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Akshay · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 315 Location: Mumbai

TR of BOM-DEL has been posted here. Here is part 2 of the trip, DEL - BOM.

Date of journey: 10th October 2015.

After a week long trip to Uttarakhand, it was time to head back home. Our train from Dehradun reached New Delhi station right on time at 5.30 am, while I was just waking up. I woke up my wife, and we disembarked quickly. We were booked on AI-865 to BOM, departing DEL at 10 am. One lady in our group too was booked on the same flight, and we had decided to travel together to the airport by Metro. On the platform at New Delhi, she came to us saying that the airport metro starts only after 6 am & it would be better to go by prepaid cab. This info was given to her by some cabbie (no surprises!). Not to be fooled by the tricks, we asked her to take the cab. I was well aware that the metro starts from 4.45 am.

This ticket was booked around 4 months in advance, with fellow member patkini's help in choosing the flight. We were tired after the trip, and hence slowly made our way to the metro station, eager to check in our bags at the metro station. To our disappointment, we found out that the checkin counters there open only at 8 am. I had suspected that there will be timings for the metro check in counters. I scoured through Air India & Delhi metro websites searching for these timings, but none of the websites mentioned them. My suspicion turned out true in the end. Disappointed, we took baggage with us on the metro. Since we had plenty of time for the flight, we took our own sweet time to walk from the metro station to departures level at T3. Had we reached the airport without taking additional time, we could have easily boarded 7.25 am Vistara flight, an airline that I want to experience. Unfortunately, maintaining buffer for train delays meant a conservative 10 am flight booking.

We located our check in counters and checked in our baggage first. The queue here was longer, and it took 15 minutes to check in. As expected, our plane hadn't been allotted a gate yet - our boarding passes had a blank field. After check in we had breakfast at a food joint in the terminal. The food was tasty. Post breakfast we proceeded to security check. The queue was short, and the check was finished within no time. With lots of time at hand, we did some window shopping in the terminal.

After going through a few shops, we decided to give our bodies some rest. The flight display boards now indicated that our flight would depart from gate 27. We occupied tarmac facing seats in the domestic departures hall. Part of the international section was visible from our seat. The tarmac had quite a lot of activity. A couple of Air India A320s arrived at the domestic section. A 9W Boeing 737 was at one of the international gates & an Indigo bird was towed to the international section. And then there were some planes I was seeing for the first time - Dream(liners of AI! There were at least3-4 of them in the international departures section! In those days, the aircraft for AI-865 used to start its day with a CCU-DEL flight& then work AI-865. The incoming flight - A321 registered VT-PPF arrived on time. This would be my first flight in A321. The plane's exterior looked awesome, however it seemed dusty. We stayed in our seats while the aircraft was being prepared for its next flight. The tarmac was abuzz with movements of ground vehicles & some of the takeoffs & landings too were visible from our seat.

We went near our gate at 9.15 am, with 15 minutes to spare for boarding commencement. Boarding started on time. Zone wise boarding was announced. I don't know whether it was enforced properly or not, simply because I wasn't there to see it Razz

Our seats were in the zone to board first. Very surprisingly, there was no queue formed at the boarding point. We went to the gate, and were the first to board the flight Very Happy

Once inside the plane, we stowed our luggage into the overhead bin & settled down in our seats. I loved the bright colours used in the cabin. The maintenance of interiors left a lot to desire, though. The wall panels were not clean. All of them had black deposits of grime which were not cleaned properly. The 9W aircraft on BOM-DEL was in a significantly better shape, even though it was a few years older than this frame. A lot is usually said about the age of FAs in Air India. The cabin crew on our flight seemed to be an exception though Wink

The aircraft had IFE. I presume all AI A321s might have it, please correct me if I am wrong.

From my seat, I could see the opened rear cargo hold door. Loading of luggage took quite some time. Pushback was well past scheduled departure time of 10 am. The cabin in charge came on the PAS and welcomed everyone aboard Air India. This was followed by safety demo while taxiing towards the runway. We stopped short of the runway after completion of taxi. We seemed to be 3rd in departure queue. What I found interesting was the way flights held short of runway. At BOM I am used to flights queuing behind each other. But here flights were holding short of runway on numerous taxiways! There was a FedEx cargo plane on our left, and another domestic departure to our right. While we were waiting for our turn to take off, a 9W ATR joined the queue on another taxiway.

We took off after a wait of around 8-10 minutes. Seat belt sign was turned off a few minutes later. Some movies were being played on the IFE, but we didn't bother watching them. I selected the flight info screen on my IFE display. I took a short nap. When I woke up, the snacks service had already started. The FAs serving snacks were quite courteous. Both of us opted for Veg snacks. Here is what the tray looked like:

Air India Snacks by Akshay Marathe, on Flickr

It consisted of a veg patties, veg cutlet, 3 pieces of paneer tikka, green chutney, sandwich & dessert. The cutlet & patties were decent, though slightly bland. Paneer tikka was nothing great though. Rubbery paneer is not something one would expect in North India! The sandwich initially looked like a slice of cake to me. I realised it is a sandwich only on a closer look. The bread was soft, and the taste was fantastic. The dessert was something I saw for the first time. It tasted somewhat like a giant peda. Sumantra ji, any idea what it was? I liked it's taste - it wasn't too sweet. The snacks was followed by a beverage service. I opted for coffee. Though the snacks had some shortcomings in taste, full credit for the quantity served. It was a very filling meal, as opposed to snacks on 9W which left our stomachs half filled. The crew did a round of trash collection after snacks.

We took the standard route from Delhi to Mumbai, overflying Jaipur, Vadodara, Surat. Got some nice views of Jaipur city from the flight. After the snacks service, it was time for another short siesta. When I woke up, we were somewhere above south Gujarat. In a while our descent commenced. The FAs made the descend announcement and started preparing cabin for landing. This was one difference in this flight compared to 9W. The captain did not make a single announcement in this flight. IMHO announcements by the captain add to the feel good factor of a flight. Before our descent started, the cabin crew came with bottles of water in case anyone needed it. That was a very thoughtful gesture in my opinion.

On getting close to Mumbai we turned to get onto approach path. We took the standard main runway approach, flying in from the east. Congestion at the airport was not at its peak at noon time, hence we were cleared to land without entering any holding pattern. There was cloud cover over Mumbai that day due to which we could not see anything on the ground. Once we emerged below the clouds, we were over Navi Mumbai. I always love approaches to Mumbai. It feels nice to see the landmarks like major roads, localities etc from the air. Crossed the Thane Belapur Road, Vashi creek with Airoli bridge visible, then the mangroves, Eastern Express Highway, CR railway tracks, LBS road, the metro & finally entered airport premises. Touchdown was simply brilliant without any jerks. This was undoubtedly the best I have experienced till date. We landed at around 12.15, fairly on time.

Once off the runway, we began the long taxi to T2. The flight was to continue to Goa after a halt at BOM. There were announcements for Goa bound pax to remain seated in the plane & co operate with staff for identification of hand baggage. We docked at an aerobridge. It felt so great to be back in T2! I absolutely love the terminal. After visiting T3 at DEL, T2 still remains my favourite. The baggage belts were not far from our gate. Our belt number was not announced in the flight, we had to find it out in the terminal. It was a long wait for our bags at the belt. Finally they came on the belt after almost half an hour. We then took a fleet taxi from the terminal to home.

One query to members - while descending & on the ground at BOM, there was a lot of vapour coming into the cabin from the air vents. What could that be?

Summary: AI is undoubtedly the most discussed (and maligned) airline in India. I was eager to fly AI. It was a pleasant experience. Booking on website was a hassle free affair with no hidden booking charges/convenience fees. The flight was on time, food was decent, service was good. Overall it was a good experience, if not great. Cannot ask for anything more on a domestic flight Smile

Will I fly AI again? Definitely. I see no reason to not do so. The only factor of concern is their lower OTP.
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

What a lovely trip report, Akshay! I apologise: I took my time to go thorugh it, but spending attention to your detail was a joy to behold.