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

Firstly, I want to congratulate members on the Trip Report forum for a keeping the section so happening, there was once a time where in we all used to eagerly await TR's, now we have this happy problem of keeping up with whatever's posted!

Sumantra sir alone has over 50 now! I had the opportunity to meet him at the end of last month and as you'd all expect, meeting the man himself gives one enough motivation to write a TR! Very Happy

Secondly, I want to make one thing clear, this is a description of my experience with AI, it may not necessarily match what the passengers experienced on the same flights.

Now, i'm no where even close to writing and describing my experiences as other members here are, and pics i've taken this time are also below average. So pardon me on that front.

BACKGROUND
A month and a half into college, 15th August on a Thursday and Rakshabandhan on a Tuesday , all of which when put in a grinder and mixed, result in this wonderful cocktail called "trip to home" Wink

Now this was planned about 15-17 odd days before the date of travel itself, which implied that the usual cheap options of SG and 6E were already out of reach. This meant AI was the cheapest, and right about then, I got a mail from Karan_69 with 17 exclamation marks reading "DO THIS".

I booked the following ticket with-in the next 4 odd hours, and which doing so had this horrible realization that i may well have flown the same flights earlier, just that AI 343 would have been operated by 744, so a 747 followed by a 777-200R.

14th August 2013
AI 343
MAA 1100 BOM 1250
A330-200

AI 144
BOM 1830 AMD 1950
B777-200LR

AI 343 is the flight that does SIN-MAA-BOM and AI 144 is the plane that comes in from EWR.

TIckets cost around 4900 bucks, which is around a thousand bucks more than the usual fare.

CHECK-IN / FORMALITIES

AI has this pre-reserve seat feature which didnt work for either of my flights, 24 hrs before web-check in didn't work for either flight

btw what is with that woman in the picture? she looks very freaky!
I called AI, for a tele check in, the dude refused saying that if I tele-checked in and then carried check-in luggage, it won't be permitted onboard. Typical sarkari idiot, as when I called again, this woman, extremely polite (If i may add) check-ed me into both flights.

Rainy morning in Chennai , I caught the bus out at 730 in the morning, taking a decent buffer time, as taxi's are notoriously unreliable in this side of the city.

Reached the airport well ahead of time, the woman who checked me in yesterday told me that AI was yet to move into the new international. I was actually happy as this would be the last time i'd be stepping foot in the AAI terminals made in the 1980/90s. And because several airlines had already shifted out, i wasn't expecting a crowd either.

New International Terminal.

I entered at 0845 suddenly realizing that this terminal didn't have permanent AI Check-in counters! And Check-in was open for EK, TigerAIr and UL only. AI guys were nowhere to be seen.
4 AI aunties entered at 0900 exact, and occupied the corner AI counters, and opened check in for AI 343. I was made aware of the fact that both the new terminals in MAA do not have the inline baggage screening facilities, and to my shock when I approached the counter to specifically ask about the luggage x-rays, the woman said "not required, it's inline here". Shocked

Gave her my phone (ticket), and asked her to through do a through check in my bag all the way to AMD, which she said isn't possible. WTF! Now this affected me, as i had a few family friends to meet up with in BOM, and carrying a bag around wouldn't have been that convenient, plus i'd heard horror stories about planes being parked at the remote gates and luggage taking hours to come in.

Regardless, check-ed in, filled up the tiny declaration form domestic passengers are needed to fill up, and proceeded onwards to immigration and security.

How often do you see EK and LH next to each other!

A6-EMG

The departures area was still full of people, UL had sent in an A320 today, there was an SV 330-300, 6E 320, OmanAir 737 and 9W 737 at the new international terminal.

Now the MAA international terminal is several times bigger than the old domestic terminal, but offers very limited views, deal is, there's this spot, when RWY 25 is in use, each and every arrival turns off the active runway right infront of you ! So pretty decent views!

EK 772 boarding.

VT-ANJ

Now the 332 that does AI 343 operates BOM-MAA-SIN-MAA-BOM, once back at BOM at 1250, it stays at BOM for the rest of the day, but the SIN-MAA leg is always, ALWAYS late!

Even today, the flight was running just about an hour late! NOT one person from AI was around to tell people that the flight was late, the FIDS stated AI 343 STD 1100, and the plane arrived at 1035, 5 mins after the scheduled boarding time.

VT-IWA

BOARDING

Now here's the awesome part, 2 AI ground crew came into the departure area, 1035-ish, made a pre-boarding announcement, during which all the 120 odd people that were supposed to board from MAA came in formed atleast 10 separate lines around the gate, led by a very old couple who were shouting that "Travelling by AI is a pain, we just had no option", everyone looked pissed. The 2 woman, unfazed by all this. Thing is this old couple went to the new domestic terminal instead, from where they ran to the new international terminal, and its from there that they were sent away again, to the old international terminal, now bear in mind, the distance between the new domestic and new intl terminals is a good 600 odd meters and it was raining continuously, and when you have to catch a flight, things get tense, and they looked old and they had luggage.

Back to the awesome part, AI announced boarding at 1045, dot, and guess what, the flight pushed back at 11:13.
yep.
they turned a 330-200, a 250+ seater 330-200 in under 35 mins, this included cargo+luggage+catering!

FLIGHT
AIC 343
STD/STA - 1100/1250
ATD/ATA - 1113/1259
VT-IWA A330-200 (PW Engines)
LOADS - 217 / 249

Plane was pretty clean, apart from a few minor issues here and there about the recline and all, good job!

gorgeous wings of the 330!

Business Class had 2 people out of 24 seats, and the 2 happened to be that old couple who leading the Anti-AI movement at the gate. Sad.

Pushed back, and rain rain rain rain!
No one in the queue for departure, we used RWY 25, hence heading north west.

Rain rain rain rain ...

Very short takeoff roll!

Seat-Belt sign was on for what seemed like forever!
It was only at cruising altitude (37000) that it was turned off.

Levelling off!

I knew that AI serves a full meal on this flight, and the wait was unbearable! The moment the Captain turned off the seatbelt sign, the crew took around 7 mins to come out with the meal cart, and I had my veg meal with-in 10 mins of the seatbelt sign being turned off.

It included - Shahi Paneer, Cabbage, Rice, Rasgulla, croissant with butter, tea/coffee.

What I got - Shahi Paneer without paneer, Cabbage without Salt, Rice, super tiny rasgullas, rock hard croissants with butter.

the paneer gravy was enough to finish off the rice, everyone seemed to leave the cabbage, rasgullas were good. All in all decent a decent meal. Also bear in mind that this was the second meal for people coming from SIN.

The FA came in to distribute tea/coffee, i tried my luck and asked for a soft drink, and she went right back to the J section and got me a coke. Lovely!

I had to check out the lavs onboard this planes, just like LH's 346s, AIs 332s have lavs one level below the cabin!

Now, once the seatbelt signs were turned off, AI turned on the movie, Aashiqi 2 to be precise, and was turned off the moment we started decending.

I felt a small jerk, which indicated that we had started our decent!

Lots of Varun all over the place. Wink

Now AI like idiots attached the air stairs without the over head roof! WTF! How dumb can you be! Seeing the rain everyone protested, no one got off the plane, they replaced the stairs, and by the time I got off, it was 1325.

Waiting for the bus.

It was almost 1355 by the time I got out of the terminal.

Had to meet up a few family friends in Mumbai so finished that off and they dropped me off at the departure gate, of the international terminal at 1705, for a 1830 flight. I saw VT-ALC land when i was in the car, bring in AI 144 at 1525, almost 1 hour ahead of schedule.

CHECK-IN / BOARDING

So, I reach the checkin counter, give the person my phone saying that i'd already tele-checked in, and he assigns me 34J, says the system doesn't show that you telechecked in. I asked him to just give me any window, he said there was only one, 20A.

He took a long time for whatever reason ! But it was almost 1730 when i proceeded out of the check-in area. I didn't check my bag in as the last time I arrived at the AMD international terminal, the bag took around 95 mins to come out! I was heading home, s it was pretty empty (will be full when I go back tomorrow Razz

)
Now i'm not used to having only an hour to depart during check-in, particularly when I saw the plane comein myself so I was slightly paniky, I walked towards immigration, and this is where I exploded, the crowd! F**k! and suddenly, someone yelled, "oh hello, sir, domestic idhar".

Showed him my boarding pass, and walked through, but the damage had been done, I was panicking, don't really know why! I'd never been to the international terminal before! Everywhere I went, I was being directed, "Air India domestic , here please" "Gate 3 this way sir". Not the way I envisaged my first flight out of the international terminal (for some reason i've really liked this modified T2).

Regardless, i walked into gate 3 and started to calm down. There was a Saudi 77E, EK 77W (EBI), 9W 737-800 (JBD) docked at the aerobridges.

191 people onboard todays flight!
Boarding was announced at 1735 itself, barely 1o mins after i walked in.

Terribly unorganized boarding!

ALC!

Now the shock. This was 20A.

F**K F**K F****KKKK

No other window available. I sat on an empty aisle seat while the flight was still boarding, as the woman on 20C was very old and i didn't expect her to move around for me.

Plane was in a good clean condition (something i really didnt expect!) Beautiful interiors!

Now I didn't care about how anyone would think, I paid to fly the 77L and i'm not going down with out a fight, like a kid, i told the FA about how I wanted a window, mid-way through my conversation, i realized how pretty she was! (what, AI isn't allowed to have pretty FA's??)

The pretty FA (PFA) told me that if there was a seat, she'd let me know. The moment boarding ended, around 1820, I jumped up and started fanatically searching for a window. All occupied, all occupied. Sad

I was in the rear economy section, and then suddenly PFA called me, there was a seat! Half way through she said, i'm so sorry someone just sat down there, I cant ask them to move. me: ///crying////

And the plane was almost about to push back, dejected, i asked her if i cound sit on30J, the emergency exit aisle. There was a man on the window with the other 2 seats empty. After a couple of minutes, i looked at the person at the window, he was reading a novel.

I called him, and with big teary baby eyes I asked him, sir, do you mind if we switch places for this flight? He said, sure! Very Happy

VT-JBD, headed to DXB!

FLIGHT
AI 144
STD/STA - 1830/1950
ATD/ATA - 1830/1935
VT-ALC 777-200LR (GE-90-110B)
LOADS 191/238

pushback was bang on time!
Guess what, after the safety demo, PFA came and occupied the jump seat right infront! Very Happy

FLight was getting better and better by the minute!

NH 737-700 came in from NRT

9Ws gulf bank getting ready.

Waited for 10 mins and roared out for departure! We were off before the intersection!

Look at the rate of climb!

Simply love flying in the monsoons!

Now having made quite a fool of myself, it was time for some redemption, I looked at PFA and told her, mam', "the backdrop of the raked wingtips of the 777-200LR look stunning against the reflections of the setting sun" and "this route is supposed to go to a 77W service, if rumours are to be believed, and that I really wanted to fly this plane, the 77W will take a 10% odd hit on passenger pay load with a decent amount of revenue cargo".

*Image repaired* *Impression created* Very Happy

Now it was for the love affair that was me and the monsoon clouds, all i did was stare outside!

The mood lighting was really starting to kick in too!

In the mean time, this sorry looking sandwich was served.

After a while PFA came back and occupied her seat, we had a chat about serving the 787s, politics in AI, and how everyone was looking forward to SYD/MEL. All in all, good company to have around and talk about aviation!

After landing i asked if I could see the fight deck, to which she said that on such short flights, cockpits are very sterile, and that even they hadn't had a good chance to greet the Capt/First Officer.

She introduced me to the flight pursuer, and they showed me around the First Class Cabin. Took a few cabin shots and walked off.

There was a section before immigration for splitting domestic arrivals with the ones from EWR, took me 5 mins to walk out of the airport as I already had my bag.

CONCLUSION
13 odd hours after I left chennai I was about smiling from ear to ear. What could have been 2 hours on a Chindi-GO A320 were 13 odd hours of pure awesome! An experience i'll remember for a long long time!

AI has its faults, no questions about that, the tele check-in person, the way they handled the arrival delay at MAA, lunch could have been a tad better, arrival at BOM, but the planes alone made up for what was lost !

2 striking moments in these 13 odd hours -
1) Going out of her way to serve me a cold drink, never expected that.
2) The cabin tour PFA and the flight pursuer gave me post arrival in AMD.
Unmatched.
Long Haul, i'm not sure, but i'll got out of my way and eat am prepared to eat a big chunk of my father's head again, to fly this very routing , if opportunity presents.

Cheers Guys and Thanks a lot.
_________________
Causal Determinism : We are hardwired to need answers. The Caveman who heard a rustle in the bushes and checked out to see what it was, lived longer than the guy, who assumed it was just a breeze.

- Greg House

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

Wow, Rishul - that was a cracker of a report!
First, you seem to have praised me much beyond what I really deserve. The meeting at A2B with you and Varun on the SGT road A2B was an absolute delight for me, on 28 Jul, 2013. Ever since you told me in passing that you wanted to take a trip on the AI A332 and the AI B777s, I have been excited, even more so, when you told me about it, sent an image, and made me even more excited, to have a TR from you, that too for two wide-bodies I look forward to travelling in. I apologise for in my torrent of SMSes, which may have put you into an over-drive to get a TR out ASAP - oh, this will get the madcap off my head. For some time, at least. In fact, after meeting you and Varun, and hearing of your desire, I tried collecting as much information as I could - from friends, as well as my own notes, and had compiled the following post on the Air India news section:
(See? I do not stop at self-advertisement even when replying to a post)

vivekman · Member Joined: 26 Dec 2006 Posts: 1897 Location: BOM

Brilliant report Rishul!

Good on ya to catch the AI 77L before they go away.

The catering on the BOM-AMD leg on AI 144 is really sad! I wonder how it compares to the other AI flights on the BOM-AMD sector.

Cheers,
Vivek
_________________
Boeing makes planes. Airbus makes videogames!

ameya · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:39 am Post subject:

Thanks Rishul for the wonderful TR.
Havent travelled lately and thus a TR is always a welcome change in routine

The TR section is flooded with wide body reporting these days - thanks to you and sumantra sir !

Have seen the problem with AI check in pretty often in the last few months

Eh.. EK & LH ? Saudia ?

The description of boarding at MAA is typical and hilarious ..

With the kind of late arrival, AI did a great job in turning around the aircraft and keeping it within the +15 window for OTp

A regular question,
any idea about loads from SIN-BOM, SIN-MAA, MAA-BOM and similar for the BOM-AMD leg

Hope you have had a good flight today and look forward to the TR soon

Nimish · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:38 pm Post subject:

Excellent TR Rishul - glad you had fun on the flights, and that AI was able to leave you beaming! This really is the only thing that counts - and in that respect AI has done a stellar job on this journey!

Now coming to the flights themselves - my first question is on the loads. You mentioned about 120 boarding at MAA, do you know how many were continuing through from SIN to BOM? Similarly on the BOM-AMD sector - you've mentioned a full flight, do you know how many were inbound from EWR?

I think the benefits of a wide body, and the food + the PFA more than make up for the 1K extra you had to pay Wink

!
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

shivendrashukla · Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:20 pm Post subject:

Great TR there Rishul and Amazing pics as well. The sandwich sure looks sad. Btw they still serve with plastic utensils on Domestic leg.

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

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

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

Sumantra sir, Nimish Sir, Shivendra sir Ameya sir, Vivek bhai, thanks a ton for the complements!

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

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

ameya · Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 10:26 am Post subject:

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

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Thanks for posting the detailed report. I liked the photos as it brings more liveliness to the report.

I did not know that AI's A330 has a restroom one level below that was an eyeopener for me. Also I am puzzled why does AI send a leased 330 to SIN when the other two carriers Jet and Singapore Airlines have such a good hard product. Any idea how long the lease is?

In my opinion it still makes sense to send the 747 which is lying unused which has a better hard product.

In terms of food the sandwich looks very pathetic on the BOM-AMD leg. Might as well just give some nuts and juice.

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Thanks for the TR ... great pics.

Nice routing, a bit zigag but if you have the time why not (especially at that price!)
:35 mins nice turn around time in MAA.... BLR also has a good reputation with that.
the food IMO = horrible presentation Rolling Eyes

I dont expect much on quick economy flights but that was quite sad.
the heart attack at BOM passport control .... i know that feeling hahaha.

great pics again.
Q) Why are they still using a 77L on that route? i assume the same reason they fly a 787 to ATQ??

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:45 pm Post subject:

Rishul, its great to have you back in this section!
And thanks for notifying me about your report.
I may have taken time to read it, but I have gone through it countless number of times already, thanks to your really amazing pictures, especially the A332 at BOM!
That EK flight - is it a scheduled B772? Or was I just lucky to see a B77W that day?
That was a quick turnaround! It usually is 1hr15min, that was quick!
Strange that you got plastic cutlery for the flight. I got steel stuff
Those stairs look A380-esque!
Wow. JBD parked in a place no one in this forum would have believed. And your pictures keep us quiet! And the reflection capture was really awesome! Speaking of which, I cannot get a proper rotation of the same, bur surely it did BOM-CMB-BOM-DXB-BOM before.
What an experience you had on the B77L! Short flight, yet well worth every penny! Especially the episode before take off Razz

Yes, every airline can have PFA. But it does not matter if its a PFA or 'aunty' (what a terrible thing to call a FA), they know what to do when things like OZ214 happen. And we should respect them for that.
Hoping that SGF treated you well yesterday!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

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

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Completely agree that 747 is an overkill for a 5 hour flight, but why should they pay such expensive leasing fees, when they have so many 777 and 747 lying idle which has such a good hard product.

I am sure if they get their maths right they can still fly these birds at no profit no loss and save on leasing cost.

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Sun Aug 25, 2013 11:56 pm Post subject: Re: Rains & the AI WideBodies!

Hi Rishul, I've bean meaning to check out this TR for a while except that I've been utterly busy with work nearly all days of the past week. Nevertheless, it's a Sunday night and I've gotten a good twenty minutes or so to read it through now. Smile

Theairplaneguy4ever · Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 9:17 pm Post subject:

Splendid TR there sir! Great insight into these domestic WB runs of AI!

I'm glad you had a great experience on them as well.