Flight Review Thread - Jet Airways
 

Since there was an idea floated around to have a thread for reviewing flights on Jet Airways, I'm kicking it off with a few reviews I've written in the past. I'll be happy to tabulate all the reviews in the first post of the thread (here), so that there is easy access from this post.

Domestic
1. BOM-DEL, 9W 331, Premiere, 10Nov2012
2. BOM-MAA, 9W 469, Economy, 08Apr2011
3. DEL-BOM, 9W336, Premiere, 24Jul2011
4. BOM-DEL, 9W309, Premiere, 20Jul2011
5. BOM-DEL, 9W305, Economy, 05Jan2013

International
1. BOM-BRU, 9W228, Economy, 22Jan2012
2. BKK-BOM, ,Premiere,July 2012
3. DEL-LHR, , First, 21Sep2012
4. BKK-BOM,,Economy,October 2012
5. BOM-HKG, ,Premiere & Economy, October 2012
6. BOM-BRU, 9W228, Premiere (Herringbone), 12Mar2013
7. BRU-BOM, 9w227, Premiere (New Staggered), 16Mar2013

Thanks A2A. Good stuff!

Would you mind posting / copy and paste your 9W flight reviews on FT itself (use this thread if you wish) and linking from there, rather than linking to an outside blog? That might be much more user friendly here...

well done a2a....this is incentive to take some pictures & write a review to post here for my upcoming 9w flights....i always think about doing so but laziness creeps in....:p

I like this. Especially the linked table of reports in the first post and AJ's suggestion that reports be all copied here instead of linking to somewhere else.

And since you partly thought of this, AJ, how about you put yourself to some use and administer the table so it's updated with links to every report.

In this thread as well as the Air India one.

Thank you for your services :)

(I have a couple for Jet and IC and I'll move them over soon).

I'll also be happy to add to the Jet thread as and when they appear since I opened it.

Cool, thanks.

So when it's not up-to-date, I will blame you. :p

lets put a service level agreement in place? :P

Lets! So, for every 20 minutes of delay in updating the information, you have to publicly spill one secret from JetCitibank or JetICICI or JetHDFC or... you get my drift!

not happening! or maybe if you were sending me a bottle of dom 2004 for every secret i spill ;)

C O R R U P T I O N !!!

I'll have to report you to Anna now! ;)

Hearsay and second-hand : BKK-BOM in Premiere
 

BKK-BOM / Premiere / July 2012

My cousine just flew BKK-BOM on the afternoon flight. Here's her quick take on that experience (her words, my translation). Positive input in green, negative in red. My (cheap) comments are in italics.

At BKK check-in there was a bit of an argument between the pax in front of her in the J queue and the agent, because the agent was unable/unwilling to let him use his upgrade vouchers.

Upon boarding, the cabin was immaculate. I suppose Clueless Chopra and her minions were on chutty.

The flight seemed chock-a-block in economy. Almost 50-50 mix of desis returning home and Filipinos (presumably going on to Riyadh and Dubai etc) plus a few other Asians. Apparently they do MNL-BKK-BOM-RUH because it's by far the cheapest option. The "more trash to Bangkok" theory in full bloom.

Economy may have been full, but when they closed the aircraft doors, there were exactly three passengers in the J cabin, including the man from check-in. Which means no more than two revenue passengers. Yet all that drama for the vouchers.

A minute later, six people showed up from Y - bag, baggage and bachhas in tow - and made themselves at home in the Premiere cabin. Voucher drama explains itself : employee friends and family come before passengers, of course!

Menus were handed out : both outbound and inbound selections listed side-by-side. Menus in English only; no Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati let alone Thai or Tagalog

Mariette was the second passenger to be asked about her meal choice, and they had already run out of her first and second choice, so she ended up with the South Indian.

The drinks service started. Mari asked for a white wine, to be asked by the FA if she could have the red instead, since they had already opened it. Wow.

Main course portion the size of a leftover, not a full meal.

Very bizarre salad : bowl of red cabbage filled with boiled potatoes and pearls of fresh mozzarella. No flavour, no seasoning, no dressing. Not even salt. The dressing seems to be one of Jet's great cost cuts.

The breadbasket was brought out with the usual selection, but no garlic bread. Not sure if that was part of this meal plan, or it's been done away with completely.

No butter, jam, salt or pepper on the tray. Instead they brought out a basket with all those and you could take what you wanted. Of course, by the time they brought that basket around, the bread was consumed as was most of the little main course. More ways to cut costs (and quality)?

Spectacular dessert : the chocolate mousse cake was outstanding. Though the crew should remove the acetate strip before serving it. Jet do seem to take care of the quality of their desserts. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but no matter how bad everything else is, I've never encountered a bad dessert on Jet.

There was a random pre-recorded Thai announcement in the middle of the flight. It's a start!

Otherwise, a rather competent crew, if a little unenthusiastic. Deflated was the word used.

Landed 20 minutes early at a deserted Sahar. There were only a couple of AI planes and one Indigo plane docked at the boarding bridges. Of course, Jet had to park their plane at a remote stand far away.

Then they tried to stuff the whole plane into one bus.

After exiting the bus, Sahar proved to be even more deserted, to the point that there were no immigration officials in sight. They were all sitting in the office because the airport was dead. But they took their positions quickly.

Baggage delivery was almost instant.

Plane door to terminal exit in 30 minutes flat (22 of those minutes went in the bus, so 8 minutes from bus door to terminal exit).

Overall, a good flight, though cost cuts have gone too far already.

route - del-lhr....
date - 21st september....
cabin - first....

the morning of the flight i got a call from jet asking what time i would be getting to the airport....was given a number to call when i arrive....i did so & someone was there to meet me as i got to the airport....

check-in was quick & i was escorted to the lounge by an agent & they also provided a porter to carry my laptop bag for me....

separate sitting area in the lounge for first class passengers (there were only 2 of us on the flight)....

we were the last to board the flight....the agent & porter came back to escort us to the flight....

the first cabins were very spacious & comfortable....as much as i like them, i feel its a waste given the usual loads i see in first....i don't think i remember more than 3 passengers per flight over the last couple of years....

offered a welcome drink & a menu....my first choice was available & the food quality was good....

flight was very comfortable....got a little bit of sleep & watched a movie & before i knew it, it was time to land....

got off the aircraft & there was a jet representative waiting for the first class passengers at the end of the aerobridge....we were escorted to the immigration area on a buggy & given the fast-track pass....

it took about 5 minutes from the time i got off the plane to make it to baggage claim....this meant i had to wait another 10 minutes for the luggage to start arriving....my bag was one of the first bags to come out though....

all in all, a good experience....but like i said before, jet can do without the first cabins & put in more première seats....while i would be sad to see the first cabin go, i think it would generate more revenue for jet & also increase award availability....

Anna kournikova? ok fine. I will make do with that! :cool:

This is hearsay, overheard from couple at the office during lunch break yesterday. but if true then Jet standards are going to new lows every day.

Married couple returning back home from the US after meeting kids over Thanksgiving. Flew United Airways to Newark and Jet from there to DEL. Plane change at BRU. Booked Jet because they were much cheaper than AI non-stop (apparently).

Funniest part: one of 2 sectors there was a round of alcoholic drinks before lunch and my friend opted for beer. He was given a can of Heineken beer which was warmish along with a plastic glass. When friend mentioned this to the Flight Attendant, she SHOUTED across the aisle to her colleague in Punjabi. On hearing her call for help, the other cabin attendant, TV serial hero type fellow, according to my colleagues wife, comes across 2 mins later, says "very sorry sir" and drops 2 chunks of ice from his bucket into my friends cup! doesnt even ask! :)

Unfortunately, this one incident has set up stage for a barrage of rather unkind and coarse jokes in Punjabi on Jet Airways and every other thing, no mater how minor becomes reason for more jokes: its a vicious cycle. ANd once the jokes started, everyone chipped in with their own "jet staff is so stupid". Very sad really.

They were all praise for the manner in which Jet staff handled the tight transfer from United to Jet at Newark. But that positive part is getting lost. I think Jet is loosing PR game today.

(more) Hearsay and second-Hand : BKK-BOM in Y
 

BKK-BOM / Economy / October 2012

When my cousine and her Toy came to see me recently, they did BKK-BOM and BOM-HKG on Jet (because they were cheaper than Cathay by an obscene amount and the timings and especially crowd on Cathay between Bangkok and Bombay are both revolting), so their input (avec my comments, of course) for your entertainment.
As before, positive input in green, negative in red. My (cheap) comments are in italics.

- HKG-BOM-HKG was way cheaper on Jet than on Cathay
- One-way BOM-HKG was way cheaper on Jet than on Cathay
- One-way BKK-BOM was cheapest on Cathay, but that was a no-go because of Cathy's nasty timings and nastier crowd. Jet was next cheapest, cheaper than Bangkok Airways, Thai, Indian Airlines and even Indigo.

• They got to the airport 2 hours before the flight and the check-in area was empty. Not a single person in queue at any of the several Jet counters. They had to ask if something was the matter because there wasn't a single other person
• Realised later why, because there couldn't be more than 60 people on board
• It looked like maybe a dozen other people were doing solely BKK-BOM, because the rest of the plane seemed to be groups of Asian labour all flying multi-stop consolidator itineraries, with a big group doing CNX-BKK-BOM-LHR and others doing or MNL-BKK-BOM-RUH, or CGK-BKK-BOM-DXB or some such.
• Basically, they all got cheaper than cheap fares from Jet, else no one in their right mind - no matter how poor - would put themselves through multiple stops, including several hours' layover at Sahar.
• And still JetZophrenia's Slave Ship was empty. Lovely business this, trash transportation. Such delightful combinations of desi baas, Filipino bais and Eurotrash backpackers. Brilliant.
• The first 10 rows were empty (and had been blocked off at OLCI too, for some reason) and everyone assigned seats at the back of the plane.
• The crew came and asked the few people not in the bai groups if they wanted to move and get comfy. Everyone did - the whole dozen of them.
• No pillows or blankets on the seats; none available when asked. "Sorry ma'am. We don't have any today."
• Crew were fine-ish though they took nearly 2 hours to finish a bev and meal run for a mostly empty flight.
• The food looked okay and tasted fine. The dessert, surprisingly for Jet, looked like AI's 787 cabin (ie : a combination of excreted bodily fluids) and therefore was untouched.
• Beer and white wine were both room temperature; JetChild offered ice !
• Flight landed on time at a nearly deserted Sahar terminal. Yet Jet decided to park the plane at a remote stand at Santa Cruz.
• Then the pilot announced "Sorry, we have a bus shortage, so it will take 10 minutes."
• Bus finally showed up, and Jet decided to try and stuff everyone into the one bus. Didn't work, so some of the bai crowd had to wait on the tarmac until they found another bus.
• Immigration was empty.
• At baggage claim, nothing for 10 minutes. Then Jet made an announcement ""Sorry, we have a baggage handler shortage, so it will take time."
• Turns out the shortage didn't extend to delivering crew bags. Those showed up, crew happily picked them up and went on their way, whilst the dozen or so passengers had to wait on account of the shortage.
• Next there was a trolley shortage. Not Jet's fault, but they had a few ground crew standing around doing nothing, who could have bothered to organise things in preparation for an incoming flight.