Airliners-India.com

binaiks · Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 162 Location: VOBL/VOCI

A Trip to Bom-Bay! After 6 long years! It was a case of finding a reason to visit Mumbai. The reason was exciting as well - a college reunion! The happening Bachelor of Pharmacy Batch of 2003-2007 was meeting again! It was an opportunity to revisit our good old days - and meet each other after 8 long years!

I was initially in a fix on whether I must fly on the day of the reunion, or a day earlier. I opted to fly a day earlier - so that I could revisit some nostalgia as well!

Now comes the new big confusion - which airline to choose? I did not want an early morning flight, but I needed atleast 5-6 hours of day light to do the roaming around in Mumbai. The options were 9W, 6E and UK! It was a no-nonsense decision to take a plunge on UK! A chance to fly a new airline, and sample the "new feeling".

For some reason, the website did not let me select my seat during booking. So, I logged into their website the previous day, and did an online check-in to ensure I get the seat of my choice. The OLCI wasn't very smooth, IMO - way too many questions, and a long drawn procedure.

July 18, 2015

It was an early start to my day - I always like being in the airport well in advance, so that I have a peaceful flight. I was at the airport almost 2 hours in advance - with enough time to have a light breakfast and do some spotting.

My aircraft, VT-TTF, came in sometime past 9AM, right behind Air India's VT-ANI, and right ahead of Air Asia's VT-JRT. The loads on the inbound sector (DEL-BLR) seemed really good. The loads for my sector (BLR-BOM) wasn't really great - the agent at the gate said 0J 15W 94Y. Not really great - but not poor as well.

Boarding started soon - zone wise boarding was called. I decided to wait till the crowd thins out. I was in seat #17A. Boarding was completed, and doors armed by 0955 - a good 15 minutes before scheduled departure time. We were pushed back just past 1000hrs. We were airborne at 1009hrs, from Rwy27. It was quite cloudy, and the takeoff was quite jerky, as we cut through thick cloud cover.

Being a foodie, I was looking forward to Vistara's onboard service. The trolley started rolling shortly after the seatbelt sign went off. A nice aroma came as the trolley went to W. The second trolley was for us - we had two options - Paneer (Kathi) Roll and Chicken Nuggets. Being a veggie, the choice was obvious.

The box-in-a-box meal was handed over, along with a bottle of water. Unboxing was a bit difficult - I still wonder why this complication. The Kathi Roll was a very succulent Paneer filling - with the right amount of spices and adequate amount of gravy. The parantha was on the dry and thick side. The box also contained a serving of Aloo-Tikki chaat, and a very dry medium sweet vermicelli and almond dessert. The meal was filling, and tasted really good.

The meal service was followed by hot beverage service. I opted Coffee - it was served in a paper cup - why Vistara, Why? Does plastic cups cost a lot of money??

The flight was largely eventless - the seatbelt sign comes on once in a while as we hit turbulence. We flew amid thick clouds for most of the time. We had to hold over Navi Mumbai for some time due to congestion at Mumbai, and finally touched down at 1142hrs. It was a long taxi to the corner bay of T2. I have no words to describe the beauty that T2 is - absolutely fantabulous - GVK has done a great job with both their major airports - Mumbai and Bengaluru. It took some time for the baggage to start popping on to the baggage carousel - I was out of the airport just past 12 in the afternoon.

To conclude, I feel Vistara tried to degrade their Economy offering to make their Premium Economy special. A very LCCish seat pitch, purposeful attempts to reduce the levels of service in Economy was quite visible. The attendants, however, deserve a special mention - they did a fantastic job. They extended their helping hands to a couple of really aged passengers, who had difficulty walking down the aisle. They hand-held them as and when needed. Water service was done multiple times - without even having to call them. Multiple rounds were made by the crew to check if the passengers had any special requests - infact, I don't remember anyone using the call button in Economy - the crew were around when you needed them.

As I wind up: In the deck was Capt Bhagchand and Capt Guru Pratap. The Attendants who handled Economy was Pushpa and Ruma, while Christina was the Purser. I couldn't get the name of the fourth person.

The full version of this review with more pics can be read here.
_________________
Regards,
Binai

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

Ah Binai...thank you for introducing a new genre into trip reports.
Aditya (theairplaneguy4ever) was the first on our forum with video+text TR, which has seen contributions from others as well, Jishnu and Ranjan Mehta (more video than text). And Binai comes up with a literary masterpiece, a precis of one's writing. As with the previous one, I read the longer TR on your website before reading the abridged version on the forum. Thank you for taking time out to create this literary gem!
I did not know about your Mumbai connection: I find it interesting that many of us TR writers on the forum, have lived in India's economic capital for some time. The planning for the trip is something we all associate with. And love!
Your pictures are lovely, as usual.
The food looks excellent, and I am glad that I read it with my breakfast for the day. Your lovely descriptions of the food got me quite hungry! I visualised myself chewing through morsel, after morsel Smile

You make a valid point about Vistara trying to unnecessarily differentiate between W and Y. To add to it, examine the environmental aspect as well. This seems to waste just too much paper, much like food in the US, or multinational pizza joints in India as well. The energy audit of recycling isn't that fantastic. With a tray, one can argue over using water and soap/surfactants, but I would consider the re-usability aspect to be more important. Water treatment is a bit more commonplace than the paper part. And the box cannot be more efficient for operational reasons, since the main course has to be warmed, anyway. For a cold snack offering, a simple box would suffice.
Thank you, I look forward to your second TR for this weekend now!
Cheers, Sumantra.

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

It is raining Vistara all of a sudden.

Thank you for posting a detailed report and good to know the various feedback from forum users. Seems like everyone has an issue with the box in box meal and I agree with Sumantra’s comments that it is not really environment friendly either.

For me the biggest let down is that they did not have IFE screen installed on the plane which I still find it surprising specially when they claim to be a premium airline.

Overall the food looks excellent and neatly presented in small bowls. Thanks for taking time out to post the report.

Sri_Bom

avbuff · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031

Nice TR binai ...

Binai ... even QR a supposedly 5 star airline serves coffee in a paper cup in Y. Good to knpow rest of the meal was enjoyable.

BTW is Vistara handing out free tickets to ai.net that I'm unware about? Everyone seems to be flying them.

ameya · Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 9:53 am Post subject:

Thanks for the TR! A nice read.

For the OLCI part – wonder if this type of OLCI is a new invention or a copy of SQ? They should have either copied what SQ does or studied Indian carriers to get the best of them replicated

The meal looks filling and quantity wise much more than 9W.
In your picture I read how they are being nature friendly and then there is a next pic of paper cup. . well . . no comments

Going by the cabin pics, converting Premium Economy to Economy should not take a long time if at all they decide to do so

“ I feel Vistara tried to degrade their Economy offering to make their Premium Economy special.”

This is exactly what everybody who have been on UK so far have been feeling
_________________
www.networkthoughts.com

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

Not much to add .... Nice trip, comfortable short fight and a good meal with the ups and downs.
Whats the seat pitch in economy? compared to 9w?
_________________
eP007

binaiks · Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 162 Location: VOBL/VOCI