breakfast service
The crew turned on the lights all through the cabin round 2hr10min earlier than touchdown, and made an announcement that breakfast could be served quickly. I’m undecided why, precisely, as a result of the meal service didn’t find yourself beginning for round 45 minutes. Normally crews like to do every little thing they’ll to maintain folks asleep, so I discovered that to be a bit uncommon.
A bit over 90 minutes earlier than touchdown, the crew got here via the cabin to distribute heat towels, adopted by drinks. I ordered a cup of espresso, and requested for some extra water.
The breakfast was tremendous easy — there was no alternative, however slightly it simply consisted of a fruit plate, a croissant, and a few chocolate yogurt.
MIAT Mongolian Airways enterprise class service
I’d say the MIAT Mongolian Airways crew on this flight was well mannered and went via the motions, however that’s about it. Very similar to the remainder of the delicate product, service was extra according to premium financial system than enterprise class.
All service was carried out off of carts, there wasn’t a lot private interplay, and the crew wasn’t proactive with passing via the cabin to see if anybody wanted something. Nonetheless, the crew did reply to the decision gentle for conditions the place passengers had requests.
MIAT Mongolian Airways 787 arrival in Ulaanbaatar
At 5:50AM the fasten seatbelt signal was turned on, and on the identical time we started a slightly steep descent for Ulaanbaatar. Across the identical time, the primary officer made the pre-landing announcement, informing us that we’d be touchdown in round 20 minutes, and that the temperature in Ulaanbaatar was -27 Celsius (-17 Fahrenheit). Yikes… we’re not in Florida anymore!
Our descent was fast and direct, and there wasn’t a lot in the way in which of views, because it was nonetheless darkish outdoors. We had a gorgeously easy landing on runway 11 at 6:10AM. From there we had a 5 minute taxi to our arrival gate, the place we pulled in subsequent to a few MIAT 737s, about 35 minutes delayed.
I used to be excited to take a look at the MIAT Enterprise Lounge and to additionally see the terminal, since it is a new airport in comparison with the final time that I visited Mongolia. Then it was time to proceed in MIAT’s Boeing 737 enterprise class to Seoul Incheon.
Backside line
MIAT Mongolian Airways has very properly up to date its enterprise class exhausting product, with the introduction of latest Boeing 787s. These planes have reverse herringbone seats, representing an enormous enchancment over the outdated lengthy haul product.
Sadly MIAT’s delicate product leaves a bit to be desired. Don’t anticipate a lot in the case of the leisure, facilities, meals, drinks or service.
Whereas that is objectively a weak enterprise class product, it’s priced accordingly. I’d say MIAT has someplace round premium financial system pricing for its enterprise class, and I wouldn’t hesitate to fly the airline once more at that value.
What’s your tackle MIAT Mongolian Airways’ 787 enterprise class?
