Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Jet Set No!! - From Bad to worst on Jet Airways to Amritsar

As we exited the arrivals on return from Leh  DEL-IXL-DEL, we quickly went to the AVA counter to purchase a laptop bag at Rs.999/- and headed back to Departure level via Domestic transfers. Great work by GMR-DIAL here on having these transfers built in during the design phase. We had to show the ID and ticket to the security on ground floor and again at the first floor!

Seats were already blocked by family, a day in advance, and we got our boarding passes at the empty Jet Airways counters in row C. The security again was a breeze with a lot of channels open and the CISF staff guiding people to avoid bottle necks for any of the channels. Buying a few magazines and catching up on news later, we settled at the food court and ordered from Vangoo – which was part of the Buy Delhi Bye festival which is going on.

Trip Planning & Booking

We had this trip fitted in to visit Amritsar and enjoy the food there in addition to doing the tourist circuit. The choice of Jet on this comparatively crowded market offering a choice of B788 to ATR & Q400 was because of point’s redemption and nothing else.

Booking was a breeze on the website of the airline and redemption seats were available.


Rotation

Since the flight was booked in advance, I was apprehensive  every now and then if Jet Airways would withdraw the flight without much notice. Network changes on the domestic front are now a regular phenomenon.

I tracked the flight for last few days and it looked like the aircraft mostly does Mumbai – Delhi – Amritsar – Delhi – Amritsar – Delhi – Mumbai, a mix of Full Service and BoB-LCC flights with the same aircraft.

This rotation of 9W 370/370/2662/2791/373/373 was maintained on both the days. The aircraft is shifted from International ops to domestic at Mumbai on most of the days.Based on this I tracked the flights, and realized that it would be VT-JFN for us at Gate 37B.

 Flight Experience

VT-JFN arrived at 1155hours operating as 9W 2662 from Amritsar and parked at Gate 37B. We observed that from the area opposite Starbucks and left for the gate, which is a short walk.
METAR: VIDP 200800Z 290009KT 4000 HZ SCT030 BKN090 33/23 Q0999 NOSIG=

Delhi was hot at 33 degrees with a lot of Haze, as was depicted in the METAR of 1230hours
The loads looked light and they indeed were, with just 49 pax on board this new B737-800(WL) with MSN 39062 and sky interiors. Finally Boeing realized that white light is more pleasing to the eyes than yellow lights.

Capt. Vinit along with F/O Karan were in command this flight which was code shared with Alitalia and Etihad and the we were informed that it would take 45 mins to reach Amritsar. Doors closed at 1233 and pushback commenced at 1240 as we taxied to end of runway 29 and made a powerful take off at 1250. The aircraft had a proper partition unlike VT-JGY. BoB service commenced shortly, and we did not buy anything again. 

I observed that Jet Airways is serving water from any supplier and not a standard one. It was Bailley on Delhi – Leh, Go Green on Leh – Delhi and some company named Icy Splash providing water on Delhi – Amritsar! The lack of standardization is a case study!

I spent some time reading Jetwings – which claims that JetAirways flies to Paris Daily from Mumbai, while it flies only 4x weekly.

At 1315 the pilot came on PA informing that Amritsar is reporting clear weather with 32 degree temperature and we expect to arrive by 1345, which we did after a decent landing with a lot of braking on runway 34 of Amritsar.
The route and flight level summary for 9W 2791


Flight Summary

9W 2791 / B737-800(WL) VT-JFH Sky Interior
STD: 1240        ATD: 1240       STA: 1350        ATA: 1345
On-Time: 5/5
Website: 5/5
Check-in & Airport Experience: 5/5
Aircraft cleanliness: 4/5
In-flight experience: 3/5
Food: NIL
Alighting & arrival experience: 4/5

 Amritsar Airport
·     Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Amritsar is the only international airport in Punjab and as one taxi driver had told me in my last visit, Amritsar is the only city to have International Rail, Airport and Road!
·         The airport is named after the fourth Sikh Guru and founder of Amritsar Guru Ram Das.
·         Runway 16/34 12001Ft long Asphalt runway
·         Existing operators
o   Air India – Delhi & Birmingham via Delhi on 4days
o   Air India Express – Dubai
o   Jet Airways – Delhi and onwards to Mumbai / Chennai
o   Qatar – Doha
o   SpiceJet – Mumbai, Delhi, Srinagar
o   Turkmenistan – Ashgabat
o   Uzbekistan – Tashkent
·         Terminal Capacity – 600 each for arrival & departure
·         Traffic
o   April’14: 32390 International pax, 74265 Domestic Pax
o   Jul’13: 24956 International pax, 45768 Domestic Pax

We made our way to the city center where we were put up in Hotel Ramada – not the best of places from service perspective but centrally located. The next 2.5 days were spent in sitting in hotel due to a bandh called by Shiv Sena, visiting the tourist places, including the ceremony at Attari – which has grown in impossible proportions. I have managed to get some unusual photos since I stayed away from the crowds till my better half saw the ceremony from the ladies only stand.

One of the reasons of choosing Amritsar was  food  and we thoroughly enjoyed eating a lot of Amritsar Dal, Prantha and Lassi at Kesar Da Dhaba and Giani Lassiwala, with the other popular option – Brothers Dhaba and Bharawan da Dhaba are overrated.

 

  Food at Amritsar

The return leg was planned on 23rd July with a tight connection to Pune with a terminal transfer. As I woke up in the morning, I noticed that the rotation was running behind schedule and VT-JBG would operate the flight. Delivered in 2008, this aircraft is 6.5yrs old with MSN 35083.

Check-in & Airport Experience
We reached airport at 1235hours & re-checked the flight status, Jet was doing good job at getting the rotation back on time. Post baggage screening, we checked-in at 1245hours. I requested for Priority tagging of baggage, which was promptly done.
The terminal at Amritsar is small, with the check-in counters still having the old style manual FIDS and not Television. Security area looks makeshift and the security allowed taking water along.We settled in a small seating area, and observed the three C-130Js of IAF parked at IAF dispersal across the runway.


FIDS showed that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan airways will land shortly and I had my eyes set at Flight radar and the runway. Uzbek landed after a lot of circling over Amritsar at 1310 and was being operated by A320, it was followed by Turkmenistan B757 from Ashgabad and VT-ANO operating AI 114 from DEL. 

9W2791 departed Delhi at 1300hours, but again I got no SMS for the alert I had set up. Incoming aircraft arrived at 1355 and was parked at remote . Soon boarding was announced from gate 2 which is on ground floor.





At 1421 ground personnel were asked to deplane and doors closed at 1424. We commenced pushback at 1428 and saw the Uzbek bird parked at extreme right of the dispersal. We taxied till end of runway 16 and took off at 1439 hours. The Captain came on PA informing that we expected touch down at 1540.

VT-JBG was horrible. An aircraft with 12J configuration had Jet international inflight magazine. The IFE was ON and said “Thank you for flying Jet Airways” all the time. The AC vent was as dirty as the seats, windows were dirty.


This was FSC – long time on Jet FSC, but without expectations. Food service started immediately after take off and having seated in row 10 meant we were the first to be served, with an option of Veg or Non veg puff, to go along with Frooti, marble cake and water. The puff was not tasty and dry, but the marble cake was good. 


The crew was horrible – patted on my back with trademark Indian way of “psss” used to calling strangers and told me to have the seat upright. Not at all polite, What more, the seat would not come up! Within no time, the crew was back to have the trays with most of the passengers still having their share of food, including my wife. Even after seeing that people are eating, the crew asked for trays!





 The dirty seats, tray which got stuck, international magazine and the non operative IFE

As I tried putting back the seat tray back into the arm rest – it refused to go in, and was the case for the middle seat on the left as well. Capt.Rahul Gupta announced that we would commence descent at 1500 hours, which was rather quick and that Delhi has 4500MTR visib with 32 degrees temperature and apologizing for the delay. The crew again was very rude as they came to prepare the cabin for landing. I took time to read the in-flight magazine, which had some surprising things!

Jetairways route map showing cconnections to Toronto and Newark via London! Either this change came out in magazine too early or nobody in the company is bothered about what is happening in the airline.


We landed and braked hard yet again before coming to gate 37 in a flight I would call forgettable.


Flight Summary

9W373 / B737-800(WL) VT-JBG
STD: 1420        ATD: 1435       STA: 1525        ATA: 1532
On-Time: 4/5
Website: 5/5
Check-in & Airport Experience: 3/5 (Good on the staff front, but horrible bus)
Aircraft cleanliness: 2/5(Broken trays, Dirty seats, and leather)
In-flight experience: 1/5 (Manner less crew)
Food: 2/5
Alighting & arrival experience: 4/5





Monday, July 28, 2014

My first charter flight - Make My Trip Charter operated by Jet Airways to Leh


This part of the report will cover two flights, on the Delhi – Leh - Delhi sector operated by Jet Airways for Make My Trip as a charter. How I reached Delhi – can be read here IndiGo Review

As we came out of Terminal T1C at Delhi, I took the boarding pass and ticket for next flight to the DTC counter to get a receipt for free inter-terminal transfer. We waited near the bus stop – the bus was to come at 2310 hours. As we waited for the bus, on a beautiful full moon night, the dreary Delhi weather was making it difficult to stand. 2320 and the bus did not turn up yet. The number of passengers kept on swelling and it looked like it will be one big mess whenever the bus turns up.

FIDS Showing Alitalia - Jet Airways Code Share
It finally did at 2325, and experience of getting into Mumbai locals came in handy for my wife and me, as we were one of the first ones to board the bus and occupy seats. The bus obviously wasn’t sufficient for the number of passengers who wanted to go to T3. While the bus is not operated by DIAL and is a service provided 24x7 by DTC, I hope GMR – DIAL impresses upon DTC to improve the services and have more busses during peak transfer hours.

Taking the 4 escalators to Departures, we entered the terminal from Gate 2. The FIDS reflected our charter – 9W 9930 at 0500hours, which would be the first flight of the day along with AI 851 to Pune. The scheduled Jet Airways flight to Leh was showing a delay of 15 mins. FIDS threw up some more interesting facts – like Air India logo was changed to Air India – Star Alliance, all Air India regional flights were with 9I code and a code share with AI, and the Alitalia – Jet Airways code share was up and running. Most of the international departures were on time or had minimal delay.

The terminal was crowded and very hot, it was becoming impossible to be seated anywhere due to the heat. We requested the Jet Airways staff to check us in for the flight, but were asked to come back at 0230 hours.

Check-In

It became unbearable in the temperature with DIAL had maintained in the terminal and I went and checked with Jet Airways again at 0045, if we could check-in. One of the senior staff said yes and we went in to the counters.

The charter flight is not available for a web check-in of blocking seat over the phone. Infact it took eternity to check us in at the counter, with the lady who was doing the check-in, went away twice after initially showing a lot of displeasure and asking who has directed us here for check-in. Not a very pleasant experience, we only hoped that the baggage comes along with us.

Terminal Experience& Boarding

We proceeded to security around 0115 and only the left most channels were open. Security was brisk and we were on the other side in no time. The entire retail section was closed and so was the food section, except for McDonalds in the food court area. With the long slouching chairs removed and scattered all across the terminal, finding a place for the night is a challenge at T3.

We had some food at McDonalds and settled in one of the chairs in the terminal. Saw a strange sight of a person brushing his teeth with misri and tongue cleaner in his hand, around 0230hours, inside the terminal. Wonder why this person was not using the washroom. My wife had an interesting comment to make, to check if he is brushing before sleeping or for the morning!




 

 

 



There was a substantial rush in the terminal at this time of the day.
Around 0400 hours, we made our way to Gate#49, from where we were to board, and a crowd of around 100 pax was around. The aircraft indeed was VT-JGY, as I had guessed the previous evening.

Jet Airways has been operating either VT-JGY, or VT-JGZ to Leh for a long time. Either only these are compatible for Leh, or this is after the DGCA directive on Leh, Jammu & Patna airports.

VT-JGY is MSN 34806, Boeing 737-700 with Winglets, delivered to Jet airways in 2007.
Boarding commenced at 0430 hours and by 0445 we were ready with fuelling done. The pilot asked the crew to close and arm doors before we pushed back at 0447 and taxied to runway 10, for a takeoff in the easterly skies.

Inflight Experience

The aircraft looked old, much older than it indeed was. To add to this, the old yellow lights of Boeing only make it further worse. The a/c vents were dirty and took effort to open or close it. The seats were dirty and the windows, completely dirty.
The J & Y sections were separated by curtains.

The weather outside looked good and no METAR was available for Leh, as we left. The pilot would get it enroute and decide if we would proceed or not to land into Leh – one of the trickiest airfields to land in India.

The charter was BoB service and the crew made a quick run for water and had limited stuff on offer. We did not purchase anything.

At 0537, the pilot came on PA announcing that Leh is reporting 6000 MTR visib with 20- degree temperature and we would be the first one to land in Leh.

Navigating from the clouds, mountains and valleys, we were over Leh at 0545 and after some final twists and turns made a powerful landing in Leh at 0550 and came to a stop with a lot of heavy braking and taxied to the bay.

We covered the distance of 619kms in an hour from Delhi, with a straight routing.
The terminal reminded me of Chandigarh – 2 bays arranged such that it’s a power in power out parking for each flight. We came out to the windy and chilly weather of Leh with 40% less oxygen and waited for the Swaraj Mazda to take us to the terminal. Luggage arrived in no time, on a very short conveyor belt in this small terminal and we came out to the dozens of cabs waiting for flights to land.

The announcements in this flight had their funny bits too. Jet airways crew announced “ Please select flight mode before switching off the mobile phone”. I wonder what confusions reins in now since flight mode is allowed in-flight.


Flight Path – 9W 9930

The path and cruising at FL390

Leh Airport – Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport

·         Named after the head of pethup gompha in spituk, Ladakh
·         At 3256mts / 10682Ft, Leh is the highest airport in India and 13th highest in the world
·         Unidirectional approach, limited bays, shorter operating window, strong winds – all the challenges are thrown in while operating to this airport.
·         Operators
o   Go Air – Delhi
o   Jet Airways – Delhi
o   Air India – Delhi, Jammu, Srinagar
·         Terminal Capacity
o   150 each for Arrivals & Departures
·         Bays – 2
·         Runway Orientation – 07/25, 7000 feet
·         Air Traffic
o   The last released data – April’14 shows 32513 passengers at Leh, a growth of 18.6 % YoY
o   July’13 shows that 37144 pax departed from Leh

While I worked for a now defunct legacy carrier in India, I always wanted to go to Leh on a Free ticket, which never materialized. I was part of the team which launched flights to Leh, when I moved to an LCC but again I missed going to Leh – where part of the commercial team went, I instead was buzzed off to Pune – my hometown, which then I did not complain!

Flight Summary

9W9930 / Aircraft: Boeing B737-700(WL) VT-JGY
STD: 0500        ATD:0447        STA: 0620        ATA:0550
On-Time: 5/5
Website: 0/5 (Not helpful in this case, because it was a charter)
Check-in & Airport Experience: 2/5 (Not a pleasant experience at check-in)
Aircraft Cleanliness: 2/5
In-flight service: 4/5
Food: NIL
Alighting & Arrival Experience: 4/5 (Had to wait long for the bus to come)

The week was spent in visiting the wonderful region known as Roof top of the world and visiting some of the most beautiful places around, which I will cover separately in due course of time.

The return journey was scheduled on 20th July, with Make My Trip giving us the tickets only a day in advance. The weather was not looking so well, and our driver predicted that the charter might be cancelled. Nonetheless[a1] , we got up at 0350 but were delayed in hotel as co-pax thought it was best to have tea, instead of leaving for the airport as planned.

Airport & Check-in

We reached the airport at 0520, and were greeted with long lines to get inside the terminal. A senior and polite J&K police personnel checked our IDs and let us inside and we waited endlessly in the line to have our baggage screened and complete first round of frisking before entering the small check-in area. Bad luck prevailed again, since a group of 30+ Koreans were ahead of us and had no clue on what to do. The Jet Airways staff patiently helped them check-in. The Koreans forgot their boarding cards, carried half eaten sandwiches, steel utensils and water bottles in the security and overall kept the Jet airways staff and security on their toes.

Due to lack of internet connectivity, I couldn't check the METAR. The staff confirmed that flight is delayed as we checked in and got the requested window and middle seat. Ours would be the first scheduled arrival for the day followed by Go Air at 0630 hours.

The previous evening, I had smartly set up a flight alert on Jet’s website, for departure of 9W 9930 from Delhi. However, the service is so slow, that I got an SMS saying this flight has departed after boarding! Fail!

The ticket said that hand baggage is not allowed for flights departing from Leh, but that was not the case! Security was brisk and was followed by baggage identification – which was done at 0620 and we awaited some news on the flight, in the small and packed Security Hold Area with just one food stall.

GoAir arrived at 0640 hours amidst bad weather and was followed by 9W 9930 at 0700 hours. Zone wise boarding commenced at 0715 hours and it’s anybody’s guess that zone wise boarding was not followed.

In-Flight

We were bussed to the aircraft, and we got down, the rear stairs were removed – which would have been convenient for us to board, since we were in last but one row. As I settled in the seat, I anticipated that we would wait for Air India to land before leaving and VT-SCO did land and park at 0740, by when, VT-JGY was still not ready for departure.

We pushed out at 0745 hours with Capt. Raina in command and took off from runway 25 at 0750, a delay of 50 mins and turn-around of 50 mins. Service started soon after and there was nothing much to see from the window, as it was cloudy outside throughout the flight.
Flightpath - Cruising at FL400

We flew straight again to Delhi, and landed on runway 29 with heavy braking, reaching at bay at 0910. It was a long walk to baggage belt 5 and even longer wait for the baggage to come. I hope GMR / DIAL take few steps to speed up this process. Bags came out at 0935, 25 mins after docking.


Flight Summary
9W9931 / Aircraft: Boeing B737-700(WL) VT-JGY
STD: 0700        ATD:0745        STA: 0820        ATA:0910
On-Time: 4/5 (Beyond Jets control but turnaround was slow)
Website: 0/5 (Not helpful in this case, because it was a charter)
Check-in & Airport Experience: 4/5
Aircraft Cleanliness: 2/5
In-flight service: 4/5
Food: NIL
Alighting & Arrival Experience: 5/5



Saturday, July 26, 2014

Reviewing IndiGo's services on Pune - Delhi - Pune sector

Leh – a place where I have wanted to go for years finally became a reality this year with my better half. We planned an extended trip with 8 days in Ladakh and 3 in Amritsar. To make the reviews simpler, I am breaking it into parts – the first, will cover the first flight and the last flight of the trip – both on IndiGo, another part covering the charter of Make My Trip – operated by Jet Airways, another part which will cover the flights on Jet Airways between Delhi and Amritsar and this part will also cover some bits about Amritsar and the last one about Leh and the overall experience.

Trip Planning
Since the destination was known, options were explored – Land in Srinagar, drive via night halt in Kargil to Leh and fly out to Delhi or head to Manali by Road, or the reverse but it was turning out to be very expensive. Suddenly, I remembered how one of my professors had taken up a trip with Make My Trip Last year – we had met at the airport in Pune, when he told me about this trip and I quickly got in touch with him who recommended the trip.

MakeMyTrip was explored in detail and dates finalized based on my ongoing projects at work. MMT allowed payment in three installments and had multiple options for booking.

The options were available ex-Delhi or multiple city of origin from the country. I chose Delhi and decided to book the Pune-Delhi-Pune legs on my own, since I was planning to combine one more destination – which we settled for Amritsar.

How does the trip look like!
12th July PNQ DEL on 6E 402
13th July DEL IXL on MMT 9W 9930
20th July IXL DEL on MMT 9W 9931
20th July DEL ATQ on 9W 2791
23rd July ATQ DEL on 9W 373
23rd July DEL PNQ on 6E401


This TR will cover the onward and return leg on IndiGo 6E 402/6E 401. 

Those who know me, know well about my love for IndiGo and how I have tracked its every flight, aircraft induction, rotation and station. In one such contest on twitter, I had won a voucher of Rs.2000/- for guessing their next destination; it was Varanasi – which they connected with three flights a day to Delhi with onward connections to Hyderabad, Bangalore & Mumbai. It is this planning of IndiGo – which I call, select a station and flood it with flights, which make IndiGo different from the rest of the pack in India. It has effectively helped them have less stations but good connectivity - on the domestic network.

Booking

The plan was to stay put at the airport since the check in for MMT flight will be at 0330 hours, so we selected the IndiGo departure at 2035 which would take us to Delhi at 2240 and hope to take an hour to take baggage and go to T3, just to kill time. 

The vouchers which I had won were 4 vouchers of Rs.500/- each and IndiGo website is not friendly enough to let me know how to use four vouchers at the same time. I tweeted about this and within minutes got a call to help me out. Very happy to see such faster responses on social media and how brand conscious IndiGo is!

Overall the booking was effortless, and I was able to utilize the vouchers to book the two flights on IndiGo. The validity of the same was end of July and hence we did not explore any other option.

6E 401/402 flight history & Rotation

Pune – historically had an informal NOTAM in the evenings. No flights from 2000 to 2230, which was later relaxed to 2000 – 2200. End of June’12, limited flights were allowed in this time and on 25th June I traveled in the first ever scheduled flight in this timing which also was the launch flight for 6E 401/6E 402. The flight that day was operated by VT-IGS and its departure timing was 2100, arriving into Delhi at 2305.

It now departs at 2035 from Pune.

Flight Tracking

Like always, I started tracking this flight over a week before departure.

Date
Aircraft
Rotation Flt No
Sector
Dep Time
2
INS
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:52
3
IEL
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:30
4
INQ
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:40
5
IFD
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:35
6
IGK
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:35
7
IFJ
317/317/314/314/401/402
DEL-HYD-COK-HYD-DEL-PNQ
8:24
8
IFJ
179/179/196/196/401/402
DEL-BOM-AMD-BOM-DEL-PNQ
8:48
9
Information Not available on Flight Radar


8:40
10
IFR
298/298/179/196/196/401/402
MAA-COK-BOM-AMD-BOM-DEL-PNQ
8:38
11
IEE
384/486/486/201/204/401/402
MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ
8:40

Absolutely no issues with its OTP, a minor 15-20 minute delay is welcome since that would mean we spend less time at the airport in Delhi.

More or less, it looked like the aircraft would maintain the MAA-HYD-RPR-DEL-CCU-DEL-PNQ rotation, and I was tracking that flight since I woke up, VT-INQ it would be. 

Day of departure

After some terrible experiences with local cabs in Pune, we have managed to fix up on a cab guy who so far has been on time, and this time was no different. We left at 1800 hours, and I started tracking if the incoming aircraft has left too, VT-INQ left Delhi at 1818 as per FR24, 13 mins behind schedule.

We reached the airport and got down under the new canopy structure at 1850hours. A lot has been written by me about the Pune airport, and I would skip writing any further apart from the new things.

Check-in & Airport Experience

Effortlessly checked in by blocking 13A and 13B, about 44 hours to departure. The IndiGo IT team needs to make a change here. If I check in for two pax and take a print of boarding pass, it prints it one below the other on the same page, which you cannot tear off and take it to security. It either has to be printed on two different pages or with a lot of space between the two.

The stupid double checking of CISF continues at Pune, within few feet of each other. The standard, look at the ticket, look at the license, understand nothing, cluelessly look at the passenger and let him or her in, continued at the gate.

We got our bags screened and reached one of the three open counters of IndiGo, all of which showed 6E402 to Delhi.

I informed the person manning the counter that I have already checked in but would need the boarding cards and requested for priority baggage tagging since I am proceeding to Leh and its of utmost importance that I get my baggage with me.

Both the requests were quickly adhered to and off went our baggage, but not before, we were told that Pune being a small station does not have Priority tags but the ground staff was informed on their internal frequency about the sequence number and that they should be loaded last and on priority. 

Addition to my list of menu cards with spelling mistakes
We headed for security, which was empty and where in SHA in no time at 1900 hours. Benefits of a small airport.

Good Work – IndiGo! Baggage Screening to security in less than 10 minutes.

All the 8 bays were empty, as we took a vantage seat overlooking the apron near the gates. Noticed on the FIDS, how AI850, the historic Air India flight on the sector had left on time, being operated by an A319, which is indeed very good fleet swapping by Air India, downgrading the 1600 dep ex DEL to A319 and upgrading the 1835 dep to A321. 6E406 had left before time too.

It started raining, as we bought coffee and some noodles. 

VT-JGY landed at 1925hours operating as 9W 367 from Delhi and occupied bay#2. Most likely this would be my aircraft to Leh, the next morning. It’s an absolute shame that Jet Airways has to operate a 737-700 on the lucrative Delhi – Pune route.

Air India announcements now said, Air India – Star Alliance flight AI 854, kudos and congrats to Air India on this.

There were strange announcements at Pune – about four wheelers and two wheelers being parked at the main gate. I would have assumed this to be a security threat and towed it away ASAP.

METAR

VAPO 121230Z 27008KT 6000 RA BKN012 BKN090 23/23 Q0994 NOSIG=

Pune has been reeling under water shortage and scanty rainfall, and here we were going away from Pune when the rains finally started!

Boarding

VT-INQ arrived before time and took its position at 2000 hours. Surprisingly, the crew changes for this last leg of the rotation and the crew quickly went ahead of the passengers, for what looked like a full flight.

One reason I am a big fan of IndiGo is because of how their Airport Services approaches the aircraft and turnaround. Stand next to the bay, while the aircraft is on approach, with the step ladder positioned to quickly be attached to the aircraft, along with the conveyor nearby to start the unloading. And once they have the aircraft in their control – its “टूटपडो“  on the aircraft. 

Today was no different, we started boarding at 2010, which took us back to the ground floor from the first and were seated at 2015.

VT-INQ is MSN 3414 delivered in February 2008, currently 6.5 years old and one of the birds whose lease seems to have been extended from the standard 6 year IndiGo lease pattern. The aircraft was clean, seat belts properly kept, interiors spic and span and so was the fuselage.
The crew announced their names, cities they belong to and started the safety demo. I am wondering why they have not displayed the life jacket on both the flights.

I was expecting older seats on the aircraft, since I have not liked their newer seats, which tend to be a little uncomfortable and I wonder how good a chance they would have compared to the all leather ones on the competition. However, looks like IndiGo has been changing the seats during one of the checks, since this aircraft had newer seats. Bummer!

Recently, I was part of an interesting discussion about in-flight hindi , and how the translation by some airlines makes it funny.

This flight was an addition to this, even before boarding was over, IndiGo announced that it is important to be on time and hence they would request pax on row 12 and 13 to keep their baggage in the over head bin. The hindi announcement said, “समयपर रहना अनिवर्य है”/“ Samay par rehna aniwarya hai” ( It is mandatory to be on-time). Before landing, when the crew came to collect trash, the announcement became – “समयपर रहना महत्वपुर्णा है”/Samay par rehna mahatwapurna hai” ( It is important to be on-time)

Another addition to that is the translation on the seat.
Please fasten seat belt while seated -> Baithe hue kursi ki peti bandhe rakhiye ya khursi par baithe ho toh peti bandhe rakhiye. Little confusion in my mind over here

I guess IndiGo needs to understand the difference and stick to one of the two announcements, ideally the later one, I don’t think its mandatory to be on time, but it certainly is important.

At 2025 boarding was complete, followed by a quick announcement by the pilot asking ground personnel to deplane and requesting the crew to close and arm all doors. Doors were closed at 2026 and the crew proudly announced, “Closing doors at 8:26, IndiGo standard Time”

The pilot quickly announced that we would cruise at FL350 and reach Delhi in 1hour 45minutes. We pushed back at 2028, and taxied to runway 28, holding short for a landing and took off in the westerly skies at 2041. The weather wasn’t clear, yet the flight throughout wasn’t bumpy but could not notice anything below.

It was only later, that I noticed on FlightRadar how we overflew Mumbai and closer to the coast at Surat before joining the regular Mumbai – Delhi flight path.




Inflight

Service started at 2100hours. This is one area where IndiGo is lacking bigtime. Service quality, speed and food quality. Apart from the fact that lack of ovens in aircraft means that IndiGo cannot service hot food, the food served itself is not very tasty or of good quality. We opted for Chicken Junglee and Veg. Submarine – chewy chicken with dry bread and even drier bread for the submarine. Orange Juice and Water to go with it, costed us Rs.460/-

We were seated on row 13 and the aft trolley and crew started service from row 12, yet it took around 15 mins for us to place the order. After over half an hour, the trolley was still at row 15. There is confusion amongst the crew as to where is each stuff placed and a lot of time is wasted on getting all the drawers opened to search stuff. I am sure, many a times, certain stuff may be available but the pax is said it is over because the crew has not been able to find it.




This is one reason, why few months ago, I chose Air India over IndiGo – food! 

The pilot came on PA again at 2200 hours informing about our descent into Delhi in few minutes, the temperate being 34degrees and we are expecting a before time arrival.

There were two quick rounds of cleaning and we settled back for a decent landing on runway 10 at 2228. I feared it to be a long bus ride, based on my previous experience for this flight, but we were lucky to be parked in the first row at Delhi.
An Air India B744 was being prepared at the IAF dispersal, for what would be PM’s trip to Brazil that night. In front of our aircraft was VT-RJD in the Air India hanger, without engines.

Deplaning

We quickly made our way out and baggage indeed arrived in no time. Thankfully the bus ride was short.

Flight Summary
6E402
STD:2035                     ATD: 2028
STA:2240                     ATA: 2230
Aircraft: VT-INQ

On-Time: 5/5
Website: 5/5
Check-in & Airport Experience: 5/5
Aircraft cleanliness: 5/5
In-flight service: 4/5
Food: 2/5
Alighting & arrival experience: 5/5

----------------------------------------- 6E 401 Delhi to Pune ------------------------------------------

As we got down from 9W 373, took our baggage and rushed out of T3, we had 2:20 mins for the next flight. This time was to be used to transfer from T3 to T1D at Delhi, check-in, security and food. The display at the DTDC bus counter read – 1620 for the next bus, arrival in T3 at 1535 and departing from T1D at 1805, we hardly had the luxury to wait for the bus and proceeded towards Meru to take us to T1D. It cost us Rs.270, including the airport surcharge but we were at T1D in no time. I was travelling from here after a really long time.

Airport Experience

I had already checked-in for seats 13A & 13B, and as we removed the tags on the bags from the previous flight and entered the terminal, noticed long queues at Spicejet counter. I was expecting similar lines at IndiGo counter considering the number of flights they have at this time of the day, but the counters were empty and we immediately proceeded to the counter, which was manned by a trainee. This gentleman efficiently checked in our baggage, issued boarding cards and smilingly informed us about the Gate Number and time.

I was ofcourse tracking the rotation since morning and it was running before time for all its legs, with VT-IGX expected to land around 1700 hours in Delhi from Kolkata.

We proceeded to security which was better than snail’s pace yet slow. The Hold Area was crowded, with next to Nil seating available and crowd swelling by the minute. DIAL indeed needs to shift atleast one airline from T1 to T3 at the earliest. In hope of spotting some aircraft take off and land, we headed to the upper level and managed to get a table near the glass façade, only to be disappointed by seeing how GMR has covered up the windows now, blocking all views of the runway and apron.


There were long lines at Vaango & KFC but showing some patience, bought Filter Coffee from Vaango.

We tried killing time by roaming around and eventually reached the ground floor gate area, expecting an early boarding. Next to gate 19, from where we were to board, IndiGo was boarding to Raipur on one side and Chennai on another and people casually and leisurely reached the gate. I am sure it must be a tough task to maintain OTP when you have your guests coming up this late!

Boarding was announced at 1740hours and we were taken by bus to Bay 8, where VT-IFD our ride for the day stood by. The rotation had been changed for the day, and this aircraft would have arrived from Mumbai.

As we boarded from the front, the door was literally blocked with trolley containing a lot of food which was to be sold on board. Interestingly, this trolley made its way to the back galley in the middle of the boarding. I am sure the in flight crew could have managed this well.

Boarding continued for a long time & there was no boarding complete announcement by the crew, even after passengers stopped boarding at 1750 and the flight looked full.

Capt. Thomas Kurian from Bengaluru was in command and he welcomed us on board around 1800, also the time, when the crew announced “Boarding Complete”. Capt. Kurian briefed us about the flying time of 1:40 mins for 1220 kms to Pune and we would fly at 36000 feet.

METAR

Just before switching off my phone, I checked the latest METAR.

231200Z 06009KT 4500 HZ SCT035 FEW040CB BKN100 30/24 Q0998 TEMPO 07020KT 1500 TS=

Doors closed at 1801 and we pushed back at 1802 for a long taxi to runway 09. The crew gave safety demonstration and the life jacket part was left out again, if I remember correctly.

It was an eventless flight with little turbulence, similar service as it was on the way to Delhi, needing improvement in speed and efficiency and definitely taste and quality of food stuff. We opted for Spinach & Corn Sandwich, along with Jalapeno Corn Chips and coffee. When we asked for another corn chips, Jalapeno wasn’t available since only one was uplifted. Disappointing. We chose the spicy olive option which wasn’t as good as Jalapeno. The sandwich wasn’t upto the mark, again. I hope IndiGo starts giving ketchup atleast, which is staple for many Indians and which will add some taste to their bland and dry sandwiches!

Around 1930, Capt.Kurian came on PA and announced that we cruised at 850 kmph and we would start the descend into Pune soon and that Pune was reporting Rain, with 24 degrees and gusts of winds with expected arrival being 1955 hours, 10 mins ahead of schedule.

We landed on runway 28 at 1952 and taxied to the bay, coming to a halt at 1954. The baggage would be on belt number 2 said the crew as doors opened and we quickly made out way to the terminal.



Baggage arrived much faster than what Air India takes, but could have been faster.

Overall a good flight.

Flight Summary

Aircraft: VT-IFD
MSN: 5298, delivered to IndiGo in September’12.

STD: 1805        ATD:1802
STA:2005         ATA:1954

Take-off : runway 09
Landing : Runway 28

On-Time: 5/5
Website: 5/5
Check-in & Airport Experience: 5/5
Aircraft cleanliness: 5/5
In-flight experience: 3/5
Food: 2/5
Alighting & arrival experience: 5/5

Good
+ On-Time
+ Aircraft cleanliness
+ Connectivity
+ Airport Services
+ Ease of Booking & website
+ Innovative features like Braille menu card

Needs Improvement
-         - Inflight Service
-        -  Food Quality