Airliners-India.com

ameya · Last edited by ameya on Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:51 pm; edited 2 times in total

1.0 Background

It was sometime in last week of August that I was sounded off by the company that I may have to make a trip to the US&A to attend an event in Chicago. This could very well be clubbed with some customer interaction in CA & then a few days in the HQ at Seattle,WA.

Some colleague of mine was supposed to do the other two things, but since I was to attend the conference and couldn’t be replaced by my colleague there, I could be made to do the other two things as well. Well, a little complicated, but then a 4-5 year old start up will have such things to offer.

Since this is not a point to point travel, it would involve some flights within US and it was always a welcome addition.

Having moved out of aviation more than a year ago, my average flights per year has dropped drastically. The 7 flights to/from Russia and now this would take my yearly average up.

Another thing to note was that this is heading out to be a good year - after-all, how many visit the commies and the capitalists in the same year !

MY flights so far, you can see some crazy flights in India

FlightDiary_19Sep by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

1.1 Trip Plan A

Go to Chicago, attend the conference, go to CA, visit the client for 3-4 days, head to Seattle at the HQ, spend a week and back to India.

Options for the flights:

Since my maternal uncle closer to Chicago, I decided on the AI non stop to ORD since it reaches at 07:25 hours, which would give me the day ahead with him before the conference starts. Ambitious to stay awake and spend time with him after such a long flight and time zone difference but doable.

1.2 Trip Plan B

Even before the plan could be finalized, the twist was ready, I would now have to advance my trip and now go to CA first, followed by Chicago and back. The seattle plan is now in suspended animation.

As the trip got fixed up on last Thursday, I sent my request for booking to the official travel agent and got in touch with fellow members – Sumantra Sir for expertise on Air India and Nimish – for his expertise on inter-continental travel and LH. Both of them were very kind in giving me options and educating me. Honestly, I have done over 100 domestic trips and my flight diary page looks as below, but when it comes to international travel, I am a novice and a first timer to the US&A.

The company sends it people by EK to SEA, where generally people go. However, with hardly any airlines which operate to both LAX (From where my place of work was very close) & ORD. The options were getting narrower.

I sent my request as below to the official travel agent on Friday the 13th ! and holla, I probably had the evil spirits looking upon me.

B747 was on top of my list, since I have never been on one as yet and I wanted to club it in this trip.

Options
Option 1: BOM-SNA, SNA-ORD, ORD-BOM
Option 2: BOM-SIN-NRT-LAX, LAX-SNA by Road, SNA-ORD, ORD-LAX, LAX-NRT-SIN
Option 3: BOM-SIN-ICN-SFO-SNA, SNA-ORD, ORD-LAX, LAX-NRT-SIN

The booking Mess
None the less, the evil spirits I referred to were right there, and the official travel agent just did not respond. The fare which was 94k return for the entire trip on Friday rose to 1,13,595 on Monday and the TA still not responding.
As the fares started climbing higher and the TA response was not there at all.
By now I had decided I will not travel LH for some or the other reason. However, with fares increasing, I became more adamant to land in SNA and gave this option.
BOM-FRA-SFO. (B744/A380), SFO-SNA on UA, SNA-ORD on UA, ORD-ZRH-BOM on LX.
When I started out on the optimum routing hunt, the idea never was time, it was always new airport and new aircraft type. Considering I have never sat in B747 and I am not a fan of B777s, it was always a challenge to get what I want.
A lot of back and forth, which involves the following options given by multiple travel agents

1. BOM-EWR-SNA-ORD-EWR-BOM
(Ruled out after discussing with Nimish)

2. BOM-ZRH-SFO-SNA-ORD-ZRH-BOM
(Eventually finalized, though it involved transit thru an airport which I have been to already and all airbus trip. No new aircraft)

3. The sudden twist happened again with options available as below,
BOM-FRA-DEN-SNA-ORD-FRA-BOM

OK. Fair enough, no A380 but two B744, and all other new airport.

Ticket was booked for 1,29,300 and later I managed another steal.

Final Booking
BOM-FRA on 21st Sept on B744
FRA-IAH on 21st Sept on A388
IAH-SNA on 21st Sept on A319
SNA-ORD on 28th Sept on B752
ORD-FRA on 3rd Oct on B744
FRA-PNQ on 4th Oct on BBJ2 Privat Air

jasepl · Member Joined: 26 Jul 2008 Posts: 4257 Location: bund-bay

OOh.. This one should be good. I look forward to the report.

It seems like you were looking solely at Star airlines?

Why did you rule out the continental flight? It's very long, but might be less painful than dealing with Frankfurt! That said, getting to fly the PrivatAir flight probably makes up for a lot of the other aches and pains that come with Lufthansa!
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ameya · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:35 pm Post subject:

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:45 pm Post subject:

This looks brilliant!
I particularly look forward to the last flight, FRA-PNQ. Those BBJs amaze me!

ameya · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:11 pm Post subject:

Thanks. This trip will give me new airports - FRA/IAH/SNA/ORD of which SNA is off beat and new aircraft types - B747 / A380 / B752 / BBJ2

Again B752 is off beat !

747-237 · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 7:40 pm Post subject:

ameya · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:16 pm Post subject:

[quote="747-237"]

747-237 · Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:03 pm Post subject:

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

Ameya Sir, thanks a lot for keeping me abreast with all nitty-gritties of the travel itineraries as they were evolving. I was with you at most points, sharing your expectations, joys, despair and nail-biting tense moments. I guess I am fortunate enough to be your friend. However, the credit you give to me in the report is definitely not something I deserve. I don't travel as much as many people on the forum, though I guess I travel more on Air India than many others here, and ORD has been a station I have done a few times now. I am excited about your trip - at the expectation of getting lovely TRs from a writer and routing genius as you! I haven't been to SNA or IAH, and never been on an A380 (after having missed it on the ICN-NRT leg for the cost, as well as bad connections, else I would have even foregone the one checked-in bag rule on KE, and done it). The Privatair BBJ2 leg looks super-exciting, which will bring you into to aplI Pune itself. The B752 and B744s aren't exactly types to really look forward to, especially with the airlines you are flying the type. Your TR is really something to look forward to! All the best for a lovely trip. And we know that unlike people like me, you will update this report very regularly. I have been stuck up with re-writing a May'13 Nanded trip report after the near-complete version was lost in a disk crash. That features the airport which helped inculcate your passion for aviation...Chikkalthana!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 12:34 pm Post subject:

Aircraft information

As per the Frankfurt airport website, the aircraft will be
D-ABTF (Thuringen)

Few sources report that it has PTV.
It has been doing trips to LAX & DEN & BOS the last few days as per FR24

D-ABTF is 22.5yrs old having been delivered to LH in March'91

The FRA-IAH leg will be operated by
D-AIMF (Zurich)
Delivered to LH in Oct'2011

Being making trips to SIN & NRT in the last few days

Nimish · Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:27 pm Post subject:

Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Safe journey look forward to the report,

Did you attempt a PNQ DEL FRA IAH SNA routing to get the 748 as well...?

Karan

ameya · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:50 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the comments so far. The TR Continues

2.0 Departure from PNQ

The last day before the trip was a tight one in office with a lot of work. Add to that the confusion over hotel booking and so on, which has eventually led to me having to stay in three different hotels in Chicago over the period of 4 days.

The office cab was to come at 1930hrs, pick another colleague, who was to travel to SEA on KE, and head to Mumbai. But something is not write between cabs and me, may it be the office one of the ones with radio cabs in any city, except Delhi. The cab came around 2000hrs, picked up the other colleague at 2025 and we headed towards Mumbai. Decision was taken to skip a stop and reach the airport directly. Thankfully traffic wasn’t there and we exited the expressway at 2210, reaching the Andheri right turn towards International Airport signal at 2315. However, from there to domestic airport was a total chaos and we finally got down at 23:55hrs. One B747 of AI was in the hanger, wonder which one.

We got parking near the first gate, and since the terminals are connected, we decided to get down there. The CISF guard did the regular, check ticket, check passport, look again and give a blank look ritual after which his lady counterpart insisted on putting my luggage in the baggage screening, which was promptly done and the ticket number noting process also completed.

A long walk till LH gates at counter 100-105, gave me a glimpse of long lines at KQ, VS,CA. Specially VS & CA was full of desi crowd, most of which looked first time travelers. While I was booking my flights, I was consistently getting VS as the cheapest option but with no onward connection to SNA, my final destination for the first week in US&A.

3.0 Check-in, security, Immigration

As I reached the check in counters for LH, the signs displayed check in was in progress for MUC but all counters were empty so I enquired if I can check in for FRA and promptly I was directed to the business class counter, albeit the boarding card being economy only !

The celebi staff which was manning the counters was very efficient. I told them that while I was doing OLCI, I noticed that two different sets of seats were blocked – one which was under “My booking” section and another under OLCI and that they were not the same. However the staff promptly checked and said that the OLCI ones were the ones which have appeared. My baggage was tagged all the way till SNA with instructions given that I will have to do immigration & customs in IAH and handover the baggage again.

Full Marks for the staff here, after a long time !
Staff politeness – 5
Information – 5
Time taken – 5

Couldn't have asked for anything better. May be an upgrade !

I then quickly headed towards the immigration, since it had long lines. Hardly any counters were open around 0015hrs, but the line was moving at a steady pace. It was very quick for me and I headed for security which was even quicker than the immigration. Happy with the way things went, I decided to take a look at the terminal again. I had not been to Mumbai international since June/July 2011. Not much has changed and there weren’t many options available for eating. I decided to stick to the idli.com outlet since I would be assured fresh food. The other chap from office, came in complaining long lines at KE check-in and he settled for a pizza from Pizza Hut.

Lot of flights were boarding across. 9W to LHR / BKK. KQ, AI, AF, BA and so on but was too bored to walk all across the terminal checking the load and boarding details.

4.0 Boarding

LH 757 was to board from Gate 6 at 2:25 AM for a 2:55 departure.

Boarding started for first & business class at 2:15 and a long queue was formed for economy. I am generally the first one to be in such queues but I was too bored to form a queue. BA has started an innovative method of boarding. The staff holds boards of row numbers and make people stand in a line behind them and then release one line at a time. I think this is ingenious thinking considering how we Indians are known to create a chaos when we asked to form a line.

Nothing of that sort happened for LH and I promptly joined the line at the back when it started moving. Boarding was quick. A couple of people who were holding EK boarding cards were in the line and had to be told that this is not their flight. *Disappointing*

Boarding was quick as I settled into my seat 50 Alpha and was happy to see AVOD IFE. The screens were different than the ones I had seen on LH A340 or the LX A330s. None the less, boarding complete and we pushed back at 2:55 sharp. I saw the KE flight take off as we pushed back. We quickly taxied to runway 27, lined up and the four engines roared for a long take off roll and we lifted into the Mumbai skies.

5.0 Inflight

I almost immediately fell asleep. Drinks service started at 3:40 and I opted for a glass of coke & water. Light snack was served which was Alu Kathi Roll. I took the time to explore the IFE and it had limited Indian selection for audio & video. Kept the moving map on and continued my siesta.

The seat was not very comfortable but I was deprived of sleep and I had planned it so, so that I would sleep. It helped. I got up at 09:00 am india time and looked back only to see a long line for using the loo. Reminded me of the mornings in train journey. I promptly joined the queue and with daily chores done, awaited food. It came quick, the trick of ordering special meal works well. Sumantra Sir – you may want to explore this trick !

I was asked if I have ordered special meal, on saying yes, the crew informed that for this leg of the journey I can choose any meal I want and I opted for non veg option, which included 2 pcs of chicken, omlette – the way I like it, bun & fruits. But surprisingly they got this immediately.
As the crew came in to collect the waste, it was time for landing. We flew over some beautiful scenary, which is so common in EU and landed on runway 25L at FRA, coming to a halt at Gate B23

The service was definitely not upto the mark as compared to EU - onwards leg, however it certainly was better than the DEL-MUC flight I did in May.

Frankfurt was reporting great weather, not that it matters, because at such transfer hubs, they ensure that you require a visa even to experience the climate. Not once did I get a chance to go in open air !

De-planing was comparatively fast.

Had I opted to take the flight to DEN, the same aircraft would have taken me there, as I saw on FR24 later.

I will continue the next part of TR as a different thread

ameya · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 8:18 pm Post subject:

QR B787

20130921_075652 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

LH Retro

20130921_080002 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

LH Heavy

20130921_083513 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

20130921_083518 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

20130921_083523 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

20130921_085224 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

20130921_085231 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

My ride from BOM

20130921_112112 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr

ameya · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 9:41 pm Post subject:

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Excellent report Ameya, thanks for sharing ...

Just glad to know you went A380 over B748!!!

I was really keen on how you finalised the flights. CX are a good option and my cousin is a diamond member with them .... the best possible connection to west coast.

FRA PNQ .... I so envy you .... but for me I have PNQ SHJ yayyyyyy

ameya · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 10:00 pm Post subject:

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Ameya not one bucket .... i will sponsor the water canon salute ... that's on me

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

...a really engrossing part, in your inimitable style!
Nice description of the proceedings, though your hurried cab trip does not sound nice. Special meals come quickly on LH? Thanks for the tip! They come quickly on SU as well, from what I remember correctly. On AI, almost every meals usually ends up being special, in more ways than one Razz

The FRA pics: are these from a cell-phone, and...are you by any chance, carrying a much older phone?
Now, looking forward to the Airbus part!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:06 pm Post subject:

jbalonso777 · Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:53 am Post subject:

This is an amazing opening segment of your US trip!
Do you have any information regarding the IFE content, which you can share with us, maybe?

Regards
Jish
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