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shivendrashukla · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject: AI-101, BOM-DEL Part 2

So I finally decided to haggle myself to finish the second part of the two part Trip report. Now let me try and finish this… Good. Now where were we, oh yaa the engine start. Well the engines spooled to life after we pushed back. Now one thing here. Since it was dark and also that it was my first time departure from International terminal, I couldn’t figure out as to where we were. I did try looking out but that did not help me much either. All I could see was a Jet 737 to Doha and Emirates 330 to Dubai. All I do remember is that there was a very short taxi till the threshold. In the meantime, safety information was being displayed on the IFE screens. I must say that the animation is absolutely horrible. Please AI, pay some more and get yourself a new safety video made. With this quality of animation, it looks more of a cartoon than a safety video. Also the safety video was way too long. It lasted almost 5 mins each, both English and Hindi. The video informed that there were 10 exits (first thing that came on my mind was like wow!! 10 exits) on the aircraft and that we should be aware of our nearest exit in case of an emergency. 5L, Check. The taxi to runway was quick and surprisingly, we did not have to wait for any incoming or departing aircraft. Definitely first for me. We lined up quickly. Meanwhile the dropdown TV also came to life and were showing feeds from the nose camera. Once lined up, the pilot applied full throttle and we were on our way. The 77W is really powerful and after travelling on Narrow body all my life, this powerful takeoff was all the more evident to me. The nose camera was showing all the lights of the runway and after crossing the intersection, stick was pulled up and we gently ascended into the sky . It was a smooth takeoff. After few minutes, the aircraft banked right and we were on our way to Delhi. The IFE switched on almost immediately after this. There is a pamphlet which describes how to operate the IFE. Helpful for me who is new to this kind of system. Once we passed 10K feet, seat belts signs were switched off and the announcement that dinner will be served was made. I went through IFE system and there was no latest movie on the show. And surprisingly no English sit coms either. The only comedy show was in hindi and that too sarabhai vs sarabhai and FIR. Now I must tell you that I am not a very big fan of the former although I can just about tolerate the latter. Browsing the movies, I saw Ghost protocol in English and singham in Hindi were the latest offering respectively. So I decided to watch Singham. The touch screen of the IFE was sluggish and slow to respond also the software did take a lot of time to load. And oh by the way, the IFE did not know where we were going and had no idea on how fast we were flying or at what height. Now I know fellow member Sumantra would be reading this TR with extreme dedication now onwards as he is really fond of airline food, specially Air India’s. The meal services did commence shortly and since I was extremely last, I was one of the first to be asked about my choice and served. Now again compared to tray table in domestic flights, the 77W has a different tray table. It had a sort of fold in the middle so that the two halves could be opened either full or one on top of the other making a full or half table, depending upon meal or snack being served. Also the pitch of the seat ensured that the tray table was comfortable while eating the food. I asked for Non-veg. I was served a non veg dinner. The dinner had a chicken dish which tasted really good. The chicken was well marinated and cooked tender. Alongside it was Aloo-Gobhi vegetable and rice. Now the thing is, they did not serve any roti along with it which I found it to be strange. Now if you do serve aloo-gobhi vegetable, you should have served roti as well. It was pretty difficult digesting rice along with aloo-gobhi vegetable. Also I would like to bring out here is the container. As opposed to domestic AI, which serves food in melmoware bowl or hard plastic utensils, here the food was served in a very thin plastic utensils. So much so that if u did lift the container with the food, there was a real danger that you might actually twist the container and spill food all over. Why AI?? Why did you do this?? Sweet was served along with the dinner and it was absolutely fantastic kheer with generous seasoning of pista and badam. Well what they lacked in container, they did make it up for in quality of food. Meal gobbled up faster than they could serve, I settled for a cup of coffee and resumed watching singham for a millionth time. Shortly after this the captain came on the mic and introduced himself as Captain Khandelwal and gave us a brief description about the flight like we were flying at 37,000 feet and expected time in Delhi would be 2345 and here comes the good part. He actually thanked all the passengers for their cooperation due to which the flight actally left gate 5 mins before schedule and in the end wished a happy diwali to all of us. This I think was a good gesture on the part of PIC. He repeated the same in hindi as well. Shortly after this we commenced out descent. Now I was not sure that we had commenced our descent because it had only been 2250 and there was almost an hour left for our arrival into Delhi. But we indeed had commenced our descent as at 2305, the seat belts signs were switched on and the pilot informed that we had commenced our descent and will be landing at Delhi shortly. Of course, the IFE had to be switched off for landing and I had not even reached the middle of the movie. Great. But it was ok. I had watched the movie, as I mentioned, a million times. 5 mins before landing, the drop down TVs came to life and I could see down as the landing gear had not deployed yet. The sight was amazing to say the least. It was a day before diwali and I could see all the lights and decorations that delhiites had done and it was looking simply outstanding from the sky. Delhi was looking as if there was a big wedding going on and the whole city had been dressed up for it. Once the gear deployed, we got the view of the front. But it was so smoggy that it was not until a few mins before touchdown that I could actually make out the runway. The pilot had ofcourse glided on the ILS. The pilot make a super smooth touch down on runway 11 at 2320h almost 25 mins before schedule. After a longish taxi, we docked at gate 23 along side another one of AI 77W. So this put an end to my very first widebody flight. Disembarkation was via an aerobridge and after walking for like miles, we reached passport control and the famed mudras. Since I was a domestic passenger, we were to use the very last counter which was marked domestic only. And since this was a 77W, a long queue formed at the same counter. The immigration official verified that we indeed were domestic passengers and stamped out boarding card stating as such.

Photograph copyrighted by owner

The duty free is a delight at Delhi airport. Alas, I didn’t have enough time to go through that and made my way to the baggage claim. My bags arrived pretty fast and by 2350h I was outside. Overall, a great flight except for the meal container thing.

The cabin layout

Copyright by Pranjay patel

Hope you enjoyed reading my picture less description TR. Till next time….[

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

Nice TR for a 2hr flight from BOM to DEL. Very Happy

Sorry to hear about the the utensil thing.This is totally wrong on the AI's side. They provided us with nice hard plastic containers on the DEL - JFK route.

Catering was as usual nice on AI's flights.

This TR including your first part completes my AI-101 TR fully.
I too wanted to experience the B77W on the domestic route.

Thnks buddy fr the report. Smile

Keep posting........

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

I would be lying if I said that I was not waiting for Part 2 of your BOM-DEL 77W trip. Very nice descriptions! No, not just from the food point onwards, I have been all ears right from the engine spool: the incredible Mmmmooo sound that Jishnu describes so aptly. AI now seems to have this uniform policy not to have the IFE on during take-offs and landings, something that makes perfect sense. For aviation geeks like us, on international flights, they have the drop-down screens showing the nose camera/belly camera. The plane leaving the lights far behind on take-off, and the lights coming closer on landing, are sights which I enjoy immensely. The food: yes, most of us Indians prefer a dry preparation with a chhapati/phulka/roti/parantha/barota. Thin plastic utensils: this must be something recent, or possibly a one-off, as on AI long-haul, I have usually seen thin containers being put on top of small trays, so that the passenger does not have to touch the hot surfaces, and have a stable platform, too. Perhaps a one-off, since I experienced what I have described on my recent 04 Nov DEL-HKG ICN on AI 310 and 15 Nov NRT-DEL AI 307. Good that you got a nice kheer/payasam - have you experienced the Air India/Indian Airlines phirni? This Kashmiri preparation of finely ground rice lovingly cooked in milk with saffron over low heat is something they do to perfection. I loved your description of the festival of lights as seen while coming in to land. I have experienced this only on a train journey while coming in to Delhi on Diwali eve, though I have experienced the exact opposite once while coming in to land - a power cut happening in parts!
`The City of Lakes: Mother's Heart, Heart of the Motherland'
http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic11556.html
There I go with my narcissistic self-advertisement - I guess I should stop here. Thanks once again, for sharing this with us, Shivendra!
I look forward to my upcoming trip on the same flight, in December.
Cheers, Sumantra.

shivendrashukla · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:40 pm Post subject:

Thank you Mr Banerjee and Sumantra. I too look forward to your flight in December and eager to know how your experience would be. Thanks again Guys,

Cheers
Shivendra

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 5:21 pm Post subject:

Nice TR here, sir!
Its surprising to see So many nice AI international TRs (considering the fact that you were on an onward international flight).
They really are doing weel!
Its such a phonemenal experience to be on a Boeing 777, especially on a 300ER. But a 2 hour floght doesn't to justice....you need a longer flight!
Surprising about the food packaging! I hope they didn't use the same on the ULH floght! Quite a disgrace!
Nice descriptions of the food, interior, product and sights while landing as well.

Lastly, Sumantra sir, thanks for reffering to me there in your reply, much appreciated Smile

Regards
Jishnu
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http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:59 pm Post subject:

Huge block of text, but a good report there. Thanks for sharing!
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Yeah.