Airliners-India.com

shivendrashukla · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:04 pm Post subject: Delhi to Mumbai by IndiGo. Part 1

Hello Guys. I am writing a trip report after a really long time. Well this TR covers my trip from DEL to BOM and back on 11th and 15th respectively.

Prologue

As most of the people here, who are also on WA group would have known, I had a previous trip planned for Goa in July. That trip could not materialise due to issues at work etc etc. So the next opportunity for leave came my way in September and I jumped in with whatever I had. Basically just a get away from the disgusting weather at Dilli, which this year, was particularly bad. I planned a quick trip to BOM and back. Just to meet my relatives and plane spotting. With dates finalised, fired chrome and loggod onto cleartrip to check what the fares were like. However I had previously booked and cancelled on IndiGo and had some credit lying with them. Therefore my inclination was definitely with them. However I thought, may be, just maybe lady luck could favour me and I would get a real bargain. However, lady luck was not smiling at me, not yet. Therefore logged on to IndiGo and checked return fares for 11th and 15th. The lowest were from DEL was 6E 167, a 0730 departure and 0930 arrival and on the return, 6E196, 1105 departure and 1310 arrival into DEL. Called up their call center and with the credit available to me, booked the tickets. Added a meal and all in all, came to me for about 5.1K. Not bad. 

Departure

Fast forward to 10h. The night was spend at my parents home in Noida. We have a trusted driver, who drives for dad, as an when needed. Called him and booked him to come at 0530. Checking for rotations, it seemed and further expert, Khabri_lal, confirmed that this would be a base aircraft and difficult to predict as to which one it would be. I so wished it would be a sharkie. I have never been on a sharkie and now that they are in sufficient number with IndiGo, this would be probably my time. Dot on 0530 the driver came. We drove through early morning little traffic through streets of noida to DND expressway and made it to Delhi. Delhi’s streets were full of slow moving trucks racing with each other at breakneck speed of 50 Km/hr. Control temper (Check). Finally after painful 45 mins made it to T1D. There was traffic, however not overly crowded. Made my way to gate 2. The CISF guard check my ticked and my ID and let me in. I made my way across SG and G8 counters to IndiGo counters. There were two islands dedicated to IndiGo and thankfully both were not too crowed. After waiting for about 20 mins, I was called to the check in agent (Chicklet, as one WA member puts it). Showed her my ticket and my ID. I put in my punny bag, weighing all of 7kgs on the baggage belt and voila, came my boarding pass. 18F. not bad. Window seat . You know I had a limit of 15kgs, So if I have to pay when I exceed 15kgs, does IndiGo pay me if my baggage weigh less than 15??? Razz

well I was in no mood to find out and made my way towards security. Again the lines were not long. Probably this was a weekday. Security was done within 10 mins and made my way to landside. Since boarding wasn’t called, I decided to take a piss. And some coffee as well.

Tarmac view from Terminal 1D

Since it had been some time when I was last at T1D, the first thing that I noticed was that there were a lot more shops than last time. Previously the landside had a great view of the tarmac. However this time, a lot of it was blocked by the shops. The only place where tarmac view was visible was towards the left, where Bakers street café is located. I made my way there, did my stuff and then went to Bakers street and had a cup of coffee. The view of the tarmac was good. Lots of IndiGo, few with Sharklets which I secretly dreamed would take me to BOM, SpiceJet and Go Air. On the international side I could see Kam Air Boeing 747-200 and Kalitta Air 747-400 along with Blue Dart 757s. Finished coffee and looking at the information display, it seems that my flight was boarding, from Gate 18. Made my wayownstairs and viola, it resembled New Delhi Railway Station. People everywhere. And noise. It seems that everyone was shouting at the top of their voice. Somehow I made my way to Gaste 18. Some wonderful person had not got his baggage security stamped. So from the front to the bloody line, he was send back upstairs to get the bad stamped. Slowly moved through the sea of humanity to the gate. During the move I couldn’t think but wonder if I am in Delhi or Syrian migrant moving towards Europe. Thankfully the ordeal was over and boarding pass scanned, baggage checked, I was freed to the bus. Boarded the bus excitedly in anticipation of a Sharkie. Bus filled and made way towards the aircraft. And announcements made their presence felt from here on. Boarding from row 1-15 front door, 16-30 back door etc etc. However my mind wasn’t really focussed on that as I was looking out, observing the movements of tarmac and more importantly, where our bus was headed, secretly hoping for one of the sharkies present. Unfortunately that was not to be. Our bus stopped infront to VT-INT. and I was like…What??????. Oh no, please no. But it was to be. Not only it was not a sharkie, it was one of the oldest bird in the fleet. A 6 plus year old bird which had gone C check while with IndiGo in Colombo.

Yes, VT-INT again. No Sharkie Sad

Reluctantly I got off the bus and made my way towards the back door…dragging my feet all along. It had that differently abled ramps. Boarding card stud was torn and I was handed over the last two stubbs. One for myself and the other one for the pre ordered meal. Climbed up the ramp and entered the aircraft through the rear door. I was greeted by a lovely FA. Chalo good, it cheered me up. Crossed the sea of humanity to my seat 18F, sat and buckled myself. All this time I was active on WA group as well. The aircraft was as usual spic and span. Clean seats, clean windows. VT-INT has new slim line seats and therefore the seat pitch is now really comfortable. I used to hate the earlier seat pitch where I could barely fit.

Good seat pitch. Note the BS. It had front page headline about IndiGo's 13K Cr profit.

Boarding done and it was again 100% loads. Not an empty seat in sight. Well done IndiGo. A quick briefing by the crew and what did stuck me was that the First officer was from Surat. I could barely hide my smile for obvious reasons. Well done Suratis. Crew demonstrations were done and since this was a power out gate, we made our way towards runway 28.

Lining up for 28 for Takeoff

Runway 28 at this time is partially closed and no landings are permitted and reduced runway for takeoff is available. Immediately taxied to active, flaps set at 10, followed by a quick take off. As we were throttling down the runway, a Go Air Airbus landed on 27. Took off and turned south west towards Mumbai.

Take off and the West Delhi area of Dwarka and Najafgarh

Point here to be noted is that there were considerably less number of announcements. No we won this or won that. Or blah blah...annivarya thatha mehatvapoorna. Nothing. Soon seat belt signs were off and the meal service began. They were serving corporate and pre book meals first and as such an FA came to me and referred me by my name and asked me as to what I would like to have. Quickly glancing through the menu, I noticed that there was not much for Non Veg and most of the menu had “Ghaas phoos”. Anyhow I settled for chicken in spicy mayonese and beetroot wrap along with a coke. This was served to me with a smile as we made out way to Mumbai. The wrap tasted good and since this was a base aircraft from DEL, the wrap was cooked my The Ambassador flight kitchen in Delhi. The wrap tasted good and was promptly gulped down with coke. There was very little turbulence and the skies were clear with great visibility.

The Aravallis' around Jaipur. Amazing weather and great visibility

Maharana Pratap Sagar Dam, near Kota

Nice Cloud pattern

After an hr and 20mins in the air, we commenced our descend into Mumbai but had to circle once. Then the usual turns here and there and finally we lined up for Runway 27 at BOM.

Holding north of Mumbai, before we were cleared

Weather on approach was little cloudy and flaps 40 selected for landing, a smooth landing was done on 27, exited and taxied to Bay no 6. Again minimum announcements were done. Just welcoming us to Mumbai and that baggage would be available on baggage belt no 4. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else. Oh yeah..thank you for flying IndiGo. Disembarked through the front door and the captain was there to bid goodbye to the deplaning pax. Since it was a bus gate, we were bussed to the arrivals lounge and was nice to see that baggage was already on the belt. Collected my baggage and proceeded to exit the terminal. All in all it just took me 20 mins from landing to getting inside the cab. Well done IndiGo and GVK.

So this concludes part 1. The return BOM-DEL would be up shortly in part 2. Comments and feedback, welcome as usual. Hope you liked it.

Cheers
Shivendra

Nimish · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:19 am Post subject:

Lovely report Shivendra - esp. the fact that 6E has toned down on the mic!
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

ameya · Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 2:08 pm Post subject:

Thanks ShivGE90 for the TR! Look forward to the next one with more pics !
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com

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

Very nice to see you active on this part of the forum, Shukla-ji. Pithy descriptions (Syrian moving towards Europe, New Delhi Railway station, and more). Bad luck you could not get a sharkletted plane, in spite of photographing so many! I have had my share of luck in getting sharkies: a result of some regular flying with Indigo over the past year.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 8:12 pm Post subject:

Great report, ShivGE!

Been a while since I've read about an IndiGo TR with minimal announcements! You want sharkies? Fly Vistara Razz

That said, the fare you got was quite a deal! Yep, I have seen a couple of 6E A320s parked in CMB: today, mostly some old A340s take up that spot Sad

Looking forward to part 2!
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777