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jbalonso777

A quick recap: Leaving Sri Lanka was painful, I flew the best way out, on a SriLankan A330 to Chennai. This was followed by a quick Premiere class run on Jet to Mumbai. I met some lovely aviation enthusiasts on the way, that is always fun! Very Happy

This was followed by a slightly strange red eye flight with Jet Airways to Kolkata, and experiences on going from there on!

It was a pretty disturbed sleep after which I woke up. Interruptions in between included a shocked aunt, a shocked uncle, a shocked cousin brother and a shocked maid. All wondering WTF was going on. I woke up and called my granny, uncle and aunt and explained what was going - they found it unsurprisingly surprising that Kolkata - San Francisco turned out to be the cheapest!
Falling for the cheap ticket turned out to be a good thing as I had to complete some paperwork at the bank. So that meant after a luchi and aloo'r dom and malpoa pitstop, it was off to the bank. I only nearly got ran over about eight or nine times, a new record in the madness of the city of Kolkata Smile

Lunch included one last Kolkata roll and a Thums' Up, my favorite junk beverage in India. Another round of frantic re-packing and re-organizing followed as a storm drew close. The same one that prevented my uncle from boarding his flight barely a day ago. With that threat lingering, granny suggested I leave home at 1630, 4 hours before departure. Fair enough.

Slight drama occurred when I saw that ALL of my parents and my seats got deselected, and it was preventing me from selecting them again. This was very worrying! However, apparently all was alright. The menu for my Kolkata - Dubai flight was prawn biriyani. Most of the India - Dubai - India flights have a standard menu, except Kolkata - Dubai - Kolkata, which is different because Bengalis are special Laughing

I selected a non veg Hindu meal for EK573 only, but it showed that EK225 had it selected as well - NOOOO! I though, had a lot more to worry about, for example, lack of sleep!

Going on the wrecked roads of Kolkata, I was reminded of the signs I saw ten years ago - Today's pain, tomorrow's gain: nope, still a pain! And predictably, the rain never arrived, the storm was still quite far away. My Grandmother insisted she come drop me off at the airport, and we talked about a lot of things.. Which was nice!

1650 hours, I was at the Kolkata Airport terminal again.. Just thirteen days later! Except that this was the international wing. There were quite a few passengers entering the terminal, the hurdle being the CISF check. Just one gate open. There were many many passengers. Most of them on the very delayed Regent Airways flight to Dhaka, many of them on the Air India flight to Dhaka. And many of them on the Emirates flight to Dubai! Most passengers headed straight for the check in, before being diverted away to the baggage screening - new terminal, old antics. How nice Smile

Unsurprisingly, it was Air India's, but just Emirates' arrow every where. While the line was long, it did go pretty quickly. The baggage wrap/protect from rain/other stuff plastic saran wrap people convinced the passengers to get their suitcases wrapped, and they made good money! I added to their incomes, as I had one suitcase full of pretty sentimental stuff..the suitcase from Colombo. And before I knew it, it was time to get my 38kgs worth of suitcases onto the conveyor, and got it screened. Cleared.

Check in line was not really long because most of the passengers were done with check in, or at the baggage screening, or stuck outside the terminal. It was very well organized, props to the Air India ground staff for organizing this rather well. A very experienced gentleman took care of my check in proceedings, and he sure knew what he was doing. First he weighed the suitcases, while I quickly glanced at the neighbor's tags: GRU. São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport. A true testament to Emirates' success right here at Kolkata Airport: here I was going to San Francisco, and two others heading to Brazil! While I thought about that, the gentleman asked me for my passport and I20 form (document required for university students heading to the USA). Documents checked, he handed me my ticket, the baggage receipt, boarding pass, and the two hotel vouchers. He wished me a great flight after directing me to the gates. Again, full marks to the Air India ground staff.

I was in constant touch with member avbuff. He dropped a few hints just before my flight out of Sri Lanka of a possible upgrade, something that was confirmed later on in Mumbai. However, as the day progressed after 9W484, it was soon confirmed that it wasn't on. I wasn't unhappy, instead I was just excited to be on a classy old A330-200 for a few hours! EK573 was so overbooked that the flight only operated with two classes: first and economy! That I felt was very very interesting. A few passengers were to be seated in the business class seats. I still kept my hopes down. That said, a huge thanks to avbuff for getting my hotel in Dubai in done. One can kill hours at an airport, but Dubai T3 in the middle of the night? Not really my cup of tea to be honest. Sad

avbuff got this concern out of the way to put me up in one of Emirates' contracted hotels for passengers who have a transit that is 8 hours or longer (involuntarily). He also confirmed the three planes for the day: A6-EAM would take me to Dubai, A6-EGK would be the plane taking my parents to Dubai, and A6-EOC would be the whale taking us all the way to San Francisco, she was on her way back from Toronto.

Immigration was up next, and perhaps the most 'babu' experience I have ever had. While the line was short so the wait wasn't too long, the guy I had got had way too many questions. First, he wondered why my handwriting was so bad on the departure card, something that I rarely pay attention to! Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mumbai, Chennai, Colombo. I didn't bother with a neat and clean handwriting, and here we had someone wondering how I got into university in the USA, because according to him I didn't even get basic education! Second, he thought my visa was a fake and took a good three or four minutes to see if it was a counterfeit. I offered him to show my I20 form, he had a blank face on. I didn't bother explaining what that was. Last, he asked me why I was in Kolkata if my visa was processed in Colombo! I told him I wanted to visit family before I went to university for further education (emphasized on the further). He had a pretty dissatisfied look on his face before the manager walked in to the scene, and quickly cleared me through. Jeez, that was eventful!

Security took a bit longer. because there was a line, but nothing really to complain. Helped an old lady with her bags, no harm done. She had a bottle of water which I helped empty out nearby, so that the bottle can be used again later on. The gate areas were absolutely full. An Air India flight to Dhaka, the delayed Regent Airways flight to Dhaka, and of course, an Emirates A330 to Dubai. VT-JGV had its aerobridge removed from the international terminal, and passengers boarding via stairs. Jet dumb? No. Smile

VT-JGV came in from Dhaka as 9W273 and later headed to New Delhi as 9W904. The Air India Airbus departed a bit late for its flight to Dhaka.

Kolkata Airport isn't the most interesting of airports/terminals because there isn't much to do, not helped by the fact that the sun had set. Not too many duty free shops (just the one basic), and just one cafe (?). Sat around for a bit before heading for the cafe, where I had a paneer roll which was very ordinary...and oily. Not too good. By the time I finished my 'meal', I headed for Gate 10, and lo behold, a beautiful 12.9 year old A330 registered A6-EAM had arrived from Dubai on time, engines shutting, doors opening. Passengers slowly got off the plane. I got my camera out to photograph this beauty, where another photographer saw the struggle I went through to picture the beauty at night. He gave me a few tips, but to no avail: the lighting reflections made it tricky for a good photograph Sad

Zone-wise started bang on time at 1930 hours. This was strictly imposed, despite monumentally long line that was formed. I joined the end of this snaking line and some Air India / Emirates ground staff came around checking boarding passes, passports, etc.

When one of them came up to me, he asked me if I was traveling alone. I replied in the affirmative, and he asked me to follow him to the counter. That's when I knew it was possibly because of a change in seat. 'Since you are traveling alone, we would like to offer you a seat in business class. It is a middle seat and standard Economy service, but it is more comfortable...', said the lady. Without evening thinking about it twice, I readily agreed to the semi-upgrade! Sleep was priority over a window seat, and this business class seat would help me no doubt! 22K struck off, it was now 10E. I was now legit excited about my seventh flight with Emirates.

Indi go away -.-

Walking down the ramp towards the lovely A6-EAM, I saw an IndiGo A320, before operating flight 6E77 to Bangkok. Entering A6-EAM was not quite as exciting as I got a rather muted welcome, since both crew members were occupied doing something or the other. I stepped inside, every business class seat was occupied, except 10E, predictably. I say empty - there was no human there, but two pillows, used headphones and blankets. I then realized I was going to sit in between some lovely co-passengers Rolling Eyes

I also noticed that menu cards, hot towels and lime juice (common on all India - Dubai flights) had been handed out. I would get none of them Sad

That aside, the cabin felt very spacious, something like a palace almost. The ‘outdated’ seats looked very comfortable. All windows had a light brown frame around them. The PTV screens were of a pretty sweet size as well. I was looking forward to the next few hours!

I took my seat and well, I wasn’t exactly comfortable because of the junk that piled up over me. I kept my bags in front, eating up the legroom. From what I could see, two crew members were from Africa, one from Egypt (who did the Arabic announcements), and a few more from Europe. All on a flight to Kolkata! They came up and helped me put my bags up into the overhead bins. I instantly throw some of the junk off my hip on to the floor, just keeping my head phones (which was noise canceling!), a pillow (which was much larger than what I got on my Economy class Emirates flights), and a blanket (a super comfy one!). I was slowly starting to get comfy on 10E. An announcement was made that all passengers who ordered the Hindu Non-Vegetarian meal would be served the non-vegetarian option on menu. That sunk my heart a little…no special meal name tag for me Sad

2030 hours. Departure time. I felt a thud. The tug was attached and at 2035 hours, EAM was pushed back. Both the Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines were beautifully brought into life as the safety demos played on the IFE systems. The extension of the slats made a beautiful sound as both engines were brought into life. A slow taxi began towards runway 1L….

….only to taxi down Runway 1R which was followed by a beautiful roar of the Rolls Royce Trent 772B-60 engines as a long take off followed into the cloudy skies over Kolkata. We banked all the way to the South. I couldn’t feel this seated right in the middle of the aircraft, however, a glimpse through one of the windows port side showed what an angle we were banking in towards the left!

EAM headed southwards for a good twenty minutes after take off before banking towards the right, heading west. Course set for Dubai. Another difference I noticed was that the IFE was actually a AVOD ICE, as opposed to the programs that play on loop in Economy. Again, business class bonuses! I settled down to watch a Disney movie, namely Wreck it! Ralph. Yes yes, I know, college bound student watching childish movies, I’m sure Mufasa’s death in Lion King still gets to most of us. Crying or Very sad

However, I found it quite tricky to follow the movie because I had just discovered the many functions o the business class seat: various angles of reclines, massage…add to that a comfy blanket and a super soft pillow…I was beginning to get very comfortable and fall asleep right away. I was starting to enjoy a flight seated in the middle seat! Very Happy

Getting into the mood!

It wasn’t until 2153 hours when I got a meal tray. The English flight attendant found it tricky to explain the contents of the meal because, quite simply, Indian food names are tricky to say! He was one of the crew members who stood out from the rest, as he was the one making jokes with most passengers, helping them out with belongings, attending to calls promptly, while the others just went about doing their jobs.

Anyway, the meal. While prawn biriyani did sound a unappetizing at first, Emirates proved me wrong with a superb meal. It started off with a salad consisting of cucumber, tomato, labneh ball and a mint paste to go along with it. The main course consisted of some tasty biriyani rice with pieces of prawn in it, along with a delectable dal bukhara that went with the biriyani very well. Dessert was some heavenly gulab jamun. The meal cart was followed by a drinks card, I just stuck to a Pepsi along with the trademark Emirates savory snack.

No table cloth Wink

Finished my meal and I headed for the washroom, walking through the Economy class. Seats looked exactly the same as those on SriLankan Airlines’ oldest A330-200, 4R-ALC. The weird box type seats, is what I call them. I saw the ways in which people were asleep, and was sure glad that I got a business class seat for the flight! The washroom was very well stocked, as usual, and nothing had changed since 2012, in terms of the lotion and Eau de Toilette! It was awesome to see these once again!

I took a quick look at seats 22H and 22K: a mother and her young child were fast asleep. I felt good to have given up 22K since they would be in trouble had I not budged. With that happy thought in my mind, I returned to my seat 10E. We were just about flying over the west coast of India, leaving behind the Indian landmass. Goodbye, Bharat Mata, home! I would be back very very soon! With that, I tucked myself into a very comfortable sleep over the Arabian Sea. Uninterrupted sleep, just what I wanted!

See you in December, India!

It was the turning on of lights that actually woke me up, as we had begun descent towards Dubai International. I quickly got up and got my camera bag down so that I could hold on to it. Slowly but surely we headed towards Runway 31L, I put the nose wheel camera on, it always intrigues me! A smooth touchdown was made at 2347 hours GST, and we exited quickly towards an aerobridge gate in the humongous Terminal 3 at Dubai International. There were a couple of planes I saw, and also a certain 4R-ALJ of SriLankan Airlines (an A330-200)! 4R-ALG wasn’t going to be the last SriLankan bird I saw, neither was it 4R-ALD in Mumbai, here I was! Engines cut out, first class passengers were allowed to disembark first followed by us Economy Business passengers.

Empty Dubai?!

Contrary to my expectations, Dubai’s Terminal 3 was EMPTY! I expected huge huge crowd, but nothing of that sort! A quick sail through, that’s all. In fact, immigration was unbelievably quick as well, and to my surprise, no lines there either! Getting the paid for visa was no issue. The immigration person was also a very very nice guy who had a friendly conversation with me. I reached the massive arrivals section and in one far end was Emirates’ Dubai Connect counter. Many people were here…and some who had just come in on EK573!

0033 hours, just 28 minutes after STA, I was waiting for my shuttle bus. For Dubai, that is bloody quick! In the midst of all this, after yet another amazing flight with Emirates, it was time to message people: avbuff and Dad. Mum and Dad were in fact in Colombo airport, sitting right in front of A6-EGK that had arrived from Singapore, and would get them to Dubai. avbuff meanwhile, gave me instructions for a quick meet up in the morning. By then, the bus had arrived. I checked in to the hotel, and while there were long walks to get to the room itself, the 4 hours of sleep that followed was simply amazing!

0033 hours, just 28 minutes after STA, I was waiting for my shuttle bus. For Dubai, that is bloody quick! In the midst of all this, after yet another amazing flight with Emirates, it was time to message people: avbuff and Dad. Mum and Dad were in fact in Colombo airport, sitting right in front of A6-EGK that had arrived from Singapore, and would get them to Dubai. avbuff meanwhile, gave me instructions for a quick meet up in the morning. By then, the bus had arrived. I checked in to the hotel, and while there were long walks to get to the room itself, the 4 hours of sleep that followed was simply amazing!

As I dozed off, it was now counting down to the Emirates A380. To my first ultra-long haul flight. It was now countdown to me finally arriving in the United States of America, and the beginning of a new chapter…...

Regards
Jish
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sabya99 · Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:06 pm Post subject:

@Jishnu, I know the feeling when immigration official interrogate you like that. It is scary, but last few trips I had nice smiling ladies checking my passports. So I had no problem.
It seems you took the picture of Kolkata runway while aircraft was turning on 19L turn pad. Usually Emirates flights take off from 19L in the evening while day time A330 flights take off from 19R. I see centerline lights on main runway after a long time. They don’t routinely use these lights possibly AAI saving utility bills!! But main runway is a good Cat II runway. In any case in both cases the launch direction is south facing. A few miles down south on Sonarpore over a way point they take right turn over Ganges river due west.
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

The only thing better than waiting for a JB trip report is...to be intimated by the master himself, with a time-line for the reports, and...`the next one should be up in an hour'. I have been saving it for today's dinner, and wow, it was worth the extended session of gluttony, fed by some lovely food pictures and descriptions as well.
No, I didn't manage the pole position on this one, since Dr. Ganguly noticed his favourite city being described, and his favourite airport as well Smile

All said and done, the new NSCBIA T2 is a lovely effort.
Now, back to the trip report, itself!
Ha ha, shocked people around the house! I can well feel the haste, an the things in motion, as you describe it beautifully, replete with a `pit-stop'.
Interesting, prawn biriyAnI on CCU-DXB. Sir, you do have an eye for detail!
I have only exited from the International part at the NSCBIA T2 quite a few times by now, but never entered the International section. I hope to do this sometime soon, but I have been putting it off in the all-conquering zest to log up as many Dream)liner flights as possible, and the desire to have the superb snack on AI 701, the early evening flight back to Delhi.
You have been lucky to have avbuff help you: he has also helped others, including getting The Wife and her parents completely relieved on a complicated itinerary including many airlines, done in a strange way, on AC stock, where each airline's website showed a Draconian luggage rule. Thank you avbuff!
The semi-upgrade...hmm...I didn't get this part. At one point, you mention that there would be just F and Y (and Y in J seats), but you found no menu cards for you, and some J things lying around: had the plane not been cleaned properly? I guess I am missing something, clearly.
The meal looks and sounds great. EK usually pack in a good punch, where food is concerned.
Now, we are all with you, waiting with bated breath, as to what would happen, next. The hotel got changed to an airport one, so that you would get some quality sleep. You are lucky. I would have been so excited that I would have been up all night Smile

My next TR in the works is a quick Calcutta visit on official work, where I managed to take The Wife and Junior also along. This will have a huge lot of pictures from CCU.

Thank you for sharing this lovely gem with us, in spite of your busy and hectic schedule!
Cheers, Sumantra.

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

- Great TR, glad you enjoyed the EK 330 premium ec.... business class seat Wink

- What's a hindu non veg meal Confused

.... and why couldn't they give it to the upgraded pax?
- The day CCU is one of our longer turns on the 330 glad you could sleep because the way back seems to go on and on and on and on ...
- Waiting to hear about the 380 experience.
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Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:27 am Post subject:

Hi Jishnu,

Another excellent read! I enjoyed every bit of it.

ameya · Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:23 am Post subject:

Nice TR JiB

Good details of the International part of CCU

The food looks good !
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sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

A Wonderful report Jishnu and you are just getting better and better at this.

The Calcutta airport, although Airport Authority has done a good job in terms of renovation, it still nowhere near what private operators have done for other cities.

How long was your transit in Dubai? Was it less than 8 hours and hence you had to reach out to AV buff?

Interesting to note on your experience with security, till now I have always had pleasant experience it is just that sometimes they don’t smile and stay grumpy.

Very lucky to get an upgrade to business class seat but I am not clear what they mean “Standard Economy Service” Did they not give you meals in business class style? Seems like the just dumped the economy class tray for you?

The seat configuration 2X3X2 in business that is quite cramped is this common on Emirates?

Also if you were a transit passenger why did you have to pay for a visa?

Thanks for posting the report enjoyed reading and looking forward to part 2

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 12:22 am Post subject:

Hey all - thanks so much for your wonderful replies! I'm sorry I took so long to reply, university is indeed a bit tricky Smile

@Sabya sir - I flew to Colombo from Kolkata. While departure immigration was no hassle, the return was quite the opposite. I haven't had such issues at Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi or Chennai..hmm..

Sir, we took off from Runway 01R, as you'll see in the video trip report I will put up...sometime. Soon, hopefully! I took a recording of the TV screen since I was condemned to a middle seat Sad

You'll have a lot of visual clues there!

Sumantra sir: Wow, its been more than a month since I posted a TR...guess who has a pretty bad backlog now! Razz

I guess AI21 (the late morning flight) out of CCU is your best chance for an international section departure - I guess that's a lunch flight!
avbuff has been a huge help, and I am truly appreciative of that!
To clear up the confusion: this was a three class plane, First, Business and Economy. However, because Economy was oversold, and luckily not many Business/First class seats were sold, all Business class passengers were upgraded to First class, while some Economy passengers got to sit in the Business class seats. The meals and menus were for economy. I didn't get a menu card because I boarded late, and departure time wasn't too far away. The stuff I had on my seat were a clean blanket, J class pillow and the already opened blankets of my seat mates....ugh Sad

This was my first ULH flight and to be honest, I was a bit nervous and tired. Nervous because there was that bit of anxiety...what if I didn't reunite with my parents? While the tiredness was all because of the flying around I did...ahhh!

Nikhil!
Yes, lovely Y+ seats on the A330 Razz

I guess a Hindu non-veg meal is a non veg meal without beef and pork. It wasn't loaded for any pax anyway because all India flights have a Hindu non-veg meal anyway. So it was for all Y pax.
I can imagine. I sometimes get super bored on the usual CCU-BOM flights, this is basically twice that! But hey, I had an interesting 16 hour flight ahead Smile

Hey Varun!
Thanks so much for reading!
The guy at my immigration was clearly having a day...being rude to basically...anyone...

I'm so sorry, I think I've confused way too many people with this J 'upgrade'.
This was a three class plane, First, Business and Economy. However, because Economy was oversold, and luckily not many Business/First class seats were sold, all Business class passengers were upgraded to First class, while some Economy passengers got to sit in the Business class seats. The meals and menus were for economy.
My first B747 flight on EVA Air was in Economy class, but a Premium Economy seat. Yep, like you said, quite confusing!

I had the opportunity to watch Inside Out for the first time on my KLM flight. It was, like you said, AMAZING!

Economy class has no ICE AVOD, but J still has on-demand stuff. Its something!

Ameya sir
Thanks so much for reading! Very Happy

Sri sir
I truly appreciate your words of encouragement, thanks so much!
My transit in Dubai was 8hr15min, however, due to some age issue, I couldn't exactly book the room on my own, and hence Ojas did it for me. Thanks to him!
Yes, they basically had Y meals because all pax in J class seats were actually just Y class pax.
2-3-2 is common on the smaller Airbus and 777s.
And I did not have to pay for the visa, it was already paid for. Sorry for the confusion!

Thanks to all of you! I will post the EK A380 TR very soon!

Regards
Jishnu
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jbalonso777 · Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:56 pm Post subject:

Here is the video trip report for this flight!

https://youtu.be/VUR20NG70q4

No take off and landing videos because of the middle seat Smile

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

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 8:49 pm Post subject:

sriramhariiyer · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 12:13 am Post subject:

Very nice TR mate. Got to learn lots from your style of writing Very Happy

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Regards,
Sriram Hariharan

jbalonso777 · Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 6:08 am Post subject: