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Long Overdue Trip Report DEL-HYD-DEL

 
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VABBy
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 823
Location: DEL

PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 9:08 am    Post subject: Long Overdue Trip Report DEL-HYD-DEL Reply with quote

Its a typical North Indian Sunday morning. I have got up early inspite of being a holiday and a cup of hot tea provides a perfect thrust to pen down the long pending Trip Report of my DEL-HYD-DEL trip. So here we go.....

I am working in my office when i recieve a phone call from Sandeep that he might be visiting Hyderabad the coming weekend. Surprisingly he asks me to accompany him with he bearing all the expenses. Since Monday was a holiday due to 25th Dec being christmas this seemed to be one offer too Good to resist.

As usual with him i am asked to book the tickets with the fare amount to be directly wired to my a/c. Since www.cleartrip.com was running a promotion on IC ie 15% discount being offered by them we decided to get tkts done by them ( IC,s evening flight to HYD was the cheapest option).

I call up some mumbai number which eventually doesnt connect. After a couple of misses finally i get thru but to my horror i am put on hold finally to be hung up. The hit and the miss game continues for a while till i am finally able to extract a quote from them. Then i call up Ankush my usual travel booking CSR at travelguru who is able to give me a lower fare than quoted by the cleartrip people inspite of 15% discount even though no such promotion is onn in Travelguru.

Finally after quick descion making and in consultation with Sandeep i get the tickets booked. We are flying IC 839 DEL-HYD 18:50 dep with arrival at 20:50 and the return is by S2-126 HYD-DEL 17:20 Dep with Arr at 19:20

DEL-HYD
IC-839
ETD 18:50
Boarding 21:40
ATD 22:00
ETA 20:50
ATA 23:50


As we started from our homes to the airport i was getting bombarded with phonecalls from the IC Customer care, IC IVRS and smses about constant update regarding our flights. Initially when we started at about 15:30hrs from our home the flight had been delayed by 30 mins to be departed at 19:20hrs. But by the time we reached the airport our flight had been further delayed by another hour ie 20:20hrs. So finally the dreaded fog had hit us sending our plans in a haywire. But nothing much to do we finally check in at the IC terminal which is home to our state run carrier and the mallya,s airline which seems to be grabbing everyone,s attention.

Boarding passes quickly issued we procced for the security check at the lazy pace once done we get settled in the corner of the departure hall from where we can get the birds eyeview not only of the tarmac but also of the whole hall. Indeed Lucky on us that we were flying IC i wonder wat wud have happened if we had flown any Pvt carrier because of the congestion over there.

Nothing much to do i start observing people while my co mate continues discussing something with his business partner. I see alot of KF FA,s ground staff who are decked up in too much of mascera and makeup which was infact giving them a W****sh looks. Wat i sometimes really fail to understand is their psychology as to hw they might feel knowing that they are being perved upon.. Anyways not deviating from the topic.

I decide to checkout the a small takeaway shop in the departure hall. Prices as usual which we have often discussed are sky high. A simple cup of coffee costs INR25. Though CCD and Barista do have some coffee.s expensive than that but then their serving size is big while this one was a virtual loot. Bt then this time was nt for debating as hunger had started to take a toll on us so indeed it was the coffee which we had.

In the mean time we get another small shock that our HYD bound flight has further been put back till 21:20 hrs. Gud on you IC Wink Bt the major plus point in whole of this saga was the information giving. No doubt that was terrific we were constantly being updated. Finally 20 mins after our scheduled departure time we were asked to await at Gate no3 so that we could be bussed to our aircraft. And everyone just ran to that gates.

We were the last ones to board and were welcomed by FA,s Priyanka & Smita. The aircraft though was showing age but seemed to well maintained and clean. A quick round of towels and candies followed by the inflight safety demonstration and we were ready for departure.

This time we took off from the dwarka side. And as soon as we reached the cruising altitude the much awaitied meal service began. First thing to be served was the juice and it was the HPMC Ditto apple juice. It reminded me of the rajdhani journeys which i had done. Unlike pvt airlines where drinks are served in glasses tetra packs were simply handed with straws thats wat i call the Indian Railways style. Wink

We asked for refills which were promptly distributed to us. But in this husle and bustle no one came back to take the empty packs from us. Neverthless the meal arrived. For the nonveg option this time it was zeera rice along with mix veg and spinach chicken while for the vegetarian it paneer in spinach creme sauce. We virtually devoured our food and while Smita was distributing water to other pax i explained our situation as to how we missed our lunch and hw hungry we were. She was more than happy to help and in no time their were 5 meals for all 3 of us Very Happy

No doubt that night i had one of the most satisfying meals i ever had inflight. And we all owe to the 2 FA,s Priyanka & Smita. Girls if u ever read this report i just wanna say u did a wonderfull job and keep up the good work.

By the time we finished our meals and decided to take a nap captain announced that we had started our decent for landing into Hyderabad. We landed 10 mins before time and inspite of an available jetway we were bussed into arrivals.

Whats really funny of the HYD airport is that the same building is called by different names. The international wing is called Rajiv Gandhi terminal while the domestic wing is called NT Rama Rao. Having 2 different boards on the same building actually looks quite misleading. When we arrived i could see the SQ T7 preparing for its departure

With baggage arriving pretty quickly we were virtually dying to push off to our hotel which we did eventually .


HYD-DEL
S2-126
ETD 17:20
ATD 17:40
ETA 19:20
EQP VT-SDL B767-300ER


What i really loved about Begumpet airport was that its bang in the middle city which is quite uncommon for me. Secondly city has very much less traffic with pvt vehicle ownership limited compared to Delhi where we see hoardes of cars coming in. Even the autorickshaw drivers are genuine in the Biryani Capital. We hired an auto and in flat 20/- we were standing in front of the terminal .

As we moved towards the entry i could see a big congestion near the 9W reservation window. This made me looked worried while there was hardly a soul near the S2 ticketing counter. I went and inquired about our flight to which we were informed that the flight had been delayed by 20 mins due to delay in the arrival of incoming flight from Cochin (COK)

After getting our baggage xrayed we went to the check in desks and greeted the lady with a friendly hii and hw she was doing. The response was a cute smile with a reply that she was doing good. Since we were among the first to check inn we requested if we could be given seats in the back ie 1 window, 1 middle & 1 aisle. To which she responded hw abt 1 window and 2 aisle. I replied in negative that we wanted in 1 continuation. She said it was in continuation as the seating 2*3*2 And thats wen i knew that Sahara had started using widebody jet in its operation.

After collecting our boarding passes we procceded thru the security and waited in the departure hold area for the announcement of our flight. Finally i had a view of our bigbaby which had just gated in on the aerobridge. Soon it was announced that due to availability of the aerobridge pax of S2-129 please move the first floor for boarding.

It was great feeling to be on a widebody jet for the domestic leg of the flight. ours was the second last seat and soon we settled land i started taking snaps. The good old era of IC,s A300 which were used on metro routes was back even though just for few odd hours.

As usual a quick round of hot towels followed by candies and we were in the air cruising at FL360. For the economy section there were 3 inflight crew doing the job. The meals on this flight had been loaded from Cochin itself. And this time it was a south indian affair which was a welcome change. Drinks were properly served in tumblers with a choice between a juice or a soft drink. Followed by a snacks which looked like a full square meal consisting of soft idlis with sambar and seekh kabab as the nonveg option or paneer tikka as the veg option along with a croissant and hot gulab jamun as the dessert. We asked for seconds explaining our situation as to hw we had to skipp our lunches becoz of wrk and soon a second course was served to us.

The flight was piloted by Capt Lamba who looked much like a senior pilot with quite experience. And he introduced that for those who are amazed at the size of the aircraft this is a widebody jet its Boeing 767-300ER and i was like ya ya we knw that dude.. Very Happy

As usual by the time we completed our meals we had started our descent into delhi. we landed on the main runway and then turned left instead of right. This took me completely by surprise and i got confused. Becoz it appeared either we had turned towards the international apron or we had landed on the secondary runway. And being dark it added much more confusion

Anyways i was correct our plane was parked on the remote stand on the international tarmac with Big Sahara buses waiting for us to take to the other side. It took us 20 mins to reach the domestic arrivals bt we had a nice view of the whole airport. seeing planes landing on the runway in succession.

Overall it was a memorable trip and my first experience with the dreaded fog..
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AKLDELNonstop
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1066
Location: Auckland

PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice report vabby thanks. Hope a few widebodies become a regular feature of domestic travel.

Cheers Mate.
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the_380
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice report Vabby...enjoyed reading it.
regards
Avijeet
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JumboJet
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice Wink
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DELAPPROACH
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Joined: 21 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice Report Vabby.
Thanx for waking up early in this chilly north indian morning and writing this TR. Very Happy
Any pics from the IC flight??

Regards,
Mayank
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HAWK21M
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great TR.
regds
MEL
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VABBy
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Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 823
Location: DEL

PostPosted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks alot mates. Well bt the time we boarded the plane we were like hungry monsters and clicking pics were last thing on our mind Very Happy
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crew320
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Joined: 20 Dec 2006
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Location: New Delhi

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:03 am    Post subject: Re: Long Overdue Trip Report DEL-HYD-DEL Reply with quote

VABBy wrote:
And we all owe to the 2 FA,s Priyanka & Smita. Girls if u ever read this report i just wanna say u did a wonderfull job and keep up the good work.


I'll make sure they read it, or atleast will convey your message...

Excellent report, very addictive..

Keep em coming..

aM
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VABBy
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Location: DEL

PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:09 pm    Post subject: Re: Long Overdue Trip Report DEL-HYD-DEL Reply with quote

crew320 wrote:


I'll make sure they read it, or atleast will convey your message.

aM


Thanks a million mate for passing on the message
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