Germany’s Air Line

I travel, and travel a lot.  So when I have an exceptionally pleasant airline experience, I like to share it.

May I introduce you to AirBerlin?

Though it’s Germany’s second largest airline (after Lufthansa), Europe’s sixth largest airline and flies to 162 destinations in 40 countries, its presence has been a lower profile one on the North American travel scene.

But no more.

Starting May 2012, Air Berlin began three times per week non-stop service between Los Angeles and Berlin (becoming the first airline to do so).  This complements the Los Angeles-Dusseldorf route.  New service from Las Vegas was also added in May.  Next year they are adding nonstop service from Chicago to Berlin.  And for the East Coast, there’s also news on the Air Berlin horizon – an increase of non-stop flights between the German capital and New York from four days weekly to daily.  It additionally serves Ft. Myers, Miami and San Francisco in the U.S. market.

Now a few in-flight details of my business-class journey:

• Food – Created under the flag of the well-known Sansibar restaurant, the island of Sylt’s very famous eatery where hopeful diners pre-book weeks in advance, the meals and wine (also in great demand throughout Germany) are simply a fine-dining experience.  Selections from my tray: Fillet of cod in coconut sauce with chili-flavored basmati rice and chocolate-mango cream cake for dessert accompanied by Sansibar Prosecco Spumante Brut.
• Flight attendants – Smartly dressed in black attire with red accents, their professional look reflected their onboard performance.  Above-and-beyond service was the norm – particularly from 20-year flight attendant Norbert Sutschet.
• Amenity kit – Housed in a black zippered bag (now in my always-travel-with stack) were standard amenities, including a tailored-made sleep mask.  In the no-surprise column, the amenity kit has received awards (“Best Business Class Unisex Kit,” “Best Economy Class Amenity Kit” and “Best Children’s Amenity Bag”).

My last made-in-Germany snack in the business lounge before boarding the plane homeward bound:  warm freshly baked pretzel.  Need I say more?

It is little wonder Air Berlin received over 10 awards for service and quality in 2010 alone.
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As a freelance travel writer and photographer since 1988, Cynthia Dial has visited the world’s seven continents (most recently Antarctica) in quest of a good story . . . from getting her hair cut in Paris, horse whispering in Hawaii and touring Burma (Myanmar) only months after Aung San Suu Kyi’s release . . . to celebrating Summer Solstice within Finland’s Arctic Circle, hiking to Machu Picchu and visiting Molakai’s former leper colony atop a mule alongside a plunging cliff.  In short, she experiences and writes about topics at the top of many readers’ bucket lists.  Cynthia is author of the award-winning non-fiction book, Get Your Travel Writing Published.  Now in its third printing, it was published in London, England, and sold worldwide (U.S. distributor is McGraw-Hill).  Among her outlets are national and international newspapers and magazines including, Time magazine, Hemispheres, Destinations Weddings & Honeymoons, Shape, Dallas Morning News and the Toronto Star (which featured her around-the-world shopping column, Shopping Trips).  She also contributes to TraveLife Magazine (distributed throughout Canada) and JustLuxe.com (a luxury portal receiving 2.1 million monthly hits).  Cynthia’s radio experience includes World Footprints Radio (formerly Travel’n On) and the Travel Hub show on WorldTalk Radio, on which her No Passport Required segment was a regular feature.  She additionally appears as a travel specialist on LiveFitMagazine.com.  The travel-addicted writer admits that each time she steps onto an international flight, boards a train or steps onto a ship’s promenade deck to go to work, she congratulates herself on her career choice.

“Follow me around the corner and around the world as I share the ins, the outs, the good, the bad, the funny, the sad – all pieces of the traveling puzzle.” – Cynthia Dial