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ameya

The return journey today morning was booked in Jet Airways. 9W 2239 to Delhi and onwards to Amritsar at 0555hrs.
Set out from home at 0420, with the cab driver acting as alarm as usual. They call from wherever they are and ask the way ! Huh..
Reached airport at 0450 which was very fast. The T1B at BOM airport is really crowded at this time of the day. There was a huge queue at gate 2. Had done my web check in and without printout in hand tried finding a jet airways agent to stamp it. Without seeing my photo ID the same was stamped. There were 3-4 agents standing at the self checkin kiosk defeating the entire purpose of such a kiosk. Remind me of the mall nearby where a person stands at the automatic parking ticket machine to press the button and give it to the driver. Hilarious, but provides employment in this country.
There were long queues at all counters of Jet and their staff running up and down not answering anybody. Rushed to the security which was surprisingly very very fast and within minutes at 0500 I was in the security hold area. The newspapers had not come in as yet, and the TV screens showing flights were also switched off. Saw the flights which were boarding,
9W2041 to BHO, 2055 to BDQ, 2111 to COK, 2093 to UDR, 479 to GOI, 2051to JAI, 2001 to AMD and suddenly 2239 flashed on some screen at 0505 !!
Joined the small queue and the lady said on RT to somebody the load being 109 with 6 in J.
6/8 in J and 103/ 116 in Y was the load.
9W-K has a flight at 5:55 which goes onwards to ATQ and then there is a S2 flight at 6:15 which goes onwards to IXJ and SXR. That’s a lot of capacity within 20 minutes.
After going past the gate, was when the fun started again. All passengers of multiple flights were standing and sitting on the stairs on the other side of security hold area, either the busses were not there or the staff wasn’t aware which bus would be for which boarding and what not. People looked frustrated and so was I. Of the entire lot of flights boarding only the one to Goa was a full service flight and ironically, the worst bus of the lot was allotted for boarding of that flight !
Finaly some bus came and we were off ,the aircraft for the day was Juliet Naresh Goyal, opps Juliet Navy Golf, a 1998 make as the DGCA search site said on my mobile. I was expecting it to be an old interiors and not in the best of state. However on boarding, yes the plane was old but the seats were really comfortable and neat and tidy. The legroom I assume was better than the LCCs. No IFE for this B737-700 plane, but had the audio channel options, making me thing if this is used for international operations at times.
Though boarding was done pretty early, push back commenced only at 0550, only 5 minutes before the scheduled time. Today runway 09 was in use and till the time of push back I saw some nice planes come and go. As we started taxi, noticed Turkish Airways A333 taxi out, which means it was delayed again. I have taken quite a few 0600hr flights in last 6-8 months from BOM and every time this TK plane is delayed. Wouldn’t help them sustain the market at this rate.
VT-KFZ took off, for Delhi followed by VT-KAE to IXY and then it was our turn a powerful take off over the city for a change, a few turns here and there and then stabilized along the coast. Saw 2 6E birds at international, the Aryan Cargo A310 looks like would be the next bird to be broken up, its position has changed over the last 2 weeks. 2 B777s (AI) were parked near the AI hanger and a Kuwait Airways, Gulf Air, Ethiopian birds were at the aerobridge.
The buy on board service soon commenced. This 9W a/c had a separator which was adjustable and not one of those old wall kind of seperators between Y & J. With just a curtain, the first row person in economy can kick the last row person in business by stretching.
I asked for the Hot meal, which as per the menu was at Rs.300. I was told hot meals are not there, so I asked for a club s/w which again wasn’t uplifted so I settled for a corn s/w which was decent and priced at 170. The male attendant who was serving wasn’t really polite and quick in serving.
The flight was uneventful and we approached over Noida to land in on the new runway and taxi to the remotest gate of T3 domestic pier. A long walk later, finally got out of terminal. That’s where, T1D is good, a few steps and you are out !
After flying last few weeks,
I would rate KF – 1st for Inflight and OTP, followed by Jet
Next trip is planned on IndiGo and lets see whats in store in that trip

ameya · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:58 pm Post subject:

Another thing, noticable in Jet was that only 2 seats had inflight magazine in the row and only one had the inflight menu, purposely checked it for 2/3 rows and observed the same

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

Ameya, thanks for sharing another nice trip report with us. Your eye for detail really enliven your descriptions. I liked the magazine/menu search (but of course, given my liking for things edible!), and the detailed description of the flights boarding at BOM in the early hours. In the last part, I'm sure you meant T1C, and not T1D.
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

Yes, T1C, the arrival terminal

When it comes to food, I know airline food is not the best , I know how people hate it, but somehow I always look forward to it, I dont know whats wrong

Another bias that came in during this flight was it being a Boeing flight, Last 2 years, I have done over 100 flights, 80+ would have come on BOM-DEL-BOM, and out of those 100 flights, 90 on A320. But the cabin is much more roomier than B737. I havent travelled the new Sky interiors of 737, but the yellow light is a mood dampner as compared to blue light of G8/6E - A320s

Nimish · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:16 am Post subject:

How good/ bad was the buy-on-board service? I mean, were the crew peddling the offerings in a discreet manner, or was there loud hawking going on?
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 10:34 am Post subject:

Not happy with the way sales was going on. Only 2 or 3 things were available, in what was the most elaborate on board menu card ever seen. (DN/IT-R/G8/6E as comparison)

The male FA did not even bother to ask a few rows, who had to press the call button and tell him that they are also flying.

In LCCs, the crew gets a % of flights onboard sales, I think the same doesnt happen with 9W, since its a mix of flights and hence the lack of interest

justbala · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 1898 Location: Bangalore

rutvij · Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:35 am Post subject:

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