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jbalonso777 · Last edited by jbalonso777 on Mon Aug 31, 2015 6:57 am; edited 1 time in total

Hello everyone
And welcome
To the fourth part of my India summer 2015 series.
I flew into Mumbai on Jet Airways, a reasonable flight. That was followed by a slightly underwhelming flight on Vistara to New Delhi. That was followed by what possibly was one of my best flights that I was ever on, on an Air India Boeing 787. In this part, I finally break the duck by being on a long range Boeing 737....

BUILD UP TO THE FLIGHT
This part of my India July 2015 trip report will feature a familiar route (Kolkata-Mumbai, a route I've flown in about 8 or 9 times since 2007), a familiar airline (Jet Airways....yes I know....) and the oh so familiar Boeing 737 (it includes SpiceJet, Kulula, and Air Sahara flights too, not Jet alone!)

This flight was not part of my original plan. I had an ulterior motive to this trip, which would be talked about soon. I wanted to take a 6E A320 (God forgive me to have even considered that Razz

) flight to a place in question, before boarding a giant Boeing. That plan was shot down by the folks, but I wasn't going to give up. I was willing to compromise, I waited a bit.

So to save up for that, I had to use miles for this. I was about 1800 miles short to buy a CCU-BOM ticket on Jet, so I transferred some miles from Mum (which was very easy, no hassle) and made the booking. Easy peasy, again. The flight I booked on, would be the one Mum would be flying with me on, same day:
9W626 CCU BOM 0925 1225 17JUL B73H
(She was originally booked on 9W610, but that got rescheduled and delayed by 2 hours! I called up Jet to get that changed, while they did that, I nearly got charged for the change, but I found my way out. Not my fault, no? A blessing in disguise, as you’ll find out soon!)

Counting down to the date of the flight, about 3 weeks prior, I checked Expedia USA, because strangely, this was the only place where one could get an accurate picture of the Boeing 737 that would operate their flight. I noticed, 9W626 would be operated by a Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-800 WINGLETS, and a Boeing 737-900.
I sat down and tried differentiating between a Boeing 737-800 and a Boeing 737-800 WINGLETS. Most of Jet's fleet have winglets, barring JGA/JNL/JNN. I ruled this trio out, and created my own theory: Boeing 737-800 is a non-HGW B738, while a Boeing 737-800 WINGLETS is a HGW B73H. For the 17th of July, it showed that a Boeing 737-900 would operate my flight. Knowing that VT-JGD was in the hangars at Mumbai (at the time), while VT-JGC was dedicated to the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai route, I knew a B73J would operate my flight, or more easily known as the Boeing 737-900ER! My first time on this type! While I patinetly waited for my theory to be proven, I narrowed the planes down to VT-JBY/JBZ and the ex-Konnect VT-JLH/JLJ.

I checked the seat map on Jet's manage my booking - and voila! 39 rows in economy, a Boeing 737-900ER! I kept my feet on the ground, and patiently waited.

My first flight on the B737-900ER?!?!

Eagerly keeping an eye on the trends - the ! sign means an equipment swap..

MOBILE CHECK IN
I used the mobile check in facility which worked superbly. Once again, Boeing 737-900ER. I selected seat 31F, which is one row just ahead of the emergency exit between the over-wing exits and rear exits. A quick look at the data, VT-JLJ was operating in a 9W619/9W626/9W627 rotation (BOM-CCU-BOM-GOI-BOM) followed by an evening rotation on a trunk route (meaning BOM-MAA/BLR/DEL/GOI/CCU-BOM), before flying again as 9W619 in the morning. VT-JLH was to operate my first Boeing 737-900ER flight.
For those interested - the first page, followed by the confirmation of passengers to check in, then the dangerous goods declaration, flight confirmation, seat selection confirming a B73J, and a link for the MBP, and a final confirmation. Mum's OLCI, the exit rows once again confirming a B73J, and an EMEX declaration

DEPARTURE DAY - CHECK IN!
Mum decided to leave home at a rather early 0630 hours, for a 0925 flight, owing previous experiences of dreadful Kolkata traffic. However though, I convinced her that our flight would depart at a non-peak hour at Kolkata. Her point - if we leave late, we get stuck in Kolkata traffic. Okay then, Mum outsmarts me once again Rolling Eyes

Four hectic days came to an end, I was looking forward to my flight 'back' to Mumbai. We literally flew through the city of Kolkata, we reached the impressive new terminal at 0716 hours. Kolkata does not have inline baggage screening. To be honest, I am more comfortable with this because the zips are given another lock right in front of our eyes, if that’s broken on arrival, airline’s fault. Then again, the line could get horrendously long……

Impressive new terminal!

Jet Airways and um....JetKonnect... Rolling Eyes

New terminal, old ways (and terrible pic... Embarassed

)

The terminal was empty, just as I had expected. Just a few IndiGo departures here and there (to Chennai, Guwahati I think and Bengaluru/Goa). Jet Airways counters were pretty empty. We went towards the check in counter….and the lady there yawned….
Anyway, she got our check in done, and was otherwise quite chirpy, communicating with us in Bengali. She informed us our luggage was 2kgs over the limit, so Mum had to pay for it sadly. Rs600 went. She asked me to go back and have a seat and she’d call me once Mum was done paying. Nah, I just stood there haha. She wrote the number of hand luggages on the boarding passes and informed us that the flight would depart from Gate 19.

SECURITY DRAMA, COFFE BEAN & TEA LEAF, SPOTTING
It was 0730. I was in an overly cheeky mood. I was put on probation twice over the four days because I made my cousin cry on small practical jokes. Rolling Eyes

Not that it helped contain my cheeky head. At security, it was fairly quick. However, the CISF lady stamping the bag tags didn’t find the tag on one of Mum’s bags. I found it for her and said - here it is.
She got angry and asked me why I didn’t put it higher so that she could see it easily. I told her - the whole world doesn’t have this system, its only in India. Your job to search for the tag and stamp it correct? how does it make a difference if you can’t see it or not…you need to find it. She got even more angry and started raising her voice, and we walked away towards The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf…legend has it, she’s still yelling. Rolling Eyes

Went to Coffee Bean and ordered my usual Double Chocolate. While it took some time to come, didn’t matter to us since we had to kill a lot of time anyways. The huge glass panels were fogged up. I couldn’t see anything. Luckily we had time to kill at CB&TF anyways. I went to the washroom, and the first thing I saw was an Emirates Boeing 777-200ER, arriving into Kolkata on time. There wasn’t a point in taking a picture luckily…washroom was okay, not spotlessly clean to be honest, but much better than what I’ve seen at the old terminal!

Around 0815, we headed for Gate 19, our departure gate. It looked to be moderately full. The fog on the glass panel cleared up. Spotting time! Not much of interesting stuff, just the Drukair A319, VT-SCC in the short lived IC livery but with *A stickers, the ultra rare Regent Airways B737-700, some blue A320 things (including VT-INR, my first 6E flight on that plane..)
0840 hours, nicely before time, VT-JLH taxied in and parked at bay 56R. VT-SCC was at bay 56L, preparing for its flight to Agartala.

King Jigme Singye Wangchuck stickers - interesting!

There she is! My ride for the day!

UGLY livery, if you ask me...

Hmm, not very clean either...what matters is the interior..

A rarity! Unless you are in Kolkata, of course!

Lima Hotel being serviced well!

My first IndiGo flight was on this one!

Now that is a rarity, no matter where in the world you go!

Old....

...and new! Very Happy

Boarding pass!

BOARDING
Boarding started more or less on time, just about 5-6 minutes late. A long queue formed up. Mum and I waited. The beautiful Air India Boeing 787 came in from Delhi, as AI401. Yup, truth be told, I perhaps would've loved seeing a Boeing 777-200LR, since I had a Dream)liner overdose at Delhi anyways. Once the majority of the queue had boarded, Mum and I headed towards the plane. Boarding was good fun! About 3 or 4 confusing twists and turns, I came up face to face with SCC, while also getting a glimpse of the Dream)liner at the International terminal.

Boarding fun! Very Happy

Finally, I was getting closer and closer to the relevant plane, VT-JLH. My 737-900ER. I could truly appreciate the length of this bird - amazing! I stepped in. A pretty standard welcome by the steward up front, I saw JLH had 3 rows of J. Mum was right in front, I gave her 23A, that is the reclining emergency exit seat. However, some other lady sat there, but Mum politely asked her to move away. It was my turn to face something similar: my seat 31F, the last row before emergency exit, start of the aft section. I made eye contact with the person nicely sitting down on my seat 31F. No passengers behind me, I decided to play with him. I nearly sat down on 30F, saw that he was getting comfortable in 'his seat' 31F, I 'realized' that I was in the wrong seat and asked him to move over. He didn't make a fuss so it was OK. Newspapers were being distributed, which was an honest surprise to me.

What a cabin!

DEPARTURE
Pushback happened at 0931. The length of this plane was amazing. Despite this, as usual, the sound of the CFM56s starting up brought a smile to my face. The safety demo happened, cabin secured, an FA came and sat behind me.

Biman's new Bombardier Q400 there..

Taxiing was very bumpy - I honestly didn't know if we were at the NSCBI Airport or just another road in Kolkata with the signs saying 'Today's pain is tomorrow's gain. And that sign too has been around for 11 years now! Shocked

We were holding short of runway 19L, as we waited for a company ATR72-500 to land. We taxied on to the runway and blasted off to turn towards the west and set course for Mumbai, through the cloudy monsoon skies. The lightly loaded Boeing 737 took quite some time to reach its cruising altitude.

Cabin of the B73J!

There's more behind me hehe

I hate the livery...I really do...but any day a colored winglet than a white winglet on Jet's B737s...

IN FLIGHT
I was taking some video footage for the VTR. The very enthusiastic captain came over the PA system quite loudly - my Camera nearly fell off my hands, which brought about a smile on the face of Vanessa, one of the flight attendants serving us humble Y folk. Well, embarrassment for me Rolling Eyes

ANYWAY, the nice Captain gave us a load of details: flying time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, cruising altitude of 36000 feet, arrival time, etc etc.

Meal service started at 0953 hours, with the distribution of special meals to the passengers who ordered them. Two trolleys were pulled to the front. The non vegetarian meals were distributed, 1004 the flight attendant confirmed my non veg meal and handed it over to me. Lovely - non veg option never worked with Kingfisher, never worked with Vistara, (never tried it on Air India), but it works on Jet!

Non veg HS, meaning HOT SNACK! Crying or Very sad

I was disappointed with what I got - just the main course box, the SkyMart thing, green chutney and the cutlery. No cut fruits or bun, which clearly meant only one thing - no breakfast.
The main container had a potato puff which was nothing much to write about, but the three pieces of chicken tikka will always be remembered as the best three pieces of chicken I've ever had on a plane, hands down. Finally - Jet has a meal to remember, albeit a small proportion.

Ahh its from Taj SATS!

Blue Vista..never heard of that!

Non vegetarian meals ran out fairly soon, the veggie option consisted of somethings that looked like Mumbai's pretty famous Batata vada and spring rolls. The lack of dessert meant only one thing - ice cream for dessert. It was some Amul Butterscotch ice cream, which was OK. The usual tea and coffee service began, I went for some tea.

DIY tea

An airport we flew over...I once again fail to recognize the same!

About an hour to go, stuff got quite boring. To entertain myself, I headed for the washroom. The rear section of the plane was pretty empty, row 32 had four seats: no window seats, of course, they being the emergency exit seats. The washroom was clean. To kill time I sat on 32E, and my God was it cramped! A really narrow seat, I couldn't spend four minutes there, let alone four hours plus! Legroom though, was perhaps as good as Premiere class, so that helps.

Absolute beast levels of legroom!

Jet Airways Konnect seats....well maintained plane!

Hmm..some sort of IFE on this one?

Obligatory winglet shot!

DESCENT AND ARRIVAL
Not too long before descent, the very enthusiastic Captain once again came over the PA system to give us the latest arrival information, including a notification on the arrival time - rather than coming in early, we'd arrive exactly on time due to the congestion at Mumbai during the time. And so, descent started at 1128 hours, one extra 'circle' over Mumbai's many suburbs, we started making quick progress towards Mumbai and Earth.

Obligatory Thane Creek shot!

We lined up with Runway 27, through the thick yet relatively forgiving clouds of the Mumbai monsoon before a smooth landing was followed by some pretty hard Mumbai/Boeing 737 hard braking. Taxiing did not last very long which meant the announcements had to be rushed. We docked at an aerobridge. You rarely see two Jet Airways Boeing 737-900s together, but in the city of hopes and dreams, anything is possible: we parked beside a company B737-900, VT-JGC, which would of course, head to Delhi.

Brother welcome Brother!

Bags were on Belt 1, as announced on board after arrival. Belt 1 had bags from metro flights (Jet flights from Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata to Mumbai), while Belt 2 had tier 2 flights like those from Vadodra, Rajkot, Nagpur, etc.

We booked an EasyCab which was a bit tricky to find, and then drove all the way through what perhaps is my favourite city ever. It felt awesome to be back in Mumbai. I was into my final stint of my India trip, but I still had three more Boeing flights to go!

Alright IndiGo.....

Receipt for excess luggage - a receipt to remember!

I was into my final stint of my India trip, but I still had three more Boeing flights to go, and certainly some very very interesting times ahead! Very Happy

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

Yet another part of the impressive Jishnu journey across India! I was definitely waiting for this part (among others), but unfortunately did not get enough time until yesternight to go through it in the detail I love to.
Transferring miles on Jet: the only issue is that Jet does not do it for free. The family pooling does not come for free, unfortunately. AI scores over Jet in this regard, at least.
Narrowing down on the specific aircraft type for a flight: wow, it is nice that you ended up getting a B739ER! I have always wanted to fly the longer-than-the-707-yet-look-alike narrow Boeing, but never succeeded thus far.
The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf at CCU: this has been one of my favourite hangouts as well!
The early monsoon morning spotting was interesting: I have never seen these sights at the new terminal building, and that too, of late.
The Regent B737-700 was a great catch! Ditto for the Biman Bombardier.
Ugly JetKonnect livery: my favourite Jet livery was the initial one. The A34Es and B734s just looked fabulous.
While the Monarch-like yellow on the winglet looks weird, thank you for the usual JB-esque lovely winglet in-flight pictures!
The older AI A319s are in bad shape from the inside: SCA/B/C. I guess AI are holding on to them till more all-Y sharkletted A320s come in.
Funny yet sad observations of things that go bump at night, and...at all times of the day, for the last decade or so, too, as you point out.
I am as surprised as you that you did not get breakfast on this flight. The light loads are also a cause for concern on the largest and longest-range narrowbody that Jet has: is this a regular occurrence, or is Jet struggling badly on this route?
Nice pictures of the rare B739ER interior!
Hmm...a Jet Airways extra baggage slip on a boarding card. Do they always do this? The format of the print shows that this seems to be a standard procedure. Air India has specific receipts (equally unimpressive) for the same, printed on Air India stationary.
We now look forward to the remaining parts, with our customary eagerness!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:57 am Post subject:

Nice TR Jishnu - from description to pictures

Likes the regent bird. . I think all fly by night operators in Bangladesh have flown and will fly to CCU as their first international destination!

I remember GMG being a major player and few others too for a short while.

Glad about the chicken tikka !
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jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2015 8:20 am Post subject:

dan · Member Joined: 18 Dec 2012 Posts: 61

Great TR jishnu. Really liked the pictures at CCU.
This may turn out to be a coincidence but my mom flew into CCU from BOM on JLH around the same time. She was booked on AI, then they delayed her flight from BOM, and because she would miss her connection, they accommodated her on 9w.
While the IC A319 is a rarity for others, it's surely a nightmare for me. At CCU it turned out that SCC had gone bust for mom later that day. They couldn't fix it and sent ESB later. Lucky!!!!
Thanks again for a great TR.
Regards
dan

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 3:20 am Post subject:

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:54 am Post subject:

Hey all! I've uploaded the video related stuff on to YouTube:

Start up: https://youtu.be/yJVimfU3Nwo
(Take off is a horrendous out-of-focus video)
Landing: https://youtu.be/3WYNF-_ovxM

And of course, the video trip report: https://youtu.be/QoY91g-Cq0U
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777