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The 3-3-3 Combo & the Maharajah’s Jumbo! (Part 1)

 
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Jaydeep
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Joined: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 37
Location: Gurgaon

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 1:34 am    Post subject: The 3-3-3 Combo & the Maharajah’s Jumbo! (Part 1) Reply with quote

Now here is a TR on a trip that I was looking forward to, rather very eagerly, since I booked my tickets in early April. The reason – that is captured in the title: It was going to be a journey on 3 different airlines, on 3 different aircraft, visiting 3 different airports, and all this in a span of 3 days!! And one of the leg was going to be on Maharajah’s Jumbo – on a domestic leg of international flight !! Well that itself was exciting enough Very Happy

A little background – 1999 when Jaydeep was a kid
It was December ’99, in Goa. On one fine morning I was getting ready with all the excitement. Afterall it was going to be the first flight of my life, from Goa to Mumbai – on then famous Sahara Airlines. It was scheduled to depart at around 14.30 hours. I do not remember much details today, however I remember having a burger at the airport, the delighted little me on getting handful of toffees & chocolates at the boarding gate, that tickling feeling you get in the stomach while taking off for the first time, the bus at arrival, AND my dad showing me a big big aircraft standing at some distance, and telling me – ‘look son, that is called Jumbo Jet, the biggest aircraft of the era. And this one belongs to Air India’. Aha, I was amazed by its sheer size compared to all those other aircraft standing around it. And then I had thought, yes, I will travel on this one day! That possibly was the first trigger for me to get some interest in aviation.

The trip background - 2015
I grew up, to have my next flight only after 7 and a half years, in July ’07, and the next one after that only in August ’13. My interest in aviation had been constrained for all those years. Things had changed, and AI had phased out their Jumbos from most of the routes. Well, not much of the opportunities left now! It was then, that I got introduced to Airliners-India to invoke my aviation interests again. Very Happy I quickly got to know that AI operates its Jumbo to BOM on JED-HYD-BOM route, every Tuesday & Friday and hence I do have an easy opportunity to travel on it. It meant a little de-tour for me, to get to BOM from DEL via HYD, and taking a leave on Friday, to consume almost the entire day travelling. But that was fine to make that little stupid childhood dream a reality Very Happy.

The planning:
Since the main purpose of this trip was to travel on 747-400, which would leave HYD at 10.15 hours on a Friday, I would have to take a flight out of DEL which will drop me at HYD before 09.00 hours at the least. Travel portals gave me 4 options at the time: 6E 765, leaving DEL at 05.10 & reaching HYD at 07.15, rather early. UK 829 reaching HYD at 08.25, the costliest option at the time (significantly costlier than 6E). AI 560 reaching HYD at 08.50 – rather a perfect timing and 6E 303 reaching at 09.05 – could be a bit tight. So then I had 2 options: 6E at 5.10 or AI 560 at 06.50. I would have loved to take AI in this case, and in fact a look at a multicity travel itinerary on AI site did show me this combination. But with AI’s reputation on punctuality, I decided to avoid it in this case. So then there was just 1 option – 6E 765. On return from BOM, it was my airline of choice – Jet Airways, on 9W 339 – the red eye flight leaving BOM at 03.00 hours on Monday. It would allow me to leave my hometown by 19.00 hours, and also allow me to have at least 4 hours of proper sleep the next morning before reporting to office. The dates were: 26th June for DEL-HYD-BOM, and 29th June for BOM-DEL.
All the bookings were done within a span of 20 minutes, and the final itinerary looked like this:

Outbound leg: DEL-HYD
Airline: Indigo
Flight No.: 6E 765
Aircraft: A320-200

Connecting leg: HYD-BOM
Airline: Air India
Flight No.: AI 966
Aircraft: B747-400

‘The onward leg’ on train: BOM-ISK or DR (Dadar) – NK (Nasik Road)
Airline(?): The Indian Railways
Train (or flight Wink ) No.: 12071
The vessel type: Jan Shatabdi

Inbound leg: BOM-DEL
Airline: Jet Airways
Flight No.: 9W 339
Aircraft: B737-700

The first leg – half sleep, over-crowded T1D even at 05.00 hours, departure on Indigo Standard Time:
Considering the 5 o clock departure and having experienced the typical ‘Old Delhi railway station’ type of crowd at that time around, I booked my cab for 03.15, and left home right on time. Reached T1D in next half an hour only to have a warm welcome by the crowd, just the way I had imagined. All the indigo counters were flashing ‘baggage drop for web check-in’, a lot of agents were assisting passengers for kiosk check in & then re-directing them to the counters for baggage drop. For some reason, my PNR gave an error on the kiosk and the guy asked me to get the boarding pass at the counter only. It took me around 15 minutes in line. As soon as the person behind the counter saw the eticket in my hand, he just asked me to get out of line and get the boarding pass from kiosk. After explaining what happened, he quietly checked me in, and I finally got the boarding pass. As against the check-in counters, the security was not that crowded and it took just 5-7 odd minutes to get it cleared. Then there was even more crowd, with people slept all over the place, some on chairs, some on the so called sofas, and a few on floor, in the corners off course. It was already 04.15 by then, and the boarding time was 04.25. So I decided to proceed towards the gates downstairs, off course to meet even more crowd. As it goes well with us Indians, a few smart passengers formed line at around 04.20 itself, when there was no one at the gate, and were then joined by other not-so-smart passengers who stood all around the already formed line. The boarding staff arrived after a couple of minutes & was efficient enough to start the boarding right at 04.25. To my surprise, the stamps on the cabin luggage tags were being checked by an Indigo staff and not by a CISF personnel, though one was standing right there. And then there was a passenger – he had a stamp of 23.00 hours or so on the previous night. The staff straight away denied boarding to him stating that it has to be after 00.00 hours. Off course he was frustrated and angry… strange rules (if such a rule exists in first place indeed). The CISF personnel then came intom picture. He calmly interrupted the argument, asked this passenger to back to security and get another stamp, and assured him that he will be allowed to board. Then there was a lady passenger who did not have a tag at all!! Well, early morning misses…


Some crowd


The departures


Smart people forming the line

I was on the first bus out, which took around 5 minutes to reach the aircraft. On the way were at least 9 Go Air aircraft, 3 Spice Jet Q400s, and a lot of Indigos. My aircraft for the day was VT IGT. The boarding took almost half an hour and the doors were closed at 05.03 hours. With captain, one Mr. Joseph & first officer Navin Goyal, we straight away started for the taxi to line up on runway 28. taking off at 05.20 hours. I was fast asleep, not waking up until the crew started preparing the cabin for landing.


Sleeping birds Smile


Revenue - no wonder they are in profit!

The landing at HYD was pretty smooth, and a BA 777 welcomed us there, followed by a True Jet ATR. There was not much movement at HYD arrivals, and the exit way towards baggage claims area was too quiet. It took around 10-15 minutes till I got my bag, and then I was on my way to exit, only to enter the airport for my next leg Very Happy





A True Jet


View from baggage hall

Overall assessment of first leg:
Check-in experience: Indigo is just stressing on web check-in & kiosk check in, which is a good thing & will allow them to save on some cost & speed up the check-in process. I would rate it 3.5/5 because of the a bit rude comment from the counter staff to get the kiosk check-in done, after reaching the counter.
Boarding: Started right on time & went well except for the ‘last day stamp’ incidence. Personally, I would rate it 4.5/5
Cabin & the flight: It was fresh & clean, there was a copy of Business Standard given to each passenger, which is now distributed on select routes & select flight (had received it on DEL-BOM leg as well, again was an early morning flight). No comments about their seat width Razz And I was asleep during the rest of the flight. Overall it was 5/5 (I am excluding the seats)
Landing & Arrival: It was smooth. The main attractions of Hyderabad were announced before landing. The time to get bags was decent. Would again rate it 5/5.
Overall, I think that Indigo has really standardized their product now, with even some of the announcements being recorded now, the Indigo standard time announcement, & adding a flavor by specifying the destination attractions before landing. All in all, it was 4.5/5 for Indigo, considering it is a LCC.
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jaydeep, thank you for s superb part 1.
I found the introduction rather interesting: most of us have inherited our love of aviation from an incident where our parents figure in. I find it all the more ironic, since the very site of your 1999 incident is a place I will be in a few hours from now (ok, not the old terminal, but the new one). Yes, I am in Goa right now, and will by flying back to Delhi on AI 660, GOI-BOM-DEL, today.
Something interesting: if one is on AI, and you are connecting from one flight to another, I have seen AI delay the second flight to pick passengers up from the first one. Yes, all this at the cost of their OTP.
Very apt descriptions of DEL T1-D! The Indigo personnel advocating the kiosk check-in are a bit rude at times, and often a bit stressed out (quite natural, given the nature of some people in the crowd!), and sometimes curt, and without a smile, even for passengers conversing with them in a calm and respectful manner. Overall, Indigo keep to their image of a well-oiled machine, with some extremely efficient staff around, in charge of most activities, which are done efficiently, and at a frantic pace, to keep to time.
The TruJet AT7 at HYD was a good catch!
We look forward to the unique B744 experience!
Cheers, Sumantra.
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra

PostPosted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR Jaydeep ! Earlier the only early morning departures were to Leh, then came Pune – by AI and 6E and now comes a whole lot by 6E!

What were the loads on this and all other flights departing at this time which you could see?

Look forward to the next part !
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Jaydeep
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Joined: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 37
Location: Gurgaon

PostPosted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 12:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

sumantra wrote:
Jaydeep, thank you for s superb part 1.
ameya wrote:
Nice TR Jaydeep !

Thank you sirs, and sorry for the delayed reply on this.

sumantra wrote:
Something interesting: if one is on AI, and you are connecting from one flight to another, I have seen AI delay the second flight to pick passengers up from the first one. Yes, all this at the cost of their OTP.

I knew of it sir, but did not want to take any risk... Smile
ameya wrote:
What were the loads on this and all other flights departing at this time which you could see?

Though I did not ask explicitly about the loads, it looked like 160+ on my flight. And looking at the crowd, I am sure it would be in 140-150 range for all those departures.
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stealthpilot
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB

PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 7:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great background and descriptions
Part 1
- seeing the 747 for the first time and years later taking a Friday off to pursue the childhood dream ... nice!!
- CISF and their security stamp drama, maybe one day we won't see those anymore.

Part 2
- lovely pics from HYD
- The snack looks fine for a short leg (747), altho I'm glad the croissant tasted better than it looked Wink
- pity the aircraft interiors are worn down and neglected, been hearing that from other anet chaps. I guess it doesn't make sense spending money on these planes they hopefully won't last long (sad .... but you know what i mean)

- amazing story about the poor chap who got robbed on the train. Wow, it seems so rare to hear stories of strangers caring and helping.

- 9W leg seems like a nice standard flight, odd hour tho hehehehe but the breakfast looked filling.

Thanks for a lovely TR
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sri_bom
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 2365
Location: Singapore

PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 12:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great Trip Report thanks for posting.

Sri_Bom
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