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jbalonso777 · Last edited by jbalonso777 on Sun Oct 26, 2014 9:19 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hello everyone.
And welcome.
To a TR featuring a quick trip to Bengaluru.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this trip was for a test of some sort. An aptitude test. For me. So obviously, a shortish 2 day getaway was on the cards.
So, on to the flights. This was perhaps the most difficult set of ‘persuade Dad on a unique combination’ scenarios. Dad was willing to pay almost INR5k extra to get on the direct UL A320 flights to and from BLR, both of which are in the evening (CMB dep: 1845 BLR arr: 2005, BLR dep: 2055, CMB arr: 2225). UL also have a red eye flight on this route, however it is operated by a Mihin Lanka aircraft. I checked MakeMyTrip (MMT), and they had some pretty good options up to MAA: one of them was an AI+SG combo (321 and DH8) while another was a UL+SG combo (343 and DH8!!)

Ooh, tempting! Very Happy

FLIGHT #1: UL121 COLOMBO-CHENNAI 24TH OCTOBER 2014
BOOKING. HORRIFIC BOOKING.
Only MMT gave this interesting UL 340 + SG DH8 combination, just INR7 more than the AI A321 + SG DH8. Decently priced, calculating the other flight prices (9W award ticket and I5) Dad was convinced about this. So it was on to MMT then. I have made plenty of bookings here before, recent examples include Mum and Dad’s December 2014 Jodhpur flights on Air India, an option which did not pop up on the AI website. The process was very smooth, nothing wrong with it.

This though, was about to change this time around. Got on to the payment page, everything worked. Just when the conformation page was being loaded, an error popped up saying that PNRs for one or all sectors of the flight was not completed since apparently the airline's booking system failed. I was so sure that UL coughed up here. Also, the fare inexplicably increased by INR1.2k, when I got to the payment page in the net banking page. Wow.
However though, attempt 2 at booking, this time an inexplicable ₹500 reduction, 2 PNRs were generated with UL and SG. 2 messages reached Dad's phone stating that 2 transactions had been made. Yes, the failed one had the money taken away. This meant, a long Saturday to get the refunds. But I didn't give in just yet. Luckily MMT provided me with a reference number. I used their useless chat system where in I chatted with 3 agents, all of them giving me the ditch with an automatic generated message. In fact, I also told the last one 'not to keep me hanging since I was in dire need of help'. She listened by saying a cold 'ok', and guess what, it was another ditch! Absolutely unbelievable. And this was a pretty significant amount of money we were dealing with!

Early next morning, Dad receives a text notifying us of the failed booking has been identified and requesting us not to make a fresh booking. Yep, they sent us that almost 9-10 hours after the successful booking. Oh yeah, before sleeping the previous night, I found out that the call center is also quite weak in its IT, since every number I pressed according to the commands worked only after I pressed it 3-4 times (ex - press 1 for English: 1 1 1 1, it works!). And then came the time to punch the reference number in and guess what? The computer hangs up on me! So I gave up. Anyways, the next day some time in the afternoon, MMT bothers calling up and informs me that the SG ticket coughed up, and whether or not I should want to continue with the booking on the flight. Oh hell no! I asked for the tickets to be cancelled, and they said that cancellation charges would apply. OH WOW! THEY CANNOT BE SERIOUS! ₹5k gone right there. They said they'll refund the money back in 1 week, but it took them over 5 weeks to get the refund back into Dad's account. Oh well, lesson learnt.
**TOP TIP**: Avoid MMT, don't fall for their admittedly awesome combinations. They'll charge you more AND give some bad customer service. √

THE BUILD UP
School was getting too much for me. A levels were here, while being a prefect certainly added big time to my work loads. Factor in SATs and application to universities. I was told that there would be the highly respected Lilian Nixon Shield debate on 25th and 26th October, while a UN conference on the 24th. Right in the days of these significant events Smile

Damn it!

At least, I wouldn't be losing school, since this was during the mid-term break.
Went on to UL's website to the manage my booking facility, just to confirm the booking. While selecting the seats, I took a look at the configuration: up to number 67 in Y, only 2 A340s are in the configuration, namely 4R-ADE/F. These 2 birds are configured in a 24J 275Y set up, ADE has the old cradle seats, ADF the new lie-flat beds.

ONLINE CHECK IN
Strangely, this was a rather painless process. I was up at 0740 in the morning to do this. OLCI for UL is located under another tab on the homepage itself. One can give either the PNR or e-ticket number, along with the last name to begin the web check in process. So after that, its directed to the usual confirm who to check in page, followed by the dangerous goods notice. The extra details (or edit details) page is up next, strangely called the 'summary', wherein one can add FFP numbers or change seats. I decided to change seats from 34H and 34K to 34K and 35K. Nationality is asked next, clearly indicating an APIS thing. I decided to provide these later, so UL decided not to show me an online boarding pass. Well, okay then Rolling Eyes

They gave a confirmation though. Also, sent to the email, emphasizing on the fact that it isn't a boarding pass, and rather, a confirmation. Well.

THE DAY!
I decided to do what us all avgeeks usually do: predict which plane would operate the flight. Like I said before, I narrowed it down to ADE and ADF. ADF operated the previous day's UL121/122 rotation, followed by another set of Chennai flights (UL127/8, as scheduled, no equipment swap!), and then an evening flight to Doha, which would return early next morning, in time for my flight to Chennai. I also set about predicting the 9W flight, which followed a MAA-HYD-MAA-BLR-GOI-BLR-MAA-BOM-MAA rotation. VT-JFK, was the bird in question. stealthpilot, or Nikhil as we all know, challenged me to predict aircraft from 3 days before if I got both my predictions right. Challenge accepted. Many conversations on the WhatsApp group were part of the day's proceedings, including discussions of UL's many wide body configurations, 9Ws many 737 configs, etc. The day ended with a superb Diwali celebration, in Colombo Smile

I woke up, early next morning at 0300 hours, relating to Sumantra sir's groggy eyed wake ups. It surely was not my idea of fun! Surprised

Had some last bits of work to finish, which I did, before taking a quick shower and speeding away to the airport. We left home at around 0407 hours, reached the airport at exactly 0431 hours. Relatives had arrived from MAA on the Q400 SG flight about an hour and a half prior, so we sent them home while we went inside to proceed towards check in. First round of security was pretty standard. However though, the area (tunnel like) wherein people come to drop off travelers which was blank earlier, now had so many shops! Currency exchange, souvenir, a tuck shop, mobile network ,you name it! This was great to see!

CHECK IN, IMMIGRATION, SPOTTING!
Since we had only hand luggage to deal with, I decided to try out kiosk check in. A very nice touchscreen guided us through the process (the only scary part being the passport scan, but that was done without any issues!), and soon, just 2 minutes after entering the terminal, we had boarding passes in our hands!

However though, this speed was negated quite simply because of the long line in front of us: a large Buddhist clan were heading off someplace. Hmm, where could they go? A peep at their tag: MADRAS EGMORE. Well, I now knew it would be a full flight, and again, justifying UL's decision of deploying an A340 on the route. (And to keep me happy, of course! Very Happy

)

Long line ahead!
The line was long, yes, but it moved quicker than usual. As soon as we passed this, we headed for immigration straight. No line there, just barely 15-20 people spread across 10 odd counters. So this was super quick. Barely 20 minutes in the terminal, and we're airside. For an international flight! This was the beginning of something oh so special through the day!

Waived through, YES!

Headed off to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf then, Dad had some tea and breakfast, and headed for a foot massage. I headed off to my usual spotting spot, the Palm Strips Restaurant. I ordered a coke and a flyer club sandwich (which essentially is a chicken and egg club, of course), and I waited for the action to unfold before my eyes.

Food!

While in line before entering the check in area, there was an announcement that the DMM flight had arrived: so that meant, 4R-ADE was around. Also, 4R-ALG (the bird which had brought me in from Paris to Colombo) was around after its flight from Rome. It was now about 5 in the morning, time for the sun to rise. But before this, came in UL218 from Doha, about half an hour before time, operated by 4R-ADF, the A340 which I thought would operate my flight. The A340 went off to the other side, towards Gate 7, which was the boarding gate for our flight. So it was more and more looking likely that I was about to get my first prediction right! Very Happy

4R-ADF, my bird! Very Happy

FlyDubai's A6-FEK operating the DXB-CMB-HRI-DXB flight FZ551

4R-ADE, on its way to KUL that morning, after coming in from DMM

4R-ALG, my CDG-CMB bird, just came in from FCO and would go to BJS later in the day

The sun started to rise as more and more crows started flying around which signified that the new day had no longer just dawned upon us, but in fact was making its presence known. A perfect way to start this was the arrival of Kuwait Airways A310-300 from Kuwait. I thought it was an A300 on first sight!

So she went in front of the gate, waited there, before a final burst of power rolled the aircraft down towards the gate. After the passengers disembarked, she was pushed back a bit more to align with the second fork of the aerobridge! Strange things happened! But seriously, the GE CF6 engine powering it was seriously loud, I never heard an engine roar from the Palm Strip Restaurant!

Something mysterious came in next. A slightly delayed Rotana Jet bird from HRI and Abu Dhabi al Bateen.

This plane is configured in a C12 Y108 configuration, with a tail looking oh so similar to the one of Emirates! Furthermore, only one bus load of passengers got in and were transferred to the terminal, about 70 odd people were there. Finding something about Rotana on the internet is quite painful as well. There is not much information out there!

0610 hours is the departure time for 9W255, the Jet Airways flight to Mumbai. However, this bird (VT-JGG) was nowhere around because this flight was a massive 3 hours late in departing from Mumbai! Damn you've got to feel for the passengers! These significant delays are quite frequent with this flight off recent, apparently, and now with the second flight starting soon, hopefully this is rectified!

The other stuff, what is that '&' bird?!

4R-ADB on the right which came in from Beijing and HRI and would later head for MAA as UL127, 4R-ADC on the right which came in from JED long ago.

Forum member abhijith16 was up online on the WhatsApp group, as he kept updating me on the birds coming in: the first one - the long sought after 4R-ALH, the oneworld livery bird of SriLankan Airlines! Very Happy

She had come in from KWI as UL230, parked right next to us (gate 8 ) and would depart just after us as UL101 to MLE.

Abhijeeth than mentioned of 4R-ABR arriving. 4R-ABR is the second A321 in SriLankan Airlines' fleet, and is their newest aircraft type in the fleet so far, until the A333s which come in in late October 2014..
ABR came in an hour late from AUH, but I wasn't complaining since I got some stunning golden light to go along with it! Very Happy

She would later head off to COK, return and then head for KHI..

Dad messaged me saying that a long line had formed in front of the gate due to the security. Abhijeeth messaged saying that an MJ Airbus was incoming. I skipped that, packed up and headed for security.

BOARDING
Thankfully for me though, the line had shortened considerably and I was able to get through this easily. However, the boarding line was quite long! It had extended into the vicinity of Gate 6!

MJ2121 final call at 0620?! Haha, damn right.

4R-ABO parked at gate 6. I flew on this bird on 2nd Jan 2014, MAA-CMB. She had come in from MCT, and would operate a domestic CMB-HRI-CMB flight!

Immigration forms were being given out to the foreign passport holders, not the Indian passport holders. A nice 'ayubowan' welcome by the lady there, as she check my name in the computer and tore the better half of the boarding pass and wished me a nice flight. This place was packed with people, and I will repeat: A340 - JUSTIFIED!
I found a seat somewhere, with Dad alongside. I decided to walk up right in front of the aircraft and get a few decent shots. Sadly, the glass and other annoying lines came in the way...

City of Magam-Ruhunupura..

These things are so unique in their different ways! Its amazing.

Boarding was announced, and it was straight for economy, specifically for passengers seated in rows 40-67. That’s a lot of passengers in one go! Anyways, we waited. And as you’d expect from a South Asian country - many people decided not to follow this rule and jump straight into line. The UL ground staff were very professional in controlling this and made sure people not in this group are moved to a side. Boarding for us was then announced. Dad and I were few of the first ones to board the bird, from our group of seats.

Perfect day to fly, isn't it?! Very Happy

ADF it is!

Another decent shot! Only ruined by those annoying lines.....

A340, quadjet: CONFIRMED!

As usual another ayubowan welcome greeted us by a smiling crew. It was great to see such an old bird in crisp condition. This is the thing: the A330s are here to stay, only some of them are refurbished, the A340s are going soon and they’ve all been upgraded. What? And why?!

New J class

Anyways, Dad and I soon settled down into our seats 34K (Dad’s) and 35K (mine). Pillows were placed on every single seat while they were also fitted with the new IFE system. Seats had plenty of cushion, too.

Window view UGH!

Before anything could even happen, I decided to head off for a washroom inspection. Guess what? The washroom smelt much better (and felt freshly clean!) than the horrendous stench onboard 9V-STS in SIN! Not only did it smell better, the commode had a paper wrapping which I had to undo, something which wasn’t on SQ. Amenities (lotion, hand wash and cologne) were well stocked, along with paper glasses. So that’s +1 to UL.

I used the water, but the basin was bone dry.

I headed back to my seat wherein an elderly lady took her seat 35H. She was part of the massive Buddhist Community clan. The FAs came about checking on the passengers, offering them water and a variety of juices! I passed that one. They also handed out refresher towels. Lastly, they were being really helpful to all the people in the clan by speaking to them in Sinhala.
My window had plenty of moisture on it, so it was pointless to click any picture of it. Too bad though, the OW bird was right beside.

Legroom was pretty decent!

I decided to check the IFE out - they had a decent collection of movies, TV shows and latest/old songs. Not as much as CX, SQ or EK, perhaps comparable to 9W’s collection. There was also the menu. All of the 24 menus of the month of October in economy class! Some of them were also written in Chinese. I couldn’t take a picture of all of them, just one. Sorry, Sumantra sir! Sad

However though, no menu for our flight since it was all vegetarian anyways, for this short flight. A thing which I noticed was the fact that the IFE screen was very responsive and worked well even with gentle taps to it. Such response was unavailable even on EK’s Digital Widescreen monitor, so that’s +2 to UL.

Found some metal cutlery over Dad's headrest, I put it in my seat pocket Laughing

One of the many menus Smile

Umm...UL also has Konnect issues by the looks of it Rolling Eyes

Interesting to note that the pillow would fall straight onto the floor when I kept it in between the arm rest and window, while on the SQ A330, the pillow would get stuck just in between for a perfect (okay, slightly lower) head rest on the side for me..

Announcements were made, Captain Mohamed Shafiq would fly us to Chennai over the duration of 1hr10min. He himself came over the PA to give us an update: clear skies until we decent and land into Chennai, he said. He seemed a bit confused with his announcement - first he said that it will be an ‘on-time departure’, before saying later in the announcement that ‘departure would be delayed by a little bit due to the weather in Chennai. What Rolling Eyes

DEPARTURE
True to his first word, ADF was pushed back at 0711 hours as all of the four CFM56 engines were brought into life. Safety announcements were in English only (nope, no good) AND they were done manually, despite having the new IFE system. Uhh, okay Shocked

There was a smile on my face as I heard the now-familiar iron-rods falling sounds of the braking system, and the always awesome sound of the flaps, stuff which I heard on the Singapore Airlines A330-300 Smile

Oh oh you window! Evil or Very Mad

Slowly, we started taxiing towards runway 4 for departure (up until this point, all flights were departing and arriving on runway 22). As we got closer and closer, ADF’s taxi speed got quicker and quicker. Soon, we lined up with the runway. The four tiny CFM56s powered up to its maximum, I swear it was a lot of power but ADF would simply not respond! This was it, the rumors of A340-300s being under powered were turning out to be true, for me at least. There also was a loud sound slowly developing as we gathered more speed, sounding almost like a supercar accelerating! ADF took almost the entire runway to finally lift off the ground, and once it did, it was nice and slow. Not the quick usual GET TO THE ALTITUDE QUICKLY types of an A320 and B737. In fact, just barely 3 minutes into the climb the seat belts signs were turned off and the crew sprung into action: even the flaps weren’t retracted! Shocked

Is this an A340 thing? Or just something which went a bit wrong? Anyways though, the galleys were active with the food being warmed up. Speaking of warm, the whole flight was very warm. There was a layer of sweat beginning to develop over me, rather rapidly.

Slowly, climbing away Smile

Barely.

Registration!

INFLIGHT
I took a few pictures and realised what a stupid error I had made: the starboard side meant that the sun light was in all its glory, glaring down on the wings, reducing detail. I saw the view through 34A and my God the red winglet looked beautiful! These things, always happen to me.
Two trolleys were pulled along the aisle, one from the back and the other from the front. The FAs were pretty robotic in distributing the meals - half a smile, while swiftly placing the main course over the tray and handing it over to the passenger. However, when the FA came to me, she said, ‘Its vegetarian sir…’ with a bright smile, nice going UL!

Imported water!

A corn gravy thing and upma - it was pretty good! Nice and warm. Tasted really nice as well, as compared to the shambles I got on the A320 flights on the CMB-BLR and MAA-CMB sectors in late 2013/early 2014! (Psst - I could compare this to CX and say +3 to UL, but I'll cut them some slack here Smile

)

Back to the aircraft - the noise level was quite low, but still not as quiet as the A380 or B787, but that’s perhaps there were 4 tiny CFM56s powering ADF. I put on my headphones to see if the IFE worked - and it did! By some Godforsaken mistake I pressed Pharell Williams’ latest album, and that’s when the screen decided that volume would stay stagnant, and an annoying song played through out. I shut that up by disconnecting the headphones.
With that nuisance over, I had a cup of tea-flavored hot water, or so it felt like. The trays were then soon collected as Captain Shafiq came over the PA once again to inform us that descent has started. The cabin crew's announcement was long! Of the 4-5 minutes she spoke, almost 3 minutes especially emphasized on Ebola.

Tea flavoured colored water..

Yes, I am on an A340!

Magazine, talking about the plane which will replace the plane I am on right now... Sad

Whoa!

DESCENT AND ARRIVAL
As soon as we crossed Jaffna and Sri Lankan airspace, the clouds started looking angrier by the time we entered Indian airspace, much before Captain Shafiq's prediction of ‘close to Chennai’. As soon as I saw the familiar coast of coast of Chennai, and quite simply, we were too high for an arrival into the airport over the Marina Beach, so clearly, it was a Runway 7 arrival.

ADF banked a couple of times before the pilots extended the flaps and we landed into a very wet Chennai International Airport. Soon, we taxied in to the international apron, wherein an AirAsia A320, Emirates B77W and JetKonnect B73G were present. The AK and S2 bird pushed back in quick succession as all the passengers decided to get up from their seats to get the bags from the overhead compartments even before the engines were cut out.

Double push back!

Once this had happened, I waited for all passengers to get off and I took my time. I got off, thanked the crew for the flight and stepped out of ADF. The old MAA aerobridge welcomed us as the rain water managed to seep through almost every where and the inside of the aerobridge was really too wet. The Clan was really too slow in moving, holding people up by just randomly standing in the middle of the way. Because of this, I missed a chance in getting a customs form from the agent standing at the end of the aerobridge, so I had to walk all the way through the crowd.

An aircraft which I never knew existed, until 2005 when Jet leased A340s from SAA. Slowly, I got to know the bird and today, its more rare than ever has been, and being phased out really soon. Thank you, ADF Smile

Newish A320 parked..

I was surprised to see the old terminal still in use, Ebola scanning cameras were set up. The washroom was quite literally, a mile away from the the immigration lines (which were long). Joined the line, messaged a few people including Varun. The line moved rather soon, so this was good. Abhijeeth confirmed over the WhatsApp group that my next flight would indeed be on VT-JFK, meaning that 2 out of 2 predictions of mine were correct! Very Happy

Challenge accepted, Nikhil! Very Happy

Long but quick moving lines!

'Fly, little bird, fly! - said Abhijeeth, or something like that!

So much of 787 advertising, almost everywhere in the international terminal!

No bags for us!

Passed through customs, we decided to walk all the way to the new domestic terminal. There were a couple of interesting things along the way, a dog fight was one of them.

Ameya sir, you can add this to your collection if you wish! Very Happy

So that's it for part 1. Thanks to the long transit in MAA, I could finish writing this TR very quickly. The others though, will take its own time before reaching you. I do not know how long it'll take, but as soon as its done, I will post them up on the forum Very Happy

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

Spiderguy252

Excellent TR, Jishnu - an some nice pictures to go with it. Certainly some horrendous weather in Chennai though.

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

Thanks, Sir, for the joy of reading a lovely TR on a weekend.
I was actually half-expecting it, since you do not delay matters, much like I choose to procrastinate over matters TR-related.

Your parents' JDH trip sounds interesting. I am rather intrigued to know that the AI website did not pop up an option, which MMT did. I usually book my tickets on the AI website itself. Did you try the weird multi-city option? This is an option almost hidden away, but something which often pops up some nice combinations, provided one has some knowledge of AI connections. This is one option which AI seriously needs to look at, for multi-date and multi-city itineraries. The earlier PM-AI website used to have some combinations in its search engine, for international travel, though I have never booked a ticket on the PM-AI website. I have booked scores of tickets on the reliable but no-frills IC one, though.

My MMT experiences have not been fantastic, though I have never gone up to the booking stage. Many deals look nice, for the price to escalate inexplicably when one gets to the payment page. I checked out quite a few grand deals on MMT for a colleague's Aug'14 Chicago trip (I did this on AI, and he finally did this on EK), but all went poof till the final page when a escalated price gleamed at us.

Thanks for a TR with the usual exciting matter: the planning, the pre-trip work, fact-finding about aircraft and rotations, communication with fellow enthusiasts: I can well relate to all this! Further, thank you for remembering me not once, but twice: early boot-ups, and of course, food-related matters Smile

Your dawn shots from CMB were simply superb. It is nice that you got a refurbished old bird, which looks very nice. I hope UL will retain it for some more years, and get more revenue out of high-density+cargo routes, where the A343 will not do that badly, though the A333 will beat it hands-down in terms of performance and economy. Your winglet contrail picture was superb. Almost every time you post a TR, I look for such pictures in your report! I also see that you saw the ugly side of the old MAA terminal, which are visible in your pictures as well. The difference between the old and the new parts in the International part, can not be more stark: even though I have had one visit in this part, it was too stark not to be noticeable. The domestic parts have more new than old, and the larger newer experience compensates for a bit of the old part.

I look forward to the other TRs related to this India visit!
Thank you, Sumantra.

jbalonso777

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 8:24 pm Post subject:

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

Awesome TR Jish yet again!MMT has been the same to all of us I guess Razz

Time to move on to some other site or better stick to the Airlines site itself.Your description of the 340 were spectacular.And congrats on getting your predictions right!It was me who wished you luck on the predictions Lol Razz

Jokes apart,A wonderful TR on one of my favourite aircraft the A340.Chennais weather had been bad for a couple days.Infact very bad the day before you landed!Awaiting the next set of TRs.Im sure you have some exciting ones coming up Very Happy

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 2:13 pm Post subject:

rakesh959 · Member Joined: 28 Aug 2012 Posts: 58 Location: Chennai

jbalonso777 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 7:08 pm Post subject:

Nimish · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:02 pm Post subject:

Hey Jishnu - great first part of the recent visit to BLR. I'm glad UL is able to send a 343 to MAA - the loads certainly looked good.
_________________
We miss you Nalini!

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:59 pm Post subject:

Spiderguy252 · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 8:49 pm Post subject:

So, when are parts 2, 3 and 4 due to be put up? Smile

_________________
Yeah.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 9:07 pm Post subject:

Varun, thanks so much for your encouragement!
Pressure is slightly off of me for the short term, so I should be able to put the next parts up on a weekly basis.

So here is what I hope to follow:
9W2354 - 2nd November
I51217 - 9th November
SG1 - 16th November.

I have finished writing out the 9W TR, I'm just finalizing a few things and I'll put it up. Of course, if one of Sumantra sir's gems pops up in between, I might have to adjust here or there a little bit Smile

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

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

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 12:29 pm Post subject:

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:59 pm Post subject:

Guys, I've uploaded the full HD videos of the A340 flight..
There are some pretty weird sounds coming from the plane on take off and landing, similar to a car. I'm sure you'll hear them Smile

SriLankan Airlines A340-300 pushback and start in Colombo
SriLankan Airlines A340-300 take off from Colombo
SriLankan Airlines landing and arrival in Chennai

I hope you enjoy these!

Regards
Jish
_________________
http://www.youtube.com/c/JishnuBasu777

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Nice pictures of CMB, and a customary EK in your reports.

The UL interiors are refurbished ones I believe.... good to see that.

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:54 pm Post subject:

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Very interesting,

South Africa 2014 is different with 4 daily flights to JNB!

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

What a great TR and good to know you could fly a quad on such a short journey. The shortest that I have flown on a quad was between Frankfurt and Munich on a Lufthansa.

Online Travel Agents are great for convinence and choice but when it comes to assitance they still have a long way to go as comapred to traditional agencies. They are also known to display attractive fares but when you try to book it the cost goes up. Having said that I recently booked a domestic trip in India and I found the fare cheaper on MMT than on Jet Airways website.

I completely agree with you that the A340 series takes ages to get into crusing altitude but off late since I have taken two long haul trips on these birds on Thai I am really loving these planes and I hope they are around for some more time.

The meal and service for such a short flight seems quite good and I would rate five stars for this. You have managed to capture some real good airplane shots like the Kuwait A310 the type which is getting rarer now.

Thanks for posting and enjoyed all your videos as well.

Sri_Bom

jbalonso777 · Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:35 pm Post subject: