abigail

My very first trip report…

The old family in the home town of Hyderabad, India (HYD) was asking for a visit and I, being on the beach (consult-ese for not having a client project), thought that this was as good a time as any, especially after the fearless leader of my company requested all vacation to be taken in traditionally slow months of Jul and Aug. Cashed in 80k miles on DL for a coach seat. If I had 100k - which I didn't - I'd gladly have taken a BusinessElite seat all the way. Instead, I bought a one-way first class seat on Jet Airways (9W) for the intra-India leg.

6 July 2001
DL 106
JFK - FRA
Depart 07:50p
Arrive 09:50a + 1
767 - 300ER
Seat 23G

Arrived at JFK in plenty of time and put the car in long-term parking. Fairly convenient and cheaper alternative to taking the $50 each way shuttle bus from my home. DL's terminal 3 is an interesting layout. I checked in at around 4:30 and asked for an exit row seat. The lady says that the seats are available but she can't assign them. The gate agent will do that and the gate opens at 6:50. I call the 800 number and get told a similar story, "The assignment is currently locked." OK. I spend the next couple of hours watching planes land from the food court next to gate 11. Highly recommended viewing point. The types of incoming planes ranged from 747-400s to SF3s, a veritable Janes All The World's Aircraft on display. I'm first in line at 6:50 and am told that all the exit row seats are gone. I guess some PM or GM pax took them. Darn. But, surprisingly, when they called the Medallions to board, it was just me and a couple of other pax and they didn't take those exit row seats. DL's exit row assignment process or lack there of has been a sore point with me for a while.

The flight itself went smoothly. For once, a 10 year old boy sat next to me and didn't say a word. This was in stark contrast to another brat of similar age who insisted on explaining the greatness of the Chicago Bulls (and the rest of Chicago sports teams) through-out a 16 hour KLM flight from BOM to JFK a few years back. We got into FRA on time, and after a little wait on the taxiway, got into gate D1.

7 July 2001
DL 106
FRA - BOM
Depart 11:50p
Arrive 12:15a + 1
767 - 300ER
Seat 21F

Again, I asked the gate agent for an exit row seat and was told there were none. We re-boarded on time. Once again, very few Medallions. I sat in 23G, the doors closed, and I scooted over to an empty 21F (exit row aisle). The person in the window seat next to me said that he specifically asked not to be put in the exit rows since they were near the toilets. See what I mean about exit row assignment on DL. Aaaarrrggghh..

The BOM based Indian cabin crew were very good. After a good meal, I even managed to sleep for a few hours. Landed more or less on time.

8 July 2001
9W 2451
BOM - HYD
Depart 03:00a
Arrive 04:15a
737 - 400
Seat 3A

BOM has 2 terminals, international and domestic, each at the ends of the one large runway. To get from one to the other is huge hassle. It involves a 20 min midnight ride in an old bus packed with tired pax just off long international flights. The monsoon season humidity and stickiness, with the resulting sweatiness, adds to the short tempers. One has to pass through customs and wheel the bags to the bus where a porter loads the bags. The bus itself is provided by the domestic connecting airline Jet Airways (9W). This old vehicle is my only complaint against this otherwise excellent airline.

9W recently added 3am departures to BLR (Bangalore) and HYD (Hyderabad), both of which are growing cities with a large number of technology companies that do business in the North American and EU regions. Extremely convenient for arriving international pax, sparing them of a 3 hour wait through the night for the 6:30am deps. On a side note, Lufthansa is starting a FRA-BLR non-stop 3 times a week from Sep 1.

Since the First Class lounge opens at 3am, there was no opportunity to use it. The level of security at Indian airports seems to go up every time I visit. They seem to check the boarding pass every 20 yards or so. Not complaining, just a mild hassle.

There is only 1 other pax in First Class (seats 24). 2 pax and 2 FAs. Very personal service! Coach is only half-full. A nice meal is served, along with fresh squeezed lemonade. 9W serves full meals on every flight more than 20 mins in duration. They said that customers asked for that and liked it. Towards the end of the flight, a one page feedback form is passed out to each pax. 9W has excellent service on the ground and in the air, beating any US domestic airline hands down. They fly all new 737-400/700/800s and are maniacal about maintaining their schedules. Their safety program is overseen by ex-Qantas personnel.

Flight lands on time and baggage with large Priority tags comes through the carousel first. This is very unlike DL.

21 July 2001
9W 456
BOM - HYD
Depart 07:25p
Arrive 08:40p
737 - 400
Seat 9F

After an idyllic 2 weeks getting pampered at home, it was time to go back. Once again, an uneventful, on-time flight to BOM. Full meal in coach. Same old bus back to the international terminal. I think I'll take a taxi the next time, or fly British Airways. 9W has through checking facilities for connecting BA pax, sparing them of having to lug baggage between the 2 terminals and having to check it in again at BOM. www.delta.com had already told me that the inbound flight from FRA that night was 2 hours late, so I knew it was going to be a long night at the airport in BOM.

22 July 2001
DL 107
BOM - FRA
Depart 03:40a
Arrive 08:40a
767 - 300ER
Seat 11A

The DL counters opened at 10:30p, and I sailed through the BusinessElite/Medallion line. "Would you like an exit row window or aisle?" I was asked. A pleasant change indeed. "Your seat is 21G all the way to JFK." After several more layers of security, had a good dinner at a restaurant and did some window-shopping in the stores.

The inbound plane came in at 2am. While they were cleaning it up, I was playing spot-the-non-rev in the boarding area (yours truly was an ex-airline employee) when I hear my name called up. The kind gentleman hands me a new boarding pass reading 11A, in BE, for the BOM-FRA leg. Well… either it was done as compensation because the flight was delayed or Simple Good Business doesn't apply to the BOM station. J Either way, it was nice to be in BE for the night-time leg, enabling me to get a good 5 hours sleep. The FA woke me up an hour out of FRA to serve breakfast. Despite being 2 hours late departing, we arrived only an hour late. The lack of head winds meant that a 9 hour flight made it in 8 hours.

22 July 2001
DL 107
FRA - JFK
Depart 10:50a
Arrive 12:15p
767 - 300ER
Seat 21G

It was back to coach on this flight and the exit-row seat helped. Went through 1.5 novels and watched The Graduate, a movie that was on my to-watch for a while. I couldn't help feeling that the adult situations and scenes were somewhat inappropriate for a general audience on a plane.

Plane landed on time at JFK and breezed through immigration and customs, although the guy guiding the lines in immigration did seem somewhat confused directing traffic to the various lines; US citizens, Permanent Residents, INSPass, Visitors, etc.

Once again, good in-flight service on DL. That is one area in which they are better than most other US airlines. The ground staff is usually good with a few exceptions. I wish SGB would not shackle their options. Of course, they do need to fix their exit row boarding process.

Sankaps

Good point about thru check-in from Jet to British Airways. KLM and Northwest have the same arrangement with Jet as well. Jet's first CEO (or was it COO?) was an ex-TWA and NW person "on loan" to Jet, now back at NW as the head of Asia.

BizJet

Even though you slept, do you know what the service was in BusinessElite out of Bombay? Was there any other service offered or did they just shut off the lights and let everyone go to sleep?

abigail

They did have full service. On takeoff, they started off with a bowl of warm nuts, followed by a full dinner service. Breakfast was also a full service.