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pradeep777 · Member Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 57 Location: Mangalore

This is the return leg of my trip.

The routing would be DXB-DEL-BLR. Since i have heard alot about the Air India's new birds, I specifically selected the DXB-DEL route only to experience the Dreamliner.

10 June 2014 DXB-DEL
Air India AI996 Boeing 787-8
Seat: 17A
ETD: 00.05 ATD: 00.45

I reached the terminal 1 at 21.30 sharp for a 00.05 departure. There was a long line economy check in but no one in the executive counter. Soon a efficient dnata employee made half of the economy line to be checked in from the executive counter. So i had my boarding pass and was on my way to the passport control and security. It took almost 30 minutes for the both and i was air side by 22.15.Then it was on to the food court which even doubles as a viewing area. So took a quick grab and at MCD, found a nice table which gave plenty of runway action.

bp 2 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140609_001 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140609_008 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140609_006 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140609_004 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140609_005 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

At around 23.00 i was on my way towards gate C13. There was a huge crowd at the gate so i was pretty sure that the load was full. At around 23.30 boarding was announced. I was quickly through and took a seat near to the gate. But still they were not ready to board. There was no explanation for any of the delay. The flight dispatcher looked very confused and was totally busy with his wireless. Very Happy

Then at around 00.15 a lady official from AI came and explained that the delay was due to some security reason under the guidelines of dubai airport. Finally at 00.30 the boarding was completed and we were on a wait along with china southern and air france for takeoff clearance. We were airborne at 00.45. Due to some runway maintenance only one runway was operational.

WP_20140610_002 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_001 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_003 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_004 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_007 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_022 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

Inflight:
(I will try my best to give a full description of the food. Not as good as sumantra sir Smile

.)
Dinner service started but soon after serving a few rows in economy there was an argument between a few passengers and the FA’s. The caterer had only loaded a few veg meals and the rest was all non veg. They only served veg prebooked meals. At that moment i felt extremely happy since i was a hardcore non veggy. The tray consisted of a salad with fresh cubes of cucumber,carrot, a green chilly and a slice of lemon. There was a fresh bun and the rockhard amul butter chiplet. The tray also had a cup of Britannia dahi fresh. Dessert was two perfectly balanced sweet gulab jamun with pistachios. The main box had chicken biryani and dal. It was perfectly cooked chicken. Juicy and perfectly spiced with the not so spicy dal. Entire tray was polished off with the bol bacchan running on the IFE.

WP_20140610_019 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_031 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_032 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

Lights were dimmed and the entire cabin fell asleep. I tried my best to get a sleep but was not succesfull. 45 minutes o so before reaching delhi the captain made a wake up call insisting all passengers to take look on the left. I was lucky enough to have a window seat because it was really one of the best views i have ever seen from an aircraft.

WP_20140610_036 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_037 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_040 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_043 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

WP_20140610_046 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

Soon we were on a approaching delhi it was quite foggy.

WP_20140610_051 by pradeepkini7, on Flickr

Only by that time i looked at my watch and was a bit horrified. It was almost 5.30 in the morning. I had a connecting flight to BLR at 6.35. We finally landed at 5.45. I rushed to the exit only to see that it was a remote stand. Hopped on to the waiting bus which took another 15 minutes to reach the terminal. By the time i collected my baggage and rushed to the check in counter it was too late. I was then put on the 9.10 flight to BLR. There goes my perfect plan to experience the dreamliner on a domestic route down the drain.
Thats it for now. Will be back soon with the DEL-BLR. Thank you.

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

Thanks, Mr. Kini for a lovely part 2. I hope you cross the minimum number of posts threshold, to be able to post pictures, inline - very soon. You have a couple of really lovely pictures in this TR: the sunrise series was absolutely fabulous. It is wonderful that the Captain mentioned this himself.
I am sorry to hear that you missed AI 803 DEL-BLR, the first flight of the day, a Dream)liner flight, in your case. I think we can guess the reason: this is a relatively tight rotation: the AI 020-AI 701 DEL-CCU-DEL rotation depends on this, and has a cascade effect. Hence, AI did not delay this, and instead, put you on the second flight of the day. You also had the disadvantage of BLR not having an international connector, else a lot could have been done inline, and you would not have to clear customs at DEL, for instance, and get your bags back. I have written a bit about it in (a long) reply to Rishul's wonderful BOM T2 trip report: the first on this forum.
Sir, your food descriptions are wonderful: it got me hungry at an appropriate moment! The [i[biriyAnI[/i] looks nice with long-grained bAsmatI rice, and the non-spicy dAl[ would have complemented it well. I find it interesting that this is primarily a `non-vegetarian' route. Yes, there are quite a few such routes, and I have seen Air India handle difficult cases rather well: since they also load a few special meals, and on occasion, I salivated badly while the crew served tid-bits from special meals (which included an absolutely ravishing fruit platter, and some items from a diabetic meal with lots of greens simply inviting/inciting me to reverse my choice).
I look forward to part 3, eagerly!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:43 am Post subject:

Thanks for the TR! Fun reading it and how being a metro sector - DEL-BLR had options to connect you to a later flight !
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ameya · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2014 10:45 am Post subject:

pradeep777 · Member Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 57 Location: Mangalore

Thank you sumantra sir and ameya. Yes it was nice of the captain to inform about the view. Yea i was bit relieved as it was delhi airport and i was sure that i would be transferred on 1 or the other flight to blr. Smile

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Your food descriptions kinda remind me of Sumantras Laughing

Nice airside pics, DXB does have a great variety of airlines/aircraft types unmatched by any other airport in a 4 hour radius.

What was the view on the left, the sunrise or anything specific?
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sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

pradeep777 · Member Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 57 Location: Mangalore

Nimish · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 4:15 pm Post subject:

Great 2nd part of the TR - though it sucks that AI seems to maintain it's tradition of being late. Which makes it an undesirable choice for business travel.

What was your opinion of the 787, did you find it materially different to the other wide bodied (or even narrow bodied) aircraft?
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We miss you Nalini!

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:44 pm Post subject:

Good stuff again, Pradeep sir!
A nice continuation from where you've left off...
Hmm, AI's food looks much better than what I expected to see!
Too bad about the delay hopefully they get that sorted out soon, or *A won't be happy at all....and that cost you a B787!

Nikhil, I disagree. Hong Kong for the win Wink

Regards
Jish
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pradeep777 · Member Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 57 Location: Mangalore

pradeep777 · Member Joined: 21 Nov 2014 Posts: 57 Location: Mangalore

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

Thanks for posting the part 2 and interesting reading. It was great of the captain to point out the great view. I am surprised that Air India loaded too many non-veg meals as compared to Veg meals. Most airlines do the reverse that way such situations can be avoided. Seems like someone forgot to use their common sense. I have to agree with Jish that Hong Kong provides the best spotting opportunities.

Sri_Bom