A Journey to India
Feb 4, 2006 | 2:03 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Gold (prev. Ex Plat for 10 years); DL Plat; UA Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,347
A Journey to India
My first trip report, still in progress. I am flying SFO-ICN-BKK-DEL, then DEL-BOM on Jet Airways (hopeful - if the strike does not snarl that itin), and BOM-SIN-SFO.
This post contains SFO-ICN-BKK...sorry no photos, was not feeling snappy. I was seated in business class for all inbound legs to Delhi thanks to operational upgrades
Well, I bought the upgrade on OZ, but TG was an operational on both legs.
Asiana 213, SFO-ICN
Sked Dep, SFO: 1:00A
Actual Dep, SFO: 12:50A
Sked Arr, ICN: 6:45A
Actual Arr, ICN: 7:10A
Boeing 777-200
I boarded this 777 and took my seat, a window. The flight had a light load - about 1/2 or less full in Y, maybe about that in Biz, I did not have a seat mate. This is my first trip on OZ as I would normally take SQ or UA to Asia but the connection OZ worked better in this case and based on my experience, I would take them again without pause. OZ's biz class seats on the 777 are all electronic - more on that later.
First remarks: service gets an A+++++++++. The cabin staff are VERY attentive, remember your name, and go out of their way to make you comfortable. I had read mixed reviews on OZ's biz class - this is their newer 777, but SFO-ICN is not operated with the flat-bed equipped aircraft. Still, I found the seat and its amenities amazingly comfortable - I fell asleep for about 9 hours which is quite rare for me, but not before a meal
After a delayed takeoff due to thick fog, the cabin crew quickly began prep for dinner with lights on 100%. No amenity kits were distributed but slippers were available in the seat pocket. I find it quite odd that OZ force a meal on everyone at that hour in the morning - CX, for example, in business anyway - turn the lights out but do a dinner service very quietly. If you wish to partake, they make it quick. If not, the lights are out and aside from a bit of clanging dishes and reading lights on here and there it's blessedly quiet.
The (handsome) purser came around with an enormous menu to take the "Heavy Snack" order. Choice was Western or Korean. I do not remember the details of "Western" but the main entre was either beef tenderloin in a peppercorn sauce or seared sea bass. The Korean meal was bibimbop. The western meal had a separate salad course but the Korean, my choice, came all one one tray - rice, side dishes, and the main ingredients. The soup was missing because the oven they were using to heat it was not working. The bibimbop was fantastic - veggies very fresh and the meat tender. One of the better airline meals I have had. Cheese and fruit course was next, which was unremarkable; then dessert, equally unremarkable (cheap lemon tart). They completed all of this within 1 hr. after takeoff and shut the lights off - wish United could learn this lesson on their evening departure SFO-LHR! I typically do not drink when flying but they claimed to have "red" and "white" wines available. Judging from the bottle labels I saw in passing, those descriptions were generous
I literally slept through almost until breakfast. I got up to use the facilities and found my seat was not working - it was in the reclined "sleep" position and the electronic seat controls would not respond. I had to curl myself out of it and asked the purser to take a look while I went to the lav. They have a few amenities in the lavatories - but not many. Apparently all of them are upon request with the cabin crew but I did not actually NEED anything so I did not try it out.
When I came out, I was lightly amused to find 2 flight attendants, the purser and the first officer who had come out to use the lav all trying to fix the seat. In the end they manually pushed it up and asked me to sit in the aisle seat - since I did not have a seatmate I was happy to do that. I slept a bit more, watched Elizabethtown and then breakfasted started, about 2 hrs before landing.
Breakfast was western only - choice of either spinach crepes or dried fruit blintz. I was also surprised there was not a cold option available but later learned they do have it upon request. Why is everything upon request on OZ? I thought the latter, dried fruit blintz, sounded rather interesting and so I ordered that. Breakfast started with a setup of fruit and warm breads, then the main warm course came out. The dried fruit blintzes were EXCELLENT - so much so that I would like to recreate them at home. The filling basically consisted of walnuts, dried cranberries, apricots and dates, and maybe something else, then topped with a sort of "crepes suzette-style" sauce. They were very, very good. They were served with potatoes and ham - once I added the Korean pepper paste the otherwise flat potatoes sang with flavor
Our flight was topped off with the smoothest landing I have ever experienced - even seated in the front cabin, we barely felt/heard the front gear touch down. I was quite impressed.
Overall, Asiana: A, maybe A+. I would DEFINITELY fly with them again particularly because Seoul is such a pleasant airport to connect.
I had a 2.5 hr connection in Seoul, waiting for my next flight - TG 3XX to BKK. I hung out in the Singapore Raffles lounge - wow! What a great space - amazing food options, good views of the airport ops, big area to spread out, etc. I had a few small snacks there but was still basically full from the Asiana breakfast. I then boarded:
TG 3XX (sorry, do not remember the number), ICN-BKK
Sked Dep, ICN: 9:40A
Actual Dep, ICN: 9:55A
Sked Arr, BKK: 1:40P
Actual Arr, BKK: 1:55P
This is a 2-class 330-300. I was somewhat disappointed in the seat - once again window in biz class - as it was hard and not very cozy, especially compared to the OZ seat. Still, for a 6 hr flt it worked. It has a rather useless leg rest, but was otherwise at least practical. Would not want to be on it for much longer tho, and I think the 333 does mostly regional duty. This flight was packed in both classes.
Was offered pre-departure drinks from a tray. We took off a bit late and were routed out over the South China Sea - apparently a longer route for this flight, according to the captain - and landed in BKK a few minutes late.
The meal was very disappointing - I had high expectations for my first TG flight, and they fell flat on their face. First, the "menu" was hand-scribbled on a postcard and they passed it around. The choices were, as described: prawn, lamb, chicken. No idea of the sauce or accompaniments. I chose prawns.
They dealt the trays out quickly - salads, bread, the typical setup. Then came the main courses. Blech, and I mean that. It was a small bowl consisting of about 6 TINY prawns in some sticky brown sauce, dried out sushi rice (why sushi rice??) and steamed cabbage. The prawns had a strong smell of fish to them and I did not try even one - ate the rice and steamed cabbage. They told me later when they saw I had not eaten the prawns that they were in a bulgogi-style sauce. I thought strange but who am I to critique. My seat-mate had ordered the lamb and aside from the fact his was obviously lamb, they looked identical.
They then served cheese and fruit, then dessert. I do not remember much about either except to say - better off bringing your own lunch and flying coach on TG. Maybe it was just a poor showing for their food quality.
The approach and landing was quite hurried - we were on route to land at about 2:10 when suddenly at 1:40, the plane started descending and turning wildly and when I looked up the flight attendants were scurrying around the cabin like ants on a picnic basket. We landed 10-12 minutes ahead of what the captain told us only 30 minutes earlier - not sure if ATC pushed them for an earlier slot or if they were just not paying attention (sort of felt like the latter). OH! That's the airport!
We landed quite fast - the air show on the screen showed about 175, when I am used to seeing 140-150.
Overall rating for Thai: C+.
That's it for now - my next flight will be TG, BKK-DEL also in business class. Trip report on that later...
This post contains SFO-ICN-BKK...sorry no photos, was not feeling snappy. I was seated in business class for all inbound legs to Delhi thanks to operational upgrades
Well, I bought the upgrade on OZ, but TG was an operational on both legs.Asiana 213, SFO-ICN
Sked Dep, SFO: 1:00A
Actual Dep, SFO: 12:50A
Sked Arr, ICN: 6:45A
Actual Arr, ICN: 7:10A
Boeing 777-200
I boarded this 777 and took my seat, a window. The flight had a light load - about 1/2 or less full in Y, maybe about that in Biz, I did not have a seat mate. This is my first trip on OZ as I would normally take SQ or UA to Asia but the connection OZ worked better in this case and based on my experience, I would take them again without pause. OZ's biz class seats on the 777 are all electronic - more on that later.
First remarks: service gets an A+++++++++. The cabin staff are VERY attentive, remember your name, and go out of their way to make you comfortable. I had read mixed reviews on OZ's biz class - this is their newer 777, but SFO-ICN is not operated with the flat-bed equipped aircraft. Still, I found the seat and its amenities amazingly comfortable - I fell asleep for about 9 hours which is quite rare for me, but not before a meal
After a delayed takeoff due to thick fog, the cabin crew quickly began prep for dinner with lights on 100%. No amenity kits were distributed but slippers were available in the seat pocket. I find it quite odd that OZ force a meal on everyone at that hour in the morning - CX, for example, in business anyway - turn the lights out but do a dinner service very quietly. If you wish to partake, they make it quick. If not, the lights are out and aside from a bit of clanging dishes and reading lights on here and there it's blessedly quiet.
The (handsome) purser came around with an enormous menu to take the "Heavy Snack" order. Choice was Western or Korean. I do not remember the details of "Western" but the main entre was either beef tenderloin in a peppercorn sauce or seared sea bass. The Korean meal was bibimbop. The western meal had a separate salad course but the Korean, my choice, came all one one tray - rice, side dishes, and the main ingredients. The soup was missing because the oven they were using to heat it was not working. The bibimbop was fantastic - veggies very fresh and the meat tender. One of the better airline meals I have had. Cheese and fruit course was next, which was unremarkable; then dessert, equally unremarkable (cheap lemon tart). They completed all of this within 1 hr. after takeoff and shut the lights off - wish United could learn this lesson on their evening departure SFO-LHR! I typically do not drink when flying but they claimed to have "red" and "white" wines available. Judging from the bottle labels I saw in passing, those descriptions were generous
I literally slept through almost until breakfast. I got up to use the facilities and found my seat was not working - it was in the reclined "sleep" position and the electronic seat controls would not respond. I had to curl myself out of it and asked the purser to take a look while I went to the lav. They have a few amenities in the lavatories - but not many. Apparently all of them are upon request with the cabin crew but I did not actually NEED anything so I did not try it out.
When I came out, I was lightly amused to find 2 flight attendants, the purser and the first officer who had come out to use the lav all trying to fix the seat. In the end they manually pushed it up and asked me to sit in the aisle seat - since I did not have a seatmate I was happy to do that. I slept a bit more, watched Elizabethtown and then breakfasted started, about 2 hrs before landing.
Breakfast was western only - choice of either spinach crepes or dried fruit blintz. I was also surprised there was not a cold option available but later learned they do have it upon request. Why is everything upon request on OZ? I thought the latter, dried fruit blintz, sounded rather interesting and so I ordered that. Breakfast started with a setup of fruit and warm breads, then the main warm course came out. The dried fruit blintzes were EXCELLENT - so much so that I would like to recreate them at home. The filling basically consisted of walnuts, dried cranberries, apricots and dates, and maybe something else, then topped with a sort of "crepes suzette-style" sauce. They were very, very good. They were served with potatoes and ham - once I added the Korean pepper paste the otherwise flat potatoes sang with flavor
Our flight was topped off with the smoothest landing I have ever experienced - even seated in the front cabin, we barely felt/heard the front gear touch down. I was quite impressed.
Overall, Asiana: A, maybe A+. I would DEFINITELY fly with them again particularly because Seoul is such a pleasant airport to connect.
I had a 2.5 hr connection in Seoul, waiting for my next flight - TG 3XX to BKK. I hung out in the Singapore Raffles lounge - wow! What a great space - amazing food options, good views of the airport ops, big area to spread out, etc. I had a few small snacks there but was still basically full from the Asiana breakfast. I then boarded:
TG 3XX (sorry, do not remember the number), ICN-BKK
Sked Dep, ICN: 9:40A
Actual Dep, ICN: 9:55A
Sked Arr, BKK: 1:40P
Actual Arr, BKK: 1:55P
This is a 2-class 330-300. I was somewhat disappointed in the seat - once again window in biz class - as it was hard and not very cozy, especially compared to the OZ seat. Still, for a 6 hr flt it worked. It has a rather useless leg rest, but was otherwise at least practical. Would not want to be on it for much longer tho, and I think the 333 does mostly regional duty. This flight was packed in both classes.
Was offered pre-departure drinks from a tray. We took off a bit late and were routed out over the South China Sea - apparently a longer route for this flight, according to the captain - and landed in BKK a few minutes late.
The meal was very disappointing - I had high expectations for my first TG flight, and they fell flat on their face. First, the "menu" was hand-scribbled on a postcard and they passed it around. The choices were, as described: prawn, lamb, chicken. No idea of the sauce or accompaniments. I chose prawns.
They dealt the trays out quickly - salads, bread, the typical setup. Then came the main courses. Blech, and I mean that. It was a small bowl consisting of about 6 TINY prawns in some sticky brown sauce, dried out sushi rice (why sushi rice??) and steamed cabbage. The prawns had a strong smell of fish to them and I did not try even one - ate the rice and steamed cabbage. They told me later when they saw I had not eaten the prawns that they were in a bulgogi-style sauce. I thought strange but who am I to critique. My seat-mate had ordered the lamb and aside from the fact his was obviously lamb, they looked identical.
They then served cheese and fruit, then dessert. I do not remember much about either except to say - better off bringing your own lunch and flying coach on TG. Maybe it was just a poor showing for their food quality.
The approach and landing was quite hurried - we were on route to land at about 2:10 when suddenly at 1:40, the plane started descending and turning wildly and when I looked up the flight attendants were scurrying around the cabin like ants on a picnic basket. We landed 10-12 minutes ahead of what the captain told us only 30 minutes earlier - not sure if ATC pushed them for an earlier slot or if they were just not paying attention (sort of felt like the latter). OH! That's the airport!
We landed quite fast - the air show on the screen showed about 175, when I am used to seeing 140-150.
Overall rating for Thai: C+.
That's it for now - my next flight will be TG, BKK-DEL also in business class. Trip report on that later...
Last edited by dll; Feb 4, 2006 at 2:09 am
Feb 4, 2006 | 7:52 pm
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Gold (prev. Ex Plat for 10 years); DL Plat; UA Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,347
Having now arrived (and gotten a full night's sleep), I shall continue my report!
My final inbound flight yesterday was:
TG 315, BKK-DEL
Sked departure, BKK: 1950
Actual departure, BKK: 2020
Sked arrival, DEL: 2245
actual arrive, DEL: 2245
777-300
This is the final leg of my flight to Delhi, and I felt like I might die. I have traveled extensively around the earth in my years, and have never felt so completely and utterly wasted.
Thai does not seem to be particularly worried about boarding for an on-time departure. On two legs now, they have not boarded the aircraft until the scheduled departure time. They are VERY efficient at the boarding process and this was a packed flight - within 15-20 minutes they had everyone on board and closed the door which I found amazing. That would never happen on a 100% full flight in the US, what with all the people carrying on their house and all.
Business class, on the other hand, was only about 1/3 full - everyone got their own row of seats. I was seated again at the window. I found TG's biz class seats on this plane - 777-300 - very odd. First, they are not that comfortable but based on my last experience I was not expecting them to be. The seat pitch was worse than the 330-300, but these are all big and square, sort of the old-fashioned domestic first seats in the US, and extend well above your head. I cannot believe I am saying this as a grown man, but they kind of reminded me of Spongebob Squarepants himself.
You can see what I mean:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0354112/M/
Anyway, we got going and they came around with menus for dinner. I was expecting very little in the way of food, and had thus gorged myself on snacks in their Royal Orchid Lounge in Bangkok. They have some nice snacks in there. The choices were lamb chops, snapper in madras curry, or green thai curry with chicken, their signature dish. I chose the green curry.
Dinner service started with samosa - bit leathery with a somewhat dry filling, but otherwise good. The came the main tray. The tray contained a salad and the appetizer, a delicious couscous of rice and grains topped with halved prawns, and the whole thing was drizzled in a delicious pesto-style sauce. It was surprisingly good. Then the main courses came out.
My curry was served with stir-fried shaved turnips and eggs and rice. I will be honest - the curry was out of this world. It was spicy, VERY fragrant and the chicken was so tender it melted in my mouth. I was shocked, SHOCKED, after my ICN-DEL flight. Maybe dinner service is taken more seriously, or maybe because it is catered out of their headquarters instead of an outstation. Whatever the reason, they really nailed that curry.
Being quite full I declined the cheese and dried fruit, and dessert (taro pudding) and went to sleep. About 30-40 minutes later we hit VERY rough turbulence, enough that the entire plane was shaking violently and the cabin crew had to suspend service. This lasted about 30 minutes then happened again, only more violently, about 30 minutes out of Delhi. We were pre-briefed on this by the captain during his remarks - he warned about strong turbulence. Not being familiar with Indian airspace I do not know if heavy turbulence is normal.
The flight otherwise passed by without much ado. We began our descent to Delhi at 10:20 and touched down at 10:45 precisely. Immigration was quick and my hotel driver was awaiting my arrival. After a 30 minute drive to the hotel, I went down for a deeeeeeeeep slumber, one of the best I have had in years. I feel refreshed today and my body knows it is morning instead of bedtime - all good things.
Will report later my DEL-BOM leg on Jet Airways, then the return to SFO from there on SQ in economy.
My final inbound flight yesterday was:
TG 315, BKK-DEL
Sked departure, BKK: 1950
Actual departure, BKK: 2020
Sked arrival, DEL: 2245
actual arrive, DEL: 2245
777-300
This is the final leg of my flight to Delhi, and I felt like I might die. I have traveled extensively around the earth in my years, and have never felt so completely and utterly wasted.
Thai does not seem to be particularly worried about boarding for an on-time departure. On two legs now, they have not boarded the aircraft until the scheduled departure time. They are VERY efficient at the boarding process and this was a packed flight - within 15-20 minutes they had everyone on board and closed the door which I found amazing. That would never happen on a 100% full flight in the US, what with all the people carrying on their house and all.
Business class, on the other hand, was only about 1/3 full - everyone got their own row of seats. I was seated again at the window. I found TG's biz class seats on this plane - 777-300 - very odd. First, they are not that comfortable but based on my last experience I was not expecting them to be. The seat pitch was worse than the 330-300, but these are all big and square, sort of the old-fashioned domestic first seats in the US, and extend well above your head. I cannot believe I am saying this as a grown man, but they kind of reminded me of Spongebob Squarepants himself.
You can see what I mean:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0354112/M/
Anyway, we got going and they came around with menus for dinner. I was expecting very little in the way of food, and had thus gorged myself on snacks in their Royal Orchid Lounge in Bangkok. They have some nice snacks in there. The choices were lamb chops, snapper in madras curry, or green thai curry with chicken, their signature dish. I chose the green curry.
Dinner service started with samosa - bit leathery with a somewhat dry filling, but otherwise good. The came the main tray. The tray contained a salad and the appetizer, a delicious couscous of rice and grains topped with halved prawns, and the whole thing was drizzled in a delicious pesto-style sauce. It was surprisingly good. Then the main courses came out.
My curry was served with stir-fried shaved turnips and eggs and rice. I will be honest - the curry was out of this world. It was spicy, VERY fragrant and the chicken was so tender it melted in my mouth. I was shocked, SHOCKED, after my ICN-DEL flight. Maybe dinner service is taken more seriously, or maybe because it is catered out of their headquarters instead of an outstation. Whatever the reason, they really nailed that curry.
Being quite full I declined the cheese and dried fruit, and dessert (taro pudding) and went to sleep. About 30-40 minutes later we hit VERY rough turbulence, enough that the entire plane was shaking violently and the cabin crew had to suspend service. This lasted about 30 minutes then happened again, only more violently, about 30 minutes out of Delhi. We were pre-briefed on this by the captain during his remarks - he warned about strong turbulence. Not being familiar with Indian airspace I do not know if heavy turbulence is normal.
The flight otherwise passed by without much ado. We began our descent to Delhi at 10:20 and touched down at 10:45 precisely. Immigration was quick and my hotel driver was awaiting my arrival. After a 30 minute drive to the hotel, I went down for a deeeeeeeeep slumber, one of the best I have had in years. I feel refreshed today and my body knows it is morning instead of bedtime - all good things.
Will report later my DEL-BOM leg on Jet Airways, then the return to SFO from there on SQ in economy.
Last edited by dll; Feb 4, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Feb 5, 2006 | 2:24 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Seat 1A, Juice pretty much everywhere, Mucci des Coins Exotiques
Posts: 34,337
Nice report. And yes TG has better food out of BKK than most other places. However out of NRT the food is very good, at least in F. I see that you like Asiana, however I will definitely stick with ANA through Japan, or Singapore's non-stop to SIN which is a much faster choice. If you have a long connection in SIN, you can just use the airport hotel and health club.
Feb 8, 2006 | 8:14 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Gold (prev. Ex Plat for 10 years); DL Plat; UA Gold; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,347
I wanted to give a quick trip report on my domestic India leg today:
8-Feb
Jet Airways 3XX
Delhi-Mumbai
Departure: ontime
Arrival: 5 minutes ahead sked
This was operated by a 737-400, a slightly older aircraft but still in decent shape. The domestic terminal in DEL is, uh, in sorta very bad shape. As in, very bad shape. That said, at least my flight was on-time so I got out of there lickity split.
We boarded via stairs - all domestic flights in DEL are via stairs unless departing from the int'l terminal. I took my business class seat, a window. Now, everyone I read about raves and raves about the service on Jet. Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised it - every single employee I encountered was hyper-friendly and eager to help. Speaking of employees...I was also surprised the number of employees required to get a flight closed and on its way! My gosh - they employ about 2x the people per plane as I am used to on United. There's the ticket taker, the bus attendant, the person at the stairs to check your handbag security stamp, the 9 baggage people...at one point I glanced into the hold of another Jet flight and counted 5 baggage people inside a 737 and 4 standing around.
They came around with menus for breakfast. This 737 has 6 rows of biz class - United, are you listening? - and they had 4 options for breakfast. Two Indian, a western (omelette) and a light option, lowfat waffles and yoghurt.
I chose the omelette. They soon came around with a tray of fruit and wheat flakes - I thought, did I order the wrong thing? I must be flying United too much because I thought that was the whole breakfast! Then when I saw everyone received the same, I realized...
Shortly thereafter came the omelette. A friend told me upon learning of my trip here that I should stick to Indian food, even if I do not like it (I do), because western food is not good. He was right in this instance - the omelette was not that great. I ate it tho, and went to sleep straightaway. Landing in Mumbai is an interesting thing - you fly in over the city's slums. The ingenuity of people always amazes me - literally, people have framed homes out of anything they can fashion and created entire villages, indeed an entire city, to call home.
The Mumbai domestic airport is about 95% nicer than the Delhi domestic airport; we were bussed from a remote stand to the terminal, my bag was already on the conveyor, and I walked right out to greet my hotel car transfer. Am I really in India? Within 15 minutes of touchdown I was in the car to the hotel.
All in all, I would fly Jet Airways again on domestic flights, although I would like to try Kingfisher too. As most flights within India are ~2 hrs or less, amenities are not much of an issue for me. The seats on Jet are OK - standard domestic first class. Food is OK too, nothing notable or memorable. Service is impeccable though - they really know how to run a professional airline and it shows.
8-Feb
Jet Airways 3XX
Delhi-Mumbai
Departure: ontime
Arrival: 5 minutes ahead sked
This was operated by a 737-400, a slightly older aircraft but still in decent shape. The domestic terminal in DEL is, uh, in sorta very bad shape. As in, very bad shape. That said, at least my flight was on-time so I got out of there lickity split.
We boarded via stairs - all domestic flights in DEL are via stairs unless departing from the int'l terminal. I took my business class seat, a window. Now, everyone I read about raves and raves about the service on Jet. Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised it - every single employee I encountered was hyper-friendly and eager to help. Speaking of employees...I was also surprised the number of employees required to get a flight closed and on its way! My gosh - they employ about 2x the people per plane as I am used to on United. There's the ticket taker, the bus attendant, the person at the stairs to check your handbag security stamp, the 9 baggage people...at one point I glanced into the hold of another Jet flight and counted 5 baggage people inside a 737 and 4 standing around.
They came around with menus for breakfast. This 737 has 6 rows of biz class - United, are you listening? - and they had 4 options for breakfast. Two Indian, a western (omelette) and a light option, lowfat waffles and yoghurt.
I chose the omelette. They soon came around with a tray of fruit and wheat flakes - I thought, did I order the wrong thing? I must be flying United too much because I thought that was the whole breakfast! Then when I saw everyone received the same, I realized...
Shortly thereafter came the omelette. A friend told me upon learning of my trip here that I should stick to Indian food, even if I do not like it (I do), because western food is not good. He was right in this instance - the omelette was not that great. I ate it tho, and went to sleep straightaway. Landing in Mumbai is an interesting thing - you fly in over the city's slums. The ingenuity of people always amazes me - literally, people have framed homes out of anything they can fashion and created entire villages, indeed an entire city, to call home.
The Mumbai domestic airport is about 95% nicer than the Delhi domestic airport; we were bussed from a remote stand to the terminal, my bag was already on the conveyor, and I walked right out to greet my hotel car transfer. Am I really in India? Within 15 minutes of touchdown I was in the car to the hotel.
All in all, I would fly Jet Airways again on domestic flights, although I would like to try Kingfisher too. As most flights within India are ~2 hrs or less, amenities are not much of an issue for me. The seats on Jet are OK - standard domestic first class. Food is OK too, nothing notable or memorable. Service is impeccable though - they really know how to run a professional airline and it shows.
Feb 8, 2006 | 9:42 am
#6
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Posts: 102,077
dll, great trip report about your 9W flight. Thanks.
I want Jet Airways to be part of a major international alliance and then it would be even better.
The new Bombay domestic terminal is much nicer than the old one. (Cut from the same cloth: the old BOM domestic terminal and the "current" DEL domestic terminal.)
I want Jet Airways to be part of a major international alliance and then it would be even better.
The new Bombay domestic terminal is much nicer than the old one. (Cut from the same cloth: the old BOM domestic terminal and the "current" DEL domestic terminal.)
Last edited by GUWonder; Feb 8, 2006 at 9:45 am
Feb 15, 2006 | 7:39 pm
#8
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: New York
Posts: 7,984
Thanks
Thanks for the report!
I guess TG food is better catered out of BKK because it is its home airport and owns its own catering facility. Well a home airport sometimes makes a big difference.
Thanks for the Asiana report! I like OZ too and find the crew to be very good. About cold breakfast, Asians like warmed stuff in the general, but it is good to know that they have cold stuff in reserve.
Thanks,
Carfield
I guess TG food is better catered out of BKK because it is its home airport and owns its own catering facility. Well a home airport sometimes makes a big difference.
Thanks for the Asiana report! I like OZ too and find the crew to be very good. About cold breakfast, Asians like warmed stuff in the general, but it is good to know that they have cold stuff in reserve.
Thanks,
Carfield