Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 months 6 days 19 hours ago) and read 6381 times:
WELCOME TO MY 1st TRIP REPORT!!!!!!
Introduction
My Leaving cert exams (final school exams in ireland) had come to an end on the 19th of june 2009. I decided to go to India to spend my holiday with my friends & cousins.
I did a lot of research prior to embarking on this 1 month holiday. I tried different websites like ebookers.com, emirates.com, some of the gulf carriers...etc. But all of them were quite out of my reach in terms of price. I finally found an awesome deal on jetairways.com. I also wanted to fly on a B777-300ER & so it was just a matter of choice between 9W & Emirates. Considering the fact that i have never tried an indian based airline, coupled with the never ending hype about Jet Airways's international product & the ridiculously low price had eventually convinced me to go with India's most successful privately owned airline. The itinerary was as follows : LHR-BOM-COK. I booked the same immediately for GBP 369 return, inclusive of all taxes & fares.
BINGO !!!
As for the DUB-LHR sector, it wasnt all that difficult, as i went with BMI (British Midlands) , for a relatively low LCC price.
Cochin is a port city in the Southern Indian state of Kerala. Kerala, for the purpose of tourism has been marketed as God's own Country.
HISTORY
Jet Airways - "The Joy Of Flying"
Jet Airways is india's most succesful privately owned international airline.
It started out in 1993 with 4 leased B737-300's. And after that it hasn't looked back since.
It was on a major expansion fiesta in the domestic market taking on the ever so boring & unimaginative Indian Airlines. It now has a market share of about 22% in the indian domestic market. While its international operations are in its embryo stage,when compared to the likes of the rapidly growing gulf carriers, one cannot specifically blame 9W for its slow progress. All the blame, if any must be fully thrusted towards the government of india where it only, very recently allowed private players to go international.
Well after it started out, it didnt disappoint one bit, scooping up awards after awards.
Infact 9W was the 2nd airline in the world to introduce private suites in 1st Class.
The airline now has 10 state-of-the-art B777-300ERs, 7 of which are leased to TK & GF,
10 A330's & a mix o 737's & ATR's.
After a round of post leaving cert parties over the couple of days prior to my trip, i was in the right mood & looked all set to embark on my trip.
D-DAY
I awoke to a not-so-typical Irish Wednesday morning....the weather was awesome!!!!!! lol , with the sun shining bright even at 7 in the morning. I went on my last minute round ups & headed out to the bus stop near my house @ 11:30 am at blackrock. I caught the wicklow express to the airport & arrived there in about 30 minutes.(via tunnel)
The airport was bustling with activity especially because of the afternoonrush hour. With families off to spain,majorca,USA etc.
I had checked-in online the previous day & dropped off my bag @ the BMI bag drop area.
All this took only 2 minutes. Pretty fast i would say!!!
I then went past security & explored the airport.
We took-off 5 minutes late but it compensated for our 5 minute early arrival.
I was seated in row 9A just behind the business class section, which meant i had extra leg space.....too much infact that i dozed off for a good 20 minutes being frequently pestered by the cabin crew's wake up calls for the paid meal service. I bought a sandwich & an orange drink, which kept me full for the rest of the flight. After a couple of minutes we began our descent into heathrow & by 1650 we had touched down. I then went to the baggage carousel
to pick up my bag which stripped me of a good 35 minutes just witing for the machine to start!!!!!
As soon as i got my baggage i proceeded to Terminal 3. It was just a 12 minute walk to T3 from T1. I soon went up to the jet airways baggage drop area to have my baggage checked through & to receive paper boarding passes. There was no queue & so reached the counter to be greeted by a lovely charming lady. I collected my boarding pass & proceeded towards security. I was airside by 18:05. I decided to explore T3!!!
Emirates 777-300ER to Dubai (last flight for the day 5/5!!)
Emirates B777-300ER
Just Inside T3
Just as i entered T3, i was surrounded by a mob of red VS crews. I must say, they looked fantastic . Everyone in the terminal looked in their direction. It was just like seeing their 25th anniversary ad!!!!
Well that put me in spirit, which is why i ran to the nearest toilet....lol (no sinister thoughts please) lol !!!
Airline: Jet Airways (9W) Flight No.: 9W117 Route: LHR-BOM Scheduled Departure Time: 2125 Actual Departure Time: 2145 Scheduled Arrival Time: 1100 Actual Arrival Time: 1040 +1 day Equipment: B777-300ER Seating: 55K Date: 24th June 2009
My ride for the next 9 hrs
I spent time at the duty free,eateries,the internet kiosk,chattin wid de ladies...lol & yeah snapping some worthy airplanes.
Soon it was time to board. it was after this that i saw a swarm of yellow-dressed, smart, young & attractive ladies making their way towards the gate we were seated in. They looked gorgeous enough to give VS a run for their money.
I must say fellas......there's some serious competition at heathrow!!!! Its now that heathrow's gotten more exciting...atleast for me.!!!
I love this view
Luv dis
I was in my seat at 2130. The crew served everyone with cold towels & lime juice. I thought the lemon juice tasted a bit dant but okay. Ergonomically designed seats
We were on the runway at 2155, & soon enough i felt the powerful GE-90s roaring down runway 09R. As we soared into the london skies,we were treated to a wonderful display of the evening sun gently caressing the metal on this wide-body & the airport below. Passengers scantly took out their cameras to capture this beautiful transient moment.
Jet Airways's IFE system - Jet Screen uses Panasonic eFX IFE system. The IFE is very user friendly & one of the best entertainment systems in the sky at present. Even though the system crashed twice & had to be rebooted, i still managed to complete my list of "Inflight Movies to Watch".....3 of them. The IFE system offers us a wide choice of movies,documentaries,tv shows,music,games etc. One game i would certainly reccommend is 3D Football (deadly)!!! MOOD LIGHTING
Jet Screen
2 hours into the flight,dinner was served. I chose the non-veg option. It consisted of rice, butter chicken,Chappati(indian bread) & some other kind of chicken. The sides were fruit yoghurt,fruit bowl & juice. It was absolutely scrumptious!!! . The aroma of indian food just aroused my sleepy head & propelled me forward until the breakfast service.
Breakfast was just standard croissant,fruit bowl,fruit yoghurt,coffee,jam & butter. Why does everyairline nowadays have this obsession with serving fruit bowls???YUK!!!!
Sorry to all fruit loving A.net members
Approach Into Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport
We landed ahead of scheduled arrival time at 1040 am. Mumbai airport is not run very efficiently as we had to queue for 40 minutes just to clear Swine Flu check. The one thing that irritated me the most was the fact that i had to collect my baggage at mumbai & sent it onwards to COK again!!!!!!! . This is mumbair airport policy & no matter where you are coming from, if you have a connection to any ither indian city via mumbai then it has to be done likewise. I did this & awaited my inter-terminal transfer coach. This was a free service. In india if anything is free,quality must suffer.....as a result i wasn't surprised to find tattered seats & filthy armrests on the bus. Worst of all, when i looked out of the window of the bus,i was utterly horrified to see a rat nibbling away at some wire in the baggage carousel area(outside)!!!
I reached the domestic terminal & had a look around. As there was nothing much to see,i retired to a comfy chair. My flight was delayed as it arrived late from it's previous trip. We boarded atlast @ 1420. By this time i was too exhausted to take any pics & barely managed 1. On this flight too cabin crew were very pleasant which i thought was somewhat reassuring & contributed to lightening my ordeal on this leg of the journey.
As this flight was operating as a recently launched LCC version of jet airways,called jet airways konnect, i was given a voucher to buy food onboard(as i had booked this flight before they introduced Jet Konnect). I bought a sandwhich,pistachio cookies & a coke. The rest of the flight was uneventful & landed late due to thunderdtorms, as is evident from the picture.
I landed safe n sound & within 15 minutes after touchdown i was in the car dreamin away about all the wonderful stuff i would do during my holidays.
Round-up
9W are a great airline. Their inflight product is just out of the world. I didnt feel fed up 1 bit on the LHR-BOM leg. Their international offerings can be compared to the likes of EK,SQ & QR. Their main problem remains to be ground handling & mumbai airport. I know they can do nothing about the airport. Their hub seems to be the problem,which is why i think they opted for a 2nd hub in brussels to tap into the American & European market.9W has played it safe by operating out of brussels,connecting american travellers, making them know that heathrow isnt the only airport in europe!!! While the recession has severely affected & dented the airline industry, the ones who survive are the fittest of them all.So far 9W have survived......i think only because of their quality. As this old business philosophy goes-"Quality will be remembered long after the price is forgotten". Lets hope that Jet Airways with it's newly developed strategy may reap benefits in the commercial aviation industry.
This is my first trip report. I know there are a lot of flaws. So please be kind enough to point them out, as i can remedy them the next time. Sorry that i couldnt post pictures of other airlines as i had run out of space.Does anyone know how to increase their pic storage capacity ? i am only allowed 2,000,000 bytes!!!! I had dozens of other awesome pics but unfortunately cannot upload them coz i've already used up all the space.
Hope all of you will enjoy it.
Thanks
Slimcarner
AmricanShamrok From Ireland, joined May 2008, 1351 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (6 months 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 6286 times:
Cool TR. Interesting to read about Jet Airways, I never really knew a lot about them
Quoting Slimcarner (Thread starter): Does anyone know how to increase their pic storage capacity ?
Same thing happened me when I first started - you should upload your pics to a photo-sharing site like Flickr or Photobucket and copy the code onto where you write your post.
Debonair From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 1167 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (6 months 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 5980 times:
ThanX for a fantastic first trip-report...
Quoting Slimcarner (Thread starter): As this flight was operating as a recently launched LCC version of jet airways,called jet airways konnect, i was given a voucher to buy food onboard(as i had booked this flight before they introduced Jet Konnect).
Okay, now I am confused. I did know, that there was JET AIRWAYS and JET LITE aka AirSahara. But, what about JET KONNECT? JET KONNECT is not an airline, JET KONNECT is only a name for a Economy-Class-Product on board of JET AIRWAYS domestic flights - right?! On all routes or an selected routes only?
I think this is a bad marketing idea. On JetAirways you are expecting full service and on JLite No-frills- so why confusing customers with JKonnect on board of JAirways?
Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (6 months 6 days 11 hours ago) and read 5907 times:
Quoting Debonair (Reply 3): Okay, now I am confused. I did know, that there was JET AIRWAYS and JET LITE aka AirSahara. But, what about JET KONNECT? JET KONNECT is not an airline, JET KONNECT is only a name for a Economy-Class-Product on board of JET AIRWAYS domestic flights - right?! On all routes or an selected routes only?
Absloutely right. Jet konnect is a recently launched new economy service only on select domestic routes. The reason it does this is to target passengers with different needs.
I myself was furious when i was informed that i was to be traveling on jetkonnect rather than on the full-service product.But they did make up for it as i had booked it early(before they intro Jetkonnect), by providing me with a voucher.
I have no idea y they introduce so many different names!!!!!
Abrelosojos From Venezuela, joined May 2005, 3308 posts, RR: 39 Reply 6, posted (6 months 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 5345 times:
Great trip report. You sure it is your first? You seem like a professional already. One advice - next time, take pictures of the meals. I think most would agree that it is very important.
Jet Airways is a gem of an airline - along with Sri Lankan, it truly provides excellent service in Y. Your report has tempted me. I have a lot of 9W miles from flying around India for work a few years back ... am in NYC for work ... might have to call them and see if I can redeem them to go to BRU for a weekend break.
In terms of 9W Konnect ... it is a simple business issue. 9W has had a terrible time legally merging with S2; in fact, they cannot even get their AOC's combined and thus cannot have one code etc. S2 is also demanding more money in its interpretation of their valuation. 9W recognizes the Indian market has evolved and like everywhere else in the world is price-sensitive. To tap into this market, 9W Konnect is launched. I honestly believe within the next 5 years, 9W Konnect would be 50-70% of all 9W domestic service.
Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 5227 times:
Quoting Abrelosojos (Reply 6): Great trip report. You sure it is your first? You seem like a professional already.
Haha thanks Abrelosojos. Yeah its my first time!!!
How is Jet Airways's domestic product? Is it at par with the international one?
Well i know they use older aircraft domestically but what about quality interms of service & food?
Oh thanks a lot for ur bit of info on 9W Konnect. What's the diference b/w Jetlite & Konnect?
Oh & 1 more Q....how do u upload more pics & include them in ur trip report?
Mine is curtailed to a megre 2,000,000 bytes storage capacity. I know another A.netter has advised me on uploading it to flickr.....but after that how do i include the pics in the report?
Hope u can redeem ur miles...& have a great weekend @ BRU!!!!
Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (6 months 5 days 5 hours ago) and read 4902 times:
Quoting Ojas (Reply 10): Nice TR! Well job done for a debut.
THank you Ojas!!!
Quoting Ojas (Reply 10): Did you consider flying Etihad Airways for your trip? COK was one stop from DUB on EY
Oh yeah, i most certainly did. But its double the price, when compared to how i went via heathrow. Moreover, i love travelling & watching airplanes.....where else to go other than heathrow....where u can find almost every airline in the world!!!! This is not possible in Dublin where u have the likes of Aer lingus & Ryanair dominating the ground movements!!!!!
Yeah i've travelled on Etihad twice, but that was like 2 years ago & i dont remember the details nor was i an avid aviation fan as i am now.!!
Ire2008 From Ireland, joined Mar 2008, 39 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (6 months 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 4777 times:
Hey really good trip report! Really enjoyed it! I dont get the Gods own country ref but yeah! Em I question why/how the pix you took in Sandymount etc are sunnier than anywher else on your trip reort lol. I really wanna try 9W they look reallly good, can I just ask you 1 thing? Do the 777's have no air con controls like BA, because last yr I went to PHL and there was no air, form his I dont wanan go long haul on 777 lol
Debonair From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 1167 posts, RR: 3 Reply 17, posted (6 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 4721 times:
Quoting Abrelosojos (Reply 6): In terms of 9W Konnect ... it is a simple business issue.
Quoting Slimcarner (Thread starter): As this flight was operating as a recently launched LCC version of jet airways,called jet airways konnect, i was given a voucher to buy food onboard(as i had booked this flight before they introduced Jet Konnect).
Quoting Abrelosojos (Reply 6): I honestly believe within the next 5 years, 9W Konnect would be 50-70% of all 9W domestic service.
In my opinion, JetAirways is doing wrong business... If I am booking a JetAirways flight, I am expecting a full service. Especially, when I am boarding a JetAirways aircraft.
That was also the problem with Kingfisher. Kingfisher lost the trust with (at least) German travellers in the past. Many people booked a Kingfisher flight- through travel agencies and found themselfs on planes painted in the colours like Kingfisher. But without any service- because "inside was the RED Service". In 2008 Kingfisher Red startet to offer free idli-sambhar, dahi vada or kathi rolls.
Lets see, how long JetAirways will survive with this formula... Just my
Ojas From India, joined Mar 2008, 1132 posts, RR: 2 Reply 18, posted (6 months 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 4712 times:
Quoting Debonair (Reply 17): In my opinion, JetAirways is doing wrong business... If I am booking a JetAirways flight, I am expecting a full service. Especially, when I am boarding a JetAirways aircraft.
While booking all details are specified, as to what service that flight will be. Nothing is hidden.
Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Reply 19, posted (6 months 5 days ago) and read 4651 times:
Quoting Ire2008 (Reply 16): Hey really good trip report! Really enjoyed it
Thank u Ire2008
Well yeah that day was perfect!!!!! Just perfect flying weather....bright & sunny all the way thru to heathrow. Heathrow was perfect as well!!!
Well yeah they have A/C controls. It surprises me that the 777 that u had travelled on didnt have A/C controls. The A/C on my flight was so cold that i eventually had to use a blanket,even at a low setting.
Of couse, with "God's Own Country" I was expecting a trip to the USA
Thank u AJO
Well Kerala, the southern indian state, for the purpose of tourism has been marketed as GOD's OWN COUNTRY. While i myself do not agree to this , the natural beauty of kerala is uncompromised....with lush green trees,lakes & backwaters....its a perfect holiday destination!!!! Y dont u try it some tym???
Slimcarner From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (5 months 3 weeks 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 3337 times:
Quoting OA260 (Reply 23): Hey cool report. I love the way you have a postcard with text from each destination. Very unique.
Thank you OA260. Yeah they sure do have nice A/Cs. Well i think now the wet lease is over & they are dry leasing them.
airtravel has taken a new meaning!!!
25 Phen: Excellent report for your first one! Great pics too, Dublin looks well in that sunshine!! An enjoyable read - thanks for posting.
26 Slimcarner: Thank u Phen THank u......tell u what, it was perfect flying weather that day!!!
27 A1ring23: Hi Slimcarner, nice TR, enjoyed reading it. Wouldn't mind it myself actually. Nice set of pics too, look forward to reading part 2. Regards, Pete
Sponsor Message: 
From Ireland, joined Aug 2009, 28 posts, 
, with the sun shining bright even at 7 in the morning. I went on my last minute round ups & headed out to the bus stop near my house @ 11:30 am at blackrock. I caught the wicklow express to the airport & arrived there in about 30 minutes.(via tunnel)
. Everyone in the terminal looked in their direction. It was just like seeing their 25th anniversary ad!!!!
(no sinister thoughts please) lol !!!
. The aroma of indian food just aroused my sleepy head 
& propelled me forward until the breakfast service.
. This is mumbair airport policy & no matter where you are coming from, if you have a connection to any ither indian city via mumbai then it has to be done likewise. I did this & awaited my inter-terminal transfer coach. This was a free service. In india if anything is free,quality must suffer.....as a result i wasn't surprised to find tattered seats & filthy armrests on the bus. Worst of all, when i looked out of the window of the bus,i was utterly horrified to see a rat nibbling away at some wire in the baggage carousel area(outside)!!! 
From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2009, 82 posts, 
From Germany, joined Jan 2004, 1167 posts, 
From Venezuela, joined May 2005, 3308 posts, 
From India, joined Mar 2008, 1132 posts, 
From Netherlands, joined Jan 2005, 539 posts, 
, the natural beauty of kerala is uncompromised....with lush green trees,lakes & backwaters....its a perfect holiday destination!!!! Y dont u try it some tym??? 
From New Zealand, joined May 2004, 6455 posts, 
Sponsor Message: 
Printer friendly format
