Flew 9W after a long time on a major metro route day before in Premiere on a 9W-K flight and return yesterday on what was allegedly a full service 9W code flight again in Premiere. Aircraft in both cases was 737-800 with winglets (newer right?) and 8 J seats instead of the usual 16.

Truly appalled at the state of the aircraft and the airline itself. broken seats and PTV in Business class! stained walls and floors! the front toilets even had pan stains! And advertisements put up everywhere on the bulkhead etc!

6 out of 8 premiere seats were occupied, so atleast 3 people had to put up with badly broken seats. Jet got away because 2 old grandpas were put into those seats. not sure if they were upgrades or paying customers: but if i had got a broken seat after paying 28 grand, i would be hopping mad! My seat wasnt fully broken but was not in the best shape either. The occupant of the seat next to me opened up his PTV to check for service only to find it inop, and then found it would not go back into the seat arm rest. It stayed in engaged position even during landing 2 hours later. Other seats, the legrest extensions wouldnt go back or the seat wouldnt come back upright.

Worst thing was, the curtain separating J and Y was opened in between flight so passengers from Y kept walking through J cabin to get to front toilet. What gives? They only closed it when a fellow J passenger complained. As we were disembarking I learnt by virtue of being within earshot, that far from being repaired, the aircraft with broken seats was scheduled to operate to somewhere in North East within the next hour and J load was 4 of 8! poor poor sods!

if this is condition of a new 737-800 with winglets in Business class, wonder what the older fleet condition is like? and Y must be worse?

Crew did a decent job overall despite all constraints: no complaints there. But service on the full service 9W code flight was more Konnect-Select type scaled down service. but extremely helpful towards senior citizens and parents travelling with babies. Shades of what they used to be!

Most interesting was when the crew learnt I worked for the media. When returning from a visit to the toilet, the crew made conversation in the galley area, apologising for the trouble, mentioning how the whole industry is slipping etc. And then the male member of crew casually let it slip in whispered tones that they havent got flying allowances for months now, though they have received salaries with a months delay (May salary in Jul and so on).

Got a very bad feeling as I stepped off the plane yesterday. i dismissed it off as a one off thing on Wed. But yesterday saw it again! Very very bad feeling about this once great airline.

PS: moderators: sir how do i upload photographs? i cant see upload attachment button.