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yatrik
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Joined: 08 Nov 2012
Posts: 19
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 Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 12:56 am Post subject: My first TR ! And my international trip - Part 1 |
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Background
Heading to Dubai, would be travelling out of the country for the first time. That too alone. Time to search for flights, criteria 1 – should be cheap. Criteria 2 – should fulfil criteria 1 anyhow.
Searched on yatra.com for BOM-DXB, it showed flights to nearby airports as well, namely DWC, SHJ and AUH. EY to AUH was the cheapest at around 16k INR. For DXB the cheapest was 6E at around 19k INR. Now, flying into AUH and then travelling to DXB should cost around same as DXB direct. Then someone told me about XNB ! So logged onto EY website and searched for BOM-XNB. Fares were higher than BOM-DXB. So back to 6E ! Then explored a bit on the EY site and found that even if I book BOM-AUH, I can later add the bus to XNB. Back to searching BOM-AUH-BOM on EY website, bingo 16k ! But it is BOM-DEL-AUH-BOM, a moment of silence and then thought that’s even better !
So, 9W353/EY8782 – EY223 – EY206
BOM-DEL would be a 737-900 (my first). Long time since I last flew 9W (Back in May 2010 BOM-IXE). DEL-AUH would be an EY service on the 9W 777-300ER the A6-JA* series aircrafts and finally the pièce de résistance... AUH-BOM would be A340-600 ! So booked the combo without a second thought.
21st January 2015.
Butterflies in the stomach. Super excited for the first stamp on my passport. My first flight would be 9W353 code shared as EY8782 (I was booked on the EY code). STD 1700, Reached T1B well before time, got to the counter, JetChild checked my tickets, checked my passport, my visa and issued me boarding pass for BOM-DEL and DEL-AUH and bags tagged till AUH.
Reached the gate, passed some time. Got an SMS from ‘TM-JetAir’ – “We regret to inform you your flight 9W353 will now depart at 1720” some time later, another message and another 20 min delay. Even with the delay, I still had a 2 hour connecting time. So no worries as such. Finally at 1740 the aircraft arrived. VT-JGC it was. I asked at the gate the load and was told it was completely full !
Boarded and took my window seat, boarding complete and surprise surprise ! The seat next to me is empty ! The whole aircraft is choc-o-bloc and the seat next to me is empty ! We pushed back and still empty. And suddenly, one of the FAs came and sat next to me, dead-heading to DEL and she immediately went off to sleep.
SNX was served onboard. Which was marginally edible, no dessert. For those who haven’t heard from Samda yet, I am pure vegetarian, or in his words, Ghaspuss only. VEG SNX had 2 spring rolls and edible dry Manchurian. I had the rolls and returned the rest. Tea/Coffee service was followed in Paper Cups !
Landed 40 mins behind schedule on runway 29. A long taxi later docked at an aerobridge. I hurried onto the transfer desk after asking for directions for a couple of times. Was asked to fill up Departure form and joined the Immigration queue. 10 mins later my turn came and the lady asked for my tickets, boarding pass, Visa, and hotel booking confirmation. A minute later, my passport had its first stamp ! Yay !
The other flights to follow soon. Adios ! |
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi
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| Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:45 am Post subject: |
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Lovely trip report to begin the proceedings here, Yatirk!
Heavy on details, as we may expect, and funny as well. However, we know you for your photography skills. I guess some of the discussions on the WA group point to some excellent pictures coming in as well.
Very nice descriptions of the overall planning process.
The itinerary looks really exciting for me, since it has three aircraft which are exotic in their own way. B739s and their variants are not that common in India, a 9W B77W in EY service (perhaps more common than 9W birds in 9W service), and of course, the rare, and soon to-be-rarer A346!
9W snacks are now reasonably nice: it is a bit disappointing to know that the Manchurian was not nice.
We look forward to the next legs...and pictures!
Cheers, Sumantra. |
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ameya
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Joined: 09 May 2007
Posts: 3671
Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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| Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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HEhehe... the criteria for flight selection - perfect ! specially the second one !
Nice TR. Good read !
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yatrik
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Joined: 08 Nov 2012
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 11:07 am Post subject: |
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| sumantra wrote: | Lovely trip report to begin the proceedings here, Yatirk!
Heavy on details, as we may expect, and funny as well. |
Thank you for the kind words sir.
| sumantra wrote: |
The itinerary looks really exciting for me, since it has three aircraft which are exotic in their own way. B739s and their variants are not that common in India, a 9W B77W in EY service (perhaps more common than 9W birds in 9W service), and of course, the rare, and soon to-be-rarer A346!
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Yes, I wanted to fly the A346 both ways, but the BOM-AUH leg was expensive. I also had the option of an hour later BOM-DEL connection on the 738, with a shorter connecting time. (Which ultimately was on time and landed in DEL just a few minutes after us.) But took the 5pm flight for the 739. A first on the 739.
Also had the option of reaching AUH early morning, with the option of flying via BLR,MAA,HYD that too at a similar fare. To be honest, reaching AUH so late at night was as such useless, but 9W 77W operated by EY trumped them.
Lucky to get the A346, a few weeks before I booked, it was supposed to be 789. I was a bit disappointed of not getting to fly the brand new 789, but then, those are here to stay. A346 was more important !
| sumantra wrote: | 9W snacks are now reasonably nice: it is a bit disappointing to know that the Manchurian was not nice.
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Ohh yes, other than those in Jan-Feb, all my 9W flights had good food onboard.
| ameya wrote: | HEhehe... the criteria for flight selection - perfect ! specially the second one !
Nice TR. Good read ! |
Thanks AmJo, yea that's probably my criteria 99% of times I book a flight. I also did a KaB routing later, to fulfill the criteria ! |
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