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rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

Jet Airways Pune-Chennai

As I had mentioned in my previous TR,After completing a wonderful darshan at shirdi,Headed back to pune.Had some work at shivajinagar and I was searching for a cab to head to the airport.Called Meru but they didn’t have cabs.After a lot of confusion,Took a T cab to the airport.I forgot to mention in the earlier TR,Pune airport is very small and I really believe it deserves a much bigger airport.Anyways reached the airport at 14:15.

At The Airport:
There were two checks of the ticket before letting us in.God knows why u have two checks within a small distance!In fact this took longer time than the Check-in!The CISF guy at the gate as having some problem looking at the ticket of my dad in his Mobile.Anyways got the baggage scanned and headed to the Jet check-in counters which were relativey empty considering they had 3flights at this time(To IDR,DEL and MAA).The efficient agent quickly greeted us and asked for ur tickets and my request for a fragile and priority tagging was acknowledged with a smile.She was very quick and allotted us the same seats.

I had done web check-in the previous day and It was the same case.Most of the seats were occupied by the time I checked in.This time it was even worser because there were no seats in the rear half of the plane!Chose 15D,E,F this time much against my liking!With the check-in experience being exactly the opposite of what I had on my onward journey,I was expecting a good journey after a positive start.Headed to security which wasn’t crowded much and I was airside by 14:30.The Air India express flight to Dubai was also leaving around the same time so the immigration counters were busy too.I spotted an Indigo A320 push back for its departure to Ahmedabad and soon it took off from rwy10.Headed upstairs and had some refreshments and I noticed Pune airport has free WiFi.Decided to try it out and it worked!In the meantime,The 9W flight to IDR was boarding.Switched on FR24 on my ipad and found VT-JFH doing the rotation that day.The terminal was getting crowded slowly now.The departures at that included 6E to HYD,9W to Del,Maa(My flight),SG to Del,Hyd ,AI to HYD and AIX to DXB.Soon,The Jet ATR to IDR took off from rwy28 followed by the AI A319 to HYD.This was followed by a couple of arrivals as well.Indigo A320 VT-IFP landed from HYD and AIX B738 landed from DXB VT-AYA was the bird.Sometime later the Jet’s VT-JFG landed from Delhi.Right behind it landed VT-SZA from Kochi.My aircraft VT-JFH from Ahmedabad landed on rwy 28 at 15:20hrs.So the tarmac was almost full by now.The SG and AIX birds were docked at the aerobridge gates.Boarding for Indigo’s Hyderabad flight was being called.The flight had very good loads.The earlier AI flight to HYD hardly had any people.My flight’s boarding was called at 15:35.By now,a delay was imminent.The agent at the gate wished us a pleasant flight and we went down and we were asked to wait on the tarmac.It was a great thing to happen for an AV Geek Very Happy

People started taking pics before the cisf guard came running to stop them.We were waiting in the tarmac for quite some time before we were let in.

The Purser was at the door greeting everyone with a smile.I settled in my seat by 15:45.By now Spicejet’s Q400 from Goa had parked beside us.The boarding was quite slow.I noticed that they were about 50pax in economy from AMD.The loads from Pune were quite low.About 60 of them boarded here.Boarding was completed by 16:00hrs.

The purser made the welcome announcement.She first apologized for the delay and announced Captain Vinod was in command assisted by first officer Shankar.We pushed back by 16:04hrs.By now,VT-IFP had already started taxiing and the Spicejet’s VT-SZA also had pushed back.We soon started our short taxi to rwy 10.We were number 2 for takeoff.The Indigo aircraft took off first followed by Spicejet B738.We turned on to the runway and waited.The AIX aircraft had pushed back by now.We waited on the active for almost 5minutes before we took off.We took off at 16:10.The climb was very turbulent and we made a sharp right turn and a couple of course corrections later,we were osn course.We climbed through some heavy cloud formations.The seatbet sign remained on for sometime,understandably so.After the seatbelt signs were switched off the crew started the BOB service.The Lead cabin attendant,Ms.Srividya came around the cabin first distributing water which was a good move.She was very courteous.The BOB service started soon.I purchased some bhel puri and some drink which was good.The aircraft again wasn’t spotless.The windows were dirty Sad

The seat pocket in front me didn’t have the safety card and the inflight magazine.The flight was uneventful except for the fact that in contrast to my onward flight the weather was very cloudy throughout and I couldn’t see anything beneath.I slept for sometime only to be woken up by an announcement from the flight deck.

Captain Vinod came on the p.a and again he too apologized for the delay first and quoted “late arrival of the incoming aircraft from the previous sector” as the reason for the delay.He did mention that the aircraft was B737-800 next gen series.He said we were cruising at FL390 and about 250kms from Chennai and we commence descent in 7minutes and we would be landing into Chennai by 17:38.He informed the temperature at Chennai was 30degree C and the visibility was good too.Quite a detailed announcement!There were heavy clouds at this altitude and we were passing through it for quite sometime.Soon we were descending into Chennai.The seatbelt sign was turned on and we descended through some thick clouds and minor turbulence.We were heading straight to the east which meant we would be landing on rwy25 but then we banked to the right quite sharply and I could clearly spot the Chennai Central Railway station from above!This is the approach pattern for rwy07 Landings I guess.We flew southwest for sometime before making a left turn to head east and a final turn to line up with the Runway.There were some low lying clouds.The flaps were extended and there was some serious crosswind on final.The aircraft was swaying badly.We were also seemingly coming a bit fast.Overall a scary final approach but soon the airport came into view and the captain flared the plane beautifully and made a marvellous landing at 17:37hrs.We exited the runway and parked and taxied back to the terminal where we parked at an aerobridge.

The Visit to The Flight Deck
Again I waited for everyone to deplane and went up and the purser was standing there.I asked her if I could meet the captain.She said Sure You can!Please wait Very Happy

The captain was in the restroom and I had a small chat with the purser.She asked me why I wanted to meet the captain and I told about my interest in aviation which she was happy to hear and told me that the whole crew were Chennai based and that was their last flight for the day(They do MAA-PNQ-AMD-PNQ-MAA).By this time the captain came out and the purser told him that he had a special guest!I was impressed by her attitude.The captain invited me to the flight deck and asked me to feel free to ask any question I would like to ask!I first congragulated him on a very good landing to which he smiled and thanked me for the complimen.I asked him about the crosswind and he said there some serious crosswind on final.I asked him how he would compare the 737 with the 320 to which he replied he hadn’t flown the 320!He also introduced the first officer.Both of them were very young and very friendly too.The captain also explained some things to me.By that time,The F/O had completed the paperwork and the captain told me its time to move out and talk as the incoming crew were already there.We came out and the crew exchanged pleas antries with the incoming crew.We chatted at the aerobridge for sometime before I bid bye to them and thanked them for a great flight and he asked me to stay in touch with him.I just loved the attitude of the whole set of crew.I quickly went to the arrivals where my dad had already got the bags and My dad told me our bag was agin the first ones out!It was the next day after the conviction of TN’s Ex-CM,so the airport had heavy security.Headed home by a cab and there ended a great journey on Jet Airways.

End Remarks:
This flight was a striking contrast to the onward flight in many aspects.The Aircraft’s interior maintenance was the sole negative point on this flight.Again,I somehow felt the service was top class and the crew were very attentive and friendly and did their job efficiently.The interesting part was the premiere cabin had just 1 empty seat.The flight was slightly delayed but that was acceptable.My expectation from Jet was fulfilled on this flight.But that onward flight did spoil the experience.Hope Jet as a FSC can change things for good.I would personally prefer Jet only next to Indigo.

Ratings:
Aircraft:4/5
Crew:5/5
On Time performace:4.5/5
Overall:4/5

Thanks for reading my long TR and again apologies for the complete lack of pictures.

Comments and suggestions always welcome!

Cheers!
Rakesh.

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

Yes Rakesh, we were waiting for this one. Thanks for another nice TR. In addition to your detailed descriptions of the sights around you, I especially liked your description of the landing, and of course, the highlight of the flight, the visit to the front office, and the nice crew on board!
Cheers, Sumantra.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 8:07 am Post subject:

Great TR, thanks for sharing!
I hope you'll find the time to post some more TRs in the future, and with the pictures too, I'm sure they'll come out great! Smile

Again, nice to see another great Jet Airways TR - I really am looking forward to my quick 4 flights this weekend! Very Happy

Nice to see a pleasant check in experience! In all honesty, I have always found a tier-2 city check in a much more memorable experience than the likes of BOM, DEL or MAA. Although, BLR and CCU have been generally friendly, too.

Bhel on a plane - interesting!

Sad to see a slightly dirty Sky Interior bird...

Great crew as well! Jet's crew is certainly one of the best crews in the skies, both cockpit and cabin, contrary to all the 'children' people talk about. I've faced them only once though, on a CMB-MAA flight 2 years ago, but that was it.

Looking forward to more, and thanks for sharing!

Regards
Jish
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ameya · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 10:34 am Post subject:

Nice TR Rakesh.

The two CISF checks within 10 feet has always been a mystery at PNQ.
9W/6E/AI operate from one side and G8/LH/SG from the other, so the second check is to redirect people

You were at an interesting time at the airport. Pune has now 5 peak times
0555 - 0755 : all the base departures and quick turnaround from DEL/BLR

1030-1155 : THe airport is closed from 0800 - 1030, so when it opens at 1030, there is a line of arrivals
from all carriers with all bays occupied

1400-1600 : The afternoon time, when flights to AMD/NAG/GOI/HYD and occassional DEL flight again, all bays are
occupied

1800-19:15 : Evening bank - Heavy 9W/6E domination to BLR/DEL/BOM

2200-2315 : The last, quick turnarounds and night halt ones

Glad you could visit the flight deck !
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Nimish · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:32 pm Post subject:

Glad your return flight was better than the outbound. And the crew sounded very friendly and nice!
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We miss you Nalini!

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

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

Thanks for posting the report.

Great to know you could see flight deck and have a conversation with the crew. It makes the flight experience far more meanigful.

Sri_Bom

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

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

Rakesh .... I want pictures next time Laughing

That being said the descriptions were great so probably not needed.
Thanks for the great TR.
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rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai