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jbalonso777

Hello everyone
And welcome
To what is the fifth part of my India summer 2015 series.
I flew into Mumbai on Jet Airways, a reasonable flight. That was followed by a slightly underwhelming flight on Vistara to New Delhi. That was followed by what possibly was one of my best flights that I was ever on, on an Air India Boeing 787. I had a plan. A plan to get on a big plane. Some of it were shot down when I had to fly in with Mum from Kolkata to Mumbai. A win win situation, since I was under the watchful eyes of my Mum, while on a new type for me, the Boeing 737-900ER. I wasn't going to give up, however, and join me on a pretty insane detour.....

INTRODUCTION..AND PLANNING!
I had to wait for a while to put forward a proposal of mine. My initial plan went down the drain, but I had 2 aces up my sleeve: frequent fare wars among Indian airlines and mock exam grades which were pretty good.

So here's the thing. I wanted to get to Hyderabad either on a Friday or Tuesday morning. From Kolkata, I had a morning 6E348 option, leaving at 0655 and arriving into Hyderabad at 0900. My second option was a Thursday evening departure on 9W2364, to Pune (via Bengaluru) and then an ATR the next (Friday) morning to Hyderabad. This sounded sweeter, and with the miles I had, I could pay for it. But the overnight at PNQ sounded awry.

The above went down the drain. I was now forced to book on 9W626 to Mumbai, as you must've read by now. I evaluated my options from Mumbai: if I arrive on Friday the 17th, I only have Tuesday the 21st, and I don't have much to do in Mumbai anyways. How about going to Hyderabad on Tuesday the 21st then, the very same day I'll head back to Colombo?

With a focus on mostly Boeings, I didn't even bother looking at Air India or IndiGo. Wink

I had 2 fare options:
Jet with JPmiles
SpiceJet and their many fare wars.
My 3 flight options were:
9W7031 dep 0415 arr 0540 on a S2 B73G
SG421 dep 0520 arr 0640 B738
9W457 dep 0720 arr 0820 B73H

I didn't have to wait long for a fare sale to pop up. And it so happened, it was SpiceJet's lowest fares yet, thanks to their 'Cheaper Than Train' fare sale. While that sale lasted for 3 days, I knew I actually had just one day to put forward my plan, and the ulterior motive. Over the day, I thought and pondered, wondering how I'll tell my parents.
As luck would have it, SpiceJet's main website was down. But luckily, MMT, Yatra, Cleartrip, GoIbibo, etc, all had SpiceJet's super low fares.

BOOKING!
A quick nerve racking call to Mum and Dad, they asked me mock exam grades again Rolling Eyes

and with that out of the way, after getting it approved, it was onto the booking!
I tried out with Yatra first, and well, they didn't accept an international card. When the booking failed, instantly I got call from Team Yatra, as they tried to help me out with what was wrong. When it failed, they apologized profusely. Contrary to MMT, to whom I had to make calls to retrieve failed bookings.

...which meant I had to resort to MMT. And since they gave a further ₹100 off, this was a no-brainer. And yep, MMT worked. I got confirmation via SMS and a reference number, but the eticket arrived only 3.5 hours later. All in (without food), ticket came to be priced less than ₹1k. Food added, it increased by a bit. Only a bit.

La sale: being advertised almost everywhere! This one on Facebook

DEPARTURE DAY
'You know Jishnu? Everytime you fly out of Mumbai, it rains a few hours before. I hope that happens once again tomorrow!' - said a close friend of mine whom I met up at a very last minute decision. That's true - every time I flew out of Mumbai (after I moved to Colombo that is), it has rained at least the night before.

It was the 21st of July 2015, the day that pretty much brought Mumbai to a standstill. My morning was supposed to start at an unearthly 0300 hours. No doubt, I was inconveniencing my gracious hosts, but they pretty much saw me grow up into who I am today, they had no qualms about the avgeek in me taking precedence. Anyway. I was up and about at 0230 only. I had some uneasy sleep.

I heard some pitter and patter of the rain. I was fooled by what I saw because this drizzle turned into a rain shower as I headed out for the airport, a punctual taxi driver. I had planned to leave at 0330, it was 0345. Going from Chembur to the airport, I didn't know my way. I feared that I probably wouldn't make the flight's check in closure. I planned not to take any of my suitcases, thanks to the domestic limits of 15kgs. This also meant a lot less hassle for me to pull around trolleys - a masterstroke idea from my mother, something I wouldn't have thought about! Very Happy

Torrential rainfall had started while we were at BKC. I was once again thinking - jeez, there is so much that can go wrong! If SpiceJet delays, I'm pretty much screwed! Before I started worrying, there I was at Mumbai's oh so familiar T1B.

CHECK IN
Jet Airways and IndiGo lines were empty (IndiGo didn't have any agents there, Jet had a few..), while the SpiceJet counters were nice and busy. The staff were pretty efficient in what their jobs, it was all being carried out very quickly. The nice lady asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a seat with more legroom. I politely declined. My boarding pass was printed pretty quickly, I asked her if the flight was on time, to which I got a reply in the affirmative! So despite the weather, it was alright. Gate 6 for me that morning, I went through the security check lines, which were long, but were clearing pretty quickly.

BOARDING
As soon as I was done with security, I saw boarding had begun, so I joined the pretty long line - and who knows, more people on board already? I boarded the cold bus - it was pouring. I was preparing to send a rant message to my friend who said it always rains. This was quite bad.

One person asked me if I was going to Hyderabad or Visakhapatnam. I said Hyderabad. He looked surprised. Ah well. We went by many of the planes, most of them with lights off, just a remote bay stairs attached. Mostly blue Airbus things, the odd Go Air planes preparing for departure, and a few Air India Airbus'.

As is always is with SpiceJet planes, they were parked far away from the main terminal. Bay 86 and Bay 87 for the two SpiceJet planes. No activity next one of them, which was VT-SZA. Just darkness all around it. And the other, VT-SGX. This had all the activity around, including a food loader truck thing of Ambassador. VT-SGX had been doing the BOM-HYD-VTZ-HYD-BOM-IXE-BOM-HYD-VTZ-HYD-BOM runs the past few days, so I knew that'd be my bird. SZA would later head to Delhi. A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER majestically took off for its flight to Doha.

EDTO!

The bus pulled up right beside the stairs, again, amazing stuff by the Mumbai drivers to give passengers minimum inconvenience. Boarding passes torn off, I headed for the plane. I was disappointed to see hints of yellow light, which meant that the plane had no BSI Sad

Anyway, in the middle of a warm welcome by the flight attendant and the pouring rain, something loud took off, a propellor plane. I couldn't see up, but it sounded pretty Soviet. Just like VT-SUD from a few months ago, SGX too looked very very tired inside, the seats especially. The SpiceMax seats had plenty of legroom, but the regular seats had some pretty cramped legroom, and I felt this as soon as I was seated. Luckily this flight was only for an hour. I couldn't get my big camera out, which was a shame. But ah well. 0500 in the morning, and everyone was chirpy. No one was quiet. Except me, because I was yelling at my friend through SMS: she deserved it. Evil or Very Mad

DEPARTURE
Rant over, it was time to shut my phone off, at 0502 ground personnel were asked to deplane, all doors armed at 0508, pushback began ten minutes before time, at 0510. Now the engines - they sounded BEAUTIFUL. Rains perhaps played a role, but that's unlikely, the CFM56-7B24 engines sounded like the GE CF6 engines on the A330! A smile on my face, but of course. The welcome announcements and safety demo was done at the same time, as they entire crew was introduced to the passengers. When their names were called, they'd do a namaskar. We taxied past the international terminal in the increasing rain, waited for a Jet Airways Boeing 737 to land before we blasted off runway 27 for a steep take off, and then headed south-east for Hyderabad. It was still pretty dark outside.

Bad BAD picture of Mumbai

Cabin

IN FLIGHT
The trolleys were pulled up front as all of a sudden, the sun popped up giving the skies a wonderful colour. While that happened, I saw quite a few people had made use of SpiceJet's pre-booked meal service, many people's names were on the manifest. A few announcements thrown around here and there, one of them informing the passengers who haven't bought a meal online to call the flight attendant(s) instead. It took quite some time for my meal to arrive: I paid for a hot non-veg breakfast, but I got hot non-veg snacks instead. There was a hot meal box, and a standard box with either a croissant or yoghurt (I got the former), jam, butter, and red plastic cutlery. And a mixed fruit juice tetra pack.

The foldable menus with pictures...yep those are gone..

My meal contained just one chicken kathi roll split into two. It was warm, but not too extragavent on the quality front. It was okay. There isn't much that you can expect from a low-cost carrier, so SpiceJet had more or less delivered the goods. The trolleys went back up the aisle once again, this time for people who wanted to buy food.

Obligatory winglet shot!

Bloody tight legroom!

A new day? Nah, I've been up a while now Wink

DESCENT & ARRIVAL
0558, I felt SGX drop down by a little. Seatbelt signs came on exactly ten minutes later. The four-crew team went up the aisles twice to pick up all the trash, while they made sure ALL of it was picked up - they asked us passengers to check the seat pockets as well. A good way to save time on the ground during the turnarounds, me thinks. Once again, the crew members lined up on the aisles to thank us for choosing SpiceJet, once again, a very nice little gesture. SGX slowly but surely got closer and closer to Hyderabad and Earth.

Some nice contrails formed as we descended towards runway 27L. A smooth landing at 0626 hours, we taxied straight in to an aerobridge, the first one. As engines were cut out, us Hyderabad bound passengers were informed that disembarkation would be through both, the front door aerobridge and the rear door stairs. As disembarkation begun, I went for the fun way, of course Smile

Yeees!

In the bus, I saw a TruJet ATR72 parked, it was really exciting to see a new airline, of course! Very Happy

I think Varun had pointed out once on the WhatsApp group: Hyderabad is IndiGo's stronghold. Many planes. Everywhere. Main tarmac, rear tarmac.

On board the bus looking at the blue Airbus thing

Before anything bad happened to my eyes, we reached the baggage claim area. I had nothing to pick up. There was a pretty sweet view of the tarmac. But with the rising sun, the light didn't help, for a picture at least Sad

ah well, I headed out at around 0710, and headed up the departures level.

All in all, a good flight with SpiceJet, but it was now time to move on: it was time to get on an iconic Boeing, the one that revolutionized the aviation industry.....

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

The_Goat · Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 4:03 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the TR, Jish.

Somehow, it feels good to see SG still in the air.

I was rather sure they would down shutters sometime ago.
_________________
I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes).
-Jasepl

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Great TR Jishnu.

Your flying Spice Jet at a time when they are in recovery mode and they seem to be doing a good job and the morale of the staff seems quite high.

I liked the way you had to make so many rounds of proposal to your parents before being approved. Trust me once you join corporate life getting travel approval is also very similar where you need to justify and keep proposing.

Although pouring heavily in Bombay from what I see the moment the plane levelled off there was sunlight visible so seems like a localized weather system.

Looking forward to the boeing report.

Sri_Bom

dan · Member Joined: 18 Dec 2012 Posts: 61

Nice TR Jishnu!!!
To be quite frank, I haven't flown spicejet yet. Legroom is an essential for me. sad to see it otherwise on spice. What does EDTO stand for??
Looking forward to THE TR.
Regards
Dan

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 3:45 am Post subject:

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Once again, the usual JB gems which one loves. A soft introduction, detailed trip planning, lovely pictures, descriptions, winglet shots, and more. Thank you, Sir!
It is nice to see SpiceJet on an upswing. I too have flown SpiceJet recently, but work pressures keep me from attending to my backlog.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 5:29 am Post subject:

jbalonso777 · Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:04 am Post subject:

Here are the video links!

Take off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4xGiy2exh0
Landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVYK_44p8A
And a shortish video TR of the flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98EGyF-gFP0

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:42 am Post subject:

Thanks so much Sumantra sir!
Depending on Jet's moves and how much progress BOM T2 has made, this might've been one of my last visits to BOM T1B, since I won't fly a certain blue airline that often Wink

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777