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

The City of Lakes: Mother's Heart, Heart of the Motherland

This trip report can be found at the following URL:
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11556.html

And this would be another trip to Madhya Pradesh. This time, I
would not transit through the City of Lakes, as it is sometimes
called, but this was to be the destination for my visit. Bhopal.
Bhopal was also where TW (`The Wife') and I had taken Jr
(`Junior') for his first long journey a few years back, where one
of his bench-presses on board the Bhopal Shatabdi had resulted in
my food tray lubricating the train floor. Remember Jr and his
bench presses with TW's tray table on our LTC trip last year?
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10809.html

The title? A bad pun on the city almost in the geographical
middle of India. Moreover, I tried out some permutations with
punctuation: a Full stop, a Colon, and a Semi-colon. I decided to
perform some `colonoscopy', and took it out with surgical
precision, and replaced it with a full stop.
However, that impeded the logical flow of ideas (in addition to
Mark Tully's book title and advice: No full stops...), so I let
better sense (and status quo, too!) prevail. Sense and
sensibilities aside, ride and prejudice aside, I just happened to
mention something with a medical connotation here. I will end
this trip report also with something to do with the medical
profession.

This journey was booked on Jet Airways. It would be quite some
time after I had taken my last domestic Jet Airways flight, so I
was looking forward to it. My interest in this was further raised
because this would be my first flight in a Boeing 737-700 in
mainline Jet colours (I have flown on one in Jetlite colours, and
interestingly, the routing was IDR-BHO-DEL, last year in April).
The flight numbers were also very indicative: 9W 737, and 9W 738.
My last flight in a mainline Jet airways plane was in February
2009, a Boeing 737-800 operating BLR-DEL (this was the 06:45 pm
flight, 9W 812). If I remember correctly, this was a non-wingletted
plane, and I was in seat 24A.
This 2009 journey had been quite nice: the service was nice and
prompt. I especially appreciated the work of one of the cabin
crew - a young Sikh gentleman in a simple small non-peaked
(Dhamala/Dumalla?)-style turban. He was nice and pleasant, and
very attentive to passengers in the part of the aircraft I was
in. The plane itself was very neat and clean. What I remember of
the meal was the start with a glass of lassi (a sweet
yogurt-based drink) in a blue plastic cup, which was very
refreshing. This was a dinner flight, and I remember a very oily
main course chicken curry. I forget the other details. One of the
things I remember from this flight was seeing a power cut in
Delhi from the air, in which different adjoining areas blacked
out one after the other, just before we touched down on Delhi's
main runway from the east, runway 28-10, and were bused to
Terminal 1-C. I did not have a cellphone with a camera then, and
would not debut with my report-writing for another
year-and-a-half.

My itinerary was as follows:
Set out 02 May (Mon) for Bhopal from New Delhi
9W 2226: Jet Airways Konnect (B737-700) [Seat: 12F; PNR: ESUEPH]
(was 9W 737: Jet Airways)
IGI T3, New Delhi - Raja Bhoj Airport, Bhopal
New Delhi (DEL) - Bhopal (BHO)
[06:20 pm - 07:35 pm]

Three days before the trip, I found that my onward journey
(DEL-BHO) was to be on a Jet Airways Konnect flight 9W 2226,
instead of the mainline Jet Airways flight 9W 737. Hmm...so, no
free food for the glutton, on board the flight. Anyway, this
would be my first flight on board a Jet Airways Konnect flight,
so there would be something new to look forward to. The Air India
strike was on, it was interesting that my visit would not have
taken place had my hosts not taken permission to have non-Air
India flights (they were a government agency, and had taken
special permission. The Jet fares were about 20% lower than the
Air India fares on this segment, at the time of booking.) The
booking was made on Amadeus by a Bhopal-based travel agent. I was
able to see my booking on www.checkmytrip.com, but not on the Jet
Airways website. I complained against this to
jetprivilege@jetairways.com, and a full day passed before I got
an answer, which not surprisingly (given my earlier interactions
with the same party), was a near zero-entropy one. I wanted my
itinerary to appear on the Jet Airways website so that I could
do a web check-in and select my seat. The essence of the polite
reply was that only 40% of all seats were reserved for the same,
but because I had requested for it, I could make a request 48 to
72 hours before departure. I have had cases of flights not
showing on my frequent flyer account before: way back in 2001,
and most recently, last year on the same Jetlite IDR-BHO-DEL
flight, and long email transactions with
jetprivilege@jetairways.com did not yield too many positive
results. (A hand-written stinker had elicited positive results in
2003, though).

I did not give up there. I looked at all options which would earn
me 250 points for a check-in. The web check-in option did not
work - the Jet airways website was not able to find my itinerary.
SMS check-in also did not work: it always gave a network busy
time-out. Would I be able to do a kiosk check-in? It would only
be available in Delhi, not Bhopal. Dejectedly, I rang up the
tele-check-in Mumbai number. I was told that since this was a Jet
Airways Konnect flight and I was a Jet Privilege Blue member (the
lowest rung: the absolute scum-on-earth as far as Jet airways
goes), I could not even tele-check-in.
This surprised me, and I told the agent that I had the ticket
booked for a mainline Jet flight, which was downgraded to Jet
Airways Konnect flight.
See? I still had some ammunition left in my guns.
He looked up the booking history, and had a lengthy chat with his
supervisor. The end result was nice - I was told that my
itinerary was now enabled for web check-in. I decided to try my
luck further. I told him that I had booked a mainline Jet flight,
so would there be any meal options on board? Hmm...my heart
skipped a beat, and my stomach, a peristaltic movement, at the
slight delay, and I was told that I would get a meal voucher. But
from where? Now I was quite determined! I would have to go to the
check-in counter (even after having web-checked-in), and collect a
voucher from there.

So I did. The web check-in was a breeze on the Jet Airways
website, and armed with the boarding pass, I went to the check-in
counter. The cheerful agent told me that the flight had been
converted into a Konnect flight, with a different flight number.
I told him the flight number as he fumbled to find it out. He
smiled at me, and wished me a very pleasant flight.
Wait, wait... I was not done yet.
The meal voucher?
The agent looked at me intently, smiled, and told me to go to the
counter for wait-listed passengers. Why on earth?
I joined the line.
Just then, a Jet agent took a bunch of meal vouchers right in
front of my eyes (read, nose), and proceeded back to the check-in
counters! My plaintive protests were heard by the
lady manning (!) the wait-listed passengers' counter.
Lady luck smiled on me (literally, as well as figuratively), and
I was now a man possessed - the proud possessor of a torn stub of
card paper. The meal voucher.

My attention was now drawn to the near-empty Air India counters.

The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) was on strike -
this is the organisation of pilots of the erstwhile Indian
Airlines. When entering the ramp for the domestic gates, it was
painful to look at the completely empty gates to the right side
of the domestic part - the Air India side.

There were lots of planes all around the terminal, albeit bereft
of passengers. There was also an interesting sight - a wide-body
at the domestic gates! VT-IWA, Air India's flight Airbus
A330-200, was there at a gate to the right. I caught a brief
glimpse of the beautiful aircraft from the food court escalator
prior to the ramp, albeit through the windows with patterned
lamination on them. Add to it my cellphone with an entry-level
camera, and you have a heady cocktail of photography parameters
even a rookie photographer would be ashamed of. Anyway, here is
an attempt:

Delhi's IGI airport T3 looks very drab without Air India: the
time of the day did not see too many wide-body movements. Jet and
Kingfisher had the boring ensemble of Boeing 737-800s, 737-700s,
Airbus A321s and A320s, and some motley collection of
ATR-72s. An Air India CRJ-700 (`the masked bandit') stood on
the apron, flanked by a Jet ATR on one side, and an Air India
ATR-42 in the old Alliance Air colours (I did not get their
registrations). Air India Airbus A321s, a A319, some old A320s in
the new colours were all parked around, bereft of any life.

The international movements included A Sri Lankan A320, a Gulf Air
A320, and an American Airlines 777-200ER. There was a lone Air
India 777 taking off into the sunset. On the other side, the
`finger-lickin' good' VT-KFC moved out behind a
dirty-as-usual-from-the-outside Kingfisher 321.

We boarded from gate 45 five minutes before boarding time. The
plane was an old Boeing 737-700 with winglets, VT-JGL. We were
flanked on the left, by a Jet Airways B737-700 VT-JGG with
`Konnect' titles, and on the right, by a JetLite B737-800 VT-Sxx,
a bird with winglets, which had just come in. Just before the
last-mentioned bird came in, I clicked an over-wing view of the
refuelling process:

Here is a perspective shot of the beautiful turmeric gates in the
sunset:

Another image of the boarding process:

Captain Mohit Chaudhary and Captain Dhanur were in command, and
we made a powerful take-off on the new runway, 29-11 towards
Dwarka, the western side, into the sunset. The loads? 100% in Y.
I overheard a snippet of conversation between a cheerful member
of the cabin crew (Mr. Pranay), and a passenger seated on an exit
row (two rows behind me), where Mr. Pranay told the passenger
that it would be a full flight. The business (J) class had a few
occupants by the time I had boarded, and from my position in seat
12F, I could see the left of the plane - there were four people
there. The plane was a bit dirty on the outside, but the inside -
although showing its age, was impeccably clean. The plastic
surfaces, the blue faux leather upholstery - were spic and span.
The blue rexine seat covers, I believe, are new.
Here is a backseat ad:

The on-board microphone had a few cackles in the announcements,
which were done professionally. However, the contents of the
announcements were quite outdated. The contents?
The cellphone-and-electronic-equipment-to-be-switched-off
announcement came after the doors had been closed, as was the old
rule. Air India on the other hand, switched to the new rule a
long time back, that of having cellphones switched off only when
the plane is on the active runway.
Second, there was a vague announcement about photography being
prohibited on while taking off from, landing into, and on the
ground in defence airports. Air India on the other hand, makes it
clear and explicit at the airports concerned, well in time.
During the last year, I have experienced clear and unambiguous
announcements at VTZ (Vishakhapatnam) and PNQ (Pune), for
instance: some time before landing into these places, and after
the aircraft starts from its bay.
If Air India can do it, then why not India's largest domestic
airline, which also is perhaps the most professionally-run, and
often given very high ratings - I wonder why.
But wait... the food?
The buy-on-board cart came in quickly after the seat belt sign
had gone off. I held on to my prized possession, the meal
voucher. On being asked if I would like to have something, I gave
the cheerful gentleman the stub, and told him somewhat
triumphantly(!), ``Sir, I have a meal voucher!''
This caused a moment of surprise, and a few anxious moments
passed (for me, that is). (We Indians do not patronise the
buy-on-board much, as I have seen on Indigo, Go Air, Kingfisher
Red and SpiceJet. The cabin crew often go through their motions
for most of the while, but this set of crew were nice and chatty)
He was taken aback momentarily, and looked at Mr. Pranay on the
other side of the cart, before he cheerfully asked me whether I
would go in for a veg box or a non-veg one.
I was soon a proud possessor of a box with a mango drink, three
triangular slices of brown bread with chicken and lettuce peeping
out from the brown dough weave, and a slice of cake embellished
with dry fruits all around. And a slice of tissue paper (though I
like a high fibre-diet, I avoided partaking of this delicacy).
The sandwich was soft and tasted fresh, and the cake slice was a
bit dry, but smelt sinfully of butter, and my hungry eyes spotted
the generous embellishment of pieces of walnut, cashew, almonds
and raisins. The fire in the tummy having subsided, my mind
turned to other things around me.

The cabin lights were switched off one after another, as we came
in to land. Yes, this was an old plane. (I experienced this
sudden darkness situation two years back in an old Delta Airlines
MD-88 taking off from Tampa: it felt quite interesting to be in
an old plane, where all lights were switched off for landing and
take-off!)
We came in quite low into BHO to land on runway 30-12, with a
view of the old terminal to the right. Just before touching down, we
wiggled around a bit, touched down on the left main wheel, then the
right, and the thrust-reversers came into action. This would have
been some sudden wind shear close to the ground, since this was
not a crosswind situation: we seemed to be heading well in the
direction of the runway.

The Raja Bhoj Airport in Bairagarh, Bhopal has a very small old
terminal (the new one is in the distance: this is also small, but
looks quite nice and modern. Read, steel-and-glass.) We walked to
the terminal in 36 degrees centigrade temperature. My checked-in
bag came out in the third iteration of the tractor going
to-and-fro, and I was whisked off to a nice dinner by my host.
Note the choice of the term, above. Some time back, a friend had
tried to `whisk(ey)' me off after I landed at his place, but I
s(p)oiled his spirits because I was quite low-key that day, and
was not too hungry, either. Random thoughts were crossing my mind
(as usual), and I decided to pen down the `log-blog' in the same
random, incoherent order. Talking of dinner, I had a faux pas a
few days back when a friend would land up at our place.
I had wanted to say, `can I have the pleasure of having you
(over) for dinner?' - only, I had omitted the `over' part. There
was a pause at the other end of the phone, and my friend slowly
said, ``You were a strict vegetarian before marriage, a devoted
carnivore after, but since when did you turn cannibal?''
Before this turns into too much of a digression, let me get back
to the trip.

The itinerary for the return trip as as follows:
Set out 03 May (Tue) for New Delhi from Bhopal
9W 738: Jet Airways (B737-700) [Seat: 12F; PNR: ESUEPH]
Raja Bhoj Airport, Bhopal - IGI T3, New Delhi
Bhopal (BHO) - New Delhi (DEL)
[08:10 pm - 09:25 pm]

The web check-in went off without much ado. The check-in at the
small Raja Bhoj airport went off quickly. 250 more points to my
kitty, I told myself, provided the system enters them into my
account properly. (It did: postscript).
As a pleasant surprise, the cheerful check-in agent endorsed and
stamped the web check-in printout, and this was to be my boarding
pass. The incoming flight was about 15 minutes late, and the
announcements referred to `Jet Airways Konnect Flight <ping>'
having arrived. The Konnect ATR-72 flights to Indore and
Hyderabad had just left, and there was another ATR-72 in place
when we started taxiing towards the runway 30-12 at Bhopal.
Konnect? I rechecked my web check-in printout, and my eyes roved
around the card printed boarding passes of those around me. Sure
enough, all of them said 9W 738. The bird that came in was one
with Konnect titles (which was to be expected, since the DEL-BHO
segment is now operated by a Konnect service). I crossed my
fingers as we boarded from Gate 2 in the small waiting hall. The
loads for this flight looked good. An AC bus came up to the gate,
and there was a long line for boarding it. When the full bus
left, I found a small crowd of passengers walking briskly towards
the plane, and I followed suit. The Co-pilot had done a
walk-around, and boarded the plane. This was VT-JGA, a Boeing
737-800 without winglets, but in the new colour scheme.
Wow: 9W 738 operated by a Boeing 738. Captain Manish Grover was in
command, and we made a very powerful take-off from runway 30-12
into the darkness.

The loads were around 75%: this was a plane with 8 business
seats, of which none of the left four were occupied. The plane
was very clean from the inside. The windows did not have too many
scratches, either, but it had gone dark, and my cell phone camera
gave quite a few halo'ed pictures. Here is a backseat ad, again:

Water bottles were handed out on boarding, so there would be some
meal service, I guessed. The cabin crew announcement announced
all but the fact that dinner would be served on the flight.
Hmm...I still kept my fingers crossed. The tension was palpable,
and the result was...perhaps the best meal I have ever had on a
Jet Airways flight, to date. Jet's presentation is quite good:
the `stretched oval' spoon (Kingfisher also has similar
offerings), nice contoured bowls, and translucent plastic
stirrers with the holding end having the empennage of a Boeing
737. The catering was done by Taj-SATS, so I guessed it would
have all been loaded in Delhi, from where the plane came in as
flight 9W 2226. I missed the cutlery wrapped in a nice stylish
cloth napkin, as is done on Kingfisher - but this is clearly
yards ahead of Air India. The presentation, that is. I have had
some mixed experiences with the food on Jet Airways, but I
reiterate - this was my best experience thus far. The meal was
excellent both in terms of the quality, as well as the quantity.
I went in for the non-veg option, as usual.
The meal started off with a cold (kabuli) chana salad: boiled
chick-peas. This did not have any heavy embellishments, so one
could either enjoy the taste as such, or do it the American way:
douse it in some tomato sauce/ketchup, and have it.
Aha! Only if there were some finely grated fresh and juicy
ginger pieces, some rock salt, and a slice of greenish-yellow
lemon, and I had these boiled chick-peas in front of me...
Was I dreaming? Yes, I was.
I woke up from my reverie, and was so disappointed, that I had
the above-mentioned item, the American way.
What an idiot am I!
The main course had a paratha/barota on top, with the container
having a nice pulao/pilaf in the middle. To the left was a very
tasty saag-chicken (small pieces of chicken in a very
finely-pureed spinach gravy). The right side had a baby
corn-and-mushroom preparation - this had a little thick
tomato-based gravy, and was very tasty. The baby corn was done
just right: neither soggy and soft, nor hard and relatively
uncooked. None of the above was too oily, or too spicy. This
bodes well for my tender disposition, I thought. The dessert was
a very nice sevai-kheer/santhakai-payasam with a dessicated milk
base, and thin rice-noodles cooked into it. This was not overtly
sweet, and the consistency was just right: neither too fluid, nor
too thick. The rice noodles seemed to have been lovingly cooked
into the milk on a low flame, with just a hint of sugar added,
and the milk gradually lost its fluidity, acquiring a brownish
colour on its visage as it thickened, before it was cooled, and a
sliced pistachio nut added to the top to round off an excellent
dessert. I usually look forward to the small sachet Jet calls
`After Mint': some nice things to be had after a meal, which
ostensibly helped in the digestive process. I often say to hell
with this, and have it as my starter. However, this time I was
able to steady myself to have it after the meal. Or at least,
while waiting for the tea/coffee run.
The hot beverage accompaniment condiments included a little button-box
of cow-milk, and some fine sugar, which I was looking forward to
add to a cup of nice brewed coffee, to round off an excellent
meal. Was I dreaming? Yes, I was.
There was no tea/coffee run.
Yes, there was no tea/coffee run, and the trays were collected quickly
in the one-hour-and-ten-minute flight.
The Captain made a very smooth landing on the new runway, 29-11
from the East, and we docked into an aerobridge. As soon as the
luggage came out (with the usual slight T3 delay), I rushed
towards the pre-paid taxi counter, and I was homeward soon.

As a parting piece, as promised to bring something `medical' in,
I end with a picture I had taken at a hospital. The three doctors
whose names I have tried to airbrush out and then mark out in
red, have rather interesting status-notes associated with them.

The first two are mostly er...in and out,
and the third, seems over-and-out.
Cheers, Sumantra.
---
Links to my previous TRs, in reverse chronological order:

9. Mostly Indoors, in Indore:
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11533.html

8. Inter-metro Shuttling on AI: DEL-BOM on AI810, BOM-DEL on
AI888
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11449.html

7. On the cusp: DEL-BOM on IC863, BOM-DEL on AI660
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11160.html

6. DEL-BOM on IT308, BOM-DEL on IC166
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10986.html

5. DEL-MAA on IC439, MAA-DEL on IC802
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10809.html

4. DEL-PNQ on IC849, PNQ-DEL on IC850
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10510.html

3. DEL-MAA on IC429 (A321), MAA-DEL on IC7602 (CRJ7)
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10401.html

2. DEL-NAG-NDC, NDC-BOM-DEL on G8
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10169.html

1. IGI T3, AI 314 DEL-HKG and AI 311 HKG-DEL
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic10018.html

shivendrashukla · Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 1:03 pm Post subject:

Nice TR again Sumantra!!

Cheers
Shivendra

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

Nice report, thanks!

I’ve found Jet Airways and customer service to be increasingly incongruous over the last couple of years, so I’m not surprised.

me111993 · Member Joined: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3225 Location: MAA/AMD

superb TR sumantra! Thanks a ton for sharing! Glad you liked the meal (which is the most impt part of your TR Wink

) on your return flight!
and...btw, JGG isn't a 737-700, it's a 737-800, one of the original 3 ETOPS Certified 737-800's 9W took in 2005, and together, GE/GF/GG are the only 3 9W 737's which ever had Drop Down screens onboard!
_________________
Causal Determinism : We are hardwired to need answers. The Caveman who heard a rustle in the bushes and checked out to see what it was, lived longer than the guy, who assumed it was just a breeze.

- Greg House

GuyFromBOM · Member Joined: 19 Jun 2010 Posts: 544 Location: VABB

Zaikebaaz, tussi great ho..! Laughing

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

Shivendra, Jason, Rishul, Hiren - thanks for the kind words!
Shivendra - nice to see you back on the forum after quite some time.
Rishul: I guess I need to be a bit more observant! Thanks for the information...and the interesting history behind that plane!
Hiren: nice point, I guess the parameters that different airlines offer to the same caterer are quite similar in this case. Air India's recipes used to be on the Internet (the link was quite in the bowels of the site, though!) - I haven't searched for it of late, though. I used to use that to satisfy my middle - that was in my bachelor days, in the event of a culinary disaster.
Cheers, Sumantra.

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

Thanks for posting and another very intersting report. The photos although not excellent but still not bad and does add color to the trip report.

Sri_Bom

Nimish · Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject:

Lovely report Sumantra - thanks for posting! I'm glad the food was excellent - that's a KPI for any airline in my book Smile

.
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

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

Thanks for the encouragement, Srinivas and Nimish! Srinivas - yes, my entry-level cellphone cannot do any better, I'm afraid. I like my analog SLR too much to carry another camera with me. My policy of crass pro-procrastination doesn't permit me to scan in the analog pictures, either!
Nimish - yes, the food was the best I have had on Jet (oh, and I like the condiments Jason terms `vile' Smile

), but the absence of the hot beverage round was a big disappointment. There was a long time to go before landing, and there was hardly any chop in the air!
Cheers, Sumantra.

PAL@YWG · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:07 am Post subject:

Another great TR covering another great city. I commend your tenacity to fight (!) till the end for your rightful Meal Voucher and web check-in ability Laughing

And the culinery expert inside you always makes his presence felt! Keep it up Sumantra, I am enjoying every bit of it!
_________________
Tally Sheet:
41 Countries ||55 Aircraft types ||60 Airlines ||75 Airports

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

Thank you very much, Sir! The Wife (`TW') vouches for my dogged determination read, doggie-ness in determining what is cooking!
Cheers, Sumantra.

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

An update on Jet's resistance to being flexible on bookings (and a consequent stinginess on Jet Privilege frequent flyer points):
My father has a trip to Agartala coming up on Jet Konnect. The ticket was booked on Galileo by a travel agent. As expected, it did not appear on the www.jetairways.com website. As expected, I complained. I wanted this for two reasons. First, to purchase a meal online, for the two legs, and second, to get obvious web check-in points on the two legs. As expected, I got a zero-entropy reply. I was told that this was simply not possible because two tickets were issued on the same PNR: for the onward, and the return legs. This is no reason at all - even Air India can manage such bookings on its website! I can see 4 tickets - including two on different carriers - on the `My bookings' section on the Air India website, even though the booking was made through a travel agent, and not directly on the website. The same holds true for the US airlines as well - I have seen this to work on United, Continental and Delta, at least. I did not give up - I quoted the relevant section on the Jet Airways website which defined which tickets would appear in an online itinerary: this included tickets starting with a particular 3-digit combination, which my father's tickets had! Well, even this didn't work, unfortunately. Jet Airways by all accounts is perhaps India's best managed airline (overall, considering all parameters). This is disappointing!
Cheers, Sumantra.

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

Nice TR.
As far as I know on landing you can switch on your phone when the aircraft vacates the runway (after the cabin crew makes the announcement) ..... but on departure you need to switch off your phone when you push back/doors close.
_________________
eP007

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

Thanks, Captain - a person on the flight deck would know the best!
Cheers, Sumantra.