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Saharsh · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2012 Posts: 33 Location: Noida

Hello guys! I am Saharsh from Noida. A real geek and an aviation lover.
I would like to share my report on my recent Air India trip from Delhi to Cochin and back.
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HOW IT ALL STARTED
My whole family was planning for a vacation since august of last year.All of them were busy with their tightly packed schedules.We all finally managed to get leaves from our offices and the date was fixed; 21st of october to 28th october:a clear cut one week holiday..
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Flying Air India

As my father is a central government employee.We had no other option but to choose Air India.We had no problem because we liked them.Tickets were immediately booked through Air India's nice functional site. The flights were:
AI 048: DEL-COK : A319 : 1830-2135 hours.

AI 466: COK-DEL : A321 : 0730-1030 hours.

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THE DAY OF DEPARTURE!!
Woke up late on that day @ 9:30 in the morning.Quickly freshened up and packed some left stuff like toothbrushes,medicines,sleepers and shoes etc.
Called the Meru cab guy at 2:15 in the afternoon.And with lots of bags and suticases,we left our home @ 3:30 in the afternoon.
After around 1 hour and 20 minutes,We finaly reached Delhi's brand new looking and top-notch terminal 3.The first thing you'll notice in T3 is that a long line of KFA A320 Jets standing/stored.Wish they overcome their problems soon.
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THE FLIGHT EXPERIENCE

In one word:GOOD

We quickly boarded our A319 registered as VT-SCJ and it was very clean and today's load was around 80%, which meant a profitable flight for them..considering the dire situation of the airline,I felt really happy.

Pushback,Engine start-up,Take-off videos are here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPRI-I5i87U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWQX2RAiAdI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI0qPrI-no0

Part-1 ends![/img]
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“Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.” - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

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

Nice start, Saharsh, hope to see more of your reports on the forum. Nice videos, we look forward to the other parts of this report.
Cheers, Sumantra.

Theairplaneguy4ever · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:51 pm Post subject:

Hey, Saharsh. Nice videos, I really like the quality.

How was Kerala, I hope you enjoyed it?

Personally I think AI is the best option for DEL-COK-DEL flights as its the only full service non stop between the two cities.

Thanks for sharing.
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India's first HD Video Trip Report Channel : www.youtube.com/Theairplaneguy4ever

Saharsh · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2012 Posts: 33 Location: Noida

Part-2
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IN-FLIGHT EXPERIENCE AND THE LANDING

As soon we took off,Our lady pilot Mrs. Kamal Kant suddenly and powerfully banked to our left and then the flight was straight without any hassles.After we reached our crusing altitude of 35000ft, food services were started.The first shocker was,There was no non-veg! And the second shocker was the cutlery was of plastic.Bad Air India.Was not expecting this from you.In the veg option there was: Palak Paneer (Spinach gravy with cottage cheese),Gobi ki sabzi(Couliflower),Rice,a not-at-all-tasty chocolate cake ,a usual Bun and butter and a small water bottle.
There were only 5 channels in their IFE most of old movies and one was showing Bol Bachchan. Sadly,There was no in-flight map usually shown.
After 2 hour and 50 minutes,We started to descend towards Cochin.And then finally after a few minutes, Our lady captain announced that we're almost there at Cochin and thank you for flying with us.The cabin crew quickly prepared the cabin for landing and then BOOM, A heavy touchdown and a bit powerful braking stopped us.It was raining heavily over there so I had no problems with the bumpy touchdown.We quickly de-boarded the plane through a jetway and took our bags and then went straight away to the hotel and SLEPT,As I was dead tired.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki1gb_6mRy0-landing

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Part-3
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Kerala-In one word-MESMERIZING.We stayed in sterlings resort at Munnar which was top-notch and Munnar is just too beautiful.We bought lots of spices along with home-made chocolates(very tasty).My mother bought her usual shopping item-Saris!
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Part-4 coming in a few minutes/hours!
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“Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.” - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker

Saharsh · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2012 Posts: 33 Location: Noida

THE RETURN
Finally,We returned to Cochin on 27th of october because next day we were returning home.Spent the day by going to some temples and visiting a beach.Along with my mom's usual shopping.We quickly went to the bed as we had to wake up @ 5:00 in the morning.
"Saharsh!!Wake up!!ise uthao,Its 5:25!!SAHARSH!!"
I woke up with lots of water in my face.WHAT! 5:30!!!!Quickly went to get freshened up,packed some remaining things and we were off to the Airport,5:40 In the morning.My father thought our flight would depart from the international terminal,Because while coming from Delhi we went through International Departures as our aircraft arrived from Kabul.But I proved him wrong!!Took a U-Turn and we were at the domestic departures.We saw the same family whom with we had came from Delhi.We both laughed looking at each other.And we were inside the terminal.The staff at the Terminal were rude.We quickly got our boading passes,Got security checked and went to the departures area.
There were lots of Aicraft. 4 AIX aircraft and 2 Jet Airways aircraft.@ 6:40 our beautiful bird VT-PPL arrived from Trivandrum with less than 60% load.Boarding started at 7:25 and voila!The engines were started even before the push-back and the pilot didn't retracted the flaps.Flight was around 90% full.Quite unexpected considering Air India's sky high fares and weird flight time.KFA effect it seems.Got a pushback,Taxiied behind a Spicejet Q400 off to Chennai and waited for our take off.With a not so powerful thrust,we were in the skies!!Flight time was:3 hours flat.Quickly after reaching our cruising altitude of 35000ft,Breakfast service commenced.The breakfast was:Upma,Cut-fruits and a Tropicana fruit juice bottle .Upma was not yummy but the fruits were ripe and sweet.After around 2 hours and 45 minutes,above Jaipur,we started to descend towards Delhi.And made a beautiful smooth touchdown at runway 29.the newest one.I saw many biggies @IGI T3:AI 787 getting ready for Frankfurt,AI A330 and AI 777-300-ER!We were de-boarded with the help of a jetway and a long walk to the arrivals section.T3 is the most beautiful Terminal in India.period.I LOvE IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V5_YzM7gVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY-1Dc81cp0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ci1DHJHk-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h70XWswSSjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaaSc1-z7JA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2DeA6OK1g
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Conclusion
Air India has disappointed me while going,But made me feel forget everything while coming back.Overall a decent experience.While Kerala was just awesome and I feel I would visit there again!
TRIP ENDS..
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_________________
“Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.” - Edward Vernon Rickenbacker