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Trip report:DEL-SIN-DEL by 9W-18 and 9W-17

 
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ABN397
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Joined: 27 Dec 2006
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Location: India

PostPosted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:01 pm    Post subject: Trip report:DEL-SIN-DEL by 9W-18 and 9W-17 Reply with quote

Dates: DEL-SIN by 9W-18 on Aug 14; VT-JGU
SIN-DEL by 9W-17 on Aug 20: VT-JGB ?

This trip was planned about three months ahead. Somewhat surprisingly, 9W was cheapest at 14.9 K for the RT compared to 18 for IC/AI and 26 for SQ. Thought it was a good way to kick off our FF on this airline.
The flight timings from DEL to SIN were 08.45 to 16.40, which corresponds to about 5:25 in the air.
We are based in Jaipur, and took a night train which reached Delhi Cantt at around 05.00. We had a taxi waiting which got us to the international terminal in about 30 minutes. However, anyone wanting to use this route should preferably arrange for a taxi to be standing by as the facilities at this station are very limited. Hope the Metro link to the airport comes up quickly.
Checkin took no time; a welcome contrast to the long queues for BA flights out of Delhi. Luckily the passport checks were also quite fast. We also paid a visit to the little-known customs facilitation counter where we got our handycam entered on the ticket, to guard against any problem while returning. Long ago these things used to be entered on passports.
There was enough time to visit the Welcomgroup lounge with its complimentary snacks. Fortunately a platinum Mastercard still gets you in there even if you are travelling economy.
The flight was called on time. A bus took us to the 737-800 was VT-JGU which I later found to be one of the newer ones in 9W's fleet, having been inducted earlier in 2007.
After long experience with IC and DN, it was refreshing to see an efficient and attentive cabin crew. A small bottle of water was given immediately on boarding. It was interesting to see a relatively high proportion of male FAs on both the trips. Is this there on 9W's longer international flights as well?
My wife and I found ourself next to a very large Sikh youngster, who was in fact a New Zealand citizen who was studying religion at an university in California and was returning home from a study tour of Amritsar. He kept complaining about the limited leg space to the FAs. Finally he ended up in the Premiere section-don't ask me how.
Takeoff was virtually on time and breakfast followed soon after-a choice of 4 menus including one with keema parathas. The food on this leg was somewhat better than on the return from Singapore.
This plane had an AVOD which seemed to work perfectly. My wife utilized the flight to watch two Hindi movies while I dipped into the various offerings. The locator map showed a flight path crossing the coast near Cuttack, crossing Port Blair and then hugging the Thai and Malaysian coasts before reaching Singapore.
Changi airport was its usual efficient self. One could take pictures and videos at leisure while travelling on the endless people-movers, although we were told not to take pictures at the passport checks. Here was another example of Singaporean efficiency; the lady processed our passports without saying a word. Later we met another such example; our USD was changed to Singapore dollars in a few seconds. They were also happy to accept INR, although the Indian government must not be happy about this. (However the smaller moneychangers give better rates).
We had booked a tour package through Thomas Cook (although not part of a conducted tour). This took care of our pickup, hotel etc but we had enough leeway to explore on our own.
Return trip to follow.
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Megatop
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Joined: 14 Feb 2007
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

dear ABN397,

how full were ur flights to /from SIN?

its open that 9W is'nt doing very well profits-wise on its SIN flights.

& the latest is that they've shelved their plans for a BLR-SIN-BLR flight as the entrenched player SQ is getting stronger with their 10 X week starting this winter, increasing to 12 next summer & double daily eff. winter 2008.
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Nimish
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Megatop wrote:
& the latest is that they've shelved their plans for a BLR-SIN-BLR flight as the entrenched player SQ is getting stronger with their 10 X week starting this winter, increasing to 12 next summer & double daily eff. winter 2008.


Oh this is surprising - though I hope that they rethink their BLR-SIN plans when BIAL opens Smile. In the mean time. die hard 9W FFPs are happy to take a 2 hop flight via MAA...
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Megatop
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

nimish,

even with BIAL, i feel 9W would get squeezed out.

their only way out is to empower IC & BLR isn't a very hot destination for low fare shoppers (international).

look at jetstar, SQ abysmally lowered their BLR fare to some 5K & this sounded the death knell for 3K.

MAA has the OD/labor traffic & DEL/BOM support Qantas out of SIN. 9W needs to work hard in BLR.

& revenue management constraints at BIAL will not permit 9W to free sell any sector out of BLR, after all, BIAL aims to get into black as fast as possible.
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justbala
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good to hear that you had an excellent flight with 9W.. I have seen tht the DEL based crew of 9W has an unusually high number of male F/As compared to their BOM based crews.
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karatecatman
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR. Interesting options.
Just trying to see how to head to Aussie land this winter. Plan is to get the IA/AI "new" A330 to Singapore and then hop onto an SQ Airbus A380, which should be 1.5 months in operation by then.
Will kill two birds with one stone.
Air India may be deploying the "new" A330 to take over from the IA A300 on BOM-MAA-SIN by November. Even if they don't, will be the last chance to fly the A300 before it goes. Or a chance to experience the A330 relatively new.
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ABN397
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Joined: 27 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Megatop wrote:
dear ABN397,

how full were ur flights to /from SIN?

its open that 9W is'nt doing very well profits-wise on its SIN flights.

& the latest is that they've shelved their plans for a BLR-SIN-BLR flight as the entrenched player SQ is getting stronger with their 10 X week starting this winter, increasing to 12 next summer & double daily eff. winter 2008.


Economy class seemed to be practically full on both legs-not surprising as some special low fares were available-,ike the 14.9 K roundrtrip which I paid.
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ABN397
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:28 pm    Post subject: TR:SIN-DEL on 9W-17 Reply with quote

Visited all the usual tourist spots in Singapore. One of these was Changi Village, which we reached around 16.00. One gets a good view of the aircraft coming in to land at SIN, approaching over the sea from the east. There was a non-stop procession, perhaps one plane every two minutes. Most were SQ, though there were a few of ANA and one of AI (possibly an A-310, but others may know better. It came in to land around 16.30)
9W-17 was to leave at 23.00 and reaches DEL at 02.15, thus spending 05.45 hours. Here,too, checkin took no time. The checkin staff all appeared to be Indian and not Singaporean Indian. Enough time to skim the duty-frees before the endless series of peoplemovers. 9W's gate seems to be at the very far end of the terminal.
The security check was done with a very sensitive device which even detected the presence of objects like pens with little metal content. But one Sikh passenger seemed to be unaware of the liquid restrictions. Unfortunately for him, all the four whisky bottles he had bought in his hand baggage were confiscated.
The aircraft was VT-JGB (?) which was a bit older than VT-JGU which we had on the flight into SIN. It didn't have AVOD but just the common screens. Food was not as good as the inward flight, with two non-veg options-Indian with chicken and Chinese(?) with fish. There was however a nice large ice-cream of Indonesian origin.
As before, the cabin crew had a large proportion of men. There was however one lady who appeared to be Singaporean. (Does 9W have a lot of foreign FAs on other international flights?)
As in the inward flight, turbulence was experienced over the Andamans but we reached DEL on time. Luckily, passport checks were quick. The baggage retrieval gave us some moments of tension. After a couple of loads had come in, there was a long wait before the remaining baggage appeared on the carousel.
Spent some time in the arrival hall till the time came to take a cab to Delhi Cantt station to catch the Shatabdi to Jaipur. This station is in a rather pitiable condition, considering that it is a stop for the Rajdhani and Shatabdi. However, the Executive Class coach had better legroom than the economy class on 9W.
To sum up, Jet Airways does seem to have a good product of international standard (though this was the first time I was flying with them). Considering that the fare they were charging on this route, I feel that they would certainly be preferred by those who would normally be flying on SQ-especially as they have some arrangement with Qantas and probably other airlines. The economy class was pretty full on both legs.
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VABBy
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice Good to hear that u enjoyed your trip to Singapore. VT-JGB isnt that a B737-700 ?? I was on this EQP on my recent BLR trip infact on both the legs it was the same aircraft. Surprisingly no screens for us on the 2.5 hour flight

As for Delhi Cantt Station try visiting the place when you have one of the Fairy Queen Departures to Alwar or Palace on Wheels departure then this place is spankingly clean .

any pics bro???
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Birendra
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR.
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justbala
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:48 pm    Post subject: Re: TR:SIN-DEL on 9W-17 Reply with quote

ABN397 wrote:
As before, the cabin crew had a large proportion of men. There was however one lady who appeared to be Singaporean. (Does 9W have a lot of foreign FAs on other international flights?)


9W has a Thai crew based out of BKK. On every international long haul flight two of the crew members are Thai. The lady you saw wud be of Thai origin. I heard from a 9W crew member that they are planning to recruit foreign crew to be based out of NY, YYZ and BRU. Once that happens you would find lots of foreigners on the 9W crew.
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ABN397
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

VABBy wrote:
Nice Good to hear that u enjoyed your trip to Singapore. VT-JGB isnt that a B737-700 ?? I was on this EQP on my recent BLR trip infact on both the legs it was the same aircraft. Surprisingly no screens for us on the 2.5 hour flight

As for Delhi Cantt Station try visiting the place when you have one of the Fairy Queen Departures to Alwar or Palace on Wheels departure then this place is spankingly clean .

any pics bro???


You may be right. Perhaps I noted the a/c code wrong, though it was VT-JG*
No pics of general interest; but as you are a railfan you may appreciate this pic of the Executive Class on the Shatabdi:
http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Uploads/Exec.jpg.html
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VABBy
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LOL you are railway fan too so now that makes 4 of us here ie u , me , Vivek Manvi and aseem. Btw u coming for CNB 2008
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threekay76
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not 4 but 5 , see u in CNB2008

Krishnakumar(IRFCA MAS/Airliners India MAA)
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