India-based Airlines - 9W Reconfigured 332's

So 9W has reconfigured at least 1 330-200 from 30 to 18 J seats keeping the herringbone layout and adding more Y seats (basically for those of you familiar with the layout - they have retained the first cabin rows 1-6 with a 1-1-1 layout, row 7 onwards is Y (As opposed to row 7-10 Premiere). Someone who works at 9W EWR said they would be looking at reduced Biz seats on many 330's and fly them to most destinations as such. So the highl contested impossible to get D class seats (Redemption, Miles upgrade, Voucher upgrade), will be even harder to come by. The good news it means a more consistent Biz offering on 9W and hopefully the end of the horrendous ILFC planes (I can only find the 2-2-2 forward facing config with SA type biz class seats now operating DEL-MXP-DEL).
Trying to figure out the distribution of the 12 332's and here is what I have come up with

1 DEL-SIN-DEL
1 DEL-MXP-DEL
1 DEL-HKG-DEL
2 DEL-BRU-YYZ-BRU-DEL
2 BOM-BRU-EWR-BRU-BOM
2 MAA-BRU-JFK-BRU-MAA
1 BOM-JNB-BOM
1 BOM-SIN-BOM

That brings me to 11 - I am guessing 1 is making the rounds and available for irrops.

The good news it means a more consistent Biz offering on 9W and hopefully the end of the horrendous ILFC planes (I can only find the 2-2-2 forward facing config with SA type biz class seats now operating DEL-MXP-DEL).

sucks....i'm flying this route next month....:(

Loads have been quite poor on the two routes I have flown recently. My MXP flight had just 4 people in Premiere and my HKG flight had only 9 tonight!

I can see the rationale for this reduction, but it may just make those already hard D class bookings, next to impossible!

I can see the rationale for this reduction, but it may just make those already hard D class bookings, next to impossible!

it definitely will make them next to impossible....

Booked MAA-BRU-JFK on 20MAR for travel on 01APR. Voucher upgrade was (obviously) walitlisted. Kept calling in, some agents told me that the flight was empty, others told me that they were overbooked - essentially, half of them were idiots.

Finally, got to MAA and after a lot of sweet-talking they agreed to upgrade me on MAA-BRU, taking 4 vouchers for the leg and causing quite a stink in the process. Boarded the aircraft and J was only at 27/30.

Got to BRU, went to the lounge, begged and pleaded my case, and they said they'd look into it, but let me go use the lounge. :) After a while they came back and told me that they could give me a J seat, but that there was no proof of how many vouchers I gave in MAA and that the 1 additional voucher I had was not sufficient. They sent me to go talk to the gate agent. Went there, begged and pleaded a bit more, finally they got hold of some supervisor in MAA who confirmed he had 4 of my vouchers, and then they finally put me in J, a total 10 minutes before we ended up departing.

Phew. But seriously, it shouldn't be THIS stressful. Really.

They sent me to go talk to the gate agent. Went there, begged and pleaded a bit more, finally they got hold of some supervisor in MAA who confirmed he had 4 of my vouchers, and then they finally put me in J, a total 10 minutes before we ended up departing.


A case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? but yeah, I have also seen a couple of cases where Jet will try to extract an extra voucher even if not needed. like the time i realised too late that i could have got a domestic op-up but they scored the voucher because i was waitlisted for an upgrade (even on the gate!)

Phew. But seriously, it shouldn't be THIS stressful. Really.

That is seriously the problem, and 9W doesn't realize the number of loyal customers they are losing on a daily basis because of this. There are people (myself included), who earn all the miles by paying to fly in premium cabins longhaul and then they refuse to let us redeem on the same cabin we have paid for. I am told so often "you can take an airport chance". Well - when I was paying top dollar to fly First and Business class and earn these miles I wasn't told to take an airport chance. I will never fly longhaul economy and since 9W miles are pretty much useless - I am walking to other airlines that value loyalty. 9W will still be my choice of domestic airline, but thats about it.

Yeah, and even repeat mentions of this to the 9W higher ups (I happen to know two of them by means of a professional relationship) don't seem to really accomplish much. They always say that they're going to send the information along, and I'm sure that they do, but 9W just seems to put all the customer feedback on the side and look away from it.

Yeah, and even repeat mentions of this to the 9W higher ups (I happen to know two of them by means of a professional relationship) don't seem to really accomplish much. They always say that they're going to send the information along, and I'm sure that they do, but 9W just seems to put all the customer feedback on the side and look away from it.

There is only one language 9W top brass will understand - when passengers leave and stop flying them and they lose their highest revenue earning customers and they actually see the impact on their figures will they react. Unfortunately with the current IT situation they are seeing a surge in load and yield factors. Even on international flights - DEL-HKG and BOM-HKG have seen approx 20% drop in capacity approaching peak season, as has BOM-SIN. BOM-LHR and DEL-LHR probably losing around 10-15% capacity. Overall 9W are now living in a less competitive world and have proven to be too short sighted to look beyond a quarter's profitability.

Well, when I saw the title of this thread, I thought they would be introducing the rumoured F in the A332s.

However, what a unpleasant surprise!

Note that BOM-BRU-EWR is running with full loads at present, but I guess about 40-60% are the staff freeloaders on board.

However, Jet only wants to sell the higher biz fares on these flights, so I fail to understand how their yield management is working!

Even their cheapest biz fares cannot match LH's and Qatar's...

A readly *stupid* move on the BRU intercontinentals - I think that this might be okay for the Asia flights, but really ridiculous overall...given the fact that we can never get the upgrades or award seats in advance!

That is seriously the problem, and 9W doesn't realize the number of loyal customers they are losing on a daily basis because of this. There are people (myself included), who earn all the miles by paying to fly in premium cabins longhaul and then they refuse to let us redeem on the same cabin we have paid for. I am told so often "you can take an airport chance". Well - when I was paying top dollar to fly First and Business class and earn these miles I wasn't told to take an airport chance. I will never fly longhaul economy and since 9W miles are pretty much useless - I am walking to other airlines that value loyalty. 9W will still be my choice of domestic airline, but thats about it.

Amen.

I'll only add that I'm even finding IC to be acceptable now, especially flying our of Bombay, where they have a largely empty terminal all to themselves, instead of the usual mad rush at 1B.

Phew. But seriously, it shouldn't be THIS stressful. Really.
^Kudos to you for the effort. I wouldn't bother making half this effort. I'd instead spend the time more productively on FT, venting :D