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

Oh yes - here is another TR, on a trip I was looking forward to eagerly, after my jorney on B744. This time it was Dash 8 from Red. Hot. Spicey.
All in all, the experience was great Very Happy

And sorry for too many pics, just thought of giving a view of small but nicely built UDR airport.

Planning? Oh no… it was just an impulse buy!

It was the time when the Spicy Jet had all gone red, and was trying desperately for a recovery by collecting as much cash as they could by offering rock bottom fares… Yes, it was Jan – Feb ’15. The airline was repeatedly coming up with INR 999 all in fares, and I could not resist the temptation to book my tickets. It was 8th Feb when some friend pinged me on Whatsapp saying that the fare to Udaipur is 999 all in. Unfortunately, I was in office with reasonable work load. As soon as I reached home in the evening, I logged on to the site, took a look at booking period – it said 1st July to… err, I don’t remember. With a chance to fly on Dash 8, at a train’s 3A fares I just started checking it out – The first weekend was 4th & 5th July – I put in dates to see that promo fares had all been sold out, then next weekend, then next, and then next – finally it was 24th Jul – 26th July combination that still had that fare left. Without giving it a second thought, I swiftly moved my fingers on the touchpad and the key board, and within next 5 minutes, I had got mail confirming my tickets on SG 2435, 24th Jul, departing DEL at 17.15 hours and on the return leg SG 2436, 26th Jul, departing UDR at 19.00 hours. Well, the money was spent, the airline was still in red, and I had nothing to do but to wait and watch how it goes.

Eventually, SG had come up with a discount just 10 days back, and I had an argument with my brother who had suggested to book my tickets for BOM on one of the flights – because it was cheap, and I had said a big NO, sighting that the airline might just not make it to July+. Now it was his turn to tease me on why I booked this ticket – I guess the main reason was Q400, and another being vicinity of UDR to DEL. Even if the airline does not make it, I still had an alternative of an overnight train or not to travel at all. That is not the case with BOM.

Spicejet, oh Spicejet – What did you just do?

The time flew really fast, and soon it was Jul ’15. I told one of my friends about my trip, and he said just check the fares, and he might come as well. It was 11th July, I logged on to the site again and searched for DEL-UDR-DEL, 24th July, returning 26th July: I got the result with one flight leaving DEL at 07.10 (SG2623, going via JAI), and other one leaving DEL at 14.35 (SG 2633, direct one). Now, of course I did not remember my flight number, but I remembered that the flight I had booked was to depart after 17.00. I quickly looked for a mail in my inbox about rescheduling – there was none. I digged out the original mail to get the PNR, logged in to manage my booking section, and there it was: under the status column for both my flights, text was appearing that read – ‘C-A-N-C-E-L-L-E-D’. To me, first it came as a shock, then anger and then I got back into my senses (cursing SG management – no mail, no sms, no call and the flights are cancelled?). Then I read that small text with an asteric that read – contact our call center in case your flight has been cancelled. I quickly did that – the lady over the other side noted my PNR, confirmed my name, origin & destination and said in a sweet voice – ‘oh sir, both of your flights have been cancelled. Would you like to get them rescheduled?’ The next questions from me was – how much would it charge? She told me that for the same day reschedule it would be done free, and I can chose any of the flights. Of course it was 2633-2634 now, leaving DEL on 24th at 14.25, and returning from UDR on 26th at 16.20. The email was there before I even disconnected the call. Now while it calmed to down, I still wonder – what if I had not noticed this? Had they put me on SG2633 by default? Or just refunded my money saying that my flight has been cancelled? I don’t know…

The day of travel, and interesting driver again:

For the 14.25 departure, I left my office at 12.35 with a booking made on driver Mr. Anil Kumar on some hatchback numbered xyz. As I got out of office and was waiting, a cab driver just pulled by, and asked ‘sir ji, airport?’ I said ‘yes, are you from xyz’ and he said yes, aapka naam Jaydeep hai na?. Yes, it was my cab. As I got in, I just told him that the company had sent me some other number and he told me that it was his brother, but since he was having his lunch, he could not come. Ok. Next 15 minutes of the journey we talked about how the cab cos are making money – he said that the company pays him 150 bucks over and above whatever the they charge to the customers… well, blowing off investors’ money to acquire some customer base… Razz

I reached airport by 13.00 and found some crowd outside… Ahead of me were 2 friends, with 1 having just a laminated photocopy of passport and no original ID card. I wondered what he will do, but the guard did not bother. He just looked at the photocopy and let them go. The counters were fairly busy with a line… It took me another 10 minutes or so to get a boarding pass. The staff was efficient and smiling. The lady gave me seat 8D on my request for a window seat, and I was in the customer hold area in next 5 minutes, crossing the security.

Counters

Tarmac

The boarding time mentioned was 14.10, and till that time the flight was on time. Since I was hungry, I had a KFC burger in the food court upstairs, and then proceeded to the gates… on the way I spotted an Audi, and then I started my walk down to the gates – again to get the Old Delhi station feel Very Happy

. 3 of the gates at DEL T1 are closed due to maintenance work, adding to the crowd at other gates. It was 14.05, and Spicejet staff announced that the Boarding for SG 2633 would be from gate 14 instead of gate 13. The crowd moved… I was already wondering by looking at gate 13 that how many people are travelling on this Q400? Well, as it turned out to be – SG had messed up somewhere, assigning same gate numbers to 2 flights departing within a span of 15 minutes (the other one was a rescheduled one, to Bagdogra).

Railway station feel Razz

Under construction

A Dassault business jet

Well, we reached the aircraft by 14.15 – looked like an on time departure!! As I had studied, it was VT SUL ‘Javitri’, travelling all the way from MAA-BLR-HYD-JLR-DEL, and now ready to do DEL-UDR-DEL-VNS-DEL to finally sleep at DEL.

Javitri

The very old DEL terminal in sight

Departure – a kid in the emergency exit

By 14.25, the crew announced that the boarding was complete. And then started a 15 minutes drama… There was a couple on the plane, seemingly French (not sure though) with their kid. They had got weird seats assigned to them – 1A, 1B and 4A. Now of course they could not let the kid seat on 4A alone, and as per the safety rules, a kid cannot occupy any emergency exit seat during take-off and landing. The crew requested them to take another seat just for take off & landing, and that triggered an argument – the lady started shouting in her native language, the guy in English, and the kid all confused. Finally they understood that the flight won’t take off if they don’t move… Some relief. The seats got re-assigned, everything set and we started taxiing at 14.45, 10 minutes behind schedule. The taxi was real fast before we held short off run way 10 for 2 arriving aircraft – one an IAF, another Emirates…

Rest of the flight was fine except for some turbulence a couple of times . I had not ordered any meal, so I dozed off for a while… I liked Q400 more than ATR72. It is less noisy, and has better leg space plys may be that SG’s interiors are better than 9W. The overall experience was great, the crew was warm and helping. Neha & Arti were the crew, while captain was Pramod Kumar, missed on first officer’s name.

Landing & arrival:

At 15.45 the captain announced landing in 8 minutes, and indeed we landed at 15.53 on runway 26. I waited till all the passengers de-planed, and the crew got wheel chair for an elderly lady. It looked like they were doing it whole heartedly. During the exit, I thanked the FAs and asked for the loads – it was 76 on 78. Great for SG. As I did not have any checked-in luggage, I decided to click some photographs of small and tidy UDR airport, and got out by around 16.20 to take a cab. The weather was wonderful, suggesting that the trip was worth it Very Happy

AI 472 ready to depart

The interiors

Arrivals hall at UDR

The conveyor belt 2

VIP lounge

Exteriors of this small airport

Lush greenery and the ATC at a distance

Return – a delayed flight, but a good experience:

On 26th morning, at around 9.50, I booked my cab to leave for airport at 14.20 hours for my flight at 16.20, and in next 5 minutes I got a message for SG saying that the flight has been delayed by 50 minutes. This was followed by a call from SG’s UDR office – the guy confirmed my name and apologized for the delay. Well not bad, letting pax know of the delay well in advance. I rebooked my cab and reached the airport by 15.50, hoping that the flight does not get delayed further – it’s SG, you never know. I had done the web check-in this time, with seq 14. As I collected my boarding pass, the guy on counter told another guy to mark that seq 14 has checked in. Not sure why they need to that…

UDR is a small airport, similar to PNQ. There are just 5 counters – 4 of which were operational at that time, 2 for SG2634, 2 for AI 472 (which had also got delayed by some 20 minutes, making the airport a bit congested). The ground floor of the airport, where the bus gate, gate 1 is, is really small with counters, security, lounge, and pax hold area all at one place, with half of the floor dedicated for arrivals. On the contrary, second floor is spacious with 2 aerobridge gates (gate 2 & 3). There is a nice small art gallery on the second floor, where a couple of artist were making the paintings. I took a stroll as AI 472 pax were going through security. The security area is only enough to handle traffic for just 1 aircraft at a time. It was over by 16.30, and the security was announced for SG 2634. It took some time… and I was in by 16.45. The flight was not getting tracked at FR24, so I just decided to take a look at the airport. At gate no. 1 on level 1, AI 472 VT SCN was getting boarded for its departure at 17.05. By the looks of it, the loads looked like high 90s – not good for AI for sure.

Maharana Pratap guarding the airport

Wonderful fountains complimenting the weather

Lobby area between main entrance and the entry to counters

Display board

Counters - some crowd for AI 472

Small departures area

A tidy lounge being operated by the Lalit

Got any complaints? Very Happy

Way to security and gates

A look at arrivals side as you go to level 1

Seating area at gate 3

To gate 2, where AI was boarding

A view from atop Very Happy

The art gallery

VT SCN getting aerobridged

My bird, VT SUF ‘Kesar’ as I knew it would be, arrived at 16.55 on the gate. Within next 5 minutes, around 70 pax deplaned the aircraft, another 5 minutes for cleaning and stuff, and boarding started at 17.05 as AI 472 made a move towards runway 26 for its departure. Doors were closed at 17.14, and we taxied to runway 8 quickly. With no other traffic at that time around, the skies were clear and we were in the sky by 17.19 with captain Snehanshu Sarkar, First Officer Akshat Chauhan and crew Manisha & Shivani. This time again the service was good, warm and efficient.

Kesar, as she exits the runway

Kesar

The flight went fine again, with captain coming over 18.01, apologized for the delay due to operational reasons, saying that we were maintaining height of 23000 ft, and now we are flying on the left of Jaipur. The temperature at DEL is 31 Deg C, with 3 & half km visibility and that we would be landing in next 25 minutes. Well, we landed at 18.35 with a smooth landing. And Shivani confirmed a load of 69 pax during the exit.

Overall assessment:

Check-in & boarding: This went well, the staff was good on both the legs and deserves 5/5

Boarding: Again, very very efficient. At UDR they actually turned around a fully occupied aircraft (on both legs) within 20 minutes. 5/5 here too

On time performance: The first leg was absolutely a delight, leaving 10 minutes late, reaching 5 minutes early. On the second leg, even if there was a delay, it was communicated in a right manner, and it was held to... no further delay was there. 4/5 here

Cabin and crew: The cabin was clean & fresh on both the legs. And I have to give it to the crew... absolutely great service!! 5/5 for sure.

Overall it was 5/5 and was great to see SG coming back strong. Hope they put together there act well on OTP otherwise as well Smile

ameya · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 1:51 pm Post subject:

Nice Pics and TR!

I hope to fly the Qs Sad

The crew seems to be doing a great job despite the hardships and uncertainty they went thru around december
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Jaydeep, thanks for an excellent TR!
The planning part is something most of us can easily identify with.
The impulse buy was interesting. I guess I may try it out sometime as well, since Udaipur is a place we have been wanting to go, but things have not materialised as yet.
The Wife's parents have been there once in the IC days of Air India, on an A319 in the new colours, when the PTVs used to be switched on, even on a short flight. In fact, most of what I know about the UDR terminal is thanks to those pictures. You have given a comprehensive coverage of the beautiful terminal, in this TR.
UDR looks like an excellent airport terminal, one of AAI's success story, since the maintenance is very nice. I have seen it in The Wife's parents' pictures, and that is circa 2009.

Set out 14 Sep (Mon) for New Delhi from Udaipur
IC 472: Air India (A319) [Seats , PNR: RFBAW4]
Udaipur (UDR) - Jodhpur (JDH) - New Delhi (DEL)
[12:55 pm - 01:35 pm; 02:15 pm - 03:15 pm] {02:20 hours}

SG has been on this rescheduling spree for quite some time, even before the first sign of disturbance came about, when it was under the Marans. Experts on this forum have long warned us to go in for SG only if there is no other option, and always be wary of quick schedule changes. Your TR got back sour memories of our Hampi family trip in December 2011, when Kingfisher was on the blink, and a last-moment reshuffle had made is stay for an extra night in Mumbai, and reschedule a connecting flight.
`The very old terminal in sight': this is Terminal 1-A, which had been beautifully renovated before the opening of Terminal 1-D, and subsequently Terminal 3. I have many pleasant memories of this terminal, for flights on Air India and Go Air. The view of the tarmac, and its proximity to runway 28 makes it a spotter's delight. I look forward to the day when it is open for regular operations, once again. The older (and shabby) Terminal 1-B was razed to the ground: it was where you currently see those large metal barriers, beside Terminal 1-C.
I have been on `Kesar' before. It is nice to hear about the good SG experience, and the SG loads, all that after your booking cancellation experience.
Thank you for sharing this nice TR with us!
Cheers, Sumantra.

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Very nice, lots of pics and descriptions.

- I'm sure a lot of people were hesitant to book SG back then, I guess worst case they would refund your ticket and you would sit at home that weekend hehehe.
- cancelling your flight without an email .... yeeeshhhhh. Forget calls/texts , emails should be automatic. Weird.
- Nice pics of UDR airport
I think I need to stop saying I love pictures Cool

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jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:37 am Post subject:

Nice TR Jaydeep - good to see the Q400 collection around here in this forum increase more and more!

Wow, interesting about the cancellation of flight..Hmm, I'm sure they'd be many pissed off passengers ehh..

Nice pics of UDR!
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