LHR/MEL/Europe FF
Aug 30, 08, 6:44 pm
Hi
Took a trip to India in March and April and wrote these trip reports but haven't got around to posting them.
They are short, sharp and to the point (kind of skytrax style), but I am happy to answer any specific questions. :)
The flights took place last week of March and first week of April 2008.
SYD-BKK TG J
Syd to Bkk one way in business class. New flat-bed configuration 747 (although these have now been replaced by B772s?) with seating on the upper deck exit row (16AB). Lots of leg-room but these seats only recline 170 degrees and aren't really comfortable if you like to sleep any other way but on your back. I also found the seats to be quite hard. Cabin crew were delightful, four crew to serve the upper deck during meals and the food itself was plentiful, quality reasonable. There were four choices of main course for the first meal service. The second meal service had a choice of only one dish (prawns) but the crew happily found an alternative sea-food free meal from First Class (although it was served to me frozen the first time). Amenity kit came in a silk bag, but is very basic – no high-end cosmetics or anything interesting. Arrival at BKK fine but miles to walk to get to immigration.
BKK– CCU JetAirways (9W) J
Bangkok to Kolkata on JetAirways, B737-800 in Premiere. This plane had business seats with a 44 inch pitch although I hear they are changing the internal configurations to take out one row and give more room. Cabin was about 30% full, and on boarding all seats had bottled water and basic amenity kits (socks and eye-mask) in place. An extensive menu was presented for this 2 and a half hour flight, with a choice of four courses and Veuve Cliquot champagne. Food was of good quality and presented on the new china which is white with patterned gold trim. Crew were pleasant, and certainly not overly attentive. AVOD was available via in-arm monitors. Economy class was approximately two thirds full. A quiet airport, priority disembarkation and a separate bus for premiere passengers, along with priority baggage meant we were through immigration and outside the airport within 15 minutes of touch-down.
Kingfisher Airways CCU-BBI Y
Flight Kolkata to Bhubaneswar in single class economy. Check-in a breeze thanks for the Kingfisher porters who take your bags from the entrance through secturity and escort you to the check-in counter (yes, this was economy class!) Seats pre-allocated at the rear of the ATR-72 which was full for this short 1 hour flight. Take-off on time and small hot breakfast served (choice of veg or non-veg) although the food itself was tasteless and not well presented. Tea and coffee were available if you asked. Busses take you to the aircraft and if you take the first one you can find yourself with upto 25 minutes in an unairconditioned aircraft which was stifling hot even at 7.30am. Seat pitch was fine for someone of 6'2. In flight entertainment was presented via tiny drop-down video screens above every 2nd row.
S2 Jetlite (previously Air Sahara) BBI-DEL 3rd Class
End of March between Bhubaneswar and Delhi at 2030 hrs. This was operated by a Canadair Regional Jet with 2+2 seating in an all economy lay-out with a 33' seat pitch. The decent leg-room, along with a safe arrival are the only two positive aspects of the journey. The seats themselves were cloth covered and had lost their support, so they became excruciatingly uncomfortable on this 2.5 hour flight. Some seats had their armrest secured with duct-tape, others had bits missing. The 'snack' service consisted of a box with a small round roll filled with a vegetable patty and a tiny dry muffin. This came with a small bottle of water. No tea or coffee was available, nor were pillows or blankets. There were two crew for this flight who insisted on pulling the curtain at the front of the cabin closed while taxi-ing to the runwqay, during all of the flight, and again on taxi after landing. Its common to close the curtains in flight, but during taxi it makes me feel uncomfortable that the exits are hidden. The surley and uninspired crew spent their time chatting or reading magazines when not in the cabin for the 10 minute snack service. During the landing approach one passenger placed their hand-luggage in the aisle. The crew saw this but did nothing until several passengers complained by repeatedly pressing call buttons and pointing at the baggage. Jetlite is supposed to be low cost, but as a foreigner we can't access the cheap fares on line. We paid considerable money for a dirty (the toilet was the worst I have ever encountered), tired, uncomfortable aircraft with poor crew, dreadful service and inedible food. Many of these things could have been overlooked or made better if the crew had been positive and helpful. Instead, their complete lack of enthusiam made matters twice as bad.
Indian Airlines Delhi-Jodhpur and Jodhpur-Udaipur. Class J
Traveled business (executive) class for the short 60 minute lunchtime flight between Delhi and Jodhpur at the end of March. Lounge at Delhi still the same – service fine but food needs improvement. There was a two hour delay, and the flight still showed as 'on time' even as we departed late! No information was provided in the lounge or departure boards so I went in search of an Indian airlines rep - who told us to 'never worry about a flight cancellation – Indian Airlines has a huge fleet so whatever the hold-up, another plane will always be found to fly you where you need to go' (it may just be a bit late!) This is actually worth bearing in mind if you have definate plans you need to keep. Business class half full on our A320, with pleasant service from the two J class crew members (including thoughful touches like closing the blinds, turning on the readling lights and opening the air vents while we sat delayed in the heat on the stand prior to departure). We had 'Air India' boarding passes which shows the integration with Indian Airliens is slowly taking place but I wonder if this is for the better? One noticable difference was the quality of the meal. Last year we flew the same sector and were given tasty food on Indian Airlines china. This year we were still given a hot meal, but all on plastic and it was clear this would ordinarily have been an economy meal. Is this due to new standards for short flights under the merger with AI, or because of the 2 hour delay we experienced? The next day we flew Jodhpur to Udaipur, also in business class. As this flight is only 25 minutes there was no in-flight service but we appreciated the spacious cabin and icy-cold towels on boarding! This flight was also running two hours late.
JetAirways Udaipur-Mumbai class Y
Early morning flight on an ATR-72 at the beginning of April. The new terminal is now open at Udaipur and will be quite lovely once it is complete sometime later this year. For the moment however is is underutilised, and only a small section is open which houses four check-in counters, security, and a waiting lounge (with coffee shop / kiosk). Our flight was on time and a small hot breakfast with tea or coffee was served to a packed plane during the 1hr 35 min flying time. Crew were friendly and baggage was delivered promptly on arrival. The very front row of the plane is an exit row with slightly more legroom. I was requested to move into the exit during take off and landing while a young british girl of about 8 years of age (who was travelling with her parents) sat in my seat three rows back. My friend (now sitting next to her) said she spend the taxi part of the flight arranging about 6 or 7 little teddy bears and dolls under her seatbelt 'to keep them safe'. Once airborne she packed the bears away and pulled out a fairly heafty tome which when questioned, explained to my friend was 'all about the emancipation of china'.
Kingfisher First Mumbai-Goa (class J)
Kingfisher First BOM-GOI early April. As always, welcomed by Kingfisher porters who took us through bag security and to the lounge after check-in. Slight 30 minute delay on the flight for which everyone seemed very apologetic! Once on-board for this short 50 minute flight we were given gifts of chrome bag-tags in a presentation box, along with cold towels, an extensive menu card and sparkling apple juice (served in champagne flutes). Wide 2+2 seating with leg-rests, 48” pitch and AVOD make this a leader in terms of domestic Indian aviation. Once airborne we chose from a selection of four mains – and food quantity was excellent and quality was good. The crew on this full flight were fine without being memorable and just before landing our reading glasses were cleaned as is usual practice. Priority disembarkation in Goa was accompanied by rapid baggage delivery.
Sri Lankan Airlines Goa-Colombo class Y
Arrived at the airport at 0700 for this 0830 departure on a Sri Lankan A320 between Goa and Colombo at the beginning of April. There were about 10 people in the two queues in front of us and it took around 20 minutes to check-in. Although this is sold as a two class service, there was no business class counter and we were unable to secure business class awards even thought I don't think there were any fare paying passengers in J. All check-in was done manually, with a printout having been prepared in advance that listed passenger names and seat numbers. These were transferred by hand onto basic boarding passes. We did not ask but were offered an exit row on check-in, which we gladly took, and the print-out was amended accordingly! The airport was quiet and security and passport control took another 15 minutes. After having boarding passes checked at the gate, we were stopped outside the terminal by another team of six personel who condcuted a third boarding pass check, a thorough cabin bag search and then a final pat-down (note these measures had already been completed previously inside the terminal). This same team of six later boarded the aircraft and took seats in business class along with a spare pilot... so Sri Lankan is obviosuly bringing their own security which explains why there were no seats available in business class! Departure uneventful for this 1hr 30 minute flight. The exit row had little if any extra leg-room, and all economy seats seemed to have a fairly generous pitch. The aircraft interior was tired and the food sub-standard: a choice of veg or non-veg was offered with tea of coffee, but most of it was inedible. The lavatories looked fairly clean, but the smell was overpowering. Arrival into Colombo was on-time and baggage delivered quickly.
Flight back to Australia was on SQ CMB-SIN-SYD (F to SIN and R class on 380!), but there are enough reports of those flights already.
Hotels we stayed at include:
Oberoi Grand Calcutta
Hotel Palace Heights New Delhi
Umaid Bahwan Palace Jodhpur
Devi Garh Udaipur
Taj Lake Palace Udaipur
Ciarans Breach Cottages Goa
All were selected from trip advisor.
Regards
lme ff
Took a trip to India in March and April and wrote these trip reports but haven't got around to posting them.
They are short, sharp and to the point (kind of skytrax style), but I am happy to answer any specific questions. :)
The flights took place last week of March and first week of April 2008.
SYD-BKK TG J
Syd to Bkk one way in business class. New flat-bed configuration 747 (although these have now been replaced by B772s?) with seating on the upper deck exit row (16AB). Lots of leg-room but these seats only recline 170 degrees and aren't really comfortable if you like to sleep any other way but on your back. I also found the seats to be quite hard. Cabin crew were delightful, four crew to serve the upper deck during meals and the food itself was plentiful, quality reasonable. There were four choices of main course for the first meal service. The second meal service had a choice of only one dish (prawns) but the crew happily found an alternative sea-food free meal from First Class (although it was served to me frozen the first time). Amenity kit came in a silk bag, but is very basic – no high-end cosmetics or anything interesting. Arrival at BKK fine but miles to walk to get to immigration.
BKK– CCU JetAirways (9W) J
Bangkok to Kolkata on JetAirways, B737-800 in Premiere. This plane had business seats with a 44 inch pitch although I hear they are changing the internal configurations to take out one row and give more room. Cabin was about 30% full, and on boarding all seats had bottled water and basic amenity kits (socks and eye-mask) in place. An extensive menu was presented for this 2 and a half hour flight, with a choice of four courses and Veuve Cliquot champagne. Food was of good quality and presented on the new china which is white with patterned gold trim. Crew were pleasant, and certainly not overly attentive. AVOD was available via in-arm monitors. Economy class was approximately two thirds full. A quiet airport, priority disembarkation and a separate bus for premiere passengers, along with priority baggage meant we were through immigration and outside the airport within 15 minutes of touch-down.
Kingfisher Airways CCU-BBI Y
Flight Kolkata to Bhubaneswar in single class economy. Check-in a breeze thanks for the Kingfisher porters who take your bags from the entrance through secturity and escort you to the check-in counter (yes, this was economy class!) Seats pre-allocated at the rear of the ATR-72 which was full for this short 1 hour flight. Take-off on time and small hot breakfast served (choice of veg or non-veg) although the food itself was tasteless and not well presented. Tea and coffee were available if you asked. Busses take you to the aircraft and if you take the first one you can find yourself with upto 25 minutes in an unairconditioned aircraft which was stifling hot even at 7.30am. Seat pitch was fine for someone of 6'2. In flight entertainment was presented via tiny drop-down video screens above every 2nd row.
S2 Jetlite (previously Air Sahara) BBI-DEL 3rd Class
End of March between Bhubaneswar and Delhi at 2030 hrs. This was operated by a Canadair Regional Jet with 2+2 seating in an all economy lay-out with a 33' seat pitch. The decent leg-room, along with a safe arrival are the only two positive aspects of the journey. The seats themselves were cloth covered and had lost their support, so they became excruciatingly uncomfortable on this 2.5 hour flight. Some seats had their armrest secured with duct-tape, others had bits missing. The 'snack' service consisted of a box with a small round roll filled with a vegetable patty and a tiny dry muffin. This came with a small bottle of water. No tea or coffee was available, nor were pillows or blankets. There were two crew for this flight who insisted on pulling the curtain at the front of the cabin closed while taxi-ing to the runwqay, during all of the flight, and again on taxi after landing. Its common to close the curtains in flight, but during taxi it makes me feel uncomfortable that the exits are hidden. The surley and uninspired crew spent their time chatting or reading magazines when not in the cabin for the 10 minute snack service. During the landing approach one passenger placed their hand-luggage in the aisle. The crew saw this but did nothing until several passengers complained by repeatedly pressing call buttons and pointing at the baggage. Jetlite is supposed to be low cost, but as a foreigner we can't access the cheap fares on line. We paid considerable money for a dirty (the toilet was the worst I have ever encountered), tired, uncomfortable aircraft with poor crew, dreadful service and inedible food. Many of these things could have been overlooked or made better if the crew had been positive and helpful. Instead, their complete lack of enthusiam made matters twice as bad.
Indian Airlines Delhi-Jodhpur and Jodhpur-Udaipur. Class J
Traveled business (executive) class for the short 60 minute lunchtime flight between Delhi and Jodhpur at the end of March. Lounge at Delhi still the same – service fine but food needs improvement. There was a two hour delay, and the flight still showed as 'on time' even as we departed late! No information was provided in the lounge or departure boards so I went in search of an Indian airlines rep - who told us to 'never worry about a flight cancellation – Indian Airlines has a huge fleet so whatever the hold-up, another plane will always be found to fly you where you need to go' (it may just be a bit late!) This is actually worth bearing in mind if you have definate plans you need to keep. Business class half full on our A320, with pleasant service from the two J class crew members (including thoughful touches like closing the blinds, turning on the readling lights and opening the air vents while we sat delayed in the heat on the stand prior to departure). We had 'Air India' boarding passes which shows the integration with Indian Airliens is slowly taking place but I wonder if this is for the better? One noticable difference was the quality of the meal. Last year we flew the same sector and were given tasty food on Indian Airlines china. This year we were still given a hot meal, but all on plastic and it was clear this would ordinarily have been an economy meal. Is this due to new standards for short flights under the merger with AI, or because of the 2 hour delay we experienced? The next day we flew Jodhpur to Udaipur, also in business class. As this flight is only 25 minutes there was no in-flight service but we appreciated the spacious cabin and icy-cold towels on boarding! This flight was also running two hours late.
JetAirways Udaipur-Mumbai class Y
Early morning flight on an ATR-72 at the beginning of April. The new terminal is now open at Udaipur and will be quite lovely once it is complete sometime later this year. For the moment however is is underutilised, and only a small section is open which houses four check-in counters, security, and a waiting lounge (with coffee shop / kiosk). Our flight was on time and a small hot breakfast with tea or coffee was served to a packed plane during the 1hr 35 min flying time. Crew were friendly and baggage was delivered promptly on arrival. The very front row of the plane is an exit row with slightly more legroom. I was requested to move into the exit during take off and landing while a young british girl of about 8 years of age (who was travelling with her parents) sat in my seat three rows back. My friend (now sitting next to her) said she spend the taxi part of the flight arranging about 6 or 7 little teddy bears and dolls under her seatbelt 'to keep them safe'. Once airborne she packed the bears away and pulled out a fairly heafty tome which when questioned, explained to my friend was 'all about the emancipation of china'.
Kingfisher First Mumbai-Goa (class J)
Kingfisher First BOM-GOI early April. As always, welcomed by Kingfisher porters who took us through bag security and to the lounge after check-in. Slight 30 minute delay on the flight for which everyone seemed very apologetic! Once on-board for this short 50 minute flight we were given gifts of chrome bag-tags in a presentation box, along with cold towels, an extensive menu card and sparkling apple juice (served in champagne flutes). Wide 2+2 seating with leg-rests, 48” pitch and AVOD make this a leader in terms of domestic Indian aviation. Once airborne we chose from a selection of four mains – and food quantity was excellent and quality was good. The crew on this full flight were fine without being memorable and just before landing our reading glasses were cleaned as is usual practice. Priority disembarkation in Goa was accompanied by rapid baggage delivery.
Sri Lankan Airlines Goa-Colombo class Y
Arrived at the airport at 0700 for this 0830 departure on a Sri Lankan A320 between Goa and Colombo at the beginning of April. There were about 10 people in the two queues in front of us and it took around 20 minutes to check-in. Although this is sold as a two class service, there was no business class counter and we were unable to secure business class awards even thought I don't think there were any fare paying passengers in J. All check-in was done manually, with a printout having been prepared in advance that listed passenger names and seat numbers. These were transferred by hand onto basic boarding passes. We did not ask but were offered an exit row on check-in, which we gladly took, and the print-out was amended accordingly! The airport was quiet and security and passport control took another 15 minutes. After having boarding passes checked at the gate, we were stopped outside the terminal by another team of six personel who condcuted a third boarding pass check, a thorough cabin bag search and then a final pat-down (note these measures had already been completed previously inside the terminal). This same team of six later boarded the aircraft and took seats in business class along with a spare pilot... so Sri Lankan is obviosuly bringing their own security which explains why there were no seats available in business class! Departure uneventful for this 1hr 30 minute flight. The exit row had little if any extra leg-room, and all economy seats seemed to have a fairly generous pitch. The aircraft interior was tired and the food sub-standard: a choice of veg or non-veg was offered with tea of coffee, but most of it was inedible. The lavatories looked fairly clean, but the smell was overpowering. Arrival into Colombo was on-time and baggage delivered quickly.
Flight back to Australia was on SQ CMB-SIN-SYD (F to SIN and R class on 380!), but there are enough reports of those flights already.
Hotels we stayed at include:
Oberoi Grand Calcutta
Hotel Palace Heights New Delhi
Umaid Bahwan Palace Jodhpur
Devi Garh Udaipur
Taj Lake Palace Udaipur
Ciarans Breach Cottages Goa
All were selected from trip advisor.
Regards
lme ff