Jet Airways Business Class DEL-PNQ


Check-in, Lounge and Boarding:

As I was connecting from an international flight, I collected my bags and showed up at the transit corridor which is manned by security personnel who check your domestic flight ticket and let you board an escalator which gets one into the check-in area.

9W’s domestic check-in counters are located at Pier A, where there was no line for business class (Premiere in 9W talk). I was attended to quickly and handed out the boarding pass. My bags were also tagged with Priority stickers and my physical upgrade voucher was collected.

DEL has a separate security line for domestic F/J passengers and there was nobody in this line, so I was airside in seconds.

9W does not operate its own lounge and points J class towards Plaza Premium Lounge in the domestic section of DEL T3. There is no separate lounge invitation required and simply presenting your 9W business class boarding pass grants you access. This lounge also allows Priority Pass members. It is located above the shopping outlets and accessed through an escalator.

Unfortunately, at the time I visited (~7 p.m.), this lounge was packed to the rafters and there was a huge line snaking out of the reception for entry into the lounge. I was admitted to the lounge after 10 minutes and did not find a single seat vacant. Some people were standing near the food counters, leaning against them. It was a very uncomfortable situation and truthfully, the terminal outside was much quieter & peaceful. I just grabbed a water bottle and left.
This has to be the weakest link in Jet’s domestic J experience. Every other domestic full service carrier (AI, UK) has their own lounge at DEL for premium customers and elites, both of which are obviously much more enjoyable than this.

The inbound aircraft was 45 mins late and the boarding began very quickly after it arrived and was cleaned. The boarding process consisted of all economy passengers lining up, then being told to line up according to their zone, which half of the people did not seem to comprehend. Business class passengers were told to board as per their own convenience. However, there was only a single agent scanning the BPs, so it meant that J class customers had to butt in to the economy class line, which was giving death stares. Not very enjoyable.


Flight:

Jet Airways 9W 363
Delhi (DEL) - Pune (PNQ)
Departure: 09:15 p.m.
Arrival: 11:20 p.m.
Boeing 737-800 (VT-JBB)
Seat 1A

The 737 forms a backbone of Jet’s domestic operations, with them operating -700, -800 and the -900ER versions; so there are a lot of different seating configurations around and its always prudent to check if your incoming aircraft is the same as you booked to ensure that your seat assignments won’t get switched around.

This was a 4.5 year old aircraft, but looked much older on the inside. Some panels looked as if they were uncared for and might come apart.











It is worth noting that 9W offers IFE streaming service to your personal device, Jetscreen on some of their aircraft. However, it is not fitted to all aircraft yet and there is no way to find out at the time of booking. 9W will send you an email a day before departure if your aircraft will feature the streaming. You have to download and install a third party app beforehand for the streaming.

Fortunately, I received the email and the aircraft was indeed offering the same. Furthermore, I found the selection of movies and sitcoms, along with a live flight tracker to be much more than adequate for a domestic flight and this was an area where Jet Airways has a potential advantage over other carriers if they manage to get every aircraft fitted with this quickly.





Once settled, I found a pillow preplaced on the seat and menu card in the bulkhead pocket. I was offered a pre-departure drink of coconut water or regular water.

Hot towels were handed out with a smile by the friendly crew and coats were taken.

The captain made an announcement at this point, apologizing the late arrival of the aircraft and informing that we were still waiting for a First Officer at this point!
Fortunately, the guy in question arrived within a few more minutes and we pushed back 50 mins after scheduled departure.

Safety demos were manually performed as we made a brisk taxi to the departure runway. After waiting for 3 aircraft to land, we were cleared for takeoff ahead of a Singapore A380 and took off from Runway 29.

The seatbelt sign went off quite soon and, the FAs started by announcing that the Jetscreen IFE was streaming now and then closed the curtains between business & economy.

The menu read as follows:





The Indonesian Nasi Goreng sounded good to me, so I went with it.

Pretty soon, my table was covered with tablecloth and I was served salad, my entrée and choice of dessert all at once. No soft drinks were offered with the meal. Metal cutlery was provided along with individual salt and paper shakers. Glasses were unbranded.





The salad with cucumber and water chestnuts was refreshing. It was served with a dressing on the side.





My entrée, the Nasi Goreng was absolutely incredible and the chicken cooked to perfection. I basically inhaled the dish, it was definitely the best entrée I’ve had on 9W yet.





The Opera Cake was a tad too sweet, but provided a good finale to a very satisfying meal overall.

I was offered tea or coffee post dessert, but declined; as I’d been awake for more than 24 hours at that point and didn’t need any more caffeine.

Regarding the crew, I got lucky and got an excellent set on the inbound flight as well. Even though it was well into the night, the crew was very chipper and on great form. At one point, I watched as the lady in my row extended her footrest and slept. When an FA passed by, she pulled out a blanket from one of the overhead bins and proceeded to tuck her up! Wow.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful as the cabin lights were switched off to allow those desiring of a few winks.

Our arrival was smooth and we were vectored straight in to land on Pune’s Runway 28.

No aerobridge at Pune for our gate, so we disembarked and stepped into a warm Pune night and walked across the tarmac to the arrivals hall.

The priority tags did their job here too, with my bag appearing as I was reaching the carousel.