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Jaydeep · Member Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 37 Location: Gurgaon

Hi guys, here is my third TR, this time on DEL-PNQ-DEL sector, on Jet Airways. The title for the early arrival on outbound leg, and a delayed flight on the inbound leg. The summary is here:

Outbound leg –
Date: 12th June 2015
Flight no.: 9W 795 (VT JFR)
STD / ATD: 14:55 / 14:40
STA / ATA: 17:00 / 16.40

Inbound leg –
Date: 15th June 2015
Flight no.: 9W 364 (VT JGF)
STD / ATD: 05:25 / 07:17
STA / ATA: 07:35 / 09:00

This was my second visit to Pune airport. And I liked the airport yet again – though small, it is well organized to handle all the traffic it has.

Purpose, planning & booking:
The purpose was simple – a family function on the eve of 12th June which means reaching Pune before 18:00 hours, and hence taking a flight that leaves DEL before 15:30. However I did not want to take a leave for this… That narrowed my window to flights departing in between 13:30 & 15:30, which would then allow me to stay in office until around 12:00 at least. This left me with just 2 options: 6E 105 if I am not mistaken & 9W 795. With Indigo fair marginally below Jet, and Jet offering me food, plus leg space plus FF points, it was an obvious choice.

For the return journey, I would have liked to leave PNQ on Sunday (14th June) night to reach DEL by 22:00 or so and get a good night sleep before joining office the next day. But under the unwanted pressure from relatives, it was Monday morning, and I wanted to reach office before 9:00. This time there was just 1 option: 9W 364.

Having chosen the flights, I quickly opened the Jet Airways mobile app, and was done with booking in 5 minutes. However, the experience was not so smooth. After I completed my payment, the app went blank and in next 30 seconds I received an error message saying that the app has stopped responding. In the meanwhile, there was another message from the credit card company that my payment was successful. Confused, whether the booking was done or not, I tried the call center of Jet, where as usual all their representatives were busy talking to other guests. Waiting helplessly, I finally received a mail after around 15 minutes, with my ticket. That was unusually long to get an email, I don’t know why.

The Day of Travel:
With 14:55 as the STD, I left office at around 13:00 to reach the airport at 13:30. The driver of my cab was a new one, pretty inexperienced with roads & destinations. He used to drive the cargo vehicles earlier. When I told him I want to go to T3, he simply asked: “T3? Ye kaha hai?”. So then I said, I want to go to the airport. We started, and on my way he asked me, by airport you mean the one in Mahipalpur, right? Well, next 15 minutes I was explaining him what is T1, what is T3 and which passengers to take where if they don’t know the terminal… He patiently listened to me. After the diversion towards T3 from main highway, he confirmed if there are any speed cams, and then drove at a speed of 60 till he saw a board specifying the speed limit to 30, and there he made this comment (in typical Rajasthani accent): “Bhaiyya 30 pe koi na chalawe, ispe to aadmi so jawe (Nobody can drive at 30 kmph, the person will sleep if s/he does so). No prizes to guess that I was in laughter Very Happy

Soon I was inside the terminal building. Considering the timing, it was pretty much deserted.

It took just 2 minutes to get the boarding pass, and I headed towards the gate to reach there by 13:45. Meanwhile, the security found a fork in my cabin baggage, with me having no idea where it came from. They asked me to take it out, took a look at it, got my name & flight details written in a register, returned my fork, and it was done. Having some time in hand before the boarding would start, I clicked some pics with my not so good phone camera, taking a stroll across the gates. At the far end, there was Air Asia aircraft parked all alone. It was to depart for Bengaluru as I5 2227 at 17:25. Not sure how Air Asia is utilizing their aircraft…

My aircraft

I returned to my gate at 14.10 to see that Boarding has already started and almost half done. It was quick. I took a look at the aircraft – it was VT JFR (FlightRadar plane from Jet, Sumantra Sir? Wink

). A quick check at FR24 showed that the aircraft had arrived from MAA at 13:00 hours. The boarding was finished by 14.25, gates closed by 14.35. Captain Nilesh Makwara announced an early departure, and the tyres rolled.

Maintainance Smile

Holding short, waiting for the landing

The flight & the arrival:
Soon after the take off I dozed off, only get waken up by the FA for FOOD Very Happy

. I opted for non veg as usual. Being hungry, did not bother asking what it is. I was some green chicken curry, with a single piece of bread. A piece each of muskmelon, watermelon & papaya and the usual Imli. Though not sufficient for a hungry soul like me, the taste was good. (Here I want to say sorry for not having the skills like Sumantra sir, Pradeep sir, and a few others when it comes to describing food Razz

)

Food

My city

A round of tea / coffee was done before the trays were cleared, and then I started to skim through the magazine. To add to my happiness, there was an article on my hometown Nasik. I read it fully, read another article, and the captain announced landing at around 16:20, giving an update on visibility & weather in Pune. At 16.38, we touched down. We disembarked & walked towards the arrivals. Bags were on belt in next 5 minutes or so – an advantage of small airport, and I was out before it was 17:00. The cab was waiting there to take me home.

During the weekend we visited Lonavala – Pawana dam & Lohgad fort. The amazing weather made it all worth.

Some friendly ducks at Pawana dam

The national bird

One of the gates of once mighty fort Lohgad

A view at Khandala

The return on 15th June:

Being an early morning flight, I put on alarm for 3.15 AM before going to sleep. Unfortunately, I did not check on the flight routing. And when I woke up to my alarm, there was an sms from Jet saying that the flight was delayed and will now depart at 07:00. I quickly cancelled my cab booking and tried to make a new one for 05:15, which all the cab companies refused to do. So then it was the instant booking. Rather than going back to sleep, I decided to work on an urgent assignment for which I had to reach office before 09:00. Now that being out of question, it was wise to complete the work from home. In the meanwhile I also checked the routing. The flight was to come from Abu Dhabi, and the previous night’s PNQ – AUH flight was diverted to BOM before making it to AUH, thus delaying the returning segment. Any update on the reason for that diversion with anyone?

I left home at 05:15 to reach the airport within 20 minutes. Check-in was a breeze. After cabin luggage had departed from the conveyor belt, I realized that I had not get it scanned through the Jet Airways’ X-ray scanners placed before check-in counters. I confirmed with the guy at counter if it will cause any problem, and he said ‘No’.

That was under maintenance, and I just hoped that nobody sees me doing this...

by 05.45 I was on the first floor to see Lufthansa taking off. There were 4 aircraft getting ready for departure – 2 each of 6E & 9W, and an SG aircraft parked at Aerobridged gate no. 1. Being in half sleep, I did not notice the destinations. At 06:40 hours, an announcement was made for arrival of 9W flight from AUH, and our boarding started at around 06:55. Being the flight on international leg, we would be boarding through aerobridge - gate no. 2. The flight was pretty much empty on rear side. At 07.17 captain Ashish Soni apologized for the delay, & we pushed back to get to run way 28. By that time, Air India VT EPB was parked next to us.

Empty seats

VT KJB

I was fast asleep, again, before getting nice aroma. I quickly got ready for the breakfast, hoping for omelet & sausage with bun & butter. And yes, there it was Very Happy

After the breakfast, I slept again, with my seat upright & window pane open, so that the FA does not wake me up again for that. What woke me up was a hard landing, followed by some hard braking. It was around 09.00 then.

AI CRJ standing there

An Air Asia standee on the way out...

I got out by 09.15, reached the belts in next 5 minutes and then waited there for another 15 minutes for my luggage. After getting it, I hurriedly got out of the terminal, calling my cabbie, and to reach office at least 1.30 hours late Very Happy

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:11 pm Post subject:

Hey Jaydeep, great TR from you!!

Some lovely pictures to go along with it, the duck pictures take the cake! Very Happy

Interest taxi driver! Always a joy to have someone like that!

Quick Jet Airways check in at Delhi? Yeahh it must be snowing across the Sahara Desert now. Wink

Awesome pics from the airside!!

OH MY GOD YOU GOT CAPT. NILESH MAKWARA TOO!!!
He flew me from BOM-DEL on VT-JTB not too long ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8-J7JCTZk

That green chicken curry looks fiery! Good to know it tasted good! Very Happy

9W617 to MUMBAIZ
9W2514 to INDMRE
W379 to ELHI!! Very Happy

Lovely breakfast on the inbound!

Thanks for sharing a lovely TR, Jaydeep, I look forward to more!

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

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

Thanks for a nice TR, Jaydeep! It is interesting that you find PNQ nice: something which Punekars such as Ameya and Ojas, and to some extent, I will also contest, though more of my complaints are with the AI incoming baggage handling at PNQ, more than anything else. The airport itself is not too bad, though things could have been done much better, as is the case with some similar sized airports in larger cities: all maintained by the AAI.

I liked the trip planning details: something which strikes a c(h)ord in all of our hearts, in us aviation nutters.

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 2:35 pm Post subject:

Great TR Jaydeep. On that day 9W swapped few aircraft in Pune – even the Chennai flight was delayed.

Did they give any reason for the delay? And on the return, there is a major lapse on part of 9W to accept a baggage which was not scanned!
Great pic there of the national bird!

The FIDS is undergoing replacement. The ones outside have been replaced by screens, the same would happen inside too.
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Jaydeep · Member Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 37 Location: Gurgaon

ameya · Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:58 pm Post subject: Re: Early & late - 9W DEL-PNQ-DEL

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

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

Great TR Jaydeep, and good to know you had a great flight on both legs. The food looks quite standard and quantity wise less but I think that is what you get now a days on domestic sector.

I hope you have lodged a complaint regarding the security lapse at the airport this is a serious issue and it is unfortunate sometimes these are taken so lightly.

Sri_Bom

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Nice TR, enjoyed reading it and enjoyed your pictures as well. You captured the DEL tarmac nicely through your camera.

Jaydeep · Member Joined: 02 Mar 2015 Posts: 37 Location: Gurgaon