Airliners-India.com

[jbalonso777]

Hello everyone
And welcome.
To what, by default, is my first trip of report of 2015.

INTRODUCTION
What this trip will cover is a short and quick trip to and from Bharat. Now, those on WhatsApp and few others would know that I found an outrageously cheap ticket on Jet Airways for a return ticket from Colombo to Mumbai. That got me real excited, and I looked forward to the 12th of July 2015, which would be my first flight of 2015.
However, as it turned out, over the next few days, stuff happened. Exam stuff. And yes, strange for an avgeek to say, but truth be told, this trip was one I wasn't looking forward to. Add to that, this trip was to be done in the middle of my mock examinations.

Morning of 28th December, 2014. The strangely long monsoon continued as a cold rainy and windy morning leads the door of my bedroom to be slammed, waking me up. I read Ameya sir's message on the WhatsApp group - an AirAsia Indonesia Airbus A320 disappeared off radar while flying from Surabaya to Singapore. 2014 wouldn't end on a particularly good note for me. Dad called me over for a talk, and I reluctantly agreed to this trip.

WHERE TO? AND HOW?
We had a choice: 17th and 18th January 2015 in either Pune or Delhi. I was pro-Pune because it gave me an opportunity to fly a new airline: GoAir, and perhaps another A340 flight on UL's morning CMB-MAA flight. It looked more likely that Delhi was a more feasible option, although it did mean spending an extra day. Rather spend an extra day in the comforts of a hotel than many hours at the (Chennai) airport.

Combinations. I looked out for interesting combinations. Jet had A330s deployed on MAA/BLR-DEL routes, but UL's CMB-MAA/BLR timings did not serve my cause. Then of course, Vistara from Mumbai to Delhi and back, but again, high fares. It was all down to the trusted Jet Airways, who offered the best deal from Colombo to Delhi via Mumbai. In terms of fares and times.
Flights would be something like this:
9W255 16JUL15 0610 0840 CMB BOM B73H
9W307 16JUL15 1135 1340 BOM DEL B73H
9W384 18JUL15 2130 2340 DEL BOM B73H
9W256 19JUL15 0230 0500 BOM CMB B73H
(As you might’ve noticed, I didn’t even mention UL up until this sentence Simple, UL were expensive, the return was too early, and well the proposition of being inside a narrow body for over 3 hours is as scary as a flying roach chasing me.)

BOOKINGS
My previous track record of a pain free booking has been quite bad due to my own mistakes. However this time, I didn't make a single mistake, or leave out any blanks to be filled (compulsory to select a meal!), a PNR was generated, and tickets sent to mailboxes. I headed off for the PreReserve seat feature, something that Jet allows for all international flights. All the flights were scheduled to be on planes with a 12/156 configuration, except 9W307 BOM-DEL, which happened to be the orginal international configuration. Although, the site did throw some tantrums at me while changing some seats... Also went to sort out some silly JP issue, which was sorted on the phone eventually, a call lasting only 2m58s. But the meal preferences changed! Kept trying this, but it changed always despite resetting it non-veg meals. Oh well.

ROTATION, ROTATION. WHAT WOULD THE PLANES BE?
Excited by the prospect of a 16/138 configured plane operating 9W307, I decided to head over to FR24 and check which planes would operate the flights. This was undone when I learnt that it was in fact VT-JGE/F/G operating the flight to DEL and DED. Most of the time, at least, the plane followed a DXB-IXE-BOM-DEL-DED-DEL-BOM-IXE-DXB rotation. (No, plane isn't based at DXB! Its full utilization, that's all ) But knowing Jet, who do not really follow these rotations, they could swap rotations at BOM, so at times a Sky Interior plane would operate to DEL & DED in the morning, or a different plane operating to IXE in the evening!

Similarly with 9W255/256. The plane would come in from anywhere: DXB (9W538), CCU (9W628), HYD (9W456), BKK (9W67), SIN (9W11) or even CMB (9W251/252 rotation), before operating the red eyes to Colombo. Things were a bit predictable here: it'd mostly be a plane with seatback IFE, such as all planes between JGP-JGW, JBB-JBK and JBQ-JBS. No, not the BSI+IFE planes JBW/JBX. They fly around DEL and MAA to SIN.

As for 9W384, it was any plane from the ex-Konnect birds to the newer non-HGW BSI planes to the recently recovered after her bird strike VT-JBH! But, this flight would be operated by any of the two specific planes flying BLR/MAA-DEL.

A word on JGE/F/G. These three, are the birds which Abhijeeth and I call the evil three. Why? Well, they're old birds, they do not have seatback IFE, they do not have the Sky Interior, the seats are weird! While discussing the evil three, Abhijeeth rather brilliantly drew similarities between them and the other evil three, Kim/Kourtney/Khloe! Yep, Kardashian sisters = 3 specific planes in Jet's fleet. 'Ugly, fat and avoid at all costs', is the apt description! Speaking of which, I do apologize. 9W255 in July was supposed to be my first flight of 2015, not this....

WEB CHECK IN
Set an alarm for 0610 hours on 15JAN15, but it didn't work out because I rather astonishingly missed each of the 4 alarms I set, and eventually woke up at 0930 or so do the web check in. As usual, the hunt for SEQ1 was on!
Web check in for Dad. As usual, you give in the details which is followed by the option to select passengers for check in. Only Dad this time since I wanted to try the mobile check in again No longer is Jet OLCI A PISsing off experience, thanks to the new system. I skipped the optional emergency contact page (oh, well done Jet!), and headed over to the flights summary: both 9W255 and 9W307 were reflected, so were the pre-reserved seat numbers. Just to double check, I headed over to the change seat option, and boy was I glad I did so! While 9W255 was in the scheduled 12J/156Y configuration, 9W307 changed from a 16J/138Y configuration to the 12J/156Y configuration, and to my horror, our seats were still the same, so I had to make some changes here and there, it wasn't much of an issue as most of the plane seemed empty. Check in complete, options of email/mobile boarding passes were given, and then, it was all over

So, with an equipment swap, I guess parts of the 'Rotation, rotation. What would the planes be?' are completely redundant

MOBILE CHECK IN
Exactly the same process, except that 9W255 and 9W307 seat confirmations were on different pages, so I got a bit worried but it was generally fine
Fill in the details (not everything has to be AUH, Jet ), confirm passengers to check in, (reflecting Dad's been checked in), the no longer 'A PISsing off' step, confirmation for 9W255, seat selection, confirmation for 9W307, the relatively empty seat map for 9W307, and then the two usual steps, following which I got the mobile boarding pass in my mailbox just seconds after I reached the confirmation page of OLCI. They also sent a PDF format of the boarding pass.
Two painless check in processes, everything was all good to go!

I spent the day packing, studying, and tracking which plane would operate my flights the next morning.
...and so I did, mostly track which plane would operate my flight. It really was down to 6 planes. The first of which, was VT-JBG to SIN, departing BOM at 1010 hours as 9W10, and arriving at 2234 hours as 9W11. This plane, in fact, flew 9W255/6 just before the SIN flights, as it usually is. VT-JFX to BKK departed next at 1333 hours as 9W60, and arrived at 0100 hours on the 16th as 9W67. The next departure was critical, it was the Dubai flight. Its highly likely that either 9W537/538's bird or 9W251/252's bird would fly 9W255/256. At 1558 hours, VT-JGS departed as 9W538 to Dubai, and came back at 2304 hours. Bad news for me, I have already flown VT-JGS VT-JFS was up next, as it departed BOM heavily at 1729 hours as 9W625 to CCU, and came back late as 9W628 at 2313 hours. The next departure was also critical, 9W252 to Colombo. This was operated by VT-JGV, departing at 1815 hours and arriving at 2338 hours. VT-JGV, like VT-JGS is a plane I've already flown on. Oh no

That gave fellow member Abhijeeth plenty to cheer about because I told him once: if there was any airline who'd break my run of 17 new registrations logged consecutively, it would be Jet. And by the looks of it, that was what happened. It went to such extremes that I had to call in a fictional dog Ram Lal in, a classy dialogue used by Paresh Rawal in the movie 'Hera Pheri'.


Online upgrade for DEL-BOM. Hm..

I set an alarm for 0000 hours, but knew it was too unrealistic before finally waking up at 0120 hours, and getting some work done. As time passed by, I eventually got a bit late by around about 15 minutes, leaving at around 0243 hours.

JET AIRWAYS 9W255 COLOMBO-MUMBAI 16TH JANUARY 2015
There was, however, something different about this drive to the airport. No, it wasn’t a taxi driver taking us or were we taking a different route. I was driving to the airport It was a proud moment as I already felt like a F1 racer On the highway, I touched about 120kmph, which was 40kmph too much, and I only have a learner’s license I did overtake 2 cars on the expressway, felt good

PRE-BOARDING ROUTINE
The slow driver (me) got us to the airport at exactly 0318 hours. Christmas decorations were still there on the approach road. A huge crowd was present, but that was just the crowd seeing off their family. Or was it? We got down, and just before entering the terminal, we were stopped by the guard who wanted to see our identification. He asked us something in Sinhala to which I politely said ‘Sinhala dan nay..’ (which is basically me telling him in Sinhala that I don’t know Sinhala), and the two of us burst out laughing, Dad not having a clue as to what was going on! We entered the main passenger terminal, and boy oh boy was there a crowd!


New shops and stalls open..nice!


Crowd before entering the check in area

Seemingly full flights to Kuwait, Sharjah and Dubai, as there were a lot of passengers checkin in. Lines were horrendously long and a bigger was created thanks to the Malaysia Airlines and Emirates check in boards just kept, creating mass confusion. Plenty of passengers for the Mumbai Jet flight, I also saw some Nepali passports! Counters 43-47 for us, 2 for Y, 1 for OLCI, 1 for J/platinum/gold etc etc.


Check in lines for other airlines

Check in took a very long due to issues for others, but the lady was very nice, tagged our bags ll the way to DEL, told us about the customs, and put MH fragile tags Luggage weight at 29.9kgs, we were set for a domestic flight Meanwhile Abhijeeth mentioned on the WhatsApp group that none of the predicted planes would operate the flight, but it would in fact be VT-JFQ. Jet Airways, spoiling my predictions since 2011

Domestic transfer tags and MH fragile sticker


Empty UL check in area. This would fill up soon as the UL bank of flights depart.


Christmas decorations still prevalent

Phone battery issues were aplenty, something which was being extensively discussed
Immigration and all were quick, was airside by 0352, I headed up to the palm strip for some spotting. Read the captions

Usual high flyer club for me


And coke from Al Ain


A6-AOA all set to head back to Sharjah


4R-ADF back in Colombo after taking the Pope to Manila!




A6-ANS comes from Sharjah, a mere few minutes after another G9 bird departed!


A6-FED from DXB, will head to HRI and then DXB


4R-ADB has come in from Rome, and will head to MAA empty, and return as UL122. Yeah, weird...


Tarmac




I used the wifi by Dialog at LKR250. A rip off, considering the fact that it worked for only a few minutes. A Mihin plane came, 4R-MRE.

I look at the time: Oh My its 0520 hours! Boarding time! I head off through a rather crowded CMB Airport terminal. I begin the long walk towards gate 8, or according to the boarding pass, gate A8. Security is relatively empty because every passenger is in the holding area. I take my time, all’s well. Boarding starts as soon as I show my boarding pass, and it gets torn off.

9W255 final call!



BOARDING
Boarding starts. Its about 0538 hours. Boarding is announced for passengers seated in rows 25-36. I wait aside. I do not see Dad. Me a bit worried. I text the Airliners-India Whatsapp group. I see the Kuwait Airways A300 pushes back at 0546. A quick turnaround for her! Boarding is called for passengers seated in rows 15-36. I still wait, as Vinish (Optimus.Prime) asks me to Its good fun! I hear some beautiful GE CF6s as the Kuwait Airways heads off. Its an amazing experience! As the crowd fizzles out, I still see Dad isn’t around.


VT-JFQ, 1.1 years old, looking beautiful!




I board VT-JFQ, no mood lighting or anything on, but really welcomed me was the inviting sound of the A300’s GE CF6 and 2 flight attendants who were there, smiling at times, sometimes now… I’m also invited by a long queue of passengers putting their stuff up in the bins. One of the FAs offer drinks to J class passengers: pomegranate and watermelon are the options which I hear, amongst others.

J class



Y class bulkhead

Welcome announcements were being done, but it was just too loud - I couldn’t hear a thing, and presumably neither did any one of the passengers who were all chattering away. After a separate announcement, informing ground personnel to deplane, purser Payal does the whole welcome announcements, introducing the crew to us, and giving us more detail of the flight: we’d have a slightly lengthy flying time of 2hr20min; where did all the helpful tailwind disappear to?
Just a few minutes before departure, the Arabic Massa comes in.



DEPARTURE - MORNING BEAUTY!
At 0604 hours, 6 minutes before time, we push back and our engines are brought into life. The safety demo is done. Yes, yet again, the FA selects my row to keep the stuff for demonstration (it was row 24 on VT-JFK, row 24 here). However, rather than not taking a video, I took a video. And the FA didn’t say anything as he did his demonstration!
As we slowly started taxiing, behind A6-ANS and passing three UL A340s, an amazing orange light was turned on as mood lighting, signifying the sunrise. This was soon turned to a darkish blue for take off.







Take off was strange. Not only the fact that it wasn’t a full length take off, a first for me at Colombo, we inched on to the runway with about 1/3rd power applied, and by inch, I’m not joking! We nearly came to a standstill half way while turning! And to make this a bit more worrying, we slowly inched forward for nearly 15 odd meters, I saw a technical snag propping up, and us turning back to the gate.
But just then, JFQ’s engines were applied full thrust and we took off into the brightening skies of Katunayke, we were on our way to Mumbai.
IN FLIGHT - THE NEW JET!
If the Sky Interior lighting wasn’t enough (it changed back to orange as soon as the fasten seatbelt signs were turned off), there was a beautiful performance by nature itself, as an orange line fitted in between the seemingly blue and gray horizon: the sun was rapidly rising and this looked absolutely stunning. I mean come on - who wants entertainment when all this is happening? Also, this time, I didn’t make the critical error sitting on the starboard side, wherein the rising sun would’ve caused some intense glare, RUINING all the pictures. But this was just so beautiful!







0627 hours, just a few minutes after take off, a trolley is rolled towards the front. Strangely, I do not get any smell at all. Hmm, this didn’t bode well, I hoped the food was good! 5 minutes later, another trolley is pulled from behind, serving the rows from the back. At about 0632 hours, we level off at 38000 feet. I admire nature’s art as the trolley is being pulled back rather rapidly. Giving the food so fast? Either way, after the FAs asked what the passenger(s) wanted, they did so with a smile. And even while serving it, they gave a warm smile. This was very good! As the trolleys got closer, I figured that this was a pre-meal beverage service! Awesome! This is the first time I saw a separate service for drinks on Jet Airways! And all of this, with a warm smile. I ask for a tomato juice, which is again delivered with a smile. There are bottles of water, Pepsi, 7 Up, Miranda, a variety of juices such as apple, orange, mango, mixed fruit, tomato and grapefruit. Add to that, a few cans of beer. What a variety! In fact, if I may add, one of the crew members was called by a passenger to get her bag down from the overhead compartment. The only male FA attended to her, and he did this with a smile, despite being stopped for a bit from continuing service.

Tomato juice - more like slightly thin tomato ketchup



COME ON JET! CLEAN THE WINDOWS!

The Captain came over the PA system at 0648, giving us a very detailed announcements (38k feet, heading north, arrival time in Mumbai, turbulent flight, some headwind/tailwind stuff, 0835 arrival etc). True to his word, 0651 hours, we hit a rough patch of air, and the plane shook violently. I put my arm in between the arm rest and wall panel..yep, it got squished


9W255. Perfect for photographers like me!


Westen Ghats

FOOD JOYS!
The crew come around (twice) to clear up the trash. 0702 hours, a gentle voice says ‘Please mind your arms legs!’, as the FA pulls up the meal trolley to the front, and this I notice food containers this time, rather than bottles. Seconds later, another trolley is pulled up to row 20. And this FA, I didn’t notice much until this point. She had a smile on her face which simply couldn’t be removed. In fact, while serving, she’d explain the contents of the main course (yes, you read that right. I too was surprised.) This set of meals were more of non veg than veg…pretty OK I guess, since everyone opted for that. She came over to my row and gave me a smile - but rather than giving me an option, she smiled and handed me a tray directly. ‘Sir, eggs with chicken cutlet..’ This was awesome. Actual meat in Jet Airways breakfast rather than just eggs - the first time since 2007!


Plastic cutlery? Are you kidding me now, Jet?!

While this turning into a superb flight, the first major flaw came. The tray was tiny! I mean even the JetKonnect meal from 2014 had a slightly larger tray! And the main contents, that was just so tiny! I felt low.....



....However, when I opened it, I was surprised. Some sautéed potatoes, masala omelette type scrambled egg and chicken cutlet. Catering was done from Mumbai, as was indicated on the creamer packet and water bottle.
I dig in to the sautéed potato slices first - cooked to perfection, albeit on the slight oily side, but not overly oily. There was a perfect amount of salt, and this was pleasing to the tongue. As expected, the egg didn’t contain salt. So, I call the FA for one, she stops her service, and asks me what I want. I tell her my need, I asked for a salt and pepper. She gets me one, with another smile. This was turning out to be an awesome flight!
The cutlet was nice and soft, so nearly the type that would melt in your mouth, but it was amazingly soft nonetheless. Taste was also pretty awesome, quite tangy and nice. Awesome meal, but just not enough in portion

The fruit salad was pretty general with watermelon, muskmelon and papaya. These were not that fresh though, slightly on the acidic side. So, other than the meal portion and fruit, Jet had clearly delivered.


Salt and pepper


Getting arty lol

Turbulence rocked the bird once again, seat belt signs came on. Because of this, the flight attendants apologized for not having a tea/coffee service. This was a first for me - very SQ-esque, and probably good for the pax, too. Duty free sale announcements were made, and lead FA Payal took the duty free cart and did a couple of rounds in the plane. I saw a scale model of the Jet Airways 777-300ER…and I moved my head as the cart was being drawn past. My eyes were firmly set on what I wanted…I just didn’t have the money.




New format for 9W's fleet page - nice!


Goa!

Anyways, I don’t think Jet allows credit card purchases, or purchases in INR. Quite a few people bought stuff, which was really good. One passenger got quite pissed off at the fact that purchases weren’t allowed in INR, and he started ranting about how bad an airline Jet is and he had no choice but to fly Jet. (REALLY.) Purser Payal just shrugged it off by saying ‘I’m sorry sir, but its airline policy.’, smiled and continued on with sales.
NB - the much talked about JetChild would’ve added fuel to this fire. Take note.




Banking!


Disinfectant



Perhaps my favorite pictures - the reflection of people's clothes on the wall panels!

ARRIVAL AWESOMENESS…OR NOT?





Final bank towards 27!



Overflying the creek - we're almost there!

Descent started at 0757 hours as the crew prepared the cabin for arrival, including that awesome smelling disinfectant spray. We lined up for the usual runway 27 approach. A smooth touchdown at 0831 hours as we rather rapidly taxied out on to the…rapid taxiway Along the way, I saw a horror show, known as the Air India hangars in Mumbai. 1 fuselage of an A310, 2 B747s (ESP and ESO), 2 77Ls (ALH looking good, ALG gone), AI B787 (ANI) and a decently kept IX B73H.
However though, it was sheer joy looking at those beautiful Air India Airbus tails in the sun… I knew I was well and truly home! Then followed the IndiGo and Jet Airways tails at Terminal 1B. A SpiceJet B737 was around, pushing back. The announcement - ‘To all international guests welcome to India, and to fellow Indians, a warm welcome home.’ So many times I’ve heard this announcement, but this time, it well and got to me. I was feeling a sense of belonging, a home in Mumbai which I miss oh so much. Enough with the jibber jabber, Mumbai’s new T2! An EK B77W and 6E A320 were around, so were VT-JBZ (B73J operating to DAC) and a beautiful Saudi Arabian 777-200ER. JFQ slowly taxied towards the terminal, yes an aerobridge international arrival at Mumbai, this was a first for me! A truly awesome end to the flight!
We parked right beside the mighty VT-ALR, which had come in from JED early in the morning, and would head to RUH soon.





Aerobridge took a while to get connected, but an announcement was made that bags would arrive on belt 3. Very helpful info! We began to disembark, I thanked the crew for a wonderful flight, certainly the best I’ve ever had on BOM-CMB-BOM rotation!


You brought memories back, JFQ. Thank you!




Jet Airways, Mumbai, Terminal 2, aerobridge!



As I disembarked, there was a mess going on at the T2. None of the electrical buggies were working so there were problems in accommodating passengers with special needs. Add to that, a shortage of wheelchairs. One FA was calling out passengers to board flights to CDG/HKG/BKK/LHR/KTM/DXB. Who knew, CMB-DXB via BOM is an option?
There were clearly about 50-60 people here, a lot of connecting passengers! I started my long walk towards immigration, and this long walk was an absolute pain. Half the travelators weren’t working. I saw something new: VT-TTB OF VISTARA!!!! I had an aerobridge in the way, I quickly ran a bit forward and saw only the rear end

Vistara!


SV 772




It was only now when I finally noticed the paintings and all And this is when everything went more pear shaped than a pear - Dad got off earlier and had established a big lead. I followed the long path towards immigration. Along the way, there was an ebola scan, passengers had to fill a form. Which passengers? Apparently, only the passengers from certain countries, not from Sri Lanka though. And no one said a thing to us! Added to that, I was already searching for forms and all, there were none. Long after this I realized that we didn’t have to fill the form in, no one said a thing, no signs or anything. A horrific mess. Next up was immigration, while that was surprisingly quick given the number of passengers (all counters were open!), I forgot Indians didn’t have to fill the form. Oh dear



Went through the duty free, collected the bags (which by the way, were from belt 5 as opposed to belt 3 as announced, belt 3 was at the domestic section of T2 ). Clearing customs, for once, FOR ONCE, wasn’t even a pain! Just hand luggage had to be scanned, nice! And this done pretty quickly, we dropped off our bags for 9W307 to DEL, and waited in the transfer bus line for a good 20 odd minutes before finally boarding a bus.





What happens next?
Will 9W307 be another flight where Jet delivers?
What would the aircraft be?
Well, stay tuned for more!

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

[sumantra]

And what a pleasant surprise I got with your SMS from Mumbai, and a dampener, to know that our schedules did not match for the brief period you would be in Delhi. Thanks for a lovely trip report, replete with all the frills we associate with a TR from you. The detailed planning: whoa! Delightful.
Good one with the Kardashian sisters comparison: you and Abhijeeth!
The rotations part for me, I do not have to worry much about it, since much before I guess what it will be for my flights, I have Ameya already decoding much more of it that I woudl ever need to: he seems to remember all this. Amazing!
It is also nice to know that you are following Alonso's footsteps behind the driver's wheel. 120kmph: wow!
It is a pleasure seeing CMB through your lens: the check-in areas, food, and of course, the planes! Nice beacon pics. You also have a very steady hand. Even when sobre, I can never manage as steady a hand as you do, Sir!
I seem to have missed the part where you could not locate Mr. Basu Senior, and then you get onto the plane, and then come lovely pictures and the description of the sunrise form the inside of the plane. Lovely sunrise pictures by the way: both at Katunayake, as well as inside the plane!
Great descriptions of the food: it has got me quite hungry now. The quantity is a bit on the lower side, but I am glad they hit it well on the taste coefficient.
The arty part was nice!
`Perhaps my favourite pictures': awesome! You do have an eye for detail.
Nice spotting pics at the new Sahar T2...it brought back memories of the only time I have visited the place.
Great Sir, thank you, we are indeed tuned for more. Much more!
Cheers, Sumantra.

[jbalonso777]

Thank you for your long and detailed reply, as ever, sir!

[Spiderguy252]

Excellent report so far. Might I say that it's refreshing to see a number of sharkletted A320s in the skies today. Hope the trend continues!

[ameya]

Great read Jishnu. Thanks !

Nice to the pictures again after the preview on whatsapp !

Eagerly waiting to read the DEL-BOM-T2 wait - CMB TR
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com

[sri_bom]

Firstly Congrats Jishnu on your learners license have fun but drive safe. Thanks for posting the detailed TR.

The Colombo airport looks very dated is there any plan to refurbish the same? The club sandwich and coke what a great meal. Funny how globalization works we now have coke sourced from a dessert in (UAE). Funnily enough Al Ain is known for its natural spring water and a lot of mineral water is bottled there.

What happened to the Pope’s official Alitalia plane did that go tech in Colombo? I thought I saw him getting of an Alitalia plane when the news channel were covering his arrival into Colombo.

Interesting that there is a whats app group for Airliners-India, how do I become part of this app grop?

The reflections of the peoples clothes on the airplane wall was a nice catch.

The food and service seems to have improved drastically I am guessing competition from Vistara has woken Jet up, all the more better for travelers.

Sri_Bom

[Spiderguy252]

[Nimish]

Nice pics and description Jishnu - thanks for sharing. Rather unfortunate that you lost most of your night in order to catch this early morning departure from CMB...

Customs at BOM - wow - I've never had to scan my bags at BLR - even when I arrive with 4 bags (and it happens often enough). Kind of sucks that they make you scan the bags at BOM. Actually at BLR - all arriving intl pax have to scan their hand baggage, but that's a must for all pax and is more of a formality - as the checking there is very liberal (I don't really know what they are looking for).
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

[sumantra]

[Nimish]

[sumantra]

[sri_bom]

[jbalonso777]

Hey guys, thanks a lot for your replies! I truly appreciate this

[jbalonso777]

[sumantra]

[rakesh959]

Thanks Jish for a lovely TR!So I read Jet is back!Are they consistent enough would be my next question and I know a part of the answer for that as well but I'll let ur future TRs do the talking!As always wonderful pics and nice to see the typical Nice jet crew there!I have really felt they have the best crew in the indian skies atleast next to the now defunct KF!So you were lucky with everything Plane,seat,aerobridge,crew and it must have been a dream flight!Looking forward to the other parts!
Cheers!
Rakesh.

[jbalonso777]

[sumantra]

Ah Jishnu: I did not writ anything special to deserve so many thanks

[jbalonso777]

True about AI sir, they really could be a hit or miss..
But then again, I will agree to what you said: when its a question of life, you trust the flight attendant no matter what during an emergency
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

[jbalonso777]

Guys, I have uploaded FULL HD videos on YouTube, I hope you find the time to watch them when you can, it truly complements the TR

Start up (shot with the phone ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v51krf3vt4
The unique take off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb235bK095A

Awesome as always arrival into BOM, including flap sounds, announcements, taxiing and shut down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o196RcH96ck

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

[jbalonso777]

Hey all!
I'm very excited to share this with you!
I have made my first ever video TR and posted it on YouTube, and it features this very flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DipK-DtTQwA

I will cover the rest of the flights in video TRs as well as texts (from this trip), but whether or not I'll continue later will depend.
But till then, enjoy this video!

Watch in full HD, like, share, comment and subscribe!

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

[sumantra]

[jbalonso777]

[stealthpilot]

Nice long TR.

- 3 hours in a narrow body scares you I would take that direct option over a hopping 9W flight any day (unless it was 2 sectors on an airline/aircraft/city iv never been thru before)
- Take off looked quit normal hehehehe ..
- meal looked good. small but good. They didn't have salt/pepper on the tray I thought they generally do? Good idea not to I guess I'm sure most of it goes untouched.
- The not being able to buy in INR I believe is a government rule isn't it? Or am I making excuses? Even 6E for meal purchases on international flights takes USD or dirhams (etc) but no INR. Heck Indian duty free charges in USD and not INR
- About the AI connectors ex-BLR (anywhere) I think people make too much of an issue of it. In either case you (generally) need to get off the plane in DEL and get on another one. Doesn't matter if it's the same aircraft or not
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eP007

[jbalonso777]

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[sumantra]

[jbalonso777]