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shivendrashukla · Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:14 pm Post subject: AI-101, BOM-DEL Part 1

Hi there. Welcome to another of my “not so frequent” trip reports. This time I would be describing my trip from BOM-DEL on board AI-101, a 777-300ER (VT-ALM). So why is this special? Because this will be my first time on a widebody. Also since this would be my first time on a WB, I took special care to soak in all the sights and sounds of 77W, which I will try and recreate here in this TR. If I fail to recreate the charm, please bear with me.

Background

Diwali is a festival of lights and those of us who are bachelors and who stay away from family due to work or any other reason, will try and get back to their hometown to celebrate this festival. I was no exception. The only thing in my way was the unknown factor that if my leave would be approved, and when. Train tickets are out of the question as all trains were high WL. No matter where you want to go. I am sure if IR was running a train to hell, that would be WL too. And this is a situation about a month and a half before diwali. Not taking my chances, I logged on to a popular multi airline ticketing site to check for various fares couple of days before diwali. AI caught my eye as it was offering fares around 5.5K for BOM-DEL, about 200rs more than Indigo and other LCC. A good deal indeed. So logged into the airlines website and checked the deal more. What excited me was the the price was available for AI-101 too. A 77W service to JFK with a stopover in DEL. As mentioned above, I had never flown a widebody before and now with this price and date combination working for me, I just prayed that my leave would be approved. Back at office, as days passed by, I kept checking fares at ai’s website and that they were not changing. So was the status of my leave. Finally around end of Oct, AI-101 started showing 5 seats left and that is when I decided to take matters into my own hand. I directly approached my boss with now-or-never threat (read begging) for leave. After a lot of haggling (persuasion), my leave was approved and in an instant I Booked my AI-101 flight to DEL. Now the waiting began.

To 12th November

I was aware that this flight left from International terminal at BOM. Since I stay somewhere in the middle of BOM-PNQ, I had to take a train till Kalyan, change to local train, book a cab from Dadar to International terminal. Thankfully I managed this fairly complicated itenary, (yaa I have a habit of making things hard for myself), and reached airport at about 7pm. I was dropped off at the airport by the cab and I took out my ticket and my PAN card as ID proof and showed it to CISF guy. He was puzzled.

He – “Sir aap dilli jaoge”
Me – “Haanji”

He-“ Sir yeh International terminal hai. Kya aapki flight yahaan se jayegi?”
Me – “haan. Yeh dekho”, me showing him terminal 2 printed on the ticket.

He = “OK sir. Yeh Air India hai. Pata nahi kya karte hai”

I was like yeah. So far so good. I was let in and I made my way towards checkin. I must say here that It was depressing entering the International terminal. Domestic terminal is way better than international terminal. Also the signage is not upto the mark and I had to ask couple of people directions as to where AI check-in counters were. I had entered from Gate A and there was immigration hall that was blocking my view. So I couldn’t figure out where AI check-in was. Anyhow, I somehow managed to make my way to the checkin counter. Now unlike the domestic check-in counters, where you can check in any counter for any flight, here there were dedicated counters for different flights. As a result, some counters were empty while others had long queue. I am not sure that cross check-in were permitted. My turn came quickly and I asked for an aisle seat. I was given 52D. The second last row. I had specially requested for a seat at the back of the aircraft. Just a preference. He then tagged my baggage and handed me my boarding pass, which had a big “D” printed on it. He also gave me an immigration clearance form for domestic passengers. I asked him where to submit it. “Sir someone will ask you for it” was his reply. No one did. I went in to the immigration hall and there was a separate land for domestic . The official stamped by Boarding pass as being domestic and I headed straight for security, bypassing the mile long immigration line.

Now I must say this clearly. The security at CSIA is in shambles. It looks like a B grade domestic airport rather than being India’s premier city and its airport. There were only 3 lines open for males and single one for ladies and although the staff was doing fine, they were not able to manage the crowds there. Worst, there were many foreigners waiting for getting themselves cleared and it did put in a very very bad impression in their mind. I was just wondering that if they have done such a brilliant job on the domestic front, what holds them back at the international end? Although security was quick, I was airside in about 10mins. Now again, the gate assigned was 3. The space allocated for seating was just enough to accommodate passengers from a single flight. And here, there were 3 gates. Fortunately only mine and ANA Biz jet were scheduled to depart at that hour. If 3 77W’s were allocated, God help then. I reached the assigned gate and waited for 2030h. Time for boarding. In meantime, ANA started boarding and was surprised to hear that the boarding was announced in Japanese too apart from standard English, Hindi and Marathi. Nice touch from ANA. 2030h came and went by, no boarding announcement. 10 mins passed further. Nothing. It was around 2050h that they actually announced boarding and all the passengers quickly formed a line at the gate. Boarding was done quite fast and we boarded from 2L. As I entered the aircraft, I tried to note the regn. Unfortunately I couldn’t. When I entered the aircraft, I was taken aback by the mood lighting. It was extremely pleasant on the eyes. More so at the size of the aircraft. As I entered and turned right, I came across two rows of 6 seats each. They were first class. Looked extremely comfortable and generous space in between them. I made my way towards the economy section of the aircraft. As I entered economy, I was under the impression that AI had 3x4x3 configuration. But it turned out to be 3x3x3. Compared to a narrow body, this layout is extremely comfortable. I made my way towards the extreme end of the aircraft. Seat 52D. My seat was at the last of the 3rd economy cabin. The seat was again extremely comfortable for a 2hr journey. I am not sure about 15h. As I reached my seat, I took out my DSLR for some snaps. At this point, a cabin crew approached me and very politely told me that photography was not allowed. This will explain the lack of pictures in this TR. I was disappointed at not being allowed to click pictures. Anyways, this did not ruin my experience of the first WB. The plane boarded quite fast and I assume that the loads were 75%. Majority were domestic passengers who would alight at DEL. But at the back of the aircraft, only 4 of the 9 were occupied, giving me even more, the spacious feeling. Pushed back commenced 5 mins before scheduled and slowly the 2 GE90s came to life. Now these engines made quite a noise during startup. Is that normal? Apart from that, they were really quiet.
As this TR is growing long, I think I should end this here as Part 1. I will continue as Part 2. Till then…

banerjee1000 · Member Joined: 07 Jul 2012 Posts: 65 Location: Delhi,India

Nice one yaar......... Messing with the CISF personnel at the entrance hall was funny....... I think so he was on duty for the first time or was a new one I suppose.

Keep it up man!!!! Cool

ameya · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:52 pm Post subject:

Nice CISF experience. Ye air india hai.. kuch bhi karte hai Smile

Awaiting P-2. I am sure the local train itself would have been an experience, had it been in the morning from Kalyan to Dadar Very Happy

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Very nice trip report! `so was the status of my leave' - nice one!
You have made some interesting points about CSIA T2, which I will take note of, since I plan to take AI 348 BOM-DEL mid-Dec. IGIA T3 simply takes your breath away, but it is sad to hear that what was once my favourite airport, makes you breathless. The GE-90 startup sound is the loud Mmm...one. It is nice to see good loads on this segment. The no-photography part is quite surprising, did you not have the DGCA document with you? Your train routing also surprised me a bit: why come to Kalyan when you can go to Dadar from your start point, or a Volvo/Asiad bus to the same place? I am obviously missing something here. And no, the trip report is definitely not long. There can never be enough of anything nice. I look forward to Part 2, you obviously know why. Yes, it is the consequence of the announcement that is made after the seat belt signs go off.
Cheers, Sumantra.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:45 am Post subject:

Brilliant start there sir!
Surprising CISF didn't know about the AI domestic flights from International terminals!
Once I get back to India, I want to do one these 'unique' international continuation flights. Not one a B77W, honestly, I think its been an overdose! But maybe on the A332, B744 or B788!
Pity about the no picture thing. I have never had this issue before! Surprising!
Looking forward to the next part!

Regards
Jishnu.
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himmat01 · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 1392 Location: DEL

A nice report. T2 at Mumbai is really in shambles.

In the old days, there were separate security checks at the gates. This seems to have been done away with. Maybe they wanted to save some space.

Eagerly waiting for the part 2.
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jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

Nimish · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 6:42 pm Post subject:

Great TR - thanks for posting. Must have been awesome to hear the GE90s start up. However the noise tends to get on my nerves after a while, and much prefer the quieter Airbus a/c - esp the 380/ 330 family.

Looking forward to the rest of the journey, and next time, I'd recommend you ignore the FA's "no photography" warning Twisted Evil

. Pretend to put it away then, and then get clicking once the coast is clear... At least that's what I do.
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