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shivendrashukla

Flight Number - 9W 477
Dep - BOM
Arr - BLR
ETD - 2025
ATD - 2015
ETA - 2155
ATA - 2145
Rating - 4/10

Normally I do not write TR's because most of the routes that I have travel, have been travelled extensively by members here and BOM/BLR have been visited by almost all the members here. But this flight needs special mention. It is because of the service of Jet Airways, or let me say the lack of it. I have been travelling Jet for more than a decade now and they have always maintained their service standards. Even during the lean standards, their service never fell below a threshold. Well this time, it did.

I was in Mumbai for work related events and since I knew my travel plans, I decided to fly back to BLR. Booking almost 2 months in advance, through their website, I found this really amazing fare of around 3K for 1hr 15mins flight. They have this really good website and booking through their website has always been a pleasure.

This time they have introduced a new payment option of direct debit through net banking. I personally like this facility as I dislike using credit cards. Anyways, booking done, within 5 mins, I got a confirmation e-mail with my e-tkt and a text message on my cell. Super. Jet impression has taken off for new hights.

Now fast forward two months and it is 11 december 2011. For 2025 departure, I take an auto from my house in Andheri(W) at about 6pm and within an hr, I was dropped at the gates of domestic terminal. Since I had not taken a print out of my e-tkt (yes, it has to be heights of lazyness), i went straight to Jet Airways counter and got my ticket printed. Now from there, you have to pass through the CISF check point. Here it was complete chaos. There were multiple lines terminating into 2 check points
and people were everywhere. I have been through Bombay several times and I have never witness this ever. Everytime there have been neatly formed Queues and checking was done in orderly fashion. Not today. It was a mess. The line nearly spilled into the road leading to a mess there too. Having made myself into the terminal, I found that majority of this crowd belonged to Indigo. Their checkin counters were full and the lines extended all the way upto Jet Checkin counters. No wonder they are laughing all the way to the bank. But they also need to reschedule some of their flights or else the airport will turn into a fish market soon. I made my way to Jet counter and it was overflowing as well. I think Sunday is a very busy day for all the airlines and loads on all of them were looking good. The long line made its way slowly towards the checkin counter. Then suddenly, they opened the premier checkin counter for some of the economy class pax as well and I was one of the few who made their way to the premier checkin counter.Jet impression is flying high. When my turn came, I put in my bag and it turned out to be 3kgs extra. well I was a frequent flier and previously had always got through extra baggage which was under 5kgs. But today was not a lucky day. I did not protest as she was just doing her duty, but I do feel that she should have let me go through as the extra baggage was not that over weight. Anyways, as I said, not my lucky day. So I made myself towards the cashier counter and paid 450 rupees for the 3kgs that were extra. Btw let me mention that Indigo did not charge me a single penny for 2kg of excess baggage. Some brownie points for them for sure. I was issued a payment slip, my first in about 50 odd flights, I made myself back to the checkin counter. I showed my excess baggage payment slip and after that I was issued my boarding pass. Since I had requested an asile seat at the back of the aircraft, I was issued 36C. The gate was A6. So grudging at the loss of 500 rupees, I made myself up the escilator, through the security check towards gate A6. Now it was almost 7:30pm. I had about 15 mins to spend in the terminal, which I had no problems in doing. Sure enough, boarding was called at 7:45pm and the gate was opened. A final check done and we made down the aerobridge but there was a line forming on the aerobridge. Not good. Not good at all. The line kept on forming and it finally reached the gate. This went on and we waiting full 10mins before we were let into the aircraft.

Now since my seat was the second last, I made my way towards the back of the aircraft. The aircraft was a 7 year of airframe, leased by Jet. VT-JBT. Sadly, it did not have any IFE. Only Jetwings was there and that was it. I was disappointed at the lack of options. The seat pitch was also not good and personally i would not be able to distinguish it from a jetline or a jetkonnect aircraft. Jet impression is steadily loosing altitude. Boarding was completed within 15 mins. Once the boarding was done, the pushback commenced at arnd 2015 and we taxied to the active. In the meanwhile, safety demo was performed and cabin lights dimmed for takeoff. I dunno about you guys, but the dim cabin lights and the varied red, green, blue airport lights have a strange contrast which i kind of like. Today it was 27 and after a fairly long taxi, we were number 3 for take off. Fortunately there were no landings at that time and within 5 mins, we moved into the active and after a powerful takeoff, we were into the air. Mumbai is as beautiful in the night, as it is in the day. I just cannot stop loving this city and whenever I am away from it, I long to come back. Okay, back to the topic. Few mins after take off, the lights were switched back full. During the next 5 mins, the climb continued and Mumbai continued to fade away at the rate of 9 miles a minute. The meal services and my disappointment started soon afterwards. During the booking itself, I had specified Non Veg as my option and to my utter disbelief, the whole flight had only Veg options. Yes, only Veg. I mean this is like a major blunder or a very bad cost cutting effort. In both the cases, the impression continues it spiral downwards. The veg meal consisted of a laccha paratha, a kofta kind of unidentified veg gravy dish and rajma with lemon rice. A bottle of water and sweet which i dared not venture into. I finished my meal, which did not taste that bad. And then the stunner. The coffee served after the dinner was actually at the room temperature. A huge disappointment. Atleast they should have made sure that the coffee was hot. The jet impression has now reached stall speeds and the stick shaker is vibrating furiously. Tricky situation. Can jet save itself? Lets See.

Going further, the crew was collecting the trays when we started the descend. I seem to have an inbuild very sensitive gyro. This unfortunately makes me feel every turn, bank ascend or descend that the aircraft makes, except very minute changes. At this moment the first officer came on line and made some customary announcements. This is something that I have noticed that every airline seems to be doing now a days. The descend continued until we were able to spot the night lights of Bangalore.
The tray cleaning service had still not finished and by the time we were on finals, the stewards barely managed to strap themselves into their seats and prepared the cabin for landing. Lights dimmed again and the outside view seems to have become a lot clearer. The pilot made a very smooth landing. I guess this has to be the highlight of the trip. Made a quick exit and parked into the remote stand. Now now, that's not good. A full service carrier should ensure that its aircraft should use airbridge as much as possible. I understand that it may have been occupied, but i saw a go air and Jetlite ac on the bridge. Bad scheduling by Jet? Disembarked, walked upto the bus and was constantly looking out for something interesting. Saw FEDEX MD11, DHL 763, SIA 77W and Spicejet dash 400. Rest all were normal spottings at BLR.

Terminal building at BLR was spic and span as usual. BIAL has done a good job keeping the terminal in such a good shape. The expansion for the second phase has stared and construction is in full swing right outside the facade. I am sure, in a couple of years, it will emerge as one of the best in India. Moving back inside, my luggage took about 20mins to come. Once done, I moved right out a took a city taxi home. Thus ended my very disappointing trip on Jet.

Although some good brownie points for jet, where deserved, should be given.

1. Crew were professional. They apologised for lack of Non-Veg option.
2. Again, good takeoff and silk smooth landing.
3. Opening up Premier check in counters for economy class.

Hope you enjoyed it. Take care.
Until next time....

Nimish · Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks for posting - interesting TR! Do 6E and 9W share the same terminal in BOM? I guess they do, and I'm confusing with Delhi where they have separate terminals.

Was the lack of a NV option just because they ran out of it by the time they reached row 36? Or was no NV option loaded at all? Running out happens occasionally (even in J or F you may not get your option), but not loading any NV at all would be something new!

Did they start the boarding process before the a/c was really ready (that's what it sounds like)? How full was your flight itself?
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shivendrashukla · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 9:59 am Post subject:

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

Nice TR, Shivendra. Your nice descriptions and keen observations more than make up for the lack of pictures.
Cheers, Sumantra.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Honestly, the flight seems par for the course, given it is domestic economy.

By the way, I think Jet do all-veggie flights to Baroda and (possibly) Ahmedabad; didn't know they were doing this elsewhere.

That said, they should eliminate meals altogether on domestic flights. There really isn't any need, except maybe on flights of longer than 3 hours (are there any?).

Same goes for IFE and all of the other nakhra. There really is no need on most domestic flights, nor on neighbourhood flights.

Of course, so long as they claim to be full service, including hot meals, they need to sort this out.

Do it right, or don't do it at all.
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himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

A good report.

I have been on a couple of flights where NV option was not available. 9W on AMD-BOM and IC on MAA-IXM.
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iah87 · Member Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 2566

They should eliminate all meals and provide snacks, which is mostly veg anyway.

Meals should be provided only on 2 hrs+ flights.

Same with IFE. Who wants IFE for a 1 hr 15 min flight ?

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:03 am Post subject:

A little late, but good TR. Seems similar to a Jet flight I've taken recently (BOM-MAA).
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Yeah.

PAL@YWG · Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:25 am Post subject:

Nice TR, Shivendra, good observations there.
In my opinion, airlines from all parts of the world are "lowering their standards" mainly in the areas that don't affect the safety and security of the passengers. That's Ok as long as they fly us from A to B safely.

It's only EK, QR (may be SQ still) and few others are still not affected by high cost of aviation fuel.
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shivendrashukla · Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:15 pm Post subject:

Thank you Guys Smile

Cheers
Shivendra

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

flightgearpilot · Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 711 Location: VOBL

Seems like you had a pretty comfortable flight.. Where is the disappointing part? Smile