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ameya · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:20 pm Post subject: 4/14 : JetCancel

As I got down near MG Road and met with some of my friends and ex-colleagues from the aviation industry, we started talking about every airline. The joke of the day was that SG chap could not come to BLR because his flight was cancelled. . . little did I know at that time of the day of what lay ahead of me.

Since there was time to kill, took ride in the Namma Metro – which I wanted to last time but couldn’t. With few stations open, there hardly was any traffic. The Namma Metro is the standard metro gauge unlike the broad gauge of most of the lines on Delhi Metro.

20140127_141743 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Went from MG Road – Indiranagar and took the ticket again and came back. The entire train ( 3 bogies) had less than 15 pax at that time of the day

With some time pass and quick food at Garuda, I set out to the wedding venue on St.Johns Church Road.

Written as its pronounced

20140127_150237 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

IndiGo twitter handle was tweeting about bad weather at GAU and I had been checking where my aircraft for the return flight is and how is the rotation doing.

Flight is already delayed

Screenshot_2014-01-27-13-51-20 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

I none the less made a booking on meru website which was very efficient and the confirmation was around

Screenshot_2014-01-27-15-15-05 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

The wedding went off well and off I left in a meru at 1700hrs towards the airport for a 1945 departure to PNQ.

The rotation of this bird was PNQ – BLR – CCU – GAU – IMF/JRH – GAU – CCU – BLR – PNQ. Due to MAFI, for temporary period the aircraft is based on BLR and does BLR CCU GAU IMF/JRH GAU CCU BLR PNQ BLR with the morning base departure from PNQ cancelled completely.

At 17:41 while I was near the Training Command of IAF and looked at the watch to see how much more time I would take to the airport rang my phone - +912240825600 Calling .. I wasn’t sure who is calling me from Mumbai at this time of the day and picked up the phone. The lady at the other end said she was calling from JetAirways and that my flight to Pune is cancelled and I am entitled for full refund.

I was shocked.

How can you inform this now ! I exclaimed.
Sir, the flight is cancelled due to bad weather at Guwahati.
Can you book me on any other airline ?
No Sir, you are entitled for full refund
Can you put me on any other flight ?
No Sir, you are entitled for full refund

I think this is the Rahul Gandhi Interview where no matter what is asked the answer is the same.

I cut the call, there was nothing much to do.

I called up the call center to check what can be done, 20 mins hold time it said and I cut the call.

As all this happened, I was nearing yelahanka, thanks to the new flyovers and I had very little time to decide. I called up my friends in 9W and asked them to transfer my PNR from this cancelled flight to 9W 448 to BOM. I was promptly told that 9W 448 is delayed from 1840 to 2040 and would land in BOM at 2220. I said OK and started thinking what next I could do to get back to PNQ.

Next call was to IndiGo where I was politely told that the load is 184 with infants for the 2010 dep to PNQ. I had already passed Yelahanka by then and I called up a travel agent in PNQ thru my dad and decided to check for options. The Travel agent suggested an SG flight at 1925hrs. While the TA reverted I had confirmation from my friends that my PNR is protected on 9W 448 and that I could travel to BOM

The TA confirmed that seat was available but needs airport authorization to book owing to how close I was to the flight time and that the fare would only be 3500. Now that is cheap for a last minute flight, when 6E was selling at 18k for the 2010 departure. Shows where SG is currently.

Do I travel Spice ? NOOO. Will I travel it today ? YESSS

I immediately ensured that the authorization is done, thanks again to my friends and as I entered the flyover towards BIAL leaving the main highway I got my SG PNR and the e-ticket on email.

Within no time, at 1815 hrs I was getting down at BIAL and opening my email to get into the terminal. From 1741 till 1815, I had my flight cancelled, shifted on a BOM flight, spoken to IndiGo, confirmed on Spice
The CISF took even more time to check the ticket on the phone and let me in. While 6E had hoards of people lined up for the check in, SG counters were empty. I walked to the counter, gave my identity and the PNR and the staff was already aware that I would come in since the authorization was given there.

The staff accompanied me the security and I was on the other side in no time. I looked around the airport again and saw the FIDS which showed only the PNQ flight being cancelled and nothing else. Few IndiGos were delayed, almost all Jets were delayed and all Spicejets were delayed as well. Only AI was on time. SG 228 to PNQ would now depart at 1945 said the board, which is still OK since it takes me to PNQ.
I met an old friend and had a quick coffee with him and headed down to gate 4 for my departure at 1900hrs.

The lower section has 4 operational gates right now and that’s much better than the existing practice of boarding via the normal 1st floor gates and then going down and boarding the bus. The SHA itself is on the ground floor.

In that entire frenzy I had not checked the METAR or the rotation or the aircraft.

The incoming aircraft was at bay at 1910 operating as SG 209 from SXR and DEL. The rotation I quickly figured out was still the same old one
227/224/224/209/209/228 PNQ BLR DEL SXR DEL BLR PNQ, which now goes to MAA from PNQ on the days DEL-PNQ-MAA operates as DEL PNQ SHJ. For the MAFI period, this flight night halts in BLR.

Boarding began soon and I was seated on 19F in no time having boarded from the rear door. Soon the FA, very efficient at her work came and requested me to move to emergency exit row and occupy 16F. While it is mandatory for atleast one pax to occupy each emergency exit, the way she portrayed it –“Sir, can we upgrade you to the emergency exit row ?” was beyond commenting ! I am still not sure if it was stupid or a nice gesture !
None the less I occupied 16F was given the briefing and we pushed back at 1935hrs, 10 mins delay from original scheduled and 10 mins before the revised schedule. We quickly taxied to runway 09 and made a powerful but smooth take off in the east.

The load was 110 as per FA and Capt. Pratap Sinha was in command assisted by Capt. Aman. The PIC informed about the flight path soon after T/O

The announcements of the crew were very similar to IndiGO – We would like to remind you that at this your seat belt should be fastened and window shades open. . complete copy

We stabilized at 32000FT and even before that happened the service had begun. My boarding card said VGML for me and the efficient crew came in and asked me on what I would have the options being Paneer with paratha or veg biryani. I opted for the veg biryani which came with curd pickle and a cake. Unfortunately none of items in the bag tasted good.
The aircraft was a sky interior B738 VT SZC MSN 39428 which is not even an year old and was named Asafoetida

It was clean but I was surprised that the seats on emergency row had trays in the arm rests !

This wasn’t the SG experience I thought it would be since the aircraft was new clean and the crew much better than expected. The in flight magazine has been revamped is better than the previous one. Had interview from the new COO Mr.Kapoor highlighting their new philosophy called SOCCH
We landed at 2055 and occupied bay 5 while 9W had an ATR and B737, 6E had one A320 and G8 had one A320 on the ramp already. The crew again thanked the pax and I thanked them for flying me in today and got down
Now the main question ? Will I fly SG again ? Still only if there is no other option, else I will fly 6E,AI,G8,9W,SG in that order

Will I fly 9W again ? Well no comments, the flight was getting delayed since morning and 9W would have well done something about it much earlier in the day since all factors were known. This peculiar problem with 9W operations continues till date and they cannot handle IRROPS properly

2363dep by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

2363arr by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

2364 dep by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

2364dep by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

The spice flight at BLR

20140127_192711 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

20140127_192718 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

Spicejet needs a lot of improvement everywhere and one such example is the schedules page

SG 851 for SXR at 0550 but the same flight for IXJ at 0555 !

20140127_204151 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr
My boarding cards for the day

20140128_134107 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

For all those interested in knowing how I keep notes of the happenings … there you go.. every paper which has some space on it gets filled during the journey

20140128_134142 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

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

Thanks for posting the report. Seems like you had a bit of adventure to get your Pune flight. The beauty is that you could manage all the changes on the road thanks to technology.

If SpiceJet does not pull up its socks they will face competition from Air Asia soon.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:45 pm Post subject:

What an entertaining TR sir, thank you!
Well, it could've gotten much, but it turned out to be better than expected, I guess! I rarely travel with any sort of back up - travel agents numbers and all. I always assume everything will go well, and so far, I have been very lucky!

Looking forward to your US trip reports! Smile

Regards
Jish

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

Ameya Sir: that was really entertaining to read, but rather scary to have to undergo. I enjoyed the details at Bengaluru, the `Citizen Cane' photo, and finally, the way you handled it all within half an hour, with amazing logic and precision, all with your characteristic calm. The point that Jishnu made: most of us never travel with any backups, or any Plan B, and just hope and pray that IRROPS do not happen. Air India's IRROPS handling has been surprisingly nice, on the occasions when I have been involved, I have documented them all in my trip reports. All questions get the same answer - ha ha! SG food seems to have almost uniformly gone down in quality from almost all that I hear from, and from personal experience as well. Among us on this forum, I guess only Rishul gets lucky on his 2.5 hour flights, to have some rather nice meals. I really liked the way you make detailed notes for your trip reports! Thank you for sharing this bit - this is something that really strikes a cord in the hearts of us aviation enthusiasts. And thank you for sharing this lovely TR with us as well!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:52 am Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:53 am Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:58 am Post subject:

shivendrashukla · Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 3:51 pm Post subject:

Good TR Ameya. I somehow rate SG better. They have a better seat pitch then even 6E although fares are almost the same. The flight that I took, were generally on time. Good, clean aircraft (Well nothing beats 6E on that). Anyways good to know you didn't have to suffer much to reach PNQ.

Cheers
Shivendra

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

Thanks for the TR. I can imagine your brain working in overdrive on the way to BIAL figuring out plan B ....
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