Vishal Mehra

As the deadline of 1st December 2014 for Jet Airways to operate under one master full-service brand looms,

Along with some macro analysis, I give certain examples from my recent trips on Jet brands. Would appreciate all of you to chime in with your thoughts on the topic.

Cheers!

Keyser

i had an interesting conversation with an etihad executive in abu dhabi last week....he was talking about a lot of changes in jet that would improve the service & profitability of the airline....

i had sworn off jet but circumstances have forced me to take a few 9w flights as of late....i have to admit that i am beginning to see some improvement....

Vishal Mehra

What kind of changes he spoke about, and what improvements have you seen?

Keyser

a lot of it was off the record so i'm not going to mention is here....but there was stuff like aircraft configuration for business being the same on all flights for certain routes, service level on the ground & on board to become more personalized, website to improve, call center service to improve, etc....

the improvements i have seen have been the level of attention while on board, the meal service, cleaner & fully functional seats....

ashishp

There is going to be a standardisation of configuration across the 737 fleet - 8J + 156Y. Basedon my 4 flights with them earlier this month, Service delivery has improved. Meal service is back on most flights with many if not all former Konnect flights becoming full service. However meal-service in Y and J is more closer to Air India domestic now. The cloth napkins are gone and meal portion sizes have been cut.

On all 4 flights, the 737-800's were operating with reduced crew. Earlier most operated with 6 crew. Now 4 seems to be the new standard.

Seems to be happening on Air India as well! Just 4 cabin crew on a full A321 to COK last week!

avneeshj

It'd be great to see these improvements. The 9W website is an absolute disaster. It'd be great to see 9W regain some of it's old glory.

tirajat

Little off topic since the flight I took was international.

I flew BOM-HKG yesterday in J, but no amenities kit - I was hoping they would bring it back since I remember jet used to offer it around a couple of years back. Fortunately, sleeping suit was provided, although only when I asked for it. jet has restarted snack service on this sector - cold sandwiches were offered this time, I remember it wasn't the case when I flew in Dec last year. Overall, a mixed experience. Before landing, the cabin crew visited each passenger and asked if they enjoyed the flight - this was the first time gesture. I think Jet still needs to translate words into action. a lot needs to be done to "regain past glory"

Anish

Well the Tamarind candy is back!

Vishal Mehra

I was reading how Naresh Goyal was pissed at seeing long check-in queues at the BOM airport, chided staff not to let that ever happen again.

GuyFromBOM

I was considering EY for DXB (XNB) trip next week, along with a friend who's relocating. I offered to help with my excess baggage allowance (thanks to JP). 9W direct flights were priced considerbly higher.

Having heard unconfirmed reports that EY refuses to honour JP elite status benefits (despite both carrier's websites listing the info), I called up EY India tollfree # to confirm if that was true. The executive stated: "No benefits for JP elite members on EY". I pointed out that EY Guest has same offering for their members on 9W and offered to share the links from both 9W & EY websites. But, she stood her ground.

I didn't give-up on EY yet, because their fares to (XNB - Marina Bus Station, Dubai) in both J & Y were cheaper than 9W (to DXB) for the dates i was looking for. Next I tweeted to EtihadHelp & JetAirways for clarification. Discussed with EY via DM, only to be sent a link to baggage allowance calculator on EY website and no further info.

Not wanting to be greeted with an unplesent surprise at the check-in desk, I booked AI. A bit lower fares than EY, excess Baggage allowance for even the basic members, direct flights and not to forget the spending targets on the co-branded CC. ^^

Next day 9W exceutive called me to clarify the info and provide assistance, but having booked already there was no point.

9W & EY would do well to do away with JP altoghether / replace JP with EY Guest membership. This would be a much easier process rather than restructuring their systems / staff to offer resiprocal benefits. @:-)

Transpacificflyer

Jet has some wonderful J class fares from Canada to BKK, with the 1st leg to LHR on AC connecting through Mumbai. Over the past 2 weeks it has been priced about $1000+ less than an all AC metal routing. The Jet schedule is also more convenient than the AC schedule or the next most competitive routing with Turkish. As I have never used Jet, I have been hesitating, doing my research by reading FT and some other reliable info sources. I was not impressed by the Jet website. I wanted reassurance on my connections, something along the lines that AF/KLM/ANA/JAL offer on their website, not some stupidity about Jet's new crockery.

The end result, is that I was 75% certain I would pass on this option. After reading this thread, I am now up to 90%. In case someone from Jet is reading, here are my reasons;
- Poor reviews of inflight service. (Unpleasant reviews on the soft product including F&B. A quick visit to the IFE section of the Jet website was unimpressive. )
- Poor reviews of Jet response when there are IROPS or flight delays.
- Concern as to the viability of a short transfer time in Mumbai (International Jet to International Jet with only an hour to make the connection). Having experienced Indian airports previously, 1 hour can easily become 2-3 hours if there is a crowd or weather issues.
- Uncertainty as to seat selection. If I am paying for a business class seat, I want some certainty that I will be able to obtain the seat I selected.

This is a shame, because Jet offers pod seating like AC on the LHR-MUM route and I was open minded on an Indian airline. However, I am not willing to take the risk of a screw up with a reportedly unresponsive airline where customer service is not a priority. If I wanted bad service, an unpleasant airport experience, and dirty aircraft I would book on a US flag carrier. Perhaps, this is why Jet offers lower airfares, as there is no other reason to select the airline.

Anish

Jet's international J class is not shabby at all.. In fact the seat + food + service is right up there with most international carriers. There had been a dip in service levels until last year but I've noticed crews are much nicer and friendlier now.

As for Intl-Intl connection in Mumbai, it's seamless with no immigration required and if you're flying J throughout there will be Jet staff to assist you all the way through.

Also you can select your seat as soon as you book an international flight with Jet.