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patkini · Member Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Posts: 313 Location: BOM

Background:
The original plan was to visit my (gonna be) missus as well as try out the new (finally) merged Air India on the BOM-IXE sector on AI 679/680 (then IC179/180). That did not come off due to some issues with leaves from the job for the missus and hence, was extremely disheartened to cancel the itinerary.

Then my friend came across this amazing travel portal which was providing a tour package to Bangkok and Pattaya and we decided to take up this offer and enjoy some time well deserved time off from the hustle and bustle of Mumbai!

Then we realized the itinerary included IT 023/024 which has rubbish times via BOM which dint give the advantage of a red eye. Yet we decided to go ahead with the trip, because the offer was way to tempting!

The Trip:
We set off around 09:30 am IST for our flight to Bangkok which was scheduled to depart at 13:30 pm. Considering the traffic patterns around the Andheri area where the Terminal 2 of CSIA is based, we did not want to take a chance. But we made it to the terminal by 10:10 am. We had more than 3 hours to go before the flight and upon reaching my beloved VABB, I was pleased to see the recent progress on the new terminal 2 and it had been a few months since I visited the area overlooking the cargo bay.

I made a quick dash there to see the usual traffic with Fedex MD-11F, Fedex A310F (saw it for the first time) and UPS B744F (was on short finals for runway 14). I thought I would wait till the jumbo freighter made its way to the cargo bays. But my friend got a bit impatient standing in the heat guarding two bags and called me back to give me an earful.

Check-in, Immigration and Security
We entered the terminal after completing the routine CISF checks of the passport and itinerary. We proceeded to the check in counters where Kingfisher airlines had their BKK and LHR flight boarding. The English woman's cricket team was traveling to London by IT 007 and were given a dedicated check in counter. For others, IT had 4 check in counters for Y, 1 for premium King Club members and 1 for the Kingfisher First (J) class pax for both the flights combined.

We waited for our turn and I was getting impatient as a family (who seemed to be migrating abroad) seemed to be checking in bags belonging to the entire neighborhood. I desperately wanted a window seat and had not managed a web check in since we were traveling as a group and the group booking desk had already sent the manifest to the authorities the day before. I was disappointed to get an aisle seat and it meant craning my neck to catch whatever little action I could manage to see air side.

The FIDS seemed to be continuously displaying flights scheduled to leave 3-4 hours later and there seemed to be no sign of the LHR and BKK flights.

After security and immigration, we decided to check out the prices at the duty free as well as check out the F&B options to grab a quick bite later.

While roaming around, we managed to catch a glimpse of the BA 744 which does the morning flight to BOM these days. Also, managed to catch Vijay Mallya's A319CJ VT-VJM, the 9W B77W VT-JEG, AI B77W VT-ALT. Also, near the AI hangars I could see a A310 and B744 being scrapped with engines missing and devoid of titles.

Some Airside shots

The AI A310 being scrapped.

We roamed around the terminal a bit more and decided to grab a quick bite at the local KFC. While heading to KFC, the terminal seemed to be empty in spite of 3 flights boarding to LHR, 2 flights to BKK and 1 to KHI. After the meal, we managed to grab one of the reclining chairs near the gate and soon boarding commenced in typical Indian fashion with a queue being formed and pushing and shoving each other.

Aircraft: A319
Registration: VT-KFI
STD: 13:30 pm
ATD: 13:45 pm
STA: 19:05 pm
ATA: 18:45 pm

The customary leg room shot

We quickly taxied to runway 14 and took off towards Chembur. The cabin crew seemed very apprehensive of me shooting pictures and tried to "teach me the rule book and the aircraft act". They had never heard of plane spotting as a hobby and clearly seemed unhappy. In spite of me carrying the DGCA notifications, me and my friend were continually hampered in our pursuits of cabin shots though I dint give up till the end (and sadly had the same crew on my return journey too).

The cabin was full of noisy Marathi groups like the Kesaris and the Sayalis tours. It felt as if I had landed at Dadar station at Mumbai and not inside an aircraft. The aircraft seemed to be showing its ages in a few places with creaking seats and my tray table just would not open. Hence, i switched from 17D to 16D.

Food & Beverages
As we leveled out, the crew came out with the beverage cart with options like premium scotch, wine, gin, vodka, beer and a range of juices being available. I settled for a large Whyte & Mackay on the rocks which was quickly gulped down and followed by another. IT provided a packet of groundnuts to go with the drinks.

The food service followed soon after with 2 options available namely the veg and the non veg. Being a hard core non vegetarian, I chose the chicken and it tasted delicious. I just loved the Chicken Angaray (soft and tender with a perfect blend of spices) and hence, gave up the veggies in the meal because they tasted too bland in comparison. The roti was a bit hard, but the chocolate pastry and the chana chaat were pretty decent.

After the meal, I chose to walk around the cabin and took a few shots. The cabin continued to be a din with a lot of Marathi chattar pattar going on. As soon as the cabin lights were dimmed, the din seemed to get louder. While causally chatting with the FAs, I realized this flight is a favorite with group tours and that the loads averaged above 70%. Today the loads were 138/144 i.e. 96%.

The IFE
I decided to test out the IFE options. The audio selection was paltry and songs seemed to repeat themselves too often. I spent my next two hours watching 'Toonpur ka Superhero' which is a cartoon starring Ajay Devgan.

Yet for a '5 star airline' the entire experience did not seem to be '5 star' to me. I spoke to the crew about this and they tried assuring me that the service on the A330s to LHR/SIN/HKG is miles apart. But what makes a great airline is consistency in services across aircraft and classes.

Soon it was time to end the journey and as darkness crept up on BKK we made a smooth landing at BKK. I managed to a catch some birds which would be a rare catch at BOM i.e. Air Austral, Air New Zealand and Air Zimbabwe. Also, the regulars like QR and EK were present at BKK (too).

Ratings:
Aircraft: 3/5 (Dirty windows and creaky tables and seats)
F&B: 4.5/5 (Thanks to the chicken and W&M)
IFE: 1/5 (Rather have no IFE at all)
Cleanliness: 3/5 (Toilets were stinking)
Punctuality: 5/5 (Cant blame IT for the 15 min delay. Runway repairs and congestion is a problem at BOM)
Crew and Ground Experience: 3/5 (Thats for being such a thorn in trying to teach me the Aircraft Act Razz

)

Total: 19.5/30. Definitely a long way away from a 5-star airline.

As we exited from the terminal, I realized that terminal at Suvarnabhoomi is massive!! They had a quick visa on arrival for Indian tourist on paying a fee of 1000 baht and we quickly made our way out of terminal where I caught a fleeting glimpse of the tall ATC tower, but could not get a snap, since it was too dark.

Thus, ended my journey from BOM-BKK on IT 023. I would not write a TR for IT 024, since the experience was too similar. I also, did not select any meal options and just had a coffee and spent my time lazing around on the seat since the entire row was empty.

Hope you all enjoyed one of my rare attempts at writing a TR and have to thank Ojas for encouraging me to pen my journey down.

Rgds,
Pats
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You will never Fly Alone!

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Nice TR Prathmesh, You could've added few spotting pictures as well.

Kingfisher does not offer J class to BKK and this flight is mainly popular with all these package tours and backpackers from UK. Good you liked the catering, at least something that is consistent with the domestic sectors (and maybe IFE Razz

)

I guess now you know why AI has a better appeal on the BOM - BKK sector than IT!

P.S about the return sector, just let the pictures do the talking!

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

Nice TR Prathmesh! Very Happy

lovely pics too!
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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

justbala · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2007 Posts: 1898 Location: Bangalore

Good TR.Thanks for sharing!!

IT's IFE falls woefully short on international sectors!!

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:32 pm Post subject:

Cheers for a neat TR with some good shots!
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Yeah.

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

Prathamesh, thanks for a very nice trip report, along with some very nice pictures. The cargo bay pics with a Air India 310 in the new colours, the sad sight of a 310 in the old colours being parted out in the background of a new 777, and the BOM T2 airside shots - were all very nice, indeed. Do we also look forward to some pics that you clicked that day, which will appear soon on airliners.net or jetphotos.net?
Cheers, Sumantra.

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Nice report, thanks for sharing. Nothing anywhere near five star (for what that rating’s worth), but everything seems about appropriate for a short-ish, budget-ish flight like BOM-BKK. We can’t really expect them to pull out all of the stops for this route.

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Nimish · Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 10:54 am Post subject:

Wow - lovely TR - thanks for posting.

Given it's a 5* airline, I would have expected more, but the service offering as it is seems decent (though still only 4* level).

IT can certainly start with these group tours and hopefully go "up the value chain" once they get their act together on these international routes...
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We miss you Nalini!

patkini · Member Joined: 27 Oct 2007 Posts: 313 Location: BOM

@all, Thanks for reading the TR and all the wonderful comments...

@ ojas, Well I have yet to take the pics from the friend and will post them as
soon as I lay my hands on them....

@ Rishul... thanks mate... caught JGR parked right next to us at BKK and got a shot I believe... will search for that 1...

@bala... spot on... I was wayyy to disappointed... definitely no where close to 5 star in my books!!

@sumantra... well these were clicked from my rubbish cam... My friend has a D3000 and hopefully some pictures from his cam will come off all right n good enuf for jp.net...

@jasepl... point accepted... but to some extent, expecting clean toilets and a decent hard product with out creaky seats and tray tables which open flawlessly, is not a huge expectation, right?

@nimish... absolutely IT seems to be a favourite with these grp tours!!
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You will never Fly Alone!

G-BYGB · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:30 pm Post subject:

Nice TR Pratamesh!

This is a question to all the frequent travellers both International and Domestic.Generally does all airlines food tastes good?and does the cabin crew serve those food items mentioned in the menu?
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www.flickr.com/G-BYGB photos

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

Nice TR, thanks for sharing.

Sad to note that the A310 once the workhorse of Air India and the largest operator of that type of aircraft is no more.

Sri_Bom

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