To Eat.To Drink

Ummm, no. If it was the one I flew into on Monday, it is nothing to write home about. Brown carpets, massive trek from the plane to baggage and pretty unremarkable. Departures may be a different story.

paulwuk

I flew from BOM a couple of weeks ago, I assume in the old terminal. Taxi dropped us off at the end of a road which had barriers over, met by the BA rep who had a list of the 3 GCHs that weren't flying in the posh classes. I asked nicely if my servant (a lowly Silver) could accompany us as he pulled my bag.

Leaving the lounge, we were the last people out, from the far end. Left my phone there, on an arm rest. Might have knocked it down the side. Realised when I got on board, so couldn't go back. Asked the nice lady at the door, who range them up. No sign. No sign in lost property either

That existing lounge seemed to be ok though.

Makecry

You are actually the first one to say that "it is nothing to write home about".

You might wanna take a look at the thread on skyscrapercity. Its magnificent.
I dont know if we are allowed to post links here.

I have these photos with me but take a look at the thread:










Here:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=347144

intheback

I came into the new terminal on ba early Monday morning. My first thought was "I can't believe they've got the same brown carpets as the old terminal!" Honestly, terrible decision.

Aside from the subjective aesthetics, baggage took over 90 mins to arrive after landing, arrivals is a bit of a zoo with no obvious currency exchange in the vicinity, and immigration seemed even busier than before, if that is possible.

Really not looking forward to any kind of communal lounge setup and considering changing future schedules to fly in and out of DEL rather than BOM as my trips normally take in both cities anyway.

Barnaby100

Look- as long as it doesn't have rats it must be an improvement!

The old Mumbai airport was the worst I have been too for a long time. However unless they have also changed 90% of the staff it will still be dire.

Makecry

The carpet is hideous. The other problems are teething problems. Remember the problems with T5 at LHR? They will be ironed out soon!

My friend told me it took him 20min at immigration and the bags had already arrived carousal and he was out in 30-40min flat yesterday.
From the photos i have seen its beautiful and to be honest unlike any other terminals i have seen but then i havent been to as many have people here.

morges1

Another extremely true for c-s-w. But there are times that you can't get out - I'm in the lounge in DEL waiting for BA256 which is changing to winter tyres (and probably an Indian MOT). Have tickets for a concert with MrsM1 and friends in London this evening which is starting to look a bit tenuous.

Anyway, back to BOM T2. It is a shambles. I know it was only open a week, but.....! had a BOM-HYD domestic flight in business on AI a day or two back from T2. there are signs for domestic departures but when you get there it's not yet open. You go back to International departures for security and a get-out-of-jail stamp to walk past an empty immigration desk. Nobody has a clue about anything and when I eventually got into the main departure lounge you find some clueless "customer service" ladies. So because I had promised on another thread to check out the common business lounge I trekked around to gate 86 and eventually got to level 3. But AI had forgotten to give me a lounge card. Despite showing my business class ticket I had to wait 35 min outside until AI brought a card. I then had 5 min to tour the lounge. The Clipper Lounge (someone harking back to PanAm) is the only lounge - it's large and sterile with a couple of soft drink fridges. Rows of seats and tables + chairs. Bring back the old BA lounge, pleeeeeease!

Makecry

Blame AI. It is pathetic tbh. Also the lounge you went to is a temporary one. Apparently the other lounges are still not ready and should be ready by spring. But knowing India i highly doubt it will be ready by the deadline.
I hope the problems are ironed out. Its pointless when you have a world class facility but the staff is clueless about whats going on.

morges1

Abhinavp, it's time to take off the rose-tinted specs! Pretty building but pretty poor except for BA ground staff, who are great.

Teece and Didworthy1, in our other thread about BA139, I wrote:

"Ironically, OB (old BOM, a change from OF!) was a dream for BA138 and a routine run I could do blind-folded! Leave the Hyatt Regency at 0130, get to the completely empty BA desks at 0137, arrange an AuG to F, go through empty immigration through F/B lane, be escorted through fast lane security, reach pleasant BA lounge at 0152, do two Suduko's in yesterday's Independent, go to gate 9 at 0215, board at 0220, take sleeping pill and take off, 0240, sleep for 7 hours!"

Let me change that to last night:

Leave the Hyatt Regency at 0130, get to the nearly empty BA desks at 0137, try to arrange an AuG from 60A to F, unsuccessful, F full; escorted by BA charming ground staff through empty immigration F/B lane and through fast lane security, NOW STORY CHANGES since no pleasant BA lounge, arrive at small and full Clipper lounge at 0152, find seat. Decide as top gold to move to area marked First Class only, settle down in bigger chair, help myself to mango juice. Waitress arrives and says nor entitled to be there, explain gold card story, told not applicable. Talk with charming young longe manager who is tearing his hair out and explain that his BA Golds are not going to understand why they can't go into the first section. He said that he has already had pax STANDING in bus class area as well as in First! Lounge already too small and will not be changed or enlarged! Suddenly the old Galleries lounge seems like a distant dream. Then collected by another charming BA ground staff (one good thing BA has going for it!) taken to gate 68 at 0215, red light doesn't accept boarding card board, changed to 2A in NF, board at 0220, take off at 0310, have mug of mushroom soup take sleeping pill and sleep for 7 hours!

Moral of the story - BOM T2 (NB, new BOM) ain't going to be fun and there will be fond memories of the OB (old BOM) lounge. Abhinavp, keep those rose-tinted specs on. Two visits to T2 in two days hasn't endeared me to the place!

flyingnomadic

Pro tip: bring some tropical strength DEET, even if you are just connecting onward to a non-tropical location. The mosquitos in the temporary lounge and terminal as a whole are an absolute joke.

Another serious issue to be aware of is international transfers. I arrived on Jet connecting to Etihad. There is a new "transfer desk" with specific Air India dedicated staff and then a number of other 'generic' staff members to cover all other arriving airlines. They do not have the ability to print boarding passes at transfers so they must call for someone to arrive, take your passport and go upstairs to retrieve your boarding pass, as was the system at the old T2. This actually worked fine for me and took around 45 minutes to 1 hour. But during my wait I noticed that there was nothing at transfers... no vending machines, no water fountains, no toilets. At least at the old T2 you could go and wait in the trusty Clipper Lounge (if you had access) whilst an employee sorted your boarding cards. That option is now out of bounds. It seems at present that if you arrive with a long layover without an onward boarding pass before your airline opens check-in for your flight (3 hours before the flight time) then you are stuck in the purgatory of International Transfers.

A chap who had been waiting longer than me said he had approached the desk asking if he could get a drink of water while he waited, as he was parched. A helper was duly sent off with two empty plastic water bottles. Since he suspected they were likely filled directly from the sink in the toilets, he rejected the water.

I guess that if you walked back along to your gate, there would be toilets there. But bring water and food if you have an early morning transfer. The Air India chap told this guy that there was nothing open in the arrival area from which he could get food or drink. And bring deet.

Er... the artwork is really nice though.

morges1

I'd already forgotten that - not being Buddhist, I saw off 15 mossies while waiting 35min for AI to let me in the other large, sterile lounge on Tuesday.

The artwork is interesting but after two visits is already old!

Makecry

Didn't i already say having a really good facility means nothing when the staff is clueless?
Only thing i have praised is the building.
I do believe that these are teething problems and problems will be ironed out soon.Even Terminal 5 at LHR had it's own problems when it started. I think things will be fine within a month when the staff gets used to the new terminal.
Lets not make this an arguement!

fotographer

I got back this past week from my first experience of the "new" airport,
the mosquitos are a really big problem, talking to a few of the agents at BA check-in, it seems that the airport is built over a massive sewer that has of yet still has to be addressed, it seems everyone was swatting away the bugs. very sad, because the airport itself is very nice.
There are many issues that need to be addressed, but this of course will take time and it seems that the airport is not yet completely open.
Since BA and other airlines lost their own lounges, the current offereing are not worth anything, I for one am going to have to find a new place to hangout waiting for my flight.
The so called lounge (Clipper) is the worst, no place to sit, no atmosphere, and very small for all the airlines its serves, wonder why this could happen, the so called first class lounge is located inside the clipper lounge, which is also horrible..
dont know how airlines let this happen but I am sure it was not within their control

here is my rating for the new airport: (out of 10)

airport itself (9)
staff (9) I know of most of the staff at BA
food court (6) but than again, its not all open
Lounge (0) dont bother to go, you too will be disappointed
Waiting areas (9) very nicely done

AA_EXP09

Can confirm that the new terminal is nothing special (I was in transit for 12 hours though I did go into Bombay proper.)
For those complaining about mosquitoes they were in the old terminal as well and I have also seen them in DEL.

firstclasslad

I land 00:35 from BA and have to pass passport&customs to collect bags and check into 02:30 Jet Airways to Colombo. Is that enough time?

Ps BA flight is redemption and Jet Airways is a separate tik - hence why I assume LHR BA will not check through