Airliners-India.com

[jbalonso777]

Link to previous TR: http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?p=116091#116091

DEPARTURE DAY
This was it, the final for us in South Africa. But we still had 3 more day's of
United Arab Emirates to go through! So we left the airport that morning,
for another flight on the Boeing 777-300ER. Our very friendly driver took
us through Johannesburg, just to show us one thing. To be honest, few
streets there look the same as the ones in Colombo! Anyways, he showed
us the Wanderer's Cricket Stadium, the place where India won the
inaugural T20 World Cup, held in South Africa!


Sadly, we didn't have time to see the Soccer City Stadium.

So we were on our way to the airport.


When I grow up, I'll have a house. In South Africa. In Johannesburg. On
this road! Wow people on this road have the coolest addresses!

We were a bit fast in the corner, but I saw a number of tails in front of the
terminal: Air France, Lufthansa, our Emirates aircraft, Singapore Airlines
and Kenya Airways. Too fast for me to take a picture.


The driver bid us a very kind goodbye. And after my episode in Rand
Airport, he obviously figured out my want-to-be-occupation, and he told
'Reach for the skies, son, I know you can!' Well, that's the second driver
to bid me such a fabulous goodbye!

PRE-BOARDING STUFF
We were a bit before time for check in. So we had to wait a bit. I hoped to
see the Jet Airways Airbus A330-200, but we were anyways very late.
Although I did see a B738 in Colombo!


So me and Dad, went (far away) into the Viewing Deck of Johannesburg
Airport. Let the pictures do the talking.



Coming in from the lonely part of the airport..


Wide body activity. Dad's A332 to BOM was parked where the LX and BA 747 were parked..

I wanted to fly on one of these




Not quite the view one would want from a view deck..

Jo'burg, one last time..

By then, check in had started. So this weird agent checked our tickets,
just before we entered in our line. Here's what she said:
'So you are going to Colombo and Mumbai?'
Dad nodded his head
'Who's going to Colombo?'
Dad pointed to the three of us
'Why is she not going to Colombo?'
Aunty said: 'Because I work in Mumbai?'
'So they are leaving you in Dubai?'
'No'
'If you are all Indian, why are you 3 going to a different country?'
'We work there.'
'But she works in Mumbai?'
OH FOR GOD SAKE I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THIS WENT ON, BUT WE
JUST TOOK IT AS A JOKE (probably she wasn't? )

Anyways, there already was a long check in line.



The 'lift' system of handling baggage..

So we just gave our passports and BANG! Our boarding passes were
printed! Fascinating! They didn't need the PNR's! And also, we landed in
Cape Town, not Johannesburg! This is pretty cool to be honest! Wow!

But anyways, check in was done really quickly, and when I asked about
the loads, 100%, all classes. Well, they are doing very well on this sector,
no wonder they deployed the A380, once upon a time. This was followed
by security, where we were stopped for carrying a bottle of water. I made
the biggest mistake by drinking 3/4th of a bottle. Now I wanted to fly on
the 9W A332, because of the 2-4-2 seating. Oh, well.


So we went to this tax refund. And because of a few extremely weird,
lame, stupid, useless reasons, we got nothing back. We waited in the Duty
Free area, going through the shops, etc. (I also went to the loo twice,
drinking water DID NOT HELP!)


No wonder the lines are empty!

There was this one store, where the Skrillex version of 'Levels' by Avicii
was playing. It kept playing. There is a limit to listening to music over and
over again. So now, the song was stuck in my head. I was hoping that it
didn't come back during the MoOOOOOooOO of the GE-90!

Then I went to the Ferrari Store, where I met my first South African
friend, quite obviously a Ferrari fan! We discussed how brilliantly Alonso
won the 2012 Malaysian GP, and his disappointment in the next race. He
asked me where the nearest GP for him would be. Easy it was: Abu Dhabi.
After I told him that I'm going to Ferrari world in AUH, he showed me a
picture of his team with Felipe Massa, who came into Johannesburg for the
2009 A1 GP Race of the Nations (Narain Karthikeyan did pretty well there
). A bid him a farewell, and headed for my gate.

On the way, me and Dad stopped at the Electronics shop, just to see one
thing: the newly launched Nikon D800 camera! I instantly sent that picture
to one of my friends in Colombo, and he said exactly the same as I
thought: 'Beautiful Beast!' There was also a team of my-age school
students going on the Singapore Airlines flight. (Oh, in case I forgot to
mention, there was a large team on my DXB-CPT flight).

But sadly, our walk to gate was short lived, as Dad HAD TO drink some
beer. So, we waited. There were ad's of all the Star Alliance airlines in the
airport, most notably, Ethiopian Airlines.


The Bar..

Boarding Pass

BOARDING
Then we went towards Gate A10, the farthest set of departure gates from
curbside. Obviously, that caters to mostly the wide body flights.

'Cardinal' on one side of the airport..

Its starting to get cloudy Looks like another rainy departure out of JNB for Dad..


All the flights..!

A DOWNGRADE, A DOWNGRADE FOR THE WORSE: EK-762 JOHANNESBUG-DUBAI 17TH APRIL 2012
Airline: Emirates (EK/UAE)
Aircraft Boeing 777-36N/ER
Registration: A6-EBJ
Class: Economy
Seat: 35A
Departure time: 1410 hours, Actual: 1403 hours
Arrival time: 0010 hours (18th Apr), Actual: 0021 hours (18th Apr)

Boarding was already underway (oh, it was just about 40 minutes before
departure time). I was disappointed, extremely disappointed on what I
saw. This flight was downgraded from an Airbus A380, so they'd at least
give us a new aircraft! No, they gave us EBJ. I saw the rivets on the
cockpit, kind of reminding me and Dad of the Alliance Air B732's, which
are 25+ years old.

What the hell?!


I have a model of F-HPJA!

There are so many Wide bodies!

Ah, the odd one: narrow!!

Rival airline, family aircraft...not a brother yet

How freaking old are you?! Look at you!


So this weird agent check our passports again, and asked me I had grown
a beard (not there in my passport picture). I just told that I was on
holiday, thats all. HAH!
Already a bit disappointed, we walked down the jetway. Well, Dad had
taken the other entry, so there wasn't any chance for us meet, until
boarding the aircraft
While walking in, I was now more unhappy.

Business class seats? The old ones, like back from the 90's, just like the A330's. I knew this was bad already....



LOSERS BESIDE ME!
We had a bit extra of cabin luggage...so I took my seat. There was a
middle aged couple sitting right beside me. When Dad came to put one of
his bags in the compartment above me, the lady made a few faces at him,
and already there was this feeling of a fight in me. When Dad just moved
her bag (just a tiny bit), she started her drama. Alright fine, it was his fault
that she touched an irritating b*tches bag, without asking, but I see no
reason why she had to fire up? 'Excuse me! That's my bag! Please move
your things away!' Dad, being awesome Dad, didn't give a damn. One of
the crew members came to help Dad, and she said 'Mam please calm
down!' Yes! I had the crew with me! Eight extremely irritating hours
ahead! She told his husband (or boyfriend? ) 'That as*hole tried to
move my things away!' I was raging! Furious! I felt myself heating in the
cold aircraft, my ears were red for sure! I knew there was nothing I could
do, instead I just called Dad from the in-seat phoning thing. I told him
everything in Bengali, and quite brilliantly, he said 'Ask her to jump off,
she looks like a piece of s*it anyway.' Oh, super Dad! Anyways, back
to the seat. There was this massive IFE box, compromising leg room, a
different tray table type, and the usual blanket, pillow, etc om the seat.
I'm glad she didn't take my stuff from there.



The FA's distributed HOT HOT HOT towels! Just what I DIDN'T NEED! Why
not cold towels?!?!?!?!? Ah God!

The fight for who keeps whose legs where...
And also not the different way to open the tray table.

Just a last thing I did on the internet: find the details of the airframe, its
just more than 6 years old, one of the few aircraft which has been leased
from GE, and also 12 first class seats: just shows what a crappy plane
they gave..
Anyways, fake Lady Gaga (I'll name her that, because she had some
zebra skin as her shawl which had a weird smell, FLG is her code name
) wanted to get her iPad from her bag. So she got up opened the luggage
compartment (which the FAs had closed for departure), and got her stuff.
What, I.C.E isn't good enough? Later, it was comical! She couldn't close
the damn thing! Even her partner refused to get up! So she called one of
the F/A, and she closed it. She just made a friendly gesture showing how
easy it was. Instead, FLG had to make something big about this as well.
'Look how rude people have become these.' Oh well, the F/A's are rude
huh? Look at yourself!

DEPARTURE



And then, the MOOoOOoOOOooooOOOO followed. Because of the cold
temperatures, the engines had a bit of a smoky start. This was while the
engines were being fired up, FLG had a problem with the GE-90's also.
Lucky I didn't have her voice on camera. Well if everything is problem for
you, why don't you live in a cave in Tibet? You can kill yaks there and
make shawls! Oh wait, you need your iPad. Why didn't she take a narrow
body flight to wherever she was bloody going? Oh no, she'll complain its a
small aircraft there. Bleh.

Anyways, the roar once again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msMa7tSfoYo (who ever is disliking my videos surely doesn't know how much my under performing camera can do! )




SA A346 departing..

LX A343, BA B744, BA One World B744, and the farthest B747? The
Boeing 747-8. OH MY GOD!!!! I actually saw it! With my own eyes!


Oh, the shadow..


Taxiing...

This followed by a powerful, proper Boeing 777 take off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57VjrLr_tIs (I pan the camera when the B748 is there )

INFLIGHT
All the time we were taxiing, FLG was discussing the menu with her partner. Really? Eat what you want! For god sake -_-

Listening to the languages spoken onbaord, hindi wasn't there. So not such
a home flight after all...But we soon leveled off at 33,000 feet, with a
tailwind of 10 km/ph. I started watching Chak De! India on the IFE, trying
to forget whatever happened in the last hour.

Climbing..







Before drink service started, I opened my note pad to write stuff down. My Parker Pen was leaking, which once again looked like a problem for FLG to discuss. She gave this really hated looked at me. I gave a look back, something like this; 'Your zebra skin is not getting damaged coloured, mind your own f..cking business.'
But anways, a cold Pepsi and the savory biscuits calmed me down. FLG took 2 bottles of wine...that kind of explains everything!




She started reading the stuff written on the bottle, like reading a bed time story for 5 year olds. I hope she realised everyone was busy with I.C.E.



Food service followed, and I took the fish option, while FLG was still deciding what to eat, seemed like another problem? Anyways, giving lunch at around 4 in the afternoon, strange right?

That is a lot of food!
The fish was Hake, something Dad eat twice in South Africa, so I tried it. MOUTH WATERING, thats all!

This was followed by another drink service..


Turbulence followed, and the tray tables were collected. I went to the washroom, forcing FLG and her boyfriend to get up. Just as I walked back (I went to the washrooms in front), she got up, but I headed back to visit mum, dad and aunty. LOL it was so freaking funny when she got up! I had timed this to perfection...just as she got her butt down, I made my irritating presence, so she HAD TO get up, again. Revenge is always sweet

By the end of this episode, the sun had started to dip, we were just crossing Tanzania then. With this, I watched some Simpsons and Family Guy.



I'm the only one with the open window! Strangely, all light well on FLG's face. She told me to put down the window shade and, with a lot of strength, courage, will power, etc, I said: 'Mujhe tasveer khenchni hai.' Obviously, she hadn't understand a thing I said, and I obviously had to clue what I had just said! It was just one of those pre-faint feelings, but I manged it to pull it off! I was so proud! Its just like Dad giving answers to those irritating call center phones! I later giggled a bit


That's exactly what I wanted to tell FLG!




No more sun, need to find new tactics to irritate FLG.





So its all dark now..


Because my pen leak was out of control, I had to ask for one. I asked for a pencil. Instead, one eternity later, they gave a pen which didn't work. Well, at least they gave it! The crew kept going through the cabin with the duty free runs, giving people the things they ordered for. Once the outside was completely dark, the cabin was given the same effect: blue mood lighting and stars. It was hard to take a picture, but I managed a few anyways..


Somalia..




Out of Africa then

So I went to the washroom once again, but there was a bit of a long line. I was FLG was standing in front of the exit door reading here newspaper, like a witch. So, time for another trick: TAKE AS LONG AS YOU WANT IN THE WASHROOM! YESS! So I did that for 10 minutes

'Tomorrow says Hello is 120 languages.' Well, but they give instructions to use the washroom only in six

So, these are to refresh yourself, right? Well, thats only for 5 minutes, it burns and skin gets dry a minutes later


So I walked out, FLG was still standing in front of the exit door. I gestured to my Dad to call me. Once he did, FLG was once again referred to as a with-sh*t face. I expected 8 hours of horror, but I turned it around and defended my Father brilliantly. Then followed, a snack service. Oh come on! First you serve lunch so late, and then give a mid night snack t 10 in the night. That's not fair, Emirates! Sadly, there was only one option for all.. Turbulence came with this, and so did 2 and half men.


Another one

Uhm, YEAH!

FLG FINALLY used her iPad, 7 hours after she removed it. She was using the email. But I guess EK allows this.
One hour and 19 minutes to go, over Salalah, FA's collected..everything. That is so early! The captain came over the PA that there is a LOT OF congestion over Dubai, but we would land just about 10 minutes later. (We had tailwind, so yeah, it was actually a big delay). He also announced that we were at 37,00 feet, 4,000 feet higher than our initial cruise height.



I visited the washroom one last time, and decided to call truce with FLG.

DESCENT AND ARRIVAL
It started with 29 minutes to go. Captain also announced that people sitting on the left can see the lights of Abu Dhabi as we were circling, and here it is:



My ancestral home, CCU! (probably DAC also?)

My current home, CMB!
Where's my real home, BOM?!?!

All set to land..

Carousel 6...

I.C.E was also dying, it showed 14hr33min flying time from JNB. What?!?!!

We landed at a very crowded Dubai Airport.
Long taxi! Hope you enjoyed it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnKsMLC6Xns

Once again, like EK-772 (the A345 flight, which aunty took)and our EK-770, this aircraft was parked at a remote REMOTE parking bay. It clearly shows South Africa is a tier two destination for Emirates. But still, they use the A380 in the airport!


Its almost 0030 at night, and that is an A345 in the remote parking bay. Could that be EK-772 to Cape Town? No one knows...


After these pictures, FLG had disappeared. With everything over, I believe I won the long battle

Anytime But I was a bit disappointed tonight.

Slightly different from the other two flights, right?!

This has to be the saddest business class seat in the whole of the Emirates Boeing 777 fleet! Very, very bad!

Wow, where you really so badly tortured, Bravo Juliet?!



At 0045, I deplaned. A long bus ride followed, which was about 25 minutes long. We entered the terminal (obviously after going by many EK aircraft), at 0110 hours. It was the transit terminal. It was worse than Mumbai! Loaded with people! Crowded! Noisy! Everything! Just like a Saudi Arabian Airport in Hajj probably! Nothing was organised! This was followed by a long walk to the eye scanning area, and our fears were confirmed: LONG LONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGGGG IMMIGRATION LINES! Luckily eye scan took only about 20 minutes, but immigration? 3 line changes, one hour and 41 minutes. How did I stand for so long? I dont know. This was worse than Mumbai. A Nepali airport worker came and told us that there are 120+ Emirates aircraft arriving in those wee hours of the morning. Smallest aircraft is the A330-200. A Japanese passenger was virtually tortured by the Emirates ground staff as he was moved from one line to another. He finally blew up, and fought his way into the Business Class line. Very unprofessional on Emirate's part. The immigration guy kept talking to his buddy! Move it man! Our baggage was dumped on the side of the belt, as they had to make way for the other flights arriving. The customs took a bit longer, as we had open the suitcase to show the African Statue. 0240 hours, and finally I was in Dubai city! From the second I saw my aircraft, I was extremely disappointed by everything from Emirates (except for IFE and Crew). I kept this short, it could have been very, very long. One of Dad's colleague, who Dad recruited in CCU, picked us up at the airport, and he waited for so long!


Crowd is increasing..


DUBAI!!
I didn't sleep for too long, luckily! But lucky for me, airport was right there!
So, a quick Dubai visit then. Even Dad has said that Dubai has changed over the last 3 years! What a fantastic country United Arab Emirates is!









FOR ONCE!! SOMETHING DIFFERENT!













We were warned that Pakistani drivers give us Indians a horrible ride in the Safari. But no! He was flawless! Beautifully executed, controlled! He also told us why Pakistan is a good place. He was a really friendly driver. He is one of the people who has changed my views, completely. He spoke crisp Hindi. He hails Sachin Tendulkar. I simply don't get the politics between us and them! They are genuinely good people! He also gave us his views about staying in the UAE, and he says that its never been safer! Never doubt anyone is what I learnt from here!

So thats part 4, the final one remains...
Stay tuned!
Regards
-Jbalonso777

Link to next TR: http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/viewtopic.php?t=12519
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[sumantra]

Yet another superb report, replete with lovely pictures (especially of the plane wing, and the airport, in general!), and what has become by now, the trademark Jishnu Basu-brand of humour and wit. Your description of the `FLG' episode had me in splits. You are lucky to have your Dad be a co-conspirator in such deeds - it must really feel out of the world! Further, to have one's parent have exactly the same set of interests, and be someone really young at heart, more as a friend than a parent. it really would be an awesome feeling. Yet another report had me completely rivetted to the screen for God knows what period of time, since I read and re-read the report. Superb, Sir, Superb - please keep it coming!
Admiringly Yours,
Sumantra.

[jbalonso777]

[jbalonso777]

Like I mentioned in the first part in this series, here are a few pictures that I have managed to extract from my EHD

The second best sounding GE engines, the GE CF6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMdk3A2zuGw

Take off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcWpaNZnUPg

Obviously Dad wasn't interested to see another sun rise from the aircraft, he fell asleep instead, and took a few pictures in the morning:



That was followed by the landing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c-Pe-JmQKM

And then the return flight;



Cardinal was parked at the bridge you are looking at

Onboard the A332. Note the Egyptair sign in the background!

Its fantastic what a Nikon L15 can achieve!

And suddenly this happened!

Taxiing, note the water spray and reflection! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3pjS7Ns-xk

Take off, oh, that CF6 sound![url] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNE3cj_4mAM[/url]




Hitting the coast, heading for BOM..


Wrong side for sunset, but pretty good result anyway


And then, the landing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnJB7kM9Td8
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[abhijith16]

Haha, awesome TR!!!

Your tales of FLG, remind me of this incident that happened when I was travelling from DXB-BOM, when this arrogant arab B*****, told me and my mother to change seats, because she had to put her fat ass in the aisle.

I got my revenge by taking a lot of time in the toilet, while she was waiting beside me in the queue. I gave her a nasty smile while she frantically dashed for the door. (cue the evil laugh!)

Sometimes I wish they could be just chucked out of the window..
_________________
<a><img></a>

[jbalonso777]

[jbalonso777]

A few more here as well...


Dad must have gone back to BOM from one of these departure gates..


Sunset again..

Another take off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3BNwx3GfUY

Despite flying on them for 6 times, I didn't take a single video of the cruise on the Boeing 777! Here is a video, along with the sunset..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5OCuPw2090

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

[sumantra]

Lovely...the departure gates have a nice patterned floor.
Good to see you revive some of my favourite 2012 posts!
Cheers, Sumantra.

[jbalonso777]