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TG BOM BKK HKT Y

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

PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 1:35 am    Post subject: TG BOM BKK HKT Y Reply with quote

Hi all

Had a family vacation in Phuket in September last year, wanted to write a TR then, but just never got to it, so, well, der aaye durust aaye, here goes.

After a gruelling two odd years for my parents and brother (not me, I'm all lazy), which included my brothers 12th - college, a new house almost 95% complete, everyone needed a bit of a break. Impromptu trip, barely 2 weeks before the actual date of travel was planned, around the ganesh chaturthi weekend, my internship with BLR Airport was also to end just 2 days before the trip, too.

Booked TG, for around 27K [BOM BKK HKT BKK BOM - 773 333 773 773] per head, which was not bad, though not the cheapest, which was MH (~24K), booked a resort, you know the usual, and then my brothers college decided to wake up and screw our happiness. Scheduled internal exams through and through that 1 (or 2) day(s) between the holiday weekend (we all know how sadistic teachers can be), we just froze everything, hoped for the best. There was an obvious uproar in the classes, which went on far too long, I came back from Bangalore not knowing if we were going or not.
Eventually, I guess, the morning I got back, (36 hrs to go) it was sorted out, but this obviously meant we rushed to do the final preparations, we would have definitely gone better planned.
Jump to the evening of the flight, we were all in Mumbai at around 1700 hrs for a 2335 flight, and decided that we might as well go in.




Got inside and realized that we needed to have (very specifically sized) passport sized pics for the visa on arrival in Thailand (something we trusted cleartrip to inform us, although almost entirely our fault - probably due to all the commotion that surrounded our trip), in any case, this caused a little panic, but since we'd entered, made no sense fretting over something that we couldn't do anything about.
A little later the TG guy informed us that BKK airport will have a provision for the same.




Check in opened at 2000 sharp and we were among the first to obtain our boarding passes (since everyone checks in online now a days, saying we were the first to check in doesn't make sense).

Immigration was hell. Unorganized. Madly crowded. We were in the middle of the Hajj season, and there were 2 747s + 1 77W that I counted leaving in the span of 60 mins around our flight. Took us over 80 mins for Security + Immi).





Once through, this place is as photogenic as it gets.







Had dinner at the huge food court.


















HS-TKC had come in bang on schedule.











Boarding was announced with an hour to go for departure. Was organized zone wise.







Had selected this very seat in the seat select option, and had this realization on looking at some TG 773 pics once i'd come back from BLR, and thankfully during check in made the change, probably got the only 2 sets of continuous seats available.





Not bad at all.











Pushed back around 15 mins behind schedule. 100% full in Y.















Meal was OK. 6/10 type score from my side.





Gingerale



Red Wine



Dozed off for about 3 hours straight after this. Woke up when we were hovering over BKK.









Landed about 20 mins ahead of schedule.





Transfer was hell. Like absolute hell.

Not TGs fault, but. if you have a connection, please, please if possible, take a pre departure Thai visa instead of relying on the visa on arrival, else make sure you have anything in excess of 2 hours for your connection.

- Ours was among the first flights to land, but since we had to get our photo taken we lost that advantage.
- Post collecting the pics, joined the ridiculously long line for the visa on arrival, only to be saved by requesting an officer saying we have another flight to catch.
- At this point we were asked to join another line, which was another visa on arrival queue (apparently for those with connections).
- Once getting that stamp, we were pushed onto another line for stamping out - enter Thailand - onto our passport.
- Then sent onto a long walk, to what we were hoping will be it, but we entered what seemed like another line, to check (?) our passports / visas, this was again for connecting passengers.
- This was then followed by another line for security check, which, again took a lot of time

All in all, took us around 2 hours, absolute madness.







Had HS-TEL waiting for us at the gate.






Boarded on schedule, at this point obviously, tired.





Pushed back on schedule.











At this point the bitch sitting in the row ahead of me started yelling no photos no photos, (she was obviously as grumpy as I was earlier, however looking at all the 380s and the JL 788 had made me all cheerful again), I grumbled a little, and said there's no rule that says photography not allowed, to which she shot back saying "the said no electronics allowed".
Pah, i'd lost. Lost the argument. Lost the gorgeous turn the plane took giving a complete overview of the airport.

I sprang back into action the moment seat belt signs were switched off.




Food was standard, chicken for all. (Some corner of this world, a gujju just pledged never to fly Thai in their life)

Beautiful cabin.

Approach into HKT was set to be beautiful. So asked my brother to switch his window seat with mine, so that I could be far away from the bitch.






















Luggage didn't take long to come.

Over all, I'd heard that TG is a very standard, over average product, and I agree with that fully. I can do the same set of flights today, and will probably have the same experience, which is something that a lot of people dig.

Hopefully, will post the return leg TR soon.

Thanks for reading.

Rishul
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sumantra
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Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4685
Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What a lovely trip report, with magnificent pictures (both the daytime ones, as well as the crisp night-time shots!)
As usual, the details of the trip planning are of great interest to us, avgeeks!
It is always a pleasure to see the new CSIA T2, the classiest airport terminal in India, in my humble opinion, at least.
It is nice that you got a TG B773: they will possibly become rarer, with time.
TG maintains its planes rather well.
My usual question: power-ports. Does TG have them in their B773s and A333?
The dinner seemed a bit small in quantity, and going by your rating, seems quite pedestrian. I find this a bit surprising, since from what I have read, TG and AI have some of the best AVML offerings. Was this an all-veg flight?

Sorry to read about your transit experience: thank you for the helpful tips.
``No photos, no photos''. I have experienced this a disappointingly large number of times. Most of us do not put our cameras into a non-transmitting mode, for cameras which have them. Pre-2013, I used to point out that I had a film camera, when my Analog SLR was in good condition. That used to alleviate some issues which pesky passenger around me, had.

A333 BKK-HKT: Chicken for all. Hmm...Did TG catering have an off-day?
We really look forward to the return trip report: please also include some of your Phuket experiences.
Cheers, Sumantra.
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sabya99
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Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 1399
Location: New Jersey/CCU

PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2016 6:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What a brilliant TR. It will take me a few days to digest! The two largest airport in INDIA are getting over crowded day by day. There are no plan to decentralize them. Soon I have to fly for India. Hope I dont face large lines. I commented earlier no matter how big an airport is built those airports will turn into cowshed!!
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avbuff
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Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 5031

PostPosted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lovely TR Rishul and excellent pictures of BOM tarmac...

too bad the transfer was a hell .. getting a pre approved visa seems a necessity now

thanks for sharing
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stealthpilot
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB

PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

- Those immigration lines ..... to get out of the country as well Laughing
- Great airport pics
- The meal looked kinda blah good thing you ate at the food court.
- The transfer experience seemed a bit mad, even without the pictures 2 hours is a bit silly Confused O well, always better to have that option (visa on arrival) but I guess if someone is transferring to a domestic connection they wouldn't (shouldn't) cut it tight.
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