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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

hi sorry for the delay in trip report but finally got it drafted had travelled to doha on 22nd jan by Etihad airways. A very memorable got upgraded twice in the trip. My ticket cost me Rs 13000 + taxes 18000 rs approx. at that time EK was offering 28000 AI 21000 QR 25000 and GF 20500 WY 22000

Here is link to the photos

http://in.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ojas18/album?.dir=d601scd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//in.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photosexperience

So EY was the best option as i had travelled it before as well

my schedule was

EY 206 BOM - AUH 1805 1955 22 JAN B767-300
EY 705 AUH - DOH 2130 2130 22 JAN A330-200
EY 706 DOH - AUH 2230 0030 30 JAN B777-300
EY 2207AUH - BOM 0135 0600 31 JAN A340-500

Now considering a delay in leaving from pune made me reach the airport late . Dep time was 1805 hrs and i reached airport at 1645 hrs. I proceeded to terminal 2A extreme right gate got my baggage screened through security. But there was a loooong queue of economy pax for Etihad . Besides that there was a Gulf Air flight
GF 065 BOM - MCT - BAH started their check - in along with SV 743 to Jeddah , all hadj pax.

When i stood in the queue an EY person came and asked me if i had necessarily had to travel on this flight. Which
meant the flight was heavily overbooked. They offered me Rs. 10000 and a stay at Intercontinental the grand
if i would take the next flight to abu dhabi which was at 0855 hrs next day. I accepted the offer but the point was the validity of my Residence permit of Qatar was expiring the next day so had to reach there that day
itself , else i woudve been fined QAR. 500 i.e INR 6000 approx. Besides the connections next day was bad to doha would have had to transit in abu dhabi for 10 hrs. So i went in the queue further. Later on a family of 3 travelling to abu dhabi opted to stay and very nice of them they didnt stay in the hotel coz they lived nearby in andheri. Apart from that they shooed some pax saying their visas wrnt in order .

No offence to anyone but i was a bit dissappointed by the class of people travelling ,, and there were many of them .. ususally only few of those ppl each flight so i was like bless me and then just put my ipod and started listening to music. After crawling half way through the queue one EY lady asks me "Are you traveling alone?" i said yes... she then told me to go to the First(Diamond Class) & Business(pearl class) counter. I thought maybe to distribute the queue quickly she asked me to go there as it was already 1710 Hrs.To my surprise i found out i was upgraded to First class!!!! So my baggage got checked in smoothly which was of 38 Kgs got my pass to the lounge was only one seat available in first so got that one 2H . After proceeding through immigration i was looking out
of the window . Found a SWISS A330-200 idle at the other side of the parking along with EL - Al B767-200 , As seen in one of the pics an Ethiopian B767 along side an AIX a/c.

Went in the lounge had some drinks and snacks and the EY person called me to board the flight at 1745 hrs. Adjacent to our gate which was gate no .. 4 was an SV A300 carrying all Hadj pax (gate 3)

FIRST LEG

EY 206 : MUMBAI - ABU DHABI
ETD: 1805 hrs ATD : 1800 hrs
ETA: 1955 hrs ATA : 1945 hrs
Gate No. 4
AIRCRAFT : B767-341/ER
seat no. requested for 22L got 2H (2-1-2 CONFIG AND MY SEAT WAS THE SINGULAR ONE)
The business class seating for this a/c is 2-2-2 and economy 2-3-2

Well was extremely happy that i got upgraded to first class now since this was a non EY standard aircraft
it didnt have flat beds but yes seats did recline to 165 Deg and the seating configuration was 2-1-2 only 2 rows
10 first class seats. On boarding the air hostess helped me with my jacket , after settling down had our welcome drinks champagne etc. hot towels etc etc . The air hostess then distributed head phones menu card . after take off drinks were served . There was one alcohol and wine list and then the meal list. Meal consisted of fish chicken and veg. Our orders were taken and then the four course meal started with appetizers drinks consisting of dahi wadas main course i had opted four salmon fish .. and for dessert fresah fruits along with a cheese cake and a pastry. IFE was good had PTV's hindi movie was Lagey Raho Munnabhai.The captain told us that winds were very strong which resulted in a 3h 15 min journey which shudve been completed in 2h 45 mins .

Landing in Abu Dhabi was ok towed to gate 12. I hopped out of the aircraft had a tour of Abu Dhabi airport.

Believe me ppl AUH airport is the second worst airport in the gulf after Muscat . Adjacent to our departure gate was a British Airways flight BA 073 arrived from LHR going onwards to MCT a 30 min flight. For your info BA has 5th freedom rights between AUH and MCT (LHR-AUH-MCT-AUH-LHR) and a similar route

(LHR-BAH-DOH-BAH-LHR) with rights between DOH and BAH.

SECOND LEG

EY 705 : ABU DHABI - DOHA
ETD: 2130 hrs ATD : 2120 hrs
ETA: 2130 hrs ATA : 2115 hrs

Gate no. 7

AIRCRAFT : A330-243 (2 class configuration)
seat no. requested for 18A(economy 2-4-2 seating config)

Upon boarding flight Hot towels were given. Standard EY interiors nice big PTV's .and it does have AVOD. nothing eventful gave a small meal consisting of a sandwich chocolate juice refreshing towel and a bottle of water. We took off and within no time it was time to descend and then landed smoothly in doha. Sorry coudnt take pics here as the cops stopped me from doing it.On the doha turmac all sorts of Qatar airways aircraft along with a British Airways B777 just arrived from LHR-BAH this flight as iam informed will be upgraded to B744 from summer. Rest all were Qatar Airways aircraft A32s A300 A330-200/300 A340-600. Immigration was a
bit long and claimed my luggage and then went home with my parents who were waiting for me.

After a nice stay in doha was back to my return journey.. Sorry folks didnt have my camera on return leg so a photoless Report
reached Doha Airport at 2130 hrs due to heavy traffic congestion coz of construction going on near the airport
went in checked in weight of luggage 24.5 Kgs Shopped some stuff in Duty free and proceeded to gate no 6
on ground floor .. gate no 7-16 are on the upper floor

THIRD LEG

EY 706 : DOHA - ABU DHABI
ETD: 2230 hrs ATD : 2230 hrs
ETA: 0030 hrs (next day) ATA : 0025 hrs

Gate no. 7

AIRCRAFT : B777-3FX/ER (2 class configuration)
supposed to be a A330-243 but while boarding found out it was a B773
seat no. requested for 21A(economy 3-3-3 seating config)

As many of u might know doha airport doesnt have aero bridges so we were bussed to the aircraft ... on the

turmac was a BA 777 and Lufthansa A330-300 operating DOH-BAH-FRA , Srilankan A340-300 operating as BAH - DOH - CMB
and Air india B737 rather it was an AIX plane but with flt code AI going to CCJ-COK and a KLM B767-300 off to DOH - DMM - AMS . Flight took off on time.Aircraft was neat and clean as ususal , standard EY interiors
same snack as AUH-DOH was served again. Landed in Abu Dhabi came out of Gate 6 through the aerobridge. There was hardly any time left just 1 hr transit ... Did some timepass and at 0055 hrs went to my next
departure gate .

For your information all standard EY aircrafts havce AVOD good interiors and mood lighting except the

A340-300 and B767-300 so whenever you travel by EY try to avoid the B763 and A343.

EY 2207 : ABU DHABI - Mumbai
ETD: 0135 hrs ATD : 0150 hrs
ETA: 0600 hrs ATA : 0600 hrs

Gate no. 15

AIRCRAFT : A340-541 (3 class configuration)
same a/c had arrived 2 hrs ago from JFK . The aircraft arrives from JFK at 2030 hrs and it does the early

morning mumbai flight

seat no. requested for 18A(economy 2-4-2 seating config) but ultimately got a J class seat 9K J class has 4 seats in one row has flat beds so there is no uniform seating alignment

After going to the duty free level as gates 13 - 20 are over there went to security check . Now the biggest joke of the entire travel... When i was boarding it was found out that 3 people were given the same seat no as mine 18 A and the error happend at abu dhabi itself so myself and 2 ladies had to wait.. after everyone finished boarding a similar error occured for seat 25K .Now the redundant ppl for seat 25 were accommodated . And the Y class became full so the 3 of us were upgraded to J class . I was like ... wow A340-500 J class but it was the same J class for all A330-200 and B777-300ERs. On the Abu Dhabi turmac was a KLM A330-200 AUH - BAH-AMS AND SQ 455 doing JED - AUH - SIN ; China airlines CI A330-300 doing TPE-AUH-VIE . Same service like the first class of B767-300. AVOD choice of 68 movies Tv shows games etc. 4 course meal . Blankets and pillows distributed.

Meal had starters of Chicken sheekh kababs and spring rolls. The main course was having same choices fish chicken and veg
with loads of drinks to serve, a mini bar near the beginning of J class.

Arrived in Mumbai..as many of you might have read the forum posted the EY A345 nearly overran the runway. We approached from navi mumbai side mahim creek and touched down on rwy 09/27 from 27 side . We touched down at the right spot but went right till the end of the runway on the grey oval and then had taken a 180 deg turn. On the Mumbai turmac there was an Air Arabia A320 abt to take off SV A300 from jeddah
IC A320 arrived from Sharjah and Air India B747-400 ready to go to LHR-JFK. Immigration was smooth By the time i reached the baggage claim area my bags were already there and within 5 minutes of arrival i was outside the airport and got into the car.

Etihad is a good airline offers very very reasonable fares but the let down is the abu dhabi airport and to some extent the quality of food EK , QR , SQ has very good food quality. But for those who want to economize on the trip try etihad and remember they have special online fares for all sectors which are not sold at any Travel Agency.

the_380 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:51 pm Post subject:

Nice TR mate...gotta say u were lucky.....
regards
Avijeet
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Aiel · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 927 Location: Bangalore

Nice TR.

I have also had a similar experience in DOH with cops. they are quite a*** about taking pics at the airport there.
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Nimish · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:14 am Post subject:

Excellent report - and great luck to be upgraded to F and then J. Awesome!

AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

Nice Report.

You mention tht the A330 had a seating congif of 2-4-2 in Y, isnt it normally 2-3-2 in Y. Was it very cramped because of the extra seat?

Cheers
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Nimish · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:30 am Post subject:

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

thanks ppl .....

AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

Thanks for the enlightenment guys I wasnt aware of the fuselage cross section being the same.

And yes Nimish I prefer it to the 3-3-3 of the 777s

Cheers
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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

well the 3 - 3 - 3 in EY B773 are far better than the EK B773 with
3-4-3 (too Crammed) i wud like it more had the config of EY B777-300

had been 2-5-2 like AI so all pax have to say only one "excuse me"
except for the chap sitting right in the middle

AKLDELNonstop · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1066 Location: Auckland

2-5-2 would be hell for a guy sitting in the middle though esp on a long haul. Although if it were a flight that was around 80% full in Y, then keeping the middle seats empty would make it a very comfy flight for all pax.

Cheers
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iflytb20

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

well yes ET operates a B757 nut this particular aircraft was a B767-300

100% while taxiing i saw it.

and plus a B757 bodu is thinner from this angle considering it is a narrowbody .. trust me its a B767

iflytb20 · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:13 pm Post subject:

in dat case buddy you are VERY lucky.....i've been to BOM atleast 20 times in the last 4 months, and i ALWAYS got the 757...in fact i wanted to see the 767 to take a pic..but like a wise man said...shit happens Wink

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

well december and january were the months of open sky policy so definitely
there is no certainity what aircraft will be deployed

ET operates the B757 had seen B73W as well at mumbai way back in july
737,757 are scheduled throughout the year but probably in open skies period they sent the boeing 767

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

After reading ur TR just got a quick comment. Mate ur a lucky Bas**rd Very Happy

Indeed happy to knw that u got upgraded on etihad and enjoyed their hospitality too. Gud on u.... Very Happy

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avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

well ur the last person to say that .... all my frnds told that!!!!!!!

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

And yeah btw ET operates a 767 to DEL which onwards continues to PEK
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