I just got back home from this trip some minutes ago. I stayed for a week in Ayia Napa, Cyprus with my school friends.
It was a night flight, which left Larnaca at 3.15pm. The airport at Larnaca is very unpleasant and expensive. The only thing to do there is eating Pizza at "Sbarro". However, I really enjoyed the Balair flight.
Take off was simply normal, although one Fligth Attendant was still walking down the aisle during the first 5-10 seconds of the departure.
The seats in the 757 are very narrow if you ask me, especially if you have the middle seat. There's no place for your arms...(if you have 2 big, fat guys beside you).
Inflight Entertainment was a bit crappy, which means there was only a movie ("Women on Top") on the 3.30 hour flight and you had to pay for that one.
Due to the fact that I was tired like hell, I slept for one hour. After that we were served breakfast (ham, turkey breast, cheese, strawberry yoghurt).
Then I decided to ask the nicest FA if I and a friend of mine could go to the cockpit for a little while. She said: "Well, I have to look" (in German). That's the standard reply if you ask a Swissair FA and you will finally always get the same reply ("Yes, it's OK").
Then something interesting happened. The captain wasn't in a good mood! I have never experienced that. But when I asked him the first question ("Why did Balair choose the 757") I immediatly got the reason for his bad mood. He said that nobody actually knows, but that it was probably because LTU used the 757 and it was a common charter plane. The problem is: Balair is going down. He was unsure if he could keep his job or not (because there are no other 757 in use in Switzerland and because Swissair and Balair are going to cut jobs).
He further told me that he wouldn't like to work for Emirates, due to the fact that if they buy you a house in Dubai it will be situated in a neighbourhood where only pilots live and all the houses look exactly the same!
Then he told the co-pilot to get the weather from Zurich, which he immediately did. I saw that he noted down showers and 18 degrees Celsius. When I returned to my seat I heard the co-pilot announcing exactly the same facts to the passengers. What a good service.
We landed at 6.15am in ZRH (runway 16). Nothing special, only that no thrust reverser was used.
I may do some more sleeping right now...