After disembarking the aircraft, I headed over to the Al Safwa First Class lounge with the hope that I would be able to get a private room to get some proper sleep. Luck was not on my side as all rooms were booked and the earliest I would be able to get one was 7.30am but that was a non-starter since my flight was at 8am. After contemplating how terrible things were going for me, I decided to head over to the Al Mourjan Garden lounge in the hope that I would get a nap room there. Yet another swing and a miss as no rooms were available but one would be available around 4.30am. As the lounge was empty, I decided to crash on one of the couches until the room was ready. When I got a room, I could not sleep and was just doom scrolling until it was time to leave. Got a shower room to freshen up, had a light snack/drink and then headed to the gate.

Up the escalator to the Al Safwa lounge

Oooooooh – water fountain

Everyone crowding the bear from the front – I just went to the back where its nice and quiet.

Hopped on the train to get to the C concourse where the Garden lounge was located

Overlooking the Orchard – at night

Overlooking the Orchard – sunrise

Water pool structure thingy

Heading towards the E concourse

Morning bird watching

I assume the new E concourse is specifically for US flights as there are new sterilized areas for additional security and other checks before entering the gate area. Everything went by smoothly and dare I say the staff were much nicer than TSA staff. After 15 minutes of idling around, boarding was called with business class first but as usual, all gate lice decided to block J passengers from boarding and things got a bit testy. Eventually, I made it onboard.

The female cabin crew member working my side of the plane was nice and way better than the crew from the previous flight. She came by to introduce herself, offered a PDB and brought PJs.

Started with OJ.

The view

Safety video as we were taxi-ing

Menu

View while taxi-ing

Lining up on 16R …

Aaaaaand nothing happened. We started to move but no massive engine spool up – just continued to taxi off onto the other taxi way and towards 34L which was the opposite end of the runway. The captain came on the horn announcing a change in wind direction necessitating a take off from the other direction.

Ok, once more unto the breach

See ya later DOH.

After take off, the cabin crew got into action. Started off with a pipping hot cup of Karak Chai.

Breakfast showtime

Told the cabin crew to skip all the fluff stuff and just ordered the omlette. Was really good.

After that, asked the staff to add the stuff to make into a bed.

Thank goodness for Starlife WIFI – was able to doom scroll when I was bored watching stuff on the TV.

Got a burger mid flight and it was meh – was a bit cold.

The real showtime approximately 2 hours before landing.

Hooray for caviar in business class!

Chicken Maskhool – yum

Warm salted caramel and almond cheesecake – too sweet for my liking but good overall

Somewhere over the US close to IAD

IAD

It was at this point that the fun ended.

One last longing look.

Taking the people mover to the main terminal

Immigration was easy enough with Global Entry and bags came out shortly after arriving at the belt. Headed up to the departure hall to check in my bag on the connecting United flight back to YYZ.