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Dreamy Diversion to Delhi: Mumbai, here I come!
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:53 pm
Post subject: Dreamy Diversion to Delhi: Mumbai, here I come!
I think its important to read this before moving on to the Trip Report.
We on this forum, often call them clueless and heartless, cold and unresponsive, or describe them as headless chicken running around, or worse, calling them aunties and grannies. Yes, I am talking about the
Cabin Crew.
It is absolutely wrong for us to call them these. They take utmost care of us and we just fail to see it and call them whatever we like. They are under a lot of pressure when events like Asiana Airlines flight 214 occur. A big congratulations to the whole crew onboard that Boeing 777. While I talk about this, I'd like to apologize for my words used against the Cathay crew, and the Jet crew. I now see how wrong and unnatural it was. And while I do this, I'd suggest you, the AI.net reader to please, think before you type.
Thank you.
And now back to the Trip Report.
Hello everyone.
And welcome.
To what, would inevitably be, another, agonizingly long Trip Report.
However, I expect to break this up into different parts. This trip report would feature my hunt for the Boeing 787 Dream)Liner, a domestic run on the worlds 10th busiest route (in terms of passengers and seats/ 2012) and the 4th busiest route (in terms of aircraft movement in a week) in the world. This means that there is a battle which is on the cards, a battle between Indias two wounded and only FSCs: Air India and Jet Airways. The routing for the flights is:
Well, it was time to get back home for a few days. It was getting really difficult for me to believe that the last time I was in Mumbai, was back in October 2012. With this trip, I aim to do some voluntary service at Jaslok Hospital, for about 50 hours. I was travelling alone. So that meant one thing: flights out of the box.
A few examples:
Bagdogra '11: Via CCU was possible, I went via DEL and GAU.
India '12: 6E and AI impressed me! A choice well chosen.
Singapore '12: Fifth freedom tidbit with Emirates.
Despite these random flights, I keep a hawk's eye on the prices.
All of the above trips have come in amazingly low prices.
This trip also, had to be similar.
UL and 9W's direct flights were in the range of INR19000.
6E and SG combination via MAA were about INR13000.
But there were many JPMiles which were going to expire. There was a 20% off in redemption points on many domestic sectors. There was a Boeing 787 operating between Chennai and Delhi. Joining the dots, there was a price tag of just under INR12000. Tempting, isn't it?!
With all the miles discounts and B787 flight discounts, this ultra long route into Mumbai was a reality.
Booking was flawless on both websites, both working efficiently. Tickets were mailed to me in less than 3 minutes, expect for the BOM-CMB flight, which took about 15 minutes. An added bonus for AI is that I could select my seat (25A) for no charges.
Highlights of the day would be: Chennai's new Terminal, B787, DEL T3 spotting.
In the midst of all this, 9W once again managed to change its flight timings on the CMB-MAA route. Oh well. It always happens.
Oh, and surprisingly, I could manage my booking. Just saying.
Let me share a story. A story of June 28th 2013. My parents and I were invited to school for the Annual Prize Giving. I had won something. Sadly, I didn't know what. Or was it time to be the House Captain? Vice Captain? Something. I didn't know what.
As I tied my tie, there was a loud voice screaming at me. Father it was. 'When are you ever going to be on time! I am heading straight for office, and I'm not coming for your prize giving!' It hit me. Hard. It was difficult to keep those tears from rolling down. Luckily I did.
I met AC, and I celebrated with him: 'Champions, we are!', celebrating our success in the Champions Trophy 2013. That still, didn't calm me down. I headed for the auditorium, saddened.
"..This can't be happening to me!', '...flash before my eyes...', Metallica's Ride the Lighting perfectly described my state of mind. That was the song playing in my head.
A friend asked..
'Do you have your camera?'
'No' I said.
'Are your parents coming?' she asked.
'Maybe..' I said.
'What's wrong?' she asked me again.
'Issues...' I said. 'Just leave me alone!'
'I'm off. Calm down...' she said...
It was hard for me to believe that none of my parents would be there to see me receive an award.
1240 it was, 5 minutes before the ceremony started. A big relieve as I saw Dad walk in, wearing his familiar blue coat. A smile removed every tear which could have potentially rolled down.
And then, music to my ears arrived. 'The Shanika Kannangara Memorial Trophy is awarded to a Year 11 student who shows the greatest amount of progress made throughout the year. And this years deserving winner is Jishnu B....
The reason for this unnecessarily long diversion is because of my proving that I deserve to spend those JPMiles and I deserve the flight on the Boeing 787. So the trophy needed space in the cabinet. Out went the Swiss Airbus A330 and the Cathay Pacific Boeing 747, in came the trophy, while the Emirates Boeing 777 remained.
Well, days went by slowly, as every day I woke up only at 11 in the morning. The first thing I did was to check the flight status of the AI B788 and 9W307, which is the BOM-DEL-DED flight and returns as 9W334, the flight Id be taking. However, I noticed a trend. Once in every 5 days, the AI B788 from Chennai would get delayed. Massively. This meant that I didn't have enough time to get back up into check in and board the flight. Therefore, I got my flight changed from the 1635 departure 9W334 (B73H), to the 1725 departure 9W362 (B739!). A day with 3 new aircraft types? Sweet
The day of the OLCI came. India were close to imploding against Sri Lanka. But in true MSD fashion, India won yet another tournament, while SL went crashing down in yet another final. As that happened, I had to finish the first of my 3 OLCIs. 9W253 was on pole position. APIS done, the seat map loaded. It was indeed a B73W. I selected my seat 24A, as all the seats in front of the wing/engine were taken. I proceeded to the Print out page and God Almighty I had a heart attack. Yes, first of all, Gate B11 was metioned. Does CMB have a gate B11? I had to wait. However, my seat mysteriously changed to 10A. Quickly, I called up the Torture Centre, and my torture lasted a mere 7 minutes as I had my seat changed from 10A to 24A by the very helpful agent named Reshma. She also suggested that 10A would have greater leg room however; I decided to stick to 24A. Oh well, its a 1 hour flight anyways, right?! As the day progressed, I did the Air India and Jet Airways check ins for the domestic legs. Unsurprisingly, they were flawless.
(Sorry about running the spray paint all over to the top, I sneezed
Sadly, the nap for the long day coming ahead was long gone because of spicy Mongolian Rice and a can of Red Bull. Sumantra sir, you need to head down to SL for their food once. Although, Im quite bored of it now. That evening, there were a few minor flaws regarding the timing of the aircraft. VT-JGZ, the B73W was delayed out of DEL, the backup VT-JFE was delayed from BOM due to rain. In the AI end, the B788 (which stops overnight at DEL and then heads for MAA) from CCU was heavily delayed. Things weren't looking good
The rain in BOM was also kind of ruining my plans in store for the 14th of July. Before I got ready for the day/night/afternoon/evening, basically the long tiring day ahead I did a slight prayer (I'm not the prayer kind!) because anything could have gone wrong: flight delays, bags missing, me getting overtired or whatever. Oh and of course, baggage weight
I bought an electronic luggage scale, and it had a rather interesting airline shown on it:
Here is my theory: Cathay Pacific is one of the world's best airlines (not really). But they also give a baggage allowance of only 20 kgs, as compared to 25 kgs or the even more generous 30 kgs on 9W and EK. So basically, buy this if you are flying on Cathay Pacific. (No offense to any Cathay Pacific workers, but this is according to true experience).
I've mentioned him MANY times before, and he deserves a place in this TR. He wasn't very happy to see me go, but that is a surprise, considering the fact that I always wake him up from his sleep, forcefully squeeze a lemon into his mouth, tickle him, push him around, etc. Here he is, the annoyingly cute dog, DOBBY:
As I always do, I made myself late, and I left home about 8 minutes later than scheduled. Sadly, as it has always happened with me and this country, the assumed traffic jams were not there and so we flew through the narrow streets in Ja Ela, Wattala, Seeduwa, etc, etc, and then into Katunayake, where the Airport is located. Dad noticed a plane come in to land, sadly the trees and narrow roads decided to block his view.
There was a massive crowd outside the terminal building. That was because of a thing which is always so common in India too: 100 family members to see off that one person who is going abroad to pursue a future in the international arena. While 100 may be exaggerated, I did notice 3 vans with 15 people each, so 45 people for 1 passenger is still quite a lot. Anyways, maneuvering the trolley was as bad as avoiding the walls of the Monaco Street circuit. People would not move. Saying excuse me would result in a few words in Sinhala being yelled at me. Anyways, another set of goodbyes from Mum and Dad, I was on my way for the Aviation Adventure.
The Monaco Grand Prix inside the BIA Airport, Colombo
I had to wait a bit for check in to open, because of the annoyingly empty roads. Once check in opened, there weren't many people who joined the line for baggage screening. Whoever were there, showed their itinerary on their cell phones. Wow I am so backward in technology
I was the first one to get my baggage screened, and I was really happy that I was the first one to enter the check in line
....not long before I realized I was actually the third one to check in or drop my baggage -_- Anyways, Rishul told me that the flight would be quite empty. I didn't get my hopes up. That was the right thing to do.
The friendly staff in UL uniform began my check in procedure. She asked me what my final destination was.
I said. Immediately, she called her supervisor. He then asked me,
'Is your final destination Mumbai, sir?'
'Ehm, yes.'
I said.
'Would you like to be re routed directly to Mumbai? There is a direct flight in the morning to Mumbai....'
Like I was saying, there was a lot that could have gone wrong, this was one of them. Me? Take 9W255 back home? Hell no! Boeing 787 is happening!
'Actually, I'm going from Chennai on a different airline,'
I said. The supervisor saw my ticket, and he noticed that this particular PNR was only upto Chennai.
'Oh, alright sir. Actually, this flight is overbooked.'
Wow. From so many open seats to an overbooked flight in just a mere few hours.
After a few exchange of words, MY BOARDING PASS WASN'T PRINTING! This was another thing that WAS going wrong. In fact, there was also some issues with the baggage tag being printed. I don't remember exactly what the conversation was, but I remember asking,
The answer was a smile, the affirmative. It was something to do with the re-routing thing, just confirming that my bags won't go to BOM.
Oh and check in did not finish there. I had many gifts to be taken, most of them breakable. When I asked them to put fragile stickers, a rather shocking reply came:
'We do not have fragile stickers in stock.'
What. The. Fukhurmajalmahamadandleeya. Really? This has never happened before. Ever. In fact, she also went up to the Cathay Pacific counters to get a fragile stickers. They too were out of stock. Is Sri Lanka a place where you do not get baggage stickers? Possibly. This check in episode lasted 20 minutes.
Remember I told you about B11? Yes, Gate B11 EXISTS. In Colombo. And what's better?
9W's web check in gave us the gate number. WEB CHECK IN.
As I headed off for immigration, the security guy saw my Indian passport and yet talked to me Sinhala. Rudely. I do not get this logic: talk to people in Sinhala who know zilch Sinhala and talk to Sinhala people in broken english. Logic. At its finest.
The immigration guy too, decided to stamp on one of my most over used pages. Logic. Strikes again.
Desperate to know what gate B11 is, I looked at the bus boarding gates. They were just B1 to B4. I then headed up, and found out that gate B11 is actually just Gate 11. Oh well, I headed for my favourite Palm Strips Restaurant, which was empty. I took my spot close to the window and I clicked away...
Oh and for once, it wasn't all SriLankan Airlines planes..
Oh and the airplanes looked in size. Nothing looked too big
9M-MLN B73H of MH and 9V-STG A333 of SQ.
I ordered a coke.
Just then something flew.
Yes, it was B-HNK, Boeing 777-300 of Cathay Pacific making a rather late rotation for its flight to Hong Kong via Singapore. I wished the passengers well
What a terrible picture
Another terrible picture, this time 9M-MLN going to Kuala Lumpur. Looking at the blue shade of light onboard, the Sky Interior feature is shown.
I have talked so much about it, it deserves a dekkho.
This A340-300 was off to Shanghai via Bangkok. Announcements of boarding were still on when I got to the restaurant. Yet, they managed a nearly on time departure, about 11 minutes late.
Following this departure, the light-less silent Ilyushin IL-18 of Expo Aviation Lanka arrived. I was scared when I saw smoke billowing out of its propellers when it took off. And now, it looked equally creepy when it slowly taxied by, with no lights of course.
SQ469, 9V-STG is almost ready to depart..
And the STIG is off.
While she pushed back, I just stared at the right main landing gear and the right engine. As I saw, I said to myself:
'There is a reason why the A330 is one of my personal favourite aircraft. This is such a beauty!'
There was once again a stage when there was zero movement. All I could hear is Hindi songs being played on the TV in the main lounge.
A late rotating SriLankan Airlines A330-200 departed (CDG most likely..) which was closely followed by the arrival of my bird. It was a Boeing 737 (obviously!
), however, I had problems in identifying which one it would be. Soon, I noticed it was a Boeing 737-700. All I needed were winglets on the bird. That's all I needed. As it slowly came, I noticed the winglets on the bird. This was therefore going to be my
first flight on a Boeing 737-700 with winglets.
And as predicted, VT-JGZ it was!
This is the first of my 3 new aircraft variants. A good start
Anyways, JGZ came really close to gate B10...and docked at gate B10. Well, a gate change for sure, but it doesn't make any difference in a tiny airport like CMB.
Docked at B10 rather than B11.
There was suddenly a bunch of planes which were departing CMB, including 4R-ABN to MAA, HS-TEU A333 of TG to BKK, 2 UL A332s. There were also a few arrivals, including that of A6-EBD, operating flight EK349 from Singapore to Dubai, via obviously: Colombo.
I decided to leave the Palm Strips restaurant and head for the Gate, which was B10, not B11. On the way, I bought chocolates for every close friend I have in BOM. This was followed by a quick status update on Facebook. However, that meant going through messages. As I have kept mentioning, anything could have possibly gone wrong. This time, it was Rishul's message, which stated that an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 caught fire in London. If you remember, I had missed out an A380 chance the previous year. And I promised myself, if I missed out the B787 this time, I'd forget about flying new aircraft types and stick to A330/B777 or A320/B737. This alarm from Rishul obviously got me very concerned. I prayed and hoped that the B787 would still be operated on the DEL-MAA-DEL route, and like I have already mentioned, I'm not the praying kind. I sent Dad and a few others the disturbing message:
'About to board, B787 fire in London. Pray Pray Pray.'
As I passed security, boarding was already underway. I realized sadly, that the B73W is too small an aircraft to sneak in a photograph from the CMB gates. Boarding was nothing really to write about. As I walked down the bridge, I stared at my reflection on the glass and I noticed a pair of red eyes on my face. Following that, a yawn. Clearly, disturbing signs. It was only 0230 in the morning, and my last flight would arrive only at 1940. Things weren't looking good
While walking down, I got the familiar sounds of the B737 APU and the smell of jet fuel, something which I missed out on the CX B773. It was a long time since I was boarding a B737 (Oct '12)! Anyways, the crew were okay in welcoming the passengers. I mean, it surely isn't nice to welcome only half of the passengers onboard. But I was one of the lucky ones, and I got a 'Welcome aboard sir!' when I entered JGZ.
Here is what the cabin was like: SHORT!
Indeed, I am accustomed to boarding B738s/Hs, so the B73W cabin was quite tiny. There were 8 Business class seats, which were the International seats. They looked a bit aged. There was a curtain divider, not exactly a complete bulkhead, dividing the Economy and Business sections. Most of the economy class seats were Konnect seats, except for Rows 10, 18 and 19. Rows 10, 18 and 19 had their seatbacks fitted with the PTV screen, which obviously weren't working. Oh and Row 15 has no windows, therefore avoid this one!
The crew were okay. I mean, one Y folk tried to put his bag into the J class bin, he was rightly denied, however, it was slightly rude. A bit of courtesy wouldn't have caused much harm. Oh well, that was the only flaw I saw among the crew on this flight. The Y class crew were helping passengers put their bags into the overhead bins. They had an Indian accent (obviously!), something which I really miss in Colombo.
I took my seat 24A, and noticed that the cabin was filing up really soon. There was a 0% chance of having 24B and C empty.
View out of the window.
Before the crew closed the overhead bins, they removed the duty free packets with liquor bottles in them, asked passengers to identify it and the respective passengers were asked to keep it underneath the seat. This was to make sure they wouldn't shatter and maybe to make more space for the large amount of bags onboard.
A few minutes passed and I noticed one of the FAs speaking in Tamil to passengers who required assistance and couldn't speak in English. Along with that, there were a few more on goings. For example, the toilet flush was SO LOUD that I felt the slats of a Boeing 777 were being retracted/deployed. Oh and there were smells of banana and pudding in the cabin. All the airplane cabin smells had disappeared.
Air sickness bags were handed out by the crew
to all the passengers who required it.
Doors were armed and pushback began at
0255 hours.
The walls of the aircraft looked very tempting for me to lay my head on them and get my sleep. But I kept reminding myself: I have a trip to report
Lead FA Shilpa came on the PA system and gave details of the flight. Captain Manikandan could fly us into Chennai, a flying time which would last one hour. Both CFM56 engines were fired up and we taxied towards Runway 22 for departure.
HD: Jet Airways start up in Colombo
There was a manual safety demonstration by the crew. They prepared the cabin for departure and
none of them asked me to kick my camera underneath the seat.
Captain Manikandan gently applied power into JGZ's CFM56 engines and we were quickly into the night skies of Colombo. And by quick, I mean really quickly. We were already about 100 (maybe more, maybe less
) into the sky before we passed the terminal. A few interesting things while climbing out which I noted were that Gulf Air's A330 A9C-KF was still undergoing maintenance in the UL hangar and SpiceJet's Q400 was taxiing out to fly to Chennai.
All in the video here:
HD: Jet Airways take off from Colombo
Annoyingly, there is a lot of snoring sounds which have been caught in the tape, but I'm not blaming the passengers, as this was a rather woefully timed red eye flight. Soon after the seat belt signs were switched off, I didn't open my seat belt, but there was someone who got up from his seat and spoke loudly in Sinhala. I'm not pointing out anything, its just an observation. Anyways, I opened my tray table and put the camera on it, but it kept sliding back down, implying that we were still climbing into the dark Sri Lankan airspace.
The crew rolled up a food trolley up the aisle. There was another one which was serving food from the rows right at the back. I was quite shocked when I
got food served on tray.
Something which I hadn't got on this route in 2012. Anyways, I got my non veg meal as usual.
This is what it looked like:
And the sandwich..
Sumantra sir, I'm sorry if I disappoint you in describing food, but I'll have a go:
As seen in the picture, the bun was a pocket like thing with cumin seeds on top of it. The bun and the filling was nice and hot. There was slightly under cooked chicken, finely shredded onion and capsicum, all tossed in some pizza sauce, the cake (which I didn't have), smelt like banana fruit cake, while the juice tasted like Mango juice because it was Frooti
Um, that is about it, I do not know what else describe
Compared to a certain East Asian airline, this food was warm, swallow-able and importantly, EDIBLE.
Anyways, I have a comparison here:
Take note, they look to be improving with time!
Trays were collected in a rather swift 20 minutes. Soon after, all lights were turned off and the cabin was filled sounds of snores.
I started to organize myself, putting stuff in my bag, keeping passport and boarding pass handy, etc. Like a complete idiot, I dropped my notepad beside my seat.
For those of you who have dropped something in and around your Y class seat, you know what it feels like.
For those of you who haven't, JUST BE CAREFUL!
Because, it is a big big pain in the spine, hands, and the head. Oh and you will start sweating. As I frantically bent down to TRY and get it, something struck my eye. Along with the beautiful winglet and the wing in the dark, I noticed the lights of India.
'I'm back home!'
I said to myself.
Terrible pictures of the view I was talking about, and the winglet.
After this brief 20 seconds of calmness, I went back to frantically searching for my really important note pad. I asked the passenger in 25A to shed a light (as he was using his phone, which should have been switched off, obviously.
). Well, one long pull of my arm downwards, I felt the page of the book and quickly pulled it up. And I did a quick long silent breathe out, signifying my relief. I noticed my co passengers' boarding passes, they were heading for Kochi. A long transit was in store for them, longer than my transit for sure!
Anyways, the dude from behind. While he helped me to search for my notepad, he wasn't being very helpful now. His seat was fully reclined to the back. The joker asked me to put my seat in the front,
do not recline it to the back.
What, does he own this aircraft? Surely not. Well, I just gave him a look and did nothing. Why would I move my seat just because he wanted a whole bunch of room? Weird people I say. I then decided to switch to iFE, iPod Flight Entertainment, just to ignore the joker behind.
I felt the aircraft drop at around 0352 hours, beginning descent into Chennai. Lights came on and announcements were made. My first flight was coming to an end. Disinfectant was sprayed in the cabin, and it smelt nice. Jet still has the best disinfectant of the airlines I have flown
As the flaps were being deployed, someone decided to play some annoying Hindi songs, creating a bit of disturbance in the cabin. Captain Manikandan got JGZ back on the ground in not a very good way. It felt as if JGZ was 'thrown away' just 10 feet from landing. As you'll see in the video, the landing was surely not his best. We touched down at 0415 hours.
HD: Jet Airways landing in Chennai
We taxied off the active and entered the parking. Lead FA Shilpa made her announcements, this time with a very heavy forceful accent. No good
I noticed a completely full domestic apron, with lifeless aircraft. This was dominated by mostly SpiceJet B738s, and IndiGo A320s. And a couple of A320's with sharklets of course. They just stood there, no lights, no bridge attached, no trucks, cars, people, nothing. No life at all. As my window fogged, it got a bit difficult to notice what the international widebodies were. I did notice a few of them, which included a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER (G-YMMT), a Qatar Airways A330-200 (A7-BAF), an Emirates Boeing 777-300 (my second Emirates sighting of the day!). Because of these large aircraft, we were forced to park at a remote bay. Well, that was expected, because JGZ would operated a flight to PNQ early in the morning. Engines took a while to cut out, therefore that got a few passengers slightly impatient, so they got up from their seats. The crew were quick to ask them to sit back down. Engines cut, seat belt signs off, doors disarmed, all people quickly took their belongings and decided to rush out of the aircraft. Me being me, I took my time and waited for everyone to get off.
The slightly different seats, and of course, looking straight are the J class seats, no divider as such..
The flight may have ended, but the episodes didn't. As I walked down the aisle towards the front end of JGZ, there were 3 crew members standing there, looking at me, smiling. Shilpa rolled her eye balls down to my camera, looked back up, smiled, and asked,
'I hope you have clicked many great pictures sir!'
I smiled back and said,
'Haha yes indeed! Is it possible to see the cockpit?'
Another FA smiled and said,
'Sir the pilots have just closed the cockpit and gone. You should have come a bit earlier!'
With a smile and a thumbs up, I said,
'No problem, thank you for a wonderful flight!'
Obviously, I lied a bit, as you can see, there aren't many pictures
I thanked them and got off JGZ. A slight wait later, a Jaw Rattler (After Burner) came and picked me up to head for the terminal. Which meant, another terrible picture:
As the Jaw Rattler rattled my jaws taking me to the terminal, the beautiful sounding A330-200 of QR with the GE CF6 engines prepared for deparutre, while I noticed by first ever B777, A6-EMP was being serviced at the gate. I also noted a couple of props, belonging to JetKoneect and SpiceJet. I also noted VT-JFE parked dark in an aerobridge gate. I got off the bus and decided to put my camera in my bag. While doing so, a CISF personell saw me, smiled and said,
'Good Morning sir!'
What. Was. Going. On! CISF personell being nice?! Never seen it, but been through it now.
A long walk lay ahead. Climbing from the ground floor on to the first, I was quite surprised and shocked to see travellators in this ancient terminal. Oh and much better, they were actually working! I texted Dad and a few others, telling them about the friendly crew while exiting JGZ.
Nightmare. An absolute nightmare lay ahead.
The face I made was the same as you'd see people in Jailed/Banged Up Abroad, but I wasn't carrying anything illegal
There was a LONG LONG immigration line ahead. Oh and much worse, my phone wasn't receiving a signal. The texts to Dad didn't go. The texts to my friend who'd meet me outside the terminal didn't go. I plugged in my iPod, and yet, the line was moving slower than a snail. About half an hour into the wait, and having moved just a few inches, I decided to get my lumbar belt out and wear it. This outrageously long wait caused havoc in my back and I couldn't take it. In fact, the person in the line behind me told me 'move quickly.' I looked back at him, CALMLY told him that if he could see, I had just put a creepy looking belt around my waist. He apologized immediately. As I waited in the line, more and more flights started coming in, and I was in the middle of the mess. An hour waiting in the line, my passport was FINALLY stamped and I got a very un-welcoming welcome back home.
These lines grew longer..
Like I said before, anything could have gone wrong in this trip. And as I have just mentioned, I had a very un-welcoming welcome back home. I headed down to the packed-with-people arrivals lounge. Which carousel are 9W253's luggage going around? None. A bunch of Air India flights from the middle east had taken over. Luckily, I found an agent who was assisting passengers from Colombo. He took me to a place where the bags were kept, but...
He took my ticket to get the baggage tag number. After a few phone calls later, he informed me,
'Sir your bag has arrived in Chennai.'
Oh wow. Very helpful. Just tell me that someone else hasn't taken it away. I had so many things in there, let alone clothes and underwears. Another agent came to help me. He took the description of my bag. I told him whatever I knew. I also remembered that Mum had put a violet ribbon on its handle, just for easy identification. From somewhere, in a galaxy far far away, my bag came. Unscratched. Not stolen. I matched the baggage tag numbers. And yup, I was re-united with my bag. This episode lasted a mere 7 minutes, but it felt like an hour. Always Always Always buy baggage insurance.
Lucky for me, my friend had become much taller than me (a thing I should be worrying about, but this was helpful!) , because I could easily identify him. We re-united after about 7.5 months. He spoke in English, I spoke in Hindi. It was great to be back in India
We took the long walk from the old International to the new domestic terminal, where we decided to have some breakfast. Waiting there, I noticed the cars: what a relief it was to see the SX4, Swift, Innova, Indica, Indigo, etc etc. I was back home
New terminal entrance
It looks like it snowed!
After I took these shots, I had realized, I WAS UP THE WHOLE NIGHT! A feat which I last did in 2010, preparing for a dreadful Hindi exam, and the result was...dreadful. But suddenly, I realized: there may not be a B787 flight! But I said, screw it, Dosa for now!
And of course, early morning Coca Cola to wash it down
He gave a quick call to his Mum, informing him that I'd be coming home.
That was a slight surprise.
And he also mentioned, there are surprises at home.
While going, I asked him if we could go through the old terminal just once again, so I could click a few pictures..
He said,
'You're the boss!'
There were electric buggies running between the International and Domestic terminals..
Entering the new terminal..
Except for the couple, of course
Are they ever going to finish this?
And I remember waiting there 364 days ago, waiting for a room. Waiting to board another Air India flight!
Abandoned check in..
If I be honest, the old terminal has been left in tatters. I mean, it was stinking, an alive rat was being pulled by the crows, the chairs in the canteen just ghostly stood there, while the tobacco stains still made their presence. Oh well, no one was going to take care of this, that was for sure!
A reminder..
Parking lot
Heading out of the airport now, the new Chennai Airport domestic terminal.
A bit of haggling with the tuk tuk (okay, Auto Rickshaw! Fine, I'll admit, I'm getting slightly Lankan
The first surprise was that his house was adjoining the airport boundary, so SPOTTING!
Second, he had a 3 month old Labrador, named Woody
Third, a drum kit, the same company as used by the one and only, Metallica's Lars Ulrich!
The TAMA drum kit..
There was a lot which I was doing. First of all, I checked for updates on the B787 fire in London. It surely wasn't looking good
Second, on FR24, I frantically searched for AI439, it was no where
The only B787 there was AI505 heading to Bangalore. A big load of A320s were taking off from Delhi, most of them IndiGo or Air India flights to other places. AI439 was nowhere.
I knew the worst was happening, an old A320 being sent to Chennai.
'Please not VT-EPI!'
I prayed.
Just then, a big plane heading south wards popped up.
It was AI439!
And I quickly clicked on the aircraft,
AI439 was being operated by Air India's first Dream)Liner, VT-AND!
This day was suddenly looking much better! To celebrate, my friend set up a garden table with more Coke and Nachos, and decided to spot some planes....
Meanwhile, he also explained his frustrations when he sleeps at night, all planes land, and they are so loud! I told him that I'd do ANYTHING to get a house like that! He also said that he woke up at 0415 hours.
He noticed a Jet Airways plane landing then, and he rightfully assumed that it was my plane
His dog was adding some spices to the entertainment..
I got in touch with Rishul again, and well, he was surprised to know that I'd be flying on a B787! (Isn't that right, Rishul?!
My friend also showed his bass guitar skills. He played Metallica's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls', a song with a fantastic opening bass riff. Cliff Burton would be proud of what he has spread today. If only he was alive today, God only knows what songs I'd be listening to!
R.I.P Cliff!
Back to aviation now..
^^ This one was loud and slow. There was so much of crosswind!
3 hours had soon passed by, and it was time to leave.......
Stay tuned for the upcoming parts folks ^_^
Last edited by jbalonso777 on Fri Aug 02, 2013 12:58 am; edited 1 time in total
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Posts: 1384
Location: DEL
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:40 am
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Very well written report. Eagerly waiting for Part II.
Save Maharashtra!
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3646
Location: Pune,Maharashtra
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 1:10 pm
Post subject:
- thanks jishnu
- dobby is cute and adorable
- The food as per your pic seems to have improved, may be they have started purchasing frooti in abu dhabi and sending it across
Awaiting further parts
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Posts: 1574
Location: DOH/IXE/MEL
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 1:37 pm
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ameya wrote:
may be they have started purchasing frooti in abu dhabi and sending it across
HAHAHA! LOL! Coming in seedha from Abu Dhabeeeeeeeeee!!!
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Posts: 1574
Location: DOH/IXE/MEL
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 2:09 pm
Post subject:
Nice TR, Jishnu!
Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to quote, so bulletpoints (or something)
-Dobby looks cute, reminds me of my dog - 'Casper'
-Congrats on the trophy!
-Easy web check-in? On Jet? That too, international? What is going on?
-Damn, I have tried convincing my mom to use those electronic weighing scales, but she prefers a rusty 15 year old weighing machine, that adds 3-4 kilos.
-Love the sounds of CFM56 engines firing up. Always brings a smile!
-I though VT-JGZ also had PTVs. So they decided to
every goddamn aircraft
-With respect to the immigration queues, it reminds of the time when Mangalore Airport had this dingy, old (but with an awesome gallery facing the tarmac) terminal, and the international arrival hall was this very old, small cramped place with one single belt, immigration counters, customs, duty free, X-ray scanning all packed into a small room. When our (full) flight landed, it was TOTAL CHAOS from immigration till we got outside. People rushing for the bags, stamping each other, throwing bags at our feet instead of trolleys. The situation has improved with the new terminal. But this reminds of it a LOT!
Eagerly waiting for the next part
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Posts: 58
Location: Chennai
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:56 pm
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Awesome writing jishnu!Absolutely loved it
Waiting for the next parts and the video of the touchdown at chennai!
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Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:33 pm
Post subject:
himmat01 wrote:
Very well written report. Eagerly waiting for Part II.
Thank you for your words, Himmat sir! Scroll right down, there is your part two. Enjoy!
ameya wrote:
- thanks jishnu
- dobby is cute and adorable
- The food as per your pic seems to have improved, may be they have started purchasing frooti in abu dhabi and sending it across
Awaiting further parts
Hi sir thank you for your words!
Dobby is evil to me, just like I'm evil to him!
Parle Agro has a factory in Abu Dhabi?
This is news for me...
Part 2 is right below sir, scroll down
abhijith16 wrote:
Thank you for your words, Abhijeeth!
-Well, all Labs are cute and really over-friendly, aren't they?!
-Thanks! Been 9 long years since I got one!
-They are heading on the improvement curve. And that's really good to know! Forget OLCI, the service centre is really good!
-I've been spoilt by the GE90
But this is very enjoyable too!
-Well, they have Konnected only the B73G/Ws. Only a few B73Hs got Konneted, VT-JBL is the unlucky one..
-WOW that sounds like a nightmare in the old terminal! MAA need their new terminal open ASAP! This looked like a complete disaster to me!
Scroll right down, part 2 is waiting!
rakesh959 wrote:
Awesome writing jishnu!Absolutely loved it
Waiting for the next parts and the video of the touchdown at chennai!
Heya, I was planning to message you AFTER all 4 flights, but you found it anyways! Thanks for reading!
Part 2 is up, video will take a bit of time, but it will be there really soon!
3 hours had passed.
Non stop chatting, trolling, drumming, jamming, snapping, playing (with the pup) just made sure time flew. Honestly, once I noticed that VT-AND was coming in from DEL, I felt much relieved about the day. Anyways, it was time to leave my friends place, and head for the airport, and experience the new Chennai Airport domestic terminal..
Being an Army family, there was an inevitability of the car I'd be going in to head for the airport: A Suzuki Gypsy
This is one nice tiny SUV. I was always fascinated by the tiny gear next to the main gear, apprently it is to change to and from 4 wheel drive..
Another round of quick chatting the car the domestic terminal was in sight:
Being an Army Vehicle, we were waved through without the hassle of free parking for 5 minutes...
So this is the thing about the entry gates.
There are 4 entry gates; Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 3 and Gate 4. Gates 2 and 3 are just there...I mean you cannot enter. There are chairs kept in front of them. So a few airlines have entry from Gate 1, the rest are from Gate 4. We lost 5 minutes in searching for this..
Gate 3.
I bid goodbye to my friend, and now I was once again alone. My no-sleep meter was almost 22 hours. The CISF person saw my ticket, and directed me to another CISF person, who took down my name and flight details in a register. Weird.
As many of you have mentioned before, pre-check in baggage screening still exists in Chennai. This was done with no hassle.
What do I even write about check in?!
There was a flight going to Kochi, which had a dedicated line, while our flight was from any of the rest of the lines. The Dream)Liner was being advertised in the check in counters. As the line grew longer, more counters were opened. I went to one of them.
First of all, the person asked me if I got my baggage screened, I confirmed with the affirmative.
Next up, just for the sake of it, and as many of the other TR writer's who've flown on the B787, I asked,
'Is the 787 operating the flight?'
He said:
'Dream)Li... ah yes, 787 sir. Enjoy your flight..'
A new record was set: THE FASTEST CHECK IN FOR ME:
Man that was quick!
I know its too brief, but what can I write about if the check in was so short!
Before heading for security, I decided to click a few pictures of the terminal...one person gave me a stare, rather, kept staring at the camera..
AI Check in and baggage screening
I went through security, which was a breeze..
Following that, I noted my Gate number, which was 10. I found something rather interesting while tracking AI439/430. Everytime the aircraft would dock at the old terminal gate, but all formalities were in the new terminal. I took note that gates 7-10 were guided to somewhere else, and I assumed my gate too would be from the old terminal.
Chennai Airport has a shortage in space. There wasn't enough chairs. So I decided so sit on the floor...like, a bit of a raised platform area.
VT-JBU got pushed back, and I automatically assumed it was the flight to Delhi.
I noticed the IndiGo crew drinking a can of wings-giving Red Bull, just when VT-IFP arrived to take VT-JBU's spot.
Rishul take note - lounges are located at the far end of the terminal (left turn from security). Its a rather open lounge, no doors as such..
There was a large amount of activities going on. Small planes took off very early, while large planes took to the skies a bit late. 9W390 to BLR and BBI was slightly delayed because of the arrival of the incoming aircraft: VT-JFC operating flight 9W821 from Delhi.
I decided to stretch a bit.
Metallica's cover of Iron Maiden's Remember Tomorrow started.
I turned around to see the tarmac..
'Unchain the colours
Before my eyes...'
As these lyrics played, something beautiful arrived.
Something with white engines.
Something with a long wingspan.
Something wide.
Something known as the Boeing 787 Dream)Liner....
VT-AND had just arrived and headed straight for one of the older departure gates..
I then decided to walk around the terminal a bit...
IIRC, I didn't take a very good picture of JFC after my last flight in 2012..
Here is payback
9W390 to BLR and BBI.
The ultimate comparison!
Airbus is sleek, Boeing is classy.
Oh, now thanks for ruining my holiday you horrible horrible aircraft!
You look anywhere and everywhere, there are so many amazing photographs to click
VT-IFP on her triangular 6E285 DEL-MAA-CJB-DEL run..
Now THAT is much more appetizing then the smaller Lankan
The A330 took quite a lot of runway while taking off. Saudia must be doing quite well out of Chennai, based on 13JUL13
Ah yes, VT-JBM. A close friend of mine too flew on this bird, enroute CMB-BOM ^_^
Now that is heading to or from Dhaka, or to or from Male'.
VT-JFC got pushed back. When its engines were being started, I heard the moooo sound.
I said to myself.
'You heard JBU start up, it wasn't so loud, right?'
I continued.
'You're just lacking sleep. JFC does not have GE90s.'
As JFC headed out, I then realized why the mooo sound was heard. A6-ECT, the mighty Boeing 777-300ER of Emirates was heading to Dubai.
Strangely, this one took lesser runway as compared to the A330.
Not the new livery yet
1030 on the clock, and boarding had not started yet. Well, a few minutes had passed and boarding started. It wasn't according to rows or zones or whatever, it was according to whoever reached the line first. Of course.
Looking at the passengers, none of them were really bothered about flying on the Dream)Liner. Well, looks like I was the only lucky one
There was a rather middle-aged lady doing the computerised boarding process. On average, she serviced a passenger for about 3.5 seconds. This is actually quite good. She had a smile on her face while doing so, and spoke good English.
Line looked quite long, so I was expecting a full flight.
Going down a slope...
We were off the carpet, and on to the white marble floor.
Back to old domestic terminal
A friendly CISF person from the northeast checked our boarding passes and baggage tags.
Entering the older part of the airport, I suddenly stumbled across a bunch of people taking pictures with their cell phone cameras... Once they cleared, it was time for me to just STARE at the beastly beauty.
Looking at a 21st century aircraft, through a 20th century airport terminal. This is why I've missed India.
This is why, I love India ^_^
A walked a bit closer to the gate...
And the annoying pole is clearly very annoying
I came even closer to the Dream)Liner, this time, the nose.
The way I was clicking pictures, I'm surprised no one stopped me!
Who looks more nosy according to you?
Also note the A330 tail the background...
The line was really long..
I could not wait ANY LONGER to get onboard the Dream)Liner.
I saw this person, just...talking on his phone..
I edged closer and closer to the Dream)Liner. I noticed a bright and young crew welcoming us passengers onboard, with the traditional 'Namaskar' in their hands. I looked at the J class seats, but just a glimpse. I guess Sumantra sir has done everything to tell us what it is like up there, so I'll just stick to Economy
The first thing I noticed was the rather small galley on the B787. This already gave a much open feeling. The windows, wow, they were HUGE! I did hear a few camera clicks, so I guess after all, everyone did know what they were about to experience! The Sky Interior, as usual, was amazing in giving the open feeling. I put my bagpack into the overhead bin, while my camera bag was kept down. A blue mood lighting was on.
I took my seat 26J, and the cabin slowly started to fill up.
The first thing I did was set the window to maximum darkness, just to get a picture. While doing so, I looked around a bit, and noticed that....the Dream)Liner isn't very well kept
More on that later.
The completely darkened window..
IFE was going to be turned on after take off..
What a brilliant day to fly
A very...Saint-ish (you know...a Pandit Ji, I guess?) passenger took the aisle seat. The middle seat was empty. Yay!
The window dimming switch..
A neat IFE control..
If only I was a bit quicker, I wouldn't have got him
And I feared, one of them would be flying instead of the Dream)Liner. Nope, the fear is erased
We have seen too many of this
At 1056 hours, a little bit late, AND was pushed back for departure for its flight AI430 to Delhi. There were long safety announcements, and the GEnx engines were started up. To my surprise, there
were a lot of vibrations
while this was going on. See the video, and you'll know what I'm taking about.
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner start up at Chennai.
The long announcements continued as we taxied out of the apron onto the taxiway.. Safety demos were done manually, mentioning the green exit signs. Oh and like I said, a young crew were doing this.
AI A330-200 from BOM? Or SIN?
That wing!
Wow those reflections look brilliant!
Domestic apron. I assume people were staring at this beauty ^_^
That is a view...you don't click pictures of!
We came to a halt after this...
As I took this picture, the lead FA decided to welcome us onboard the flight now.
Something which was clearly forgotten because maybe they were in a hurry to depart.
A few things:
1. I couldn't get the Captain's name
2. Our flight number changed to AI130
3. Window SHADES were to be pulled up
AND waited on the runway for quite a while, and then slowly power was applied to the GEnx engines, they silently helped AND thunder down the runway. We took off in a Westerly direction, quickly this was adjusted by the pilots and he headed northwards.
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner take off from Chennai
Super Kings ^_^
Worryingly, I felt a bit sleepy
Anyways, before take off the FA announced that lunch would be served in the 2hr10min flight. I tried to keep myself awake by clicking a few pictures, and waited for the IFE to come on..
The EXIT signs..
'We're banking, aren't we?'
- Jeremy Clarkson in the Middle East Top Gear Special..
And the IFE came on. I wasn't in a mood to see anything because honestly, there wasn't much on offer. I hope AI figure this out before they begin the long Australian flights. In fact, I wonder what passengers on the flights to LHR and FRA.
Sadly, mood lighting was turned off, and turbulence came. Turbulence was expected throughout the flight..
AI headphones..
Quite good actually..
The remote, yes, but worryingly,
That is when I decided, its time to show you what the aircraft was like..from where I was sitting...
Absolutely unacceptable. AI need to work on this ASAP. Surely the passenger's aren't to blame for dust on the air vents, right?
Anyways, my mood felt better when I saw the trolley roll up ahead. As usual, another one rolled up front from behind. Strangely, I didn't get any food smells. Was my nose clogged? Possibly.
The female FAs had gloves on their hands, while the male FAs didn't. I don't get it!
Well, I got my meal on what didn't look like the best tray in aviation. Atleast, the meal looked in good quantity.
A Gulab Jamun, salad, bread roll, main course and a bottle of water.
Before I TRY to describe the food, wingshot:
Now, on with the food.
Starting off with an '8' figured bun, but rock hard and cold butter..
I squeezed the lemon all over the finely cut vegetables. The carrot didn't look too fresh, but well, it tasted fresh. Cucumber and tomato were present too. My lips didn't like the lemon very much, as they started burning quite badly.
Anyways, onto the main course..
I just...I really do not know what to describe here...
I'll admit, I'm not a foodie anymore.
But here is the important thing, the whole portion was nice and warm. It tasted fantastic! The taste was perfect, just what I wanted.
Sumantra sir, I'm sorry if I've failed (AGAIN!) to describe the food, but well, I hope the pictures are appealing!
Then was the cold and slightly hard Gulab Jamun. Felt good to have this after a long long time!
DIY Tea was up next, followed by DIY coffee. I went for a bit of DIY tea..
Trays were soon collected, despite the heavy turbulence. I plugged in my pendrive with a few songs in it, while the light on the pendrive was flashing, nothing was shown in the IFE screen. Baddy bad
The GEnx
Turbulence was quite frequent, so I kind of gave up hope of trying to go to the washroom and try out things there...
This does not look good
I was falling asleep a bit. Luckily, I was just awake to hear the seatbelt signs to go off, the ding was quite loud. The passenger sitting in the aisle got up.
I headed to the rear of the aircraft. I noticed that Row 37 is a bad row for anyone who wants a window seat. I opened the sliding door, and entered the washroom..
Flush button
Why do they have these if there are no smoking signs AND its banned by every federal aviation law? And it is a new plane! Weird..
I hope the Airbus A350 does not have this!
Not good..
But is this really AI's fault?
Um, not really..
Unlocked door, blue lights come on...
I took a picture of the door too..
I headed back to my seat, and said to myself:
'Right. Now time to go through Sumantra sir's fantastic details of Delhi T3 spotting.'
People, if you need a spotting guide in and around T3 in Delhi, here you are:
The food court will need a good lens. You will get a good view of the AI domestic pier + the facing int'l pier. A better view is from the ground floor, behind the Citibank ATM. I usually take pics from there, if there is something interesting. Though my lens is a bit inadequate for the same. Better spotting points: after the shopping area, after you climb up to the gates - just in front of you will be a coffee shop and a book stall, with the somking room behind it. This will give you a lovely view of the other side - the 9W gates, and the remote stands, where you may see a CR7, an AT4 or even a Dream)liner parked. If you have the time, try to go to the ends fo the two domestic fingers - the AI side, and the 9W side. These will give you a superb unimpeded view of the new runway - the former gives you the 11 end, the latter, the 28 end. Depending on the wind direction (we often have the west to east movements 11 to 29 side, in the monsoons in Delhi), you will get good spotting oppostunities on the adjacent taxiways too, since the new runway is a bit distant from the terminal fingers.
Sir, I cannot thank you more! These helped A LOT, and you'll see it in the next part for sure!
The quietness of the B787 surely made me get a bit of sleep. But NO, I stayed awake. Sort of. My eyes were getting heavy, and really attracted to gravity, yet I resisted that!
If only a few lights were on
I had to move onto the middle seat to get this click!
My shortest widebody flight ever!
Its almost the end of flight number two!
A bit of lighting now..
We descended from our cruising altitude of 40000 feet about 184 miles away from Delhi, according to the IFE! Once again, window SHADES were mentioned. Weird....
Oh and there was a mention that IFE would be switched off and headphones would be collected, nothing happened. They were there even after we docked at the gate..
The pre-landing safety demo too was done, indicating the green exit signs.
Some detail on the wings!
Slowly and surely, we were getting closer to Delhi, this was marked when the flaps were being deployed:
Spoiler action and raked wingtips
Full flaps?
It felt really different getting down back on earth on the B787. I really do not know why!
The Captain made a nice touchdown into Delhi, and we quickly taxied towards the gates.
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner landing in New Delhi
I couldn't believe it when I saw
5 Dream)Liners
in Delhi! An absolute stunning thing to see!
There were 2 parked at the gates, 2 taxiing for departure, and us taxiing. Its all in the video!
The engines were cut out, my Dream)Liner experience had come to an end, despite the fire in London. In fact, I had a reply from a close friend saying:
'Oh my! I'm glad you made it.. I was honestly a bit scared!'
This is justified. Nothing wrong. One would actually be scared if you fly on an aircraft...which just had a horrible time somewhere else.
Okay, I'm struggling to get my words right, but you get the point, right? If not, post it in the reply please
One 787 through another 787
I took my time in getting off. I was quite satisfied with my second Air India experience, living up to my expectations..
Except well...the dirt, of course..
Slightly messy..
What is that screen in the back?!
Cabin of the Dream)Liner..
I also noticed no floor lighting system on the B787!
Sadly, there was no one to wish me a good day, or any sort of greeting
But well, I was greeted by a slightly disturbing sight...
Something surely went wrong! Engine parts are out!
As you can see in the reflection: THE PILOTS!
After this picture, I turned into a complete child (in Sumantra sir's words!). Yes, I talked with the pilots. A lot.
So here is how it began:
'A beautiful bird the B787!'
I said.
'It sure is.'
said the Captain.
'You might me surprised to know, but I flew in from Colombo just to fly on the Dream)Liner, and now I'm going to my actual destination, Mumbai..'
I said..
Both pilots were quite shocked! Obviously
Well, there was a long walk which lay ahead, so they asked me if I have anything new regarding the Ethiopian B787 fire, or whether or not my pictures would be on any site. I asked them if they were aware of AI.net, they weren't. In fact, the captain asked me to give my details where he'll find this TR, but I don't think he'll have the time to. Pilots have busy lives!
I also mentioned
TR, telling him that there is a lot which I didn't know that happens in the front office! I also asked them about transit into a different airlines. They confirmed that I'd have to go the arrivals and head up from the exit. I also asked them about the pre-landing demo, they were quite surprised to know about it!
Captain inquired about this from one of the FA, but I got disconnected from them due to the crowd
Oh well, I actually had a really long and amazing conversation with the pilots!
What an amazing feeling!
Anyways, back to loneliness
While walking with the pilots
This is where I got disconnected..
Are the devil horns a mudra? Just asking!
Baggage claim area..
That's us!
I got my bag, and headed to the 9W counter to get some info on how to get to the departures level...
Stay tuned for the Drama from Delhi T3!
Last edited by jbalonso777 on Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:31 am; edited 2 times in total
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Joined: 10 Aug 2007
Posts: 4258
Location: Indian Ocean
Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 11:56 pm
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This is a top TR with some brilliant shots.
Thanks for the share, Jishnu.
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Posts: 1574
Location: DOH/IXE/MEL
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:03 am
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Nice one Jishnu, keep 'em coming!
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Joined: 28 Aug 2012
Posts: 58
Location: Chennai
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:40 am
Post subject:
How would I miss this jish
I was keeping an eye on the forum from the day u travelled for the trs.Im really awestruck by ur writing on 787.U deserve appreciation.Looking forward eagerly for the next parts!Hope AI dont spoil the 787s by their ill maintenance
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:13 am
Post subject:
Thanks for your words, Varun, Abhijeeth and Rakesh!
I appreciate this a lot!
The next part is up for you!
At this point, I was starting to regret the decision of 'flying around' since the morning. I had a long time to go. In fact, I wondered if I could change and just manage to hop onto flight 9W334. It was just a thought, I did nothing. I called by brother up and notified him that I am the land of the Daredevils. Not that he supports the Daredevils (KKR
), but still. Apparently, Mum had given him wrong information: she told him that I'm landing in DEL only in the morning. He wasn't aware of the afternoon arrival. Oh and he also felt I'm going back to CMB after this. I knew many people would have no idea of my flights or its timings. In Delhi atleast. Oh well, I decided to head for the 9W baggage counter, inquiring them about a way to go up. I saw a person walk very quickly towards the baggage counter, drop his bag, and for reasons UNBEKNOWN to mankind, he decided to jump the line. What a nice person.
Apparently, his handle and wheels were broken. I'm not sure what the rules are, but he decided to rant about the iPad in his bag.
Why would you risk putting an iPad into check in baggage? I mean, really?! That is not a very smart thing to do! 5 minutes went and I finally got some help in getting up to the departures level. I exited from the arrivals, turned right and found the Departure levels board....
I produced my ticket to the security. He read my name out loud. Like, just let the whole world know JAISHNU is heading for departures. I corrected him, its Jishnu. Then he decided to tell the whole world that JISHNU is heading for departures. There was a rather rude person who was also heading for departures. I knew he was rude because he pressed the 'close door' button on the lift, so the doors were closing. Too bad for him, I was a bit too quick to get my trolley in the sensor and stop the lift doors from closing. He made a face. Sir had an issue I guess. He doesn't like other people in the elevators
There were two more ticket checks. Both in the span of about 10 meters. One of them also used a pen to mark the flight number, my name and my destination. God only knows why.
Anyways, I was now in the check in level. It was very very warm in there. I doubt if the ACs were working I decided to just head to a corner and sit on my trolley, thinking about whatever had happened so far in the day..
I knew it was quite early, yet I decided to head for check in. There were two lines, obviously one much longer than the other. I went for the short one. A bagpacking couple were being serviced. They were there for quite a long time. 5 minutes had passed and the line behind me was growing longer and longer. 15 minutes into the wait, nothing was happening to the couple at the check in counter. In fact, the only interesting thing that was happening was the mumbling of a few 'words' from the chap behind me. He was slowly and surely getting very very annoyed. I held myself back from saying anything. The bagpacking couple were sent to a different counter, and another bunch of passengers were getting their check in done, but it wasn't happening.
Something was horrendously wrong. I decided to switch on my camera and go through the pictures and videos of the B787 flight. Nothing absolutely nothing was happening. I noticed the couple being a bit fiery and being frustrated at the check in counters, as they were asked to go to yet another counter! The line behind me was now really wrong! The passengers behind me had now lost it...
'Can't you see the long line of passengers behind us? We cannot wait and miss our flights! Hurry up!'
The guy behind me said...
'Sir there is nothing we can do..'
the check in agent said.
Things got a bit worse now that it was time to change shifts for them. Despite the long line, they got up from their computers and walked away. Thankfully, the new set of people were quite quick. 45 minutes I waited in the line, and despite the guy behind trying to jump the queue, I got my boarding pass after waiting the counter for about 4 minutes. Nearly an hour gone, just by standing there. Yes, you guessed it right, my spine wasn't doing very well.
I completed security checks really quickly and headed off for spotting. First of all, I headed for the food court...and then behind the Citi Bank ATM...I got a few shots from there..
While going there, I realized, Sumantra sir was at this very terminal a few hours ago! Just a few hours separated us!
VT-AND is still there!
And maybe a good picture to find the differences in livery?
I was feeling very dehydrated, and yet, I drank nothing. Not even water. I felt saving a bit of money would help..which was a bad decision of course..
All passengers were just running around catching their flights, while I roamed around slowly. Everyone was staring at my camera, even the guards, but importantly, no one said anything. My eyes were starting to burn, my lips were already burning. I was in desperate search for a flat seat, or bed, or whatever they are. I found one, but someone took it before me. Dang.
I decided to go the Jet Airways part of T3...
VT-JGZ, the plane which I flew many hours ago, IS IN DELHI!
I then walked to the Air India part...
VT-RJE, which is NOT the bird Sumantra sir flew on that very morning...
Oh and also notice VT-JGD, the Boeing 737-900 of Jet Airways taxiing in.
At this point of time, all birds I flew or will fly on, on the 13th of July 2013 were gathered at Delhi T3.
I really did not know what to say!
Also notice VT-JBD. She was operating flight 9W334. I'm glad I didn't take 9W334, or else I'd have to go onboard JBD again!
VT-ABB. Felt nice to see these colours again!
I went straight up to the Air India end of the terminal. Sadly, the number of passengers were less, while the number of guards looking at the runway were high. I decided to turn back and head for the 9W end. In fact, I looked like a complete idiot walking around the Terminal, almost lost, despite the large number of signs..
This was a very very strange thing to see!
She just came in from VNS, but I don't recall where she was heading
4 tails, but only 2 airlines...
VT-JLE was flying to Chandigarh..
JLE's winglet awkwardly placed among the private stuff
The Indian FSCs..
Oh hey VT-JFK
So. Many. Jets. (Actually, only 3 of them).
The only Boeing 737 variant in India which I needed to fly on after the B739, is the B739ER...
VT-JBC again..
From the Jets...
To the Indians....
And now, I couldn't take it anymore. I saw too much of AI and 9W, I looked on the other side and I was relieved to see a few IndiGo planes. Oh and a few Kingfisher birds, but they were grounded. I also saw a few 9W widebodies.
I was strangely hungry now. I headed for some late lunch, a second lunch. I placed an order for paratha and chicken curry, along with a bottle of Nimbuzz. I put my hand on my cheek for a moment, and I felt a beard growing. I had shaved the previous night, and now, I felt it grow again. I thought about many things, for example, I started regretting this trip because of over-exerting myself, my feet and spine were hurting, I looked like a lost idiot. I was totally disconnected from the world because of no internet, but I had aviation to enjoy with! Then again, I honestly had too much of DOMESTIC aviation for one day. My food came, I ate it...
I then decided to head for my gate 39B, and then just SIT THERE. I had enough of walking around for one day!
I also noticed that as compared to 2011, Delhi T3 had lost a bit of its shine...I do not know how, but it just felt so!
I waited at Gate 39B. I just wanted to get onboard the plane and hopefully sleep a bit.
Oh the sweet sound of the boarding announcement was music to my ears! I quickly went into the aircraft...I couldn't wait to exit the terminal heat into the cold aircraft!
So I've seen all of 9Ws B73Ws in one day. Nice
Signs of ageing...obviously! Its quite an old bird!
The crew, this time, welcomed all the passengers onboard..
And the first thing I noticed, was the LONG J class cabin! Its been a long time since I've seen more than 20 seats on a narrow body in J class!
So lets take a look at it, shall we?
J class..
More J class..
Even more J class!
I noticed the windows, row 11 should be completely avoided, while 10A should be avoided if you want a window seat..
I went through this long bird bird to my seat 23F.
So many signs of ageing!
The cabin filled up, but only very slowly..there weren't too many passengers.
I think JBC would now wait for long and then head for BLR as 9W811..
Ah the old seats!
Newspapers (
) were given out and the over head bins were being shut. This clearly indicated loads of less than 40%. A passenger was being quite unreasonable, and sitting wherever he wanted to. He also took the aisle side on my side. I wanted to get rid of him. He was complaining about being seated too far back. Luckily, he went away, to the front. I took a look behind, and wow: rows 25 and 26 were completely empty!
That's....not very nice
Doors were armed at 1719 hours for the 1725 hours departure. A manual safety demo was done. The seats next to me were empty, so I put my camera there. I was asked if it was off, that is it. Nothing had to be kicked underneath the seat
So that meant, I do not have a video of the CFM56s being fired up from this flight. However, before this, we were pushed back, and pulled in front for quite a long time..
Soon, we began our taxi to the runway..
From the international part, I noticed a China Airlines A330, a Biman Bangaldesh B737, and a few more which I cannot remember
The Captain soon took a lot of runway and got JGD into the skies, despite it being light..
HD: Jet Airways take off from New Delhi
After a few banks and turns, we were headed for Mumbai, and my final flight of a tiring day.
Soon, we reached our cruising altitude, and despite that, we were still banking and turning. There were many interesting patterns among the clouds..
Anyone else see a Hippo waving at you?
Gloria from Madagascar?
All I needed was an uneventful flight, and that is exactly what I had got. Service started, one trolley from the back, one from the front. In no time, I had a slightly depressing looking tray in front of me...
The contents had gone significantly..
Turbulence was there all throughout the flight, so the crew could not conduct the tea and coffee service. Yes, it was that bad!
That's it? No dessert?
The chicken was quite spicy! I was in desperate need of a dessert! I needed 3 bottles of water atleast!
Soon, I saw a tray full of Orange things being taken.
I was about to
have my first ice cream onboard a plane ^_^.
Exactly what I needed after a spicy meal, cold and sweet stuff!
Trays were soon collected and turbulence got worse. Nothing really was happening on the cabin, except for the sound of the CFM56 engines in cruise mode, and the passengers' head bobbing due to turbulence. I just entered Nirvana and fell asleep peacefully.
I saw many things in that 20 minute nap, and I was woken up by a jerk due to turbulence.. I then saw my camera in my hand..
'How the HELL did I come onto a plane? Oh right...I remember.'
I said to myself just after waking up.
And then I fell asleep...
And then was when I woke up..
The lead FA came over the PA, announcing descent into Mumbai. This was MUSIC to my ears! I could NOT wait to just leap onto a bed and fall asleep! (Actually if I did that, the bed would break, so no
). The aircraft grew colder..
Rains were right there. This was not looking good for me
Anyways, I just about stayed awake to click a few pictures..
You know you're plans are being botched up when it rains in Mumbai..
HD: Jet Airways landing in Mumbai
A very gentle landing was made at 1927 hours. I saw yet another aircraft of Emirates in Mumbai, my fourth for the day!
Anyways, we docked next to an IndiGo aircraft, and what clearly was an aerobridge. I wasn't so tired to notice that! Oh and VT-JBD was being pushed back when we arrived, back to Delhi as 9W309.
I thanked the crew for the flight and walked up the jetbridge..
It was too dark for any pictures..
IndiGo and Go Air decided to start boarding just when the (few) passengers of our flight were heading to baggage claim. They could have waited for a bit.. So much for being
'The Coolest Airline'
'Flying Smart.'
Bags came out fairly early and I FINALLY made it to my destination. What a day it was! I was awake for a total of
37 hours!
But still, that is only my second best, the longest stint was 42 hours. Just, don't ask why
This was one very tiring day. One which I regretted doing, but now I'll cherish every memory of it. It started off with boarding a tiny 737-700, then flying on the Dream)Liner, and it finally ended with a rainy arrival into Mumbai. Yes, I was frustrated at times, but I didn't show it, like I did in 2012. It was all about being calm and collected. What a day it was..!
More coming up from Mumbai!
Last edited by jbalonso777 on Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:21 am; edited 2 times in total
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Joined: 16 Dec 2006
Posts: 9757
Location: Bangalore, India
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:09 pm
Post subject:
First - hats off to you for taking such a long and arduous journey to get on the 787 - the signs of a true #avgeek!
Second - congratulations on the award - and I'm glad your dad made it in time!
On the electronic weighing scales, I've tried them too. My first one was
- which worked well and the loop was useful to hang the scale up (in the walk in closet in the US), and the hook good to hang the suitcase from. However a few months later, noticed that the batteries had leaked and the scale was dead. So bought my next one
, again works well and has a luggage strap instead of a hook at the bottom - however I just left it behind in our company corporate apartment in the US, so don't know if it's working as yet or not
. Definitely highly recommended for all travelers, these things cost very little ($5-10 in the US), and are very accurate. They can save you mega-bucks at check-in! I don't know how easy is it to hold the scale in your hand though, given you need to hold it steady for couple of seconds for the weight to register, and doing that with a 20+ kg bag is not easy, hence I got these that I could mount.
The immigration line at MAA seems horrific. I wonder why it's so bad. I rarely see that at BLR - where the processing is quick and the queues are short (rarely more than 5-10 mins). And your bag - where exactly was it hidden away? Were you able to get any kind of details as to what had happened to the bag?
The CISF noting down details in a register - completely weird and such a waste of time. At least the check-in was super quick - kudos to AI for pulling that off!
The AI 787 looks pretty good, and that leg space shot indicates the space is massive! Did the USB port at least supply power so it could charge a device?
The chat with the pilots must have really made your day - and hopefully the 787 was just underdoing some routine maintenance and not some unplanned stuff!
Lovely TR so far, keep it rolling.
We miss you Nalini!
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 2365
Location: Singapore
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:23 pm
Post subject:
Another excellent report and good to know you managed to fly the Dreamliner.
The airplane seems to be quite dirty and it is a pity Air India is not maintaining it up to the mark. Dust in the air con ducts can lead to spread of germs if not cleaned regularly. Seems like cost cutting is taking a toll.
Also thank you for posting the pictures of the new terminal at Chennai.
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 8120
Location: Mumbai, INDIA
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 2:56 pm
Post subject:
Excellent report and amazing pictures.......
You are one true aviator.
BTW .....special thanks for the BLUE Dart pics.
Think of the Brighter side !!!
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Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 191
Location: Kochi, Kerala, India
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:35 pm
Post subject:
Excellent Jishnu! A spectacular TR this one is.
By far one of your best, I must say. Your writing skills are flawless!
With all the miles discounts and B787 flight discounts, this ultra long route into Mumbai was a reality.
Only aviation fanatics will do this. I did a COK-MAA-TRV flight back in march on jet just for flying as well. COK-TRV on a train is just 4 hrs, but it's not as crazy as what you've done
And this years deserving winner is Jishnu B....
'I hope you have clicked many great pictures sir!'
Wow, that's new. Normally it would have been a question on why you were taking pictures in the first place. Very nice of the crew.
'Good Morning sir!' What. Was. Going. On! CISF personell being nice?!
Haha! Seems like you had a similar experience to mine! Seems like the CISF are turning into the good guys!
The way I was clicking pictures, I'm surprised no one stopped me!
In most metros nobody seems to care. Come to the less know airports,
Kochi even
, and all hell breaks loose. I read in an article that someone got arrested last week for filming at COK Immigration. Didn't see any other reports though.
Dream)Liner isn't very well kept
That is a shame. Hope AI can fix this soon. The 787 is pretty much their brand image currently, it's sad to see one in such a sorry fix.
As I took this picture, the lead FA decided to welcome us onboard the flight now.
That's pretty late. At least they completed it before wheels up. There are a couple of videos on youtube where the safety video is still being shown while the plane takes off, on AI.
Anyways, onto the main course..
Looks pretty good for a 2 hr domestic flight.
The chicken was quite spicy! I was in desperate need of a dessert! I needed 3 bottles of water atleast!
The portions look a bit small for this one though.
I was about to have my first ice cream onboard a plane ^_^.
What an excellent move by jet! You don't get that on short haul any more!
More coming up from Mumbai!
Hope to see the next one soon!
Thanks for this one and keep up the good work
India's first HD Video Trip Report Channel :
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:45 pm
Post subject:
Nimish wrote:
First - hats off to you for taking such a long and arduous journey to get on the 787 - the signs of a true #avgeek!
Grand aviation tour of North Korea is next on the list.
Nimish wrote:
Second - congratulations on the award - and I'm glad your dad made it in time!
It was some really scary thing sir!
I mean anyone would feel bad not seeing your loved ones when you get an award after a long time!
Once again, thank you!
Nimish wrote:
On the electronic weighing scales, I've tried them too. My first one was
- which worked well and the loop was useful to hang the scale up (in the walk in closet in the US), and the hook good to hang the suitcase from. However a few months later, noticed that the batteries had leaked and the scale was dead. So bought my next one
, again works well and has a luggage strap instead of a hook at the bottom - however I just left it behind in our company corporate apartment in the US, so don't know if it's working as yet or not
. Definitely highly recommended for all travelers, these things cost very little ($5-10 in the US), and are very accurate. They can save you mega-bucks at check-in! I don't know how easy is it to hold the scale in your hand though, given you need to hold it steady for couple of seconds for the weight to register, and doing that with a 20+ kg bag is not easy, hence I got these that I could mount.
Yes sir, I had to hold on to the uncomfortable handle for about 5 or 6 seconds, where my hands would tremble a bit. Like I keep mentioning, it isn't a very good thing for my back. But it is quite effective. I noticed 15.2 kgs on the scale, 15.2 kgs in CMB and 15.2 kgs in MAA. However, it was 14.4 in DEL. I have done the different airline transit before in DEL, back in 2011, the IT scales in BOM read 14.6 kgs while the 9W scales in DEl read 13.8 kgs. Strange. But yes, you are correct - it wasn't easy handling that. I see you had a much better set of baggage scales, compared to mine!
Nimish wrote:
The immigration line at MAA seems horrific. I wonder why it's so bad. I rarely see that at BLR - where the processing is quick and the queues are short (rarely more than 5-10 mins). And your bag - where exactly was it hidden away? Were you able to get any kind of details as to what had happened to the bag?
I'm not sure if this is 9W's fault or MAA's fault, but when 9W253 used to arrive in MAA at 0700 hours in the morning, it was the only activity. Therefore, immigration would be quite quick! I have experienced this just a bit more than a year ago (14JUL12), hence I say.
My bag came from the side of the carousel which had serviced our flight (belt 1). I'm not sure if it fell off or someone took it by mistake and dumped it there, or anything. I didn't ask what happened to my bag, I was just too eager to meet my friend there!
Nimish wrote:
The CISF noting down details in a register - completely weird and such a waste of time. At least the check-in was super quick - kudos to AI for pulling that off!
I have never seen it happen. I find this, and the baggage screening before check in very outdated for a terminal like Chennai's new domestic terminal.
Nimish wrote:
The AI 787 looks pretty good, and that leg space shot indicates the space is massive! Did the USB port at least supply power so it could charge a device?
Amazing leg room indeed. It surely wasn't a illusion for you!
Like I mentioned, the light on the USB device was flashing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it charges devices. I guess our very own Sumantra sir who would be flying on the Dream)Liner in a few days will help answer this question!
Nimish wrote:
The chat with the pilots must have really made your day - and hopefully the 787 was just underdoing some routine maintenance and not some unplanned stuff!
The chat with the pilots absolutely made my day!
But the check in afterwards RUINED my spine, mood, and day.
Oh well, I did have a nice long chat, that is what matters
Well the pilots were looking at the engines when the parts were being removed. I too hope that it was nothing major and/or unplanned things..
sri_bom wrote:
Another excellent report and good to know you managed to fly the Dreamliner.
Thank you sir
I'll admit, it was anxious moments when I didn't get to know which aircraft was operating AI439!
sri_bom wrote:
The airplane seems to be quite dirty and it is a pity Air India is not maintaining it up to the mark. Dust in the air con ducts can lead to spread of germs if not cleaned regularly. Seems like cost cutting is taking a toll.
Cost cutting should not affect passenger health and importantly, safety. If what you mentioned is true, then airlines can expect even larger losses because of passenger numbers crumbling..
sri_bom wrote:
Also thank you for posting the pictures of the new terminal at Chennai.
You're welcome
HAWK21M wrote:
Excellent report and amazing pictures.......
You are one true aviator.
Thank you for going through
And thank you again
Like I said, North Korea is on the wishlist
HAWK21M wrote:
BTW .....special thanks for the BLUE Dart pics.
No sir not at all!
Its what us spotters do, capture the rare planes on camera!
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:05 pm
Post subject:
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
Excellent Jishnu! A spectacular TR this one is.
By far one of your best, I must say. Your writing skills are flawless!
Hey, I missed your reply while replying to the others!
Anyways, as usual, a big thank you for reading this TR!
Indeed, I feel an improvement in myself now, and that is important!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
With all the miles discounts and B787 flight discounts, this ultra long route into Mumbai was a reality.
Only aviation fanatics will do this. I did a COK-MAA-TRV flight back in march on jet just for flying as well. COK-TRV on a train is just 4 hrs, but it's not as crazy as what you've done
There are a lot of crazy things I've done, and now its in aviation too! Like I said, I was dead tired after this. But it was an enjoyable experience! I too decided to take the IXB flight via GAU, not the direct ones.
Avgeeks are insane!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
And this years deserving winner is Jishnu B....
Thanks again ^_^
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
'I hope you have clicked many great pictures sir!'
Wow, that's new. Normally it would have been a question on why you were taking pictures in the first place. Very nice of the crew.
Exactly. What a surprise. When she looked at my camera, I said to myself,
'There you go. Delete everything now.'
But the smile on her face meant something else!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
'Good Morning sir!' What. Was. Going. On! CISF personell being nice?!
Haha! Seems like you had a similar experience to mine! Seems like the CISF are turning into the good guys!
They better start turning into good people. Its for their own good!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
The way I was clicking pictures, I'm surprised no one stopped me!
In most metros nobody seems to care. Come to the less know airports,
Kochi even
, and all hell breaks loose. I read in an article that someone got arrested last week for filming at COK Immigration. Didn't see any other reports though.
I think I have figured that out by now. Metro airports are the places where most of the big stuff come in. So well, they better ignore us!
I think the arrest is a bit too harsh, but any airport around the world, filming or photography is illegal in immigration areas. A penalty is justified, arrest is a bit too much.
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
Dream)Liner isn't very well kept
That is a shame. Hope AI can fix this soon. The 787 is pretty much their brand image currently, it's sad to see one in such a sorry fix.
Indeed. I think they are focusing a bit too much on maintaining the A332s and the old A320s. However, I have ready in many places (Trip Reports on AI.net
) that the B777s are well kept. They need to do the same here as well.
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
As I took this picture, the lead FA decided to welcome us onboard the flight now.
That's pretty late. At least they completed it before wheels up. There are a couple of videos on youtube where the safety video is still being shown while the plane takes off, on AI.
It has never been done later! But as you said, done before wheels up! That is strange, seeing the safety video while taking off!
Maybe out of topic, but still a point: while taking off from HKG on the 9W A332, the instant wheels were locked after take off, the seat belt sign announcement came on. Strange.
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
Anyways, onto the main course..
Looks pretty good for a 2 hr domestic flight.
Perfectly acceptable even in today's state of the economy!
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
The chicken was quite spicy! I was in desperate need of a dessert! I needed 3 bottles of water atleast!
The portions look a bit small for this one though.
Indeed, yes
On Airliners.net, I read 2 Trip Reports featuring 9W on the DEL-BOM-DEl sector, and the food looked much much worse than this! Still this was, unacceptable..
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
I was about to have my first ice cream onboard a plane ^_^.
What an excellent move by jet! You don't get that on short haul any more!
So far, I've only read Qantas giving Magnum Ice Cream on the Kangaroo Route, in Y. Never seen it anywhere else..
Theairplaneguy4ever wrote:
More coming up from Mumbai!
Hope to see the next one soon!
Thanks for this one and keep up the good work
It'll be up in a while
Your welcome, and thanks again
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Joined: 23 Jan 2013
Posts: 178
Location: FMO
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:44 pm
Post subject:
Excellent report Jishnu. I wish I was so diligent in typing out my TRs.
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 1334
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:23 pm
Post subject:
Jishnu Great Report,
Reminds us the lengths we go through for our passion
Its sad to see the state of the new 787s and old 739s, also the 73W half ptv funda seems real mismatched
The time at DEL for the barding pass is inexcusable , but hey on the positive side of things your flights over all were not bad and you logged 2 new variants and 1 new type
One thing, what was with seat no. 37 [last row] on the 787s regarding the windows, as i have been told since they are the only 2 seater rows they are ideal for a domestic flight, can you shed some light on it
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Joined: 21 Dec 2006
Posts: 1349
Location: Mumbai, India
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:03 pm
Post subject:
Amazing TR there Jinshnu. Great you had a ride on the Army Gypsy too. They are on their way out now.
I have started loosing my loyalty for Jet during last couple of yrs due to their below par service and switching to AI. Not that they are world class, yet marginally better than AI.
Overall nice clicks. Waiting for video's.
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 12:13 pm
Post subject:
sukritmunjal wrote:
Excellent report Jishnu. I wish I was so diligent in typing out my TRs.
Thank you sir..
Well, I read one of your TRs, it was nice
Karan69 wrote:
Jishnu Great Report,
Reminds us the lengths we go through for our passion
Oh yes! Indeed, there are a lot of insane things us avgeeks can do! This is one of them..
Karan69 wrote:
Its sad to see the state of the new 787s and old 739s, also the 73W half ptv funda seems real mismatched
I think Jet should get rid of the ageing B739s. Interior is still the old ones..
Now they are getting the Sky Interior B73Hs one by one, and retiring a B738 for each induction. They should do something about the B739s too, as they number of Y class seats is the same as a B738/H and there are too many J class seats, for today's economy..
Karan69 wrote:
The time at DEL for the barding pass is inexcusable , but hey on the positive side of things your flights over all were not bad and you logged 2 new variants and 1 new type
True that. But it was all an experience, something which happens to everyone at some point of time! And yes, true that, I logged in 2 variants, a new type, and importantly, 3 new registrations!
Karan69 wrote:
One thing, what was with seat no. 37 [last row] on the 787s regarding the windows, as i have been told since they are the only 2 seater rows they are ideal for a domestic flight, can you shed some light on it
Sir, the last row on the B787 is in fact row 39, not row 37. Row 37 has no windows. Row 39 is the only row on the B787 with 2-3-2 seating, as you've already mentioned. Row 39, however, has a big between the seat and the window..
In conclusion -
Row 37 = No window, AVOID!
Row 39 = Big space between seat and window..
shivendrashukla wrote:
Amazing TR there Jinshnu. Great you had a ride on the Army Gypsy too. They are on their way out now.
Sir, erm, Jishnu it is.
Thank you for your compliment!
I was unaware of that, are the Gypsy's on their way out? The one I was on was rather new... I'm surprised they are getting rid of these workhorses!
shivendrashukla wrote:
I have started loosing my loyalty for Jet during last couple of yrs due to their below par service and switching to AI. Not that they are world class, yet marginally better than AI.
I fly Jet these days because of their amazing benefits back in SL. They are going through a rough time, just like all others, but they have spilled the beans by showing it quite clearly. I hope they recover from this really soon!
shivendrashukla wrote:
Overall nice clicks. Waiting for video's.
Once again, thank you sir
Videos might take sometime because they are quite long, and full HD. So just give it sometime, it will be up
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4575
Location: New Delhi
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:05 pm
Post subject:
Jishnu, I sincerely apologise - I have been on the move since you
posted the first part, and it is only after you posted your third
part, that I have finally got to reading the entire report thus
far! On the move inside Delhi itself, and the Internet connection
at home was down, and I was not getting enough time on the
Internet in my office. I had to take recourse to using my Tata
PhotonPlus on the move, which precluded long sessions on the
Internet, leaving me completely frustrated at not being able to
read such a superb piece of art. The accolades would be reward
enough, you also have Meljoe on this part of the forum - which in
itself points to the superb job done - do I not envy you?
Now here comes my reply, in the usual (boring) point form.
Somewhere through this reply, I switched to a descriptive mode,
as my own memories started flooding my mind!
However, before that - a big thank you for mentioning about me so
many times during this trip report. I am indeed honoured!
It is my misfortune that we missed each other at DEL T3, by 10
minutes short of 6 hours. Both of us were on exotic types, me on
a CR7 `masked bandit' and you, on a Dream)liner.
I did both my legs on the `political plane', RJD.
You have not just mentioned my hurriedly-typed email (complete
with my usual typos!), you have also mentioned things that I feel
deep inside, on almost very trip.
Any reference to food, and you should see my eyes light up.
Yes, Sri Lanka has been on my radar ever since a friend attended
a conference in the Emerald Isles. Mongolian Rice...hmmm.
I have tasted Red Bull, but never been a big fan of its taste.
I am honoured that you remember me whenever you describe food!
I also fondly read your mentioning about `turned into a child'
feeling - it is an inexplicable feeling, but I am glad I share
this with you!
Thanks for the lovely pictures from the spotting locations: I
hope I had your eye for detail, and a camera and lens like yours!
- Very nice of you to re-iterate the point about well-trained
cabin crew
- Nice introduction, with the statistics setting the base for an
absorbing journey, for the reader!
- Congratulations on the award! You are very lucky to have
parents support you at each stage of your academic career, and
also share a common interest with you - aviation! I hope your
parents read this forum, too - to read about the accolades you
get here as well, related to the common passion we all have.
- Dobby is a rather cute doggie! If I may ask, why do you
squeeze a lemon in his mouth?
The CMB-MAA trip:
- 9Ws web check-in gives the gate number also: that is a nice and
thoughtful gesture, apt for places where gates are almost always
- Very interesting part about booze and `fumes being put under
the seats. No liability for the airline, more space in the bins.
- Nice that 9W has FAs who speak languages which many passengers
have as their mother tongues, on a route. As an aside, I have
once seen (on IC 802 - the old last-flight-out-of-Chennai-for-Delhi
of the Chettinadu chicken fame), of a North Indian FA (who has
possibly spent some time in Chennai but is obviously based on
Delhi, as she was going back), trying some broken Tamizh with a large
contingent of Sinhalese passengers, in the hope that they would
possibly understand a bit of Tamizh.
- Air sickness bags handed out? Shouldn't they always be in the
seat pockets? They don't get spoilt if not used - Am I missing
something here?
- `airline smell': I am with you on that one!
- the non-veg snack was interesting! The quantity is decent for
this short a flight, and that too, at this odd hour.
- Ha ha, `Compared to a certain East Asian airline'...nice one
That comparison table with pictures, and descriptions was a
wonderful touch!
- You have an interesting picture of the seats: the two rows with
PTVs, and the J class, ahead.
- Interesting description of the post-flight comments by the lead
FA! `After-burner' buses in MAA? I thought they were only at CCU!
The Air India ones, especially.
At Chennai:
- `Deserted. Except for the couple, of course'
This reminds me of the old PJ, why is a room full of couples - empty?
Simple, there is not a single person in it.
- Nice spotting pictures, in the early hours!
- Doggie lapping up dirty water - ha ha! nice capture!
Part 2:
It is interesting that I am reading your report on a flight from
Chennai, back to Delhi. I just experienced the new Domestic
terminal at Chennai - the arrivals part, and the departures.
Set out 27 Jul (Sat) for Chennai from New Delhi
AI 439: Air India (Dream)liner) [Seat: 36J; PNR: Y1QDN]
IGIA T3, New Delhi - Kamraj (Domestic) Terminal, Chennai
New Delhi (DEL) - Chennai (MAA)
[06:55 am - 09:45 am]
The return is the same flight you took!
Set out 28 Jul (Sun) for New Delhi from Chennai
AI 430: Air India (Dream)liner) [Seat: 36A; PNR: Y1QWY]
Chennai (MAA) - New Delhi (DEL)
[10:45 am - 01:30 pm]
Hence my desire to go through your report in an even more
thorough manner.
No, this time, the Kochi flight did not have a separate check-in.
Yes, the new terminal is a bit cramped, and they use the old
terminal gates and fingers for many operations. I hope they
renovate the old terminal building soon enough: Chennai
desperately needs the capacity. My experience just mirrored
yours, and I wandered all around the terminal, just as you did!
Thanks to your nice camera, you were able to click some very good
pictures, in spite of the two layers of glass at most places.
This time, I saw most of the traffic you did, except the
Maldivian A320.
Your ride for the day, the `connector' plane AND, was my ride in
the pre-world-wide-grounding of Jan'13, my only success in
getting a Dream)liner ride (that too in J), out of 5 attempts.
This time, my ride were on Princess ANI, and NM, the `distance' plane.
Thanks for the pictures on the comparative study of two windows
being darkened! My 18-100mm lens was not able to take two of
these, at least head-on, form the window seat.
The engine vibrations seem to be very characteristic of the
Dream)liner during start-up, but the plane is really quiet!
The through-the-seats view was excellent!
You got some lovely wing pictures!
In contrast, I got some rather nice IFE content on 28 Jul.
The AI headphones - you liked them? These are some cheap
Chinese-make ones, unlike the two-pronged ones on the B777 fleet
in the initial days, or the small ones on the narrow-body fleet,
in the initial days, again.
There are no excuses for a dirty plane.
I got AND in a pristine state, and was lucky with both ANI and
ANM. However, AMN had...a repaired cracked window on 36A, and a
duct-taped starboard luggage bin on row 32, the last seems to be a
characteristic of most CHS builds, which most have been
complaining about.
The gloves seem to be now-standard.
Some trays are really old!
I got a different meal, but the starters were very similar, as
was the dessert!
The safety menus are worn out and dog-eared on most AI planes, so
no surprises here.
Part 3:
The DEL T3 spotting pictures were awesome! You just captured sights
which I love to see, and walk around the place.
You had a bad day with the air-conditioning that day - it is
usually excellent, except in the bus gates area, which I was
pleasantly surprised to see turned on, on my July Jabalpur trip!
A 9W plane being badly maintained from the inside...hmmm...
You got some lovely cloud pictures!
The food was quite low in quantity...
Thanks for a lovely TR...sorry, my reply has got too long,
nearly as long as one of my TRs.
Thanks once again!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:18 pm
Post subject:
People, I'll post the Mumbai pictures after the final flight report..
Sumantra sir, your reply too will have to wait a bit
I kept myself awake till 0200 hours on 28JUL13 to web check in for the flight departing at 0230 hours on 29JUL13. Sadly, my eye lids felt really heavy and I gave up, I waited till the morning to do so.
0830 hours it was, and I woke up. I filled in my APIS stuff and waited for the seat map to open.
I was absolutely shocked.
All but two seats were blue in colour.
A blue colour seat means its occupied, while a white coloured seat meant its available. The only seats which were available: 29C and 33F. Foolishly, I selected 29C, but then I realised 33F, a window seat, was also available. Quickly, I selected that. I hoped that there wouldn't be any issues, and a random seat number would not pop up on the boarding pass. 33F was shown, so was gate number 5.
I forgot to mention: There were 33 rows in Y on the seat map. I was going to sit in a miserable corner with a non-recliner seat.
People, consider this a foreshadow for the flight..
There isn't really any need to write about my mood which I had during the day, because it was quite bad.
Anyways, I reached the airport rather early at 2230 hours. While there was a massive crowd outside, not many people were actually going inside the terminal. There is a rather random baggage screening machine in between the terminal entry and the check in area. Weirdly, I was stopped by the CISF lady. She asked me to get my bag pack screened. Twice she asked me where I was going, twice I said Colombo, and yet, she checked my ticket, made a face, wrote something in her log book and let me go.
I looked at the screens, passengers on 9W256 were being checked in from counters 20 to 22. The line was rather empty, so I was guided to counter 23 for my check in.
My check in was done in just a bit more than a minute. Quite good, as compared to my previous two check in experiences during this trip! My bags weighed only 19 kgs. I asked the lady if there was any chance of a change in my window seat, I got a reply in the negative. Oh well, my first flight in the last row of an aircraft. How bad would it be?
I was given an immigration form and two luggage tags for my camera bad and bag pack respectively.
I filled in my form and entered a growing immigration line. However, this was no issue to worry about as the officials were doing their work rather efficiently! I noticed the departure screens, and quickly calculated that Colombo is the closest destination from Mumbai, and I would be on that flight. Oh damn
My passport was stamped, and then it was randomly checked by a person on a chair, I headed for security. Annoyingly, I had to remove my shoes. It happened for the first time EVER for me in BOM: removing my shoes. Ugh.
Anyways this too was done rather early and I was in the departures level by 2320 hours. I checked where Gate 5 actually is, and I noticed, it was a proper bus boarding gate, heading down the escalator.
There wasn't much to do. I bought the necessary chocolate stuff, and sipped on a can of Thums' Up while watching an India vs. Sri Lanka game, during the Champions Trophy 2013. As you'd expect, India won, and watching this game, or the 2011 World Cup Final, gives me a lot of satisfaction.
I started walking about a bit, until I heard an announcement mentioning that a
'black camera bag'
had been found around security. My heart didn't skip a beat, instead, it skipped many.
I looked around me:
my black camera bag wasn't there!
I felt my legs become very weak, and I almost fell to the ground. I calmed my self down. I opened my bag pack. There it was: my black camera bag. A big relief, obviously! I had forgotten that straight after security I put my camera bag into my bag pack, because it was rather empty.
At 0000 hours, my last 'date' in Mumbai, I headed down to gate 5. There was quite a crowd down there, and I had found three seats overlooking the tarmac. As I waited there, 9V-SWO a Boeing 777-300ER of Singapore Airlines was operating flight SQ423 to Singapore. The beautiful 'mooo' of the start of the GE90 was taking place, so I switched off my iPod and listened to that beautiful music. She lined up behind a slightly delayed Malaysia Boeing 777-200ER 9M-MRA. As they waited, a Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-300 B-LAZ landed into Mumbai. One by one, both the B777s gracefully took off into the starry (actually, cloudy) skies of Mumbai.
In front of me, at the aerobridge, was VT-JEG of Jet Airways being prepared for its flight to London Heathrow. This aircraft, ironically, was parked right beside a Swiss A330-300 registered as HB-JHG. You all know why this is very ironic. I'm just saying.
Oh and there was another Jet Airways widebody, an Airbus A330 at the aero bridge. I later realised it was VT-JWS a -300 off to BRU and EWR. Soon a British Airways Boeing 777-200ER registered G-VIIG lined up alongside VT-JEG. I also noticed the Virgin Atlantic aircraft G-VLUV an Airbus A330-300 arrive. The London race was on! Sad to see IT out of it today. Following the LX A333 departure, a much more mighty and classy aircraft took its spot: LH756 from Frankfurt operated by D-ABVE a Boeing 747-400. Soon, I noticed another LH aircraft, this time a slightly delayed D-AIKK an Airbus A330-300 depart for Munich. This one was parked at the remote stands. I'm just saying
Another last piece of activity in the form of an Atlas Air Boeing 747-400 took off. There were also a few Go Air and Indigo flights....yes, at 0100 hours (almost).
Enough with the activities outside, now for some activities inside..
When I got there, like I said, it was full. Gates 4 and 5 were located here. Gate 4 was used by Air India, for flights AI12 to AMD and AI330 to BKK, both departing with a mere 15 minutes difference. On the other side, gate 5, was used by Jet Airways. 9W62 to BKK and 9W256 to CMB were departing from these gates, with a departure time difference of about 1hr30min.
Boarding for AI330 (operated by VT-PPO..) was underway. After I waited down there for a bit, boarding for 9W62 was underway. The very second after boarding was announced for 9W62, an agent went yelling towards the escalator: PASSENGERS FOR 9W62 TO BANGKOK PLEASE BOARD THE AIRCRAFT FROM GATE NUMBER 5!!!!! While this was happening, a huge downpour came, and made sure VT-JEG was hid away behind the rain for a few seconds. Yes, it was
heavy. Meanwhile, the Air India boarding announcements too weren't all that brilliant. One of them was yelling on the microphone, asking passengers to board AI12 from Gate 4. This isn't a very nice thing to hear, especially where they have decided to reduce noise levels in the terminal. Oh well.
Time went quite slowly, as I bought yet another can of Thums Up. By now, the BKK passengers were long gone and the only passengers waiting there were for flight 9W256 to Colombo. The loads were...shocking...for me.
As I have mentioned: just as last year, loads on 9W255/6 has sky rocketed ever since 9W257/8 DEL-CMB-DEL has been discontinued. I have started to miss those 3 seats for myself flights on this route. Clearly there were more than 150 passengers waiting (the aircraft has a capacity of 154, so that'll easily mean a load factor of more than 97% and above. And also looking at the people, I didn't feel good. There were so many people from Sri Lanka there (obviously). I didn't want this to happen. This was a clear sign that I was on my way back 'home', not exactly home.. SL isn't my home.
Boarding time was at 0130 hours, and it began at 0135 hours. Acceptable. A long line grew in front of the gate. Obviously, it was useless to stand up and head for boarding. I decided to just sit there...
About 10 minutes had passed, and I noticed the CISF lady had a big issue with the baggage tags. She would be very mean and ask for the bag, and if there was an error on the tag, she'd rudely pull the tag out of the bag, and get the people out of the line. Then, with her horrible attitude, she'd call the 9W agent, and she would gently explain what had happened. Frustrated, they had to head all the way back up to get the tags. India really needs to do away with these baggage tag issues. Its too much of a pain both for passengers and airlines.
I decided to go the loo one last time. I joined the line at around 0150 hours. My bag was given the all clear by the rude CISF lady. Seats 33A/B/C/D/E passengers were onboard the aircraft, as I noticed in the screen. I got the boarded sign, with a green colour seat on 33F. Another CISF guy checked my boarding pass. Weird.
Boarding pass stub torn, I boarded the AC bus. Filled with people. I was the last one to get in. VT-JEG was being pushed back, and according to my calculations, I knew I'd be very close to the aircraft when the GE90s were being started up. I noticed the people around me: red passports. Sinhalese conversations. Giving weird stares to my camera. I surely knew one thing: my holiday ended much too soon. Our bus slowly started moving. There was a inter-terminal transfer coach with the driver's legs up on the steering wheel. Something, most of the crowd were laughing at.
We went around the outside of an Air France Airbus A330-200 F-GZCM. I couldn't stop myself from staring at the beautiful GE CF6 engines. As we went onto the main tarmac and quickly away from the International terminal, I noticed VT-JEG quietly waiting there. As the bus was parallel with the starboard GE90, the ground shook while a really loud 'Mooooooooo' was heard. The GE90 shakes the ground! This was the first time I had experienced a GE90 start up from outside, and oh yes it was fantastic! Many of the other passengers turned back and stared at the beauty of the Boeing 777-300ER. I looked back at it and smiled. I don't mean to be negative or anything, but this was the last time I smiled for a few hours. You will read why...
There was not a single Jet Airways narrow body around. In fact, there wasn't a single Boeing 737 I had seen until that point of time! There were a few International beauties, the usual 9W and AI wide stuff, AI and 6E Airbus'. No sign of a single 9W Boeing 737. This meant only one thing: heading to the domestic terminal for boarding. Oh great.
My last departure with 9W from BOM was on 9W619 to CCU, and VT-JFC was parked among the international aircraft. Here, its the opposite. 9W256 to CMB, parked among the domestic aircraft. Oh great. Actually in a way if you see, only the last half an hour of this flight is in International flight, so yeah, consider this as a domestic flight!
Anyways, back to topic. I finally saw a Boeing 737-800, but this was of SpiceJet, parked in front of the cargo terminal. The domestic terminal had all planes asleep, other than one Jet Airways Boeing 737-800, which had all the ground vehicles around it.
'That must be it.'
I said to myself. Which aircraft was the question. Before doing 9W256, the aircraft would fly in from DXB as 9W538, the previous night. VT-JBW, the IFE equipped Sky Interior aircraft flew this. However, as this was parked in the domestic apron, I gave up hopes on VT-JBW, and hoped to get a new registration logged in. We took the agonizingly long turns around Runway 14, passed the Air India hangar, and only a few buses were racing towards the domestic terminal, nothing else. A few passengers were pointing things around them, most likely making fun of the long bus ride.
Finally, we arrived at the domestic apron. We passed by VT-JFD (which flew to BDQ that morning), VT-SIJ (?) and VT-JLB, whose under carriage had people in them. In a rather shocking sight, I noticed a noticed someone in the fire station sleeping on the ground on a newspaper with a blanket wrapped around him. While I felt sorry for him, a few of the fellow passengers pointed at that and started laughing.
We finally came to a halt. I still had a bit of difficulties in noting the registration because there was another bus in front. However, I did notice the most annoying thing ever land: 4R-ABK, the SriLankan Airlines Airbus A320 operating UL141 from CMB had arrived. All I was asking God was: Why. Why are you doing all this so early! I was anyways heading back 'home', so I'd have to face all of this for the months to come. Oh well, I wasn't spared this time
Anyways, our bus came to a standstill and I looked at the aircraft. Instantly, 2 photographs flashed before me which Dad took in SIN, back in 2007. And they looked like this:
Yes, you've guessed it right.
was going to take me back to the island. There was a ground staff who used a torch to check a few things on the engines, something which the couple in front of me had to laugh about, something which I don't get. Is India missing some kind of night vision goggles? Clearly not. I always notice the UL A340s engines checked with torches, so really, no reason to make fun of India here. I got off the bus, and slowly walked towards VT-JGE. I noticed that all but few windows were closed. So obviously, all windows were closed till the passengers boarded..
People, I do apologize if my words used after this are a bit strong. Because really, there aren't any 'gentle' words or ways I have to describe what happened in the flight. And as you may have already figured (something which Varun already knows!), I do not like this country very much, especially being an Indian resident ... there.
As it usually is, there was only Door 1L operational for passengers to board. I got a smile from the crew as they welcomed me onboard. First of all, I noticed the different seats. As we all know, the leather-ish seats on 9W are like dark blue-gray-dark blue. This one, however, was completely dark blue. Heading into the economy section, completely dark blue seats again. And it looked, surprisingly, a bit tired. Still, not as tired as JGD! Maybe it was the different colours which made me feel so.
Anyways I made my way back to the aircraft, as my seat was in the miserable corner. But getting there required some drama. 3 really old women were slowly walking to the front because their sons/daughters had goofed up the seat numbers, and had to come to the front. The ladies well...they were old.. But they took really long to get moving.
I reached my row. 33A/B/C were taken by 3 kids who were well, well behaved, quite reserved. 33D was taken my a lady, quite possibly their mother, 33E was empty and 33F, my seat, had a 'X' shaped seat belt, as it always is onboard Jet. The overhead bins were closed. Only row 33 was full, but the bins over row 29, 30, 31 and 32 were full. Someone had a lot of cabin baggage for sure.
I noticed the chap who limped his way from the washroom into seat 33E: he did have some sort of bad injury, but he looked like someone from a rural area. His right wrist had a cello tape roll. He looked quite talkative. His hair was overly oiled, neatly combed. I had my iPod earphones in my ears. I noticed that there was some quick argument he and his wife had which quickly ended, with the guy putting his index fingers straight into his ears, following which he rubbed them over his trousers. Ehm..
I'm not sure if any of you have experienced being in the end of a narrow body aircraft, but the rain came down heavily, and there was on-the-ground turbulence for us. It wasn't that big, but the aircraft shook a lot, that is for sure! I am more accustomed to the middle of the aircraft seats, so these effects may have not been noticed my me.
Immigration cards were handed out. I quickly started filling mine. The guy beside me kind of interrupted me...
*Greeting in a language*
' he said
I asked
he asked
I said
'You..*another language*..yes?'
he asked again
I said again
he asked
I said.
'London, no?'
he went on..
I said
'Okay, sorry.'
he said..
Yeah that was the first of our two awkward conversations.
He then did the greeting thingie to another chap, who knew his language. Yeah, and they talked a lot. Apparently there was some confusion of the time zones, the dude next to me was surprised that India and SL had the same time zones. I realised this when the guy next to me gestured a plane landing with his palms (more like, a plane crashing
) and '0500' was written on his newspaper. He also talked something about an 'accident'.
Following this, he started to use his close to finishing sellotape roll, place the strips on the tray table and then use them to stick the boarding passes and the immigration cards on the seat back. I noticed two things: first his boarding pass had 'LHR' written, so he was transiting through, second in his nationality, despite his familiar looking passport, was 'British'. And the 'B' of British was a mirrored B, like the other way round. And he also struggled to write his particulars in English. Ah well
For the first time in this trip, the Captain came over the PA system and gave details of the flight. First of all, he welcomed us onboard the flight. Then he mentioned that turbulence would keep coming, so it was advisable to stay seated. He also mentioned a cruising altitude of 37000 feet, 'Boeing 737-800 service to Colombo', and a 10 minute delay in departure due to congestion, but this would be made up en-route.
Ugh, enough with the auto mode! Time to move on?
Yeah that is better!
There was also a number of activities while we were waiting to depart. These included the departure of the LHR bound VT-JEG (that was long ago!), a few domestic stuff, VS A333, the AF A332, etc.
Before I got my camera, I had to move my bags around. Sadly, the dude's feet had gotten through the strap, meaning my bag was kind of unreachable. It took me three explanations, and one explanation to the dudes' wife, for him to move his leg away from my bag.
'I'm very sorry...very sorry..'
he said.
He turned away for a second and asked me:
'You, London, no?'
'No, Mumbai.'
I said.
'Ok. I..actually..know...big accident..London, operation, YAH?!'
he said.
'Yeah..okay, I see..'
I said.
A few minutes later, just when we were about to be pushed back, he asked me about the seatbelt, I told him he is sitting on it, and yet, he apologized again. I do not why.
At 0237 hours, 7 minutes late, VT-JGE was pushed back and the engines were loudly turned on. The drop down screens dropped down and the safety video was shown. Compared to VT-JFC, these screens were older, obviously. So there were a few lines on the TV screen while this was being shown.
Massive winglet!
I noticed the puddles of water on the taxiway when a giant AI B77W splashed all water out of its way from the nosewheel. And close to us, she came to stop. That is when JGE was given clearance to taxi and hold short of Rwy 27. The long taxi continued, and the person beside me kept chatting. So far, it hadn't reached the levels of 'very annoying.' This was going to change soon sadly.
A few birds after or before their regional international runs.
Holding short of Rwy 27.
Before pushback, I saw the Kenya Airways B772 (5Y-KQT) from NBO, and while taxiing, another Emirates aircraft, this time A6-EGI arrive. As we held short, and got a bit delayed, a Cathay Pacific Boeing 747-400F arrived. The British Airways aircraft too was now right behind us and ready for departure. As this was my first time in the very back of an aircraft, I was looking forward to hear how different the aircraft sounded. This, went horribly wrong. Full power was applied and the CFM56 engines were
In fact, so loud that even the camera had recorded terrible sounds, as you'll see in the video.
Soon we were airborne, I took a final glimpse of Mumbai and we were away heading west, then south easterly towards Colombo. Right from when we started climbing, there was turbulence.
HD: Jet Airways take off from Mumbai
And I've started doing a bit of photography
From this point on, I knew I'd have on very big issue to tackle: Elbow room. The dude beside me put his right hand not only on the arm rest (that is perfectly alright), but also into my area.
I kept moving in front, and he understood it was something to do with the elbow room. So when I'd move in front a bit, he'd look at me weirdly, pull his right hand towards him. After this, I'd move back and he'd put his elbow in my area once again. Ugh COME ON!
The drinks service started. The crew intended to go right to the front, but the dude beside me needed something.
he yelled at the FA.
In fact, he nearly made the glasses tumble from the tray the FA was holding. This also meant a rather hard nudge on my left rib cage because he got excited. Are you serious!
In the spotlight: Apple juice.
Yeah, all the Pepsi's or Coke's were taken by the family beside me, 1 each for the family, two for the dude himself.
Food trolleys were rolled towards the front at 0323 hours. This took about 10 minutes to reach my row.
Did the dude next to me have anything to do?
He wrote his kids' immigration cards out, all of them with 'British' nationalities. And then, he stuck all of this on the seat back. What did the seat back behind seat 32E look like? Well, 5 immigration cards, 2 boarding passes all stuck with strips of sellotape, all randomly placed.
Finally my food arrived. I was actually a bit concerned that I'd get only a vegetarian meal, however, just when the crew were serving row 28, a large number of Non Veg meals were brought from the galley. The dude beside me and his wife took forever to understand what the differences between vegetarian and chicken were.
So the crew served me before them..
Yup, exactly the same meal as I got a year and 4 days ago. Oh well maybe the bun has a design over it now, yeah.
You'd have problems while eating even on a 3-3-3 configured B777 or a 2-4-2 configured A330/B787 if you are sitting alongside people like the dude next to me.
How I met your mother was playing on the drop down TV screens. I couldn't be bothered removing my headset to see just that.
I started eating my meal, when the dude next to me was annoying his wife while she was asleep, and obviously, she did NOT like this. This produced some more fire works. And well, lets not forget, the war of the elbows went on.
I finished my meal and handed my tray over.
The dude beside me? Not quite. He was still eating his meal. I was in desperate need of sleep, but looking at the dude beside me, I knew this was impossible. Another annoying thing he did was
stick his nose in my notepad
while I was noting down stuff for writing the TR. What was the matter with him, I do not know.
Oh wait wait wait!
He had eaten not one, but two meals! There was a bit of a fight between his wife and himself, the end result being the dude beside me getting to eat two meals. How did he eat the bun? It looked like he used his knife to stab someone, that's how he was eating it. Weird..just..weird.
Thrice the crew came and ask if they can clear the dudes tray up.
And all the replies to that were a rather rude:
I'll stop complaining about him, only after I describe a final encounter with him.
Sleep was coming in well. I was just setting into the mood. The last thing I remember, was the FA asking him if he wanted tea or coffee. He went for tea. He was fiddling around with his straw. Obviously, blow into it. He blew into it SO MUCH that
two drops of his spit landed on my elbow!
Disgusting! Absolutely woefully disgusting!
Immediately I woke up, called the FA for a tissue paper (which I got soon), and got my bag pack from underneath the seat, removed the hand sanitizer and used it. I kept my bag on my lap. This time, I was being a massive pain in the butt for him and I took his elbow room, with just half an hour to go. He tapped me on the shoulder. I acted dead. He woke his wife up, to change seats. He took the aisle, she took the middle. And oh yeah, the flight was much more comfortable after this!
Because of this, I was completely awaken. So I took a few woeful pictures of the final lights of India...
Landing announcements were made and JGE was rapidly getting closer to earth. My trip was coming to an end. Actually, it ended the minute I boarded the terminal to plane bus in BOM to be honest. The captain made a slightly hard landing, but everyone clapped. Strange. The dude decided to clap really hard, which you'll hear in the video once its uploaded. Its what pilots do: get the plane down. I don't get why people clap despite a safe landing!
HD: Jet Airways landing in Colombo
We taxied and docked at where we started: gate B10. What a trip, is all I could say. Seatbelt signs were on and the dude decided to get up and chat with the crew. Nicely, the crew yelled at him, ordering to sit in his seat.
That'll conclude!
Once seat belt signs were off and passengers started disembarking, the dude went to the crew and kept yapping about his 'accident'.
I waited for that family to go, so I could get some sort of cabin picture..
Different seat
Fragile bags? Ain't nobody got time fo' that!
Not good
Slightly different seats as I mentioned.
JGE would now be turned around and will head back to BOM as 9W255 in about an hour's time. (This, by the way, is the 256th picture in this Trip Report. How nice
As I walked towards immigration, I saw the dude again. He was just...standing there looking at something while his family were calling him. Immigration was just...wow.
About 20 people in line, and it took 45 damn minutes for me to get through! This is very very very very slow! In fact, it was SO SLOW that I saw VT-JGE taxi towards the runway and head back. Did I feel like crying looking at JGE head back to BOM while I was stuck in this godforsaken place, let alone immigration? YES. I felt miserable.
The dude kept going to the washroom about 15-20 times, and this time, WITH NO HAIR!
Yes, his hair was just too good to be true, and indeed, it was a wig he was wearing. Many more widebody flights came in, so the immigration line was growing longer and longer. Geeh!
Baggage too, was along with a Mihin flight from BAH, so it was all chaos. I found my bag dumped away from the carousel. Brilliant, SriLankan Airlines, brilliant!
I'm not even going to talk about the traffic jams while going home. It took 2 hours, one more than usual.
That's all from the flights.
Conclusion, BOM pictures and videos coming up soon!
Last edited by jbalonso777 on Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:20 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 12:55 am
Post subject:
The only thing I missed in India was a fast internet connection.
So there is a fast internet connection here.
Which meant all my HD videos are up and running
1. In full screen, so that you can spot something maybe?
2. Earphones/Headphones, so that you can get some music to your ears?
3. Full HD or 720p, for the best quality of course!
Points of interest have been given in the video description so please be sure to look out for them!
Flight #1: 9W253 CMB-MAA
HD: Jet Airways start up in Colombo
HD: Jet Airways take off from Colombo
HD: Jet Airways landing in Chennai
Flight #2: AI430 MAA-DEL
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner start up at Chennai.
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner take off from Chennai
HD: Air India Boeing 787-8 Dream)Liner landing in New Delhi
Flight #3: 9W362 DEL-BOM
HD: Jet Airways take off from New Delhi
HD: Jet Airways landing in Mumbai
Flight #4: 9W256 BOM-CMB
HD: Jet Airways take off from Mumbai
HD: Jet Airways landing in Colombo
People, if would be great if you could help me identify the Captain's name from flights 2 and 4 respectively. I have given up hopes on trying to figure out what their names are to be honest
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4575
Location: New Delhi
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:36 am
Post subject:
Thanks for a lovely concluding part, though the experience was quite bad for you, you had the reader's stomach churning on the way with your extremely vivid, and detailed descriptions. It was almost like making the trip with you! It was wonderful to see the videos as well! I've read this TR the first thing in the morning, and it sure makes me feel nice for a busy day ahead. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share this with us!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:30 am
Post subject:
Hello everbody.
The second last part, which is the non-aviation pictures from Mumbai.
First, few from the cellphone:
Pre-Tandoori state of meat.
Which airline is this?
On a Padmini cab. I had to be on atleast one before they were retired, I have been on 8 in total
Even the smallest news is in Indian newspapers. Oh God I miss this
What is the use of making a not-so comfortable cab even more uncomfortable with these customization?
My third local train ride (first and second were on the Central Line, Mulund-VT-Mulun) on a classy old rake. This was on the Harbour Line from Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar to VT
My second bus ride, this time on a Double Decker.
A proper Indian tuk tuk, or as it is called there, an 'Auto Rickshaw..'
And now the pictures through the D7100.
I sadly didn't take too many pictures thanks to the brilliant weather in Mumbai. But still, here are a few..
He lost his brothers and sisters in the rain. While he does look very lean, he was in a worse condition just a few weeks prior.
Look how planes keep stalking me.
Ah the old annoying traffic.
In Breach Candy, a random cigarette store..
Warden Road fruit sellers
From the Amarsons Park.. I think?
I used to stay right opposite this building. And while I didn't study, I always stared at it. 6 years down the line, its still the same.
Sophia College Campus
Oh hello -_-
There is a story behind this.. I'll mention it in the conclusion.
Note the Fly Emirates umbrella!
Why hello there
Why hello again -_-
Damn the sky ruined the picture!
The Western Railway slow line. Oh this was some amazing re-living of 'life in Mumbai'.
One of the 'fastest' stretch on the slow line is the stretch between Charni Road and Grant Road. Believe me, it is quick!
A Duronto and Rajdhani mis-matched DEL-BOM AC Super Express parked at Grant Road.
Please, EXPLAIN how and when did this happen!
I was all so ready to see WCAM2, WCAM2P and WCAM1 locomotives, but now here I saw only the WAP4 and the WAP5. When did this happen?!?!!
Conclusion part coming up, and a sneak preview to the next Trip Report.
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4575
Location: New Delhi
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 9:32 pm
Post subject:
...lovely photographic panorama of life in my favourite city, replete with some classy shots. Keep it coming! Waiting eagerly for the concluding part, and of course, the sneak preview.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 11:56 am
Post subject:
Alright then people, this is it, the
Let me begin with what might have been.
If everything fell into place, I'd still be in India right now, up north in Leh & Ladakh.
I had planned out an itinerary, and with Dad's approval, it was all ready to be booked. Sadly, the tour operator said there weren't enough people. Ah well. Anyways, my really delicious flights were as follows:
of India's airlines would have been flown. Oh well, lets not look back at that, I have to wait another day for this. Anyways, I was determined to somehow get myself onboard a Boeing 787 Dream)Liner. Now since that has happened, I'm not giving much thought to 'what might have been'.
Its time for the conclusion then, the real one.
1. Jet Airways International
Obviously, looking at the routing its not exactly 'international', but still, aircraft is crossing Indian borders and landing/taking off from another nation.
The Chennai-Colombo-Chennai route is the first international route launched by Jet Airways back in March 2004, and 9 years down the line, a lot has changed. Timing, is one of them.
Back in July 2012, 9W253 would arrive in Chennai at around 0700 hours, where there wasn't any other flight arriving so passengers could clear customs and immigration quite early. Fast forward to now. Along with 9W253, there are so many other International arrivals, including fully packed widebody flights from the Middle East. 9W flaw or MAA Airport authority flaw? I do not know.
In terms of service, obviously as you have seen from the comparison pictures, food quantity has undoubtedly increased. But then again, if you go back to 2011, a full dinner was served. Again, a flight departing at 0300 and arrival at 0425, what can you serve? Too early for breakfast, too late for dinner.
The Mumbai-Colombo-Mumbai route was started back in late 2010, along with the Colombo-Delhi-Colombo flights. Both these flights used to have under 50% of loads, so the CMB-DEL-CMB route had been removed in early 2012. Back in 2011, I took 9W256 thrice, and on all three occasions, the flights were pretty much empty, food served was amazing and of course, the crew were quite responsive. The removing of the CMB-DEL-CMB route meant that all the passengers from DEL to CMB would take one of the late night DEL-BOM flight (or the wee hours BOM-DEL flight) to get to their destination. Hence, 9W255/6 has seen a remarkable jump in loads. Good things which happened were: more money for 9W and IFE equipped aircraft, while the bad things (for me) were that the once empty 9W255/6 are full of people. 9W256 has lost its 'shine'. Well then. Its only my opinion, so really, don't take my word for it!
On this flight well, food has been okay. While the bun and chicken curry seems fine, the dessert, which 9W are amazing in, was missing. Back in 2011, there would always be a souffle or a mousse, now its only a bunch of fruits. They also used to give face towels and a tetra pack juice, they are gone.
Hopefully the Etihad deal would help ASAP.
2. Air India
Dirty. Disgusting.
Okay, those were really strong words to use.
Still. Dirty tray tables. Dirty air cons. Dirty trays. Duct tape marks.
All of this on what should be Air India's game changer.
And also, the still 'mishaps' in the announcements weren't good. First of all, starting it off late, then changing flight number to AI130, and window shades, which aren't there on the B787.
Those were the negatives.
A look at the positives. Meal quantity was brilliant, and it tasted amazing. No complaints there. Crew were quite friendly and cheerful. All in all, another good Air India flight for me, despite it being only the second time. IFE screens were quite big, but the choices of programmes were quite small. Hopefully AI will figure this out soon.
3. The Boeing 787 Dream)Liner
Some people often ask what is the big thing about this jet.
Funnily, the others ask what is the big thing about the A350
Lets not get there.
First of all, and most importantly,
the B787 saves a lot of fuel.
I think that is the most important thing in today's condition of the global economy. Of course, the minor issues aren't helping much, but still, they are a few teething issues.
Second, passenger comfort. It is quiet. It is. I realised this when JGD and JGE were taking off, the B787 was so much quieter.
Windows. Damn they are massive! Tall people like...many people, would not have to crack their necks while looking out of the window. In fact, the person sitting in the aisle seat can have a look outside, even when the window's are dimmed, completely. What a nice thing to have onboard a plane
That's...about it for a very lame B787 review. Oh well, I'm not an expert, but these are my views..
4. Jet Airways domestic
Aircraft looked old, food was less in quantity, check in was horrendous, crew were cheerful, loads were low. A mixed bag. I was a tired teen on that flight, so I did not do those usual observation things I usually do. But seriously, less than 40% loads on one of the worlds' busiest routes is actually extremely bad for Jet. Or is it just that 1725 hours is not a very busy time (in terms of passengers flying) between DEL and BOM (Sumantra sir, help maybe?
). Surely the morning and night flights must be full then. Either way, there is no denying that Jet has kind of lost its way in the domestic sector.
Speaking of which, statistically, Jet earns most of their revenue from the International flights, rather than the domestic flights. And all of this, I've experienced. Fully loaded international flights, woefully loaded domestic flight.
That'll be it for a super-lame conclusion.
Now for the upcoming trip report.
I have followed a trend of recent:
July '12: India
September '12: Singapore
October '12: India
June '13: Singapore
July '13: India.
So obviously, I should be heading to Singapore next
While Dad is considering another quick Singapore F1 trip, before the silly engines come in next year, I'm heading...
Nope, I'm not heading to Hambantota. In fact, please do not expect me to cover the Hambantota Rajapaksa(e?) International (HRI) Airport in a trip report. Just for the record, UL operates one flight between CMB and HRI, 6 days a week. They are all mostly on A330s and A340s, 35 minutes only.
This is what my aircraft (might) look like:
Yes, I am heading to Jaffna on Helitours. One thing is for sure: my TR won't be as good as Dad's.
Signing off from July '13 'Catch the Dream' trip. I hope you've enjoyed reading this TR as much as I enjoyed reliving the moments while I typed it out.
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4575
Location: New Delhi
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 12:54 pm
Post subject:
Lovely conclusion - I am glad to have been online while you posted it, and I hope I am also the first to send in a comment! 5:25 pm is quite among the `business hour' flights, and 9W may have had an off-day on the day you took it. At DEL, I usually see good crowds for a 9W DEL-BOM flight from IGI T3. Most airlines see great loads on BOM-DEL even on non-business hour flights.
A Jaffna trip coming up - wow! After you posted your father's lovely report, I am sure you will exceed all our high expectations on this - we all look forward to this one.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 2:11 pm
Post subject: #500!
Jishnu, I sincerely apologise - I have been on the move since you
posted the first part, and it is only after you posted your third
part, that I have finally got to reading the entire report thus
Perfectly alright sir! I have a feeling this dragged on a bit - but well, that doesn't matter because I get to go through your reply in depth, just like a TR!
Tata PhotonPlus on the move, which precluded long sessions on the
Internet, leaving me completely frustrated at not being able to
read such a superb piece of art.
Thank you sir! I actually find it surprising that the dongle internet services are quite slow, despite all the promises they advertise, I see nothing true
Now here comes my reply, in the usual (boring) point form.
The writer always looks forward to long replies to their long Trip Reports
However, before that - a big thank you for mentioning about me so
many times during this trip report. I am indeed honoured!
Not at all sir!
You in the DEL and AI department, Rishul in the 9W department and Abhijeeth & Varun in the other department deserve shout outs in this Trip Report!
It is my misfortune that we missed each other at DEL T3, by 10
minutes short of 6 hours.
Friends here in SL tell me to feel ashamed that I haven't been to Taj Mahal or the Delhi city. Once this is a reality, I will surely let you know! My father , too, is quite looking forward to meeting you, after reading your replies to my trip reports, and reading your trip reports too! Sadly, he still does not find time to actually log in and be active in this forum
you have also mentioned things that I feel deep inside, on almost very trip.
Something which even I may have felt while I was awake for those 37 hours!
Yes, Sri Lanka has been on my radar ever since a friend attended a conference in the Emerald Isles. Mongolian Rice...hmmm. I have tasted Red Bull, but never been a big fan of its taste.
You, or anyone, please inform me when you come here
It would be an honour to meet anyone from this fantastic forum! Mongolian Rice isn't really Mongolian, but its just something you won't find back in India. Red Bull, well, psychologically works for me. Apologies, I'm really weird.
Dobby is a rather cute doggie! If I may ask, why do you squeeze a lemon in his mouth?
I like to see his facial reaction. Its basically a mutual 'hate' we have for each other. He pulls me down the slope, or doesn't give me the leash when I take him for a walk. In return, I annoy him too. While it may sound like animal torture, he wags his tail in anticipation of something stupid on my part.
In fact, I had some more detail to mention about him in this TR, I shall do that in the next TR
9Ws web check-in gives the gate number also: that is a nice and
thoughtful gesture, apt for places where gates are almost always
Interestingly, Gate 5 was given on the web check in boarding pass too. I think this system is quite good. I will ask my brother when he comes here, he is flying Jet on MAA-CMB-MAA (he is in DEL). Most likely, gate B10 is dedicated for 9W in CMB.
Very interesting part about booze and `fumes being put under the seats. No liability for the airline, more space in the bins.
There were too many other carry on luggage.. I think it was a lack of space.
trying some broken Tamizh with a large contingent of Sinhalese passengers, in the hope that they would possibly understand a bit of Tamizh.
A Sri Lankan Tamil would know Sinhalese, however, I doubt if its the other way round too. Props to her for giving a try, though!
Air sickness bags handed out? Shouldn't they always be in the seat pockets? They don't get spoilt if not used - Am I missing something here?
I'm not too sure about that
That comparison table with pictures, and descriptions was a wonderful touch!
I really wanted to make one of those comparison pictures (and it is quite bad, I need to be more patient!). Also, I really didn't want to nitpick against that airline anymore, but as you'll see in the CX SIN TR, there is no stopping in me nitpicking..
You have an interesting picture of the seats: the two rows with
PTVs, and the J class, ahead.
I was expecting the J class seats to be the same as
picture (with prior permission of the photographer himself, Mr. Sriram Hariharan). But then again, the normal J class seats were fine, as they do contribute to common seating across the fleet.
`After-burner' buses in MAA? I thought they were only at CCU! The Air India ones, especially.
They live in Chennai too!
`Deserted. Except for the couple, of course'
This reminds me of the old PJ, why is a room full of couples - empty?
Simple, there is not a single person in it.
Ha ha!
Your ride for the day, the `connector' plane AND,
Connector, in what sense?
I know you are referring to the '&' connector, or maybe not?
Did you mean 'connector' as in..
ND is also the short form for New Delhi. And New Delhi is also the place where Air India connects the International flights to the domestic and vice versa, aka, a hub, making it the 'connector airport' for most passengers.
Is this how you got the name, or is it just that '&' connector?
The engine vibrations seem to be very characteristic of the Dream)liner during start-up, but the plane is really quiet!
It sure is quite, no doubts there!
The through-the-seats view was excellent! You got some lovely wing pictures!
There is really no stopping when I have a camera armed, with a window seat
That's why I love flying!
In contrast, I got some rather nice IFE content on 28 Jul.
I forgot to mail and request you about this (as even Nimish sir wanted to know..) did the USB port work? It didn't for me..
The AI headphones - you liked them?
Well they looked okay, hence my judgement. They looked different compared to EK, CX and 9W. I didn't put them on and try them to be honest..
And of course, there was are so many similarities as you have clearly mentioned in your reply, this is nice!
You had a bad day with the air-conditioning that day
Or maybe I was just having a bad day with myself? Actually...I was just getting too over tired and I was in desperate need of some cooling, which I got in the form of a Nimbooz juice and onboard JGD. Really, those 20 minutes as a late last-gasp power nap onboard JGD helped me a lot!
A 9W plane being badly maintained from the inside...hmmm...
They have Sky Interior birds with a new configuration coming in at a pretty good rate, expect JGC and JGD to exit the fleet soon. Or maybe I'm wrong (as usual), Rishul might help
You got some lovely cloud pictures!
The food was quite low in quantity...
Thank you!
And yes, it was just too low to be honest.
9W needs to get back to their usual standard ASAP!
Ice cream was still...something..
Thanks for a lovely TR...sorry, my reply has got too long,
nearly as long as one of my TRs.
And I enjoyed going through it in every detail!
Thank you for going through this long TR and that too, with a lot of appreciation!
though the experience was quite bad for you,
Its a psychological thing too, leaving my favourite city (yours too!) for a long time is seriously quite painful. Maybe that is why I got over-annoyed. And well, timings are anyways unearthly, making it worse.
Thank you for your kind words once again, and I'm glad this final post and the videos made your day!
...lovely photographic panorama of life in my favourite city, replete with some classy shots.
Thank you again!
and I hope I am also the first to send in a comment!
Indeed you are!
and 9W may have had an off-day on the day you took it.
Early June 2013, Dad was flying from DEL to CMB, via BOM. VT-JBQ operated DEL-BOM. It was one of the last night flights and well...middle seats were empty. Oh dear God!
And there are 2 more trip reports on Airliners.net, featuring the DEL-BOM-DEL sectors on both occasions, there too, loads were not the kind you'd expect on this route...
Still, wishing them well on the International part!
I usually see good crowds for a 9W DEL-BOM flight from IGI T3
And I hope this is true the next time I hear or see it! They need the passengers..
we all look forward to this one.
It may take a bit of a while, yes, but nonetheless, you all will have another unique trip report to see! I look forward to the flights, and writing the Trip Report!
Thank you for your continued support!
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4575
Location: New Delhi
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2013 6:55 pm
Post subject: Re: #500!
Sir, thanks for taking the time to go through a dreary point-by-point reply!
It will indeed be a great honour to meet you and your parents, and your brother, and I feel I'll gel well with Dobby, too
And yes, please try to do the Golden Triangle: Delhi-Jaipur-Agra, it is a lovely trip, if you ignore the mess at Agra, and some part of it, in Delhi, too. These are nice tourist destinations. Rajasthan has one of the best tourist infrastructure in India.
I am bad at puns, the `connector' was literally the `&', in VT-AND.
The USB port on the B788s: I am not really a USB person, but The Wife used it to charge...her Samsung Galaxy, and ended up getting a mouthful from the senior FA to keep the cellphone off the `plane' mode too. Yes, it worked - I think she has a picture of it, too. I will try to combine her notes and pictures with those of mine, for my 27-28 Jul13 Dream)liner trips, and put it into one. I do not have USB charged devices, but use the power-ports more - the ones between the seats, on the AI B788s and B777s.
Ice cream on a flight: while I personally love ice creams, I prefer the Air India desserts - both the fusion ones, as well as the traditional Indian ones. Of course, you would also know this fact - usually there are no refrigerators on board: ice creams usually go in a dry ice container.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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Joined: 16 May 2017
Posts: 44
Location: Bangalore, Ann Arbor
Posted: Sun May 21, 2017 9:47 am
Post subject:
Reading this 4 years after you made the trip. You're style of writing is impressive! Thoroughly enjoyed reading this
Best regards,
Ananth Mohanram (antkm)
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Joined: 05 Jul 2012
Posts: 1455
Location: Never, never land
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 8:43 pm
Post subject:
AnanthMohanram wrote:
Reading this 4 years after you made the trip. You're style of writing is impressive! Thoroughly enjoyed reading this
Best regards,
Ananth Mohanram (antkm)
Whoa, MASSIVE throwback here!!
Haha, I'm so glad you liked this report
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