Cambodia Bayon Airlines flight BD115
Phnom Penh Intl Airport (PNH/VDPP)to Siem Reap Intl Airport (REP/VDSR) via Sihanoukville Intl Airport (KOS/VDSV)
August 7th 2018
Departure: 1010 hours, arrival 1245 hours
Seat 6B changed to 6A - Economy Class
XU-002, Xi'an MA60, about 4.5 years old
1st flight on Cambodia Bayon Airlines
3rd flight on a Xian MA60
9th flight on a turboprop
Filed altitude: 18000 feet, I think
The 97th video trip report
INTRODUCTION - QUINTESSENTIAL CAMBODIA - SIEM REAP BOUND!
Car, train, bus, ferry, flight: these are some of the ways one can get from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, the two major points of interest in Cambodia. With just 5 days to play around with it made perfect sense to just fly up to Siem Reap. Flying domestic in Cambodia almost always leads to one airline: Cambodia Angkor Air, the national airline, subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines. Being the most reputable, people book on this airline pretty quickly so tickets are more often than not every expensive.
WHAT AIRLINE WOULD IT BE?
Pricing is always a huge factor for me: if I get some fun & unique planes & airlines out of it, well & good, it not, well, that’s alright. With Angkor Air out of the way, I looked at my other options: Sky Angkor have the bigger A321 planes in their fleet (a type I have been on just the one time), but do not operate PNH-REP, JC International did not have favorable timings, while Small Planet (Cambodia) only had charter bookings. Lanmei Airlines & Bassaka Air were just a touch too expensive for me on PNH-REP
TURBOPROP, TURBOPROP, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
With the urge of logging a turbo-prop aircraft & Angkor Air still out the question, in came Cambodia Bayon Airlines to the rescue! Now, they are the only airline in Cambodia without a single Airbus plane in their fleet - 2 Chinese built Xian MA-60 airplanes operate plane for them. XU-001 & XU-002. These came in brand new around fall 2014 - meaning these planes were about 4.5 years old.
CASE FOR THE XIAN MA60
Xian MA60 - the ATR72 & Q400 type airplane with quite the unfortunate record. I went ahead and warned my brother that I was going to book on a fun one. Be my brother, who isn’t quite the adventurous types when it comes to planes, said absolute nothing, so I took this as a cue to book the tickets with Cambodia Bayon Airlines. The MA60 isn’t a new plane for me: I have flown on this type with Helitours - the tourism arm of the Sri Lankan Air Force, but the planes wasn’t as scary as the internet portrayed it to be. How would it be this time?
Throwback to August 2013: my first time on the Xian MA60: Ratmalana - China Bay (Trincomalee) - Palaly (Jaffna) and back, both on 4R-HTO
BOOKING
Reading online suggested that PayPal would be on OK way to book with them, but I was fearing the worst: account charged, but no ticket. Hoping for the best, I went ahead and saw my options on Bayon Airlines’ website early in May: with fares being $1, some other fees being $9.10, and taxes at $20 - a one way ticket was $30.10, with the total coming up to be $60.20. Looked reasonable for a 50min flight over. In fact, I got a ticket just fine in my mailbox pretty quickly as well. Of course, the barebones website didn’t show a whole lot about seat selection, online check in, etc etc. I was just looking forward to (hopefully) getting a window seat on the Xian.
Being the angsty nervous one that I am, I kept a keen eye on the operations of Cambodia Bayon Airlines: not a whole can be deciphered because the Xian’s never showed up on FlightRadar 24: my only source(s) of information were off of Facebook which is a decent indication of pissed off passengers, as was TripAdvisor, and the Cambodia Airports website - all of which showed Cambodia Bayon Airlines had two flights a day out of Phnom Penh, one to Siem Reap, and the other to Sihanoukville - everything showed that these were normal operations.
CANCELLED & REBOOKED?!
An easy straightforward flight turned out to get just that little bit tricky, a heart in mouth moment for me: BD111 had been cancelled, and we were rebooked on to BD115, a flight leaving about an hour and a half earlier, and through Sihanoukville: great, the quick flight north turned into a diversion to the South, in addition to an even longer leg up north.
Besides, the new departure time meant that we’d be in amongst the rush at the airport and the morning commute for several folk to offices. Awesome, looks like I was in for my first ever ‘direct’ flight, but not quite non-stop, same flight number, same plane with a stopover, for the first time since 2013: incidentally, even that was on the Xian MA60 of Helitours, as I mentioned above.
PHNOM PENH!
Having made it to Phnom Penh just fine on Thai, the first day was spent doing a little bit of sightseeing, beer and lovely Cambodian dinner.
View from the apartment
Mekong River
Single Beer at BKK was quickly followed by Angkor Beer at PNH. I certainly liked this one better!
Traditional dance show was put up during dinner
The next morning it was on to the S-21 Prison: it was astonishing to see what humans can do other humans, and the extent they’d go with the power they’d misuse. The whole experience left me speechless, and just so sad.
That evening we went to the King’s Palace - a beautiful piece of architecture!
Angkor Wat - we'd be seeing this in 2 days
A museum @ the palace
Would this be a bus? Or a tuktuk?
Ooo nice!
AUGUST 7TH 2018: CAMBODIA BAYON AIRLINES FLIGHT BD115 PNH-KOS-REP XIAN MA60
The next morning of the busy trip, the first half of the day would be spent heading to Siem Reap on the Xian MA60, checking in to the hotel and then heading out for The Smile Of Angkor, a show put on by some locals dressed up as Apsaras. Prior to that however, the Xian MA60.
We planned on reaching the airport 2 hours before departure time, and we nearly made it - being dropped off curbside at 0820 hours, 1hr50min to departure. It was a busy time as some entered the terminal, some hung around, while staff did everything to keep the place clean & organized: they did really well.
We had to kill about 15/20 minutes - the counters were assigned, but no one to be seen. I kept an eye on the departure boards to see any movement at all - I was being quite the skeptic.
RESCHEDULED?!
The penny dropped. I saw a ‘RESCHEDULE’ beside a flight to Siem Reap. A 1010 hours departure. Delayed by 5 hours. My heart dropped. My plans fell apart. That was until I realized it was the ATR 72 service operated by Cambodia Angkor Air. Phew! Everything around, I swear, was out to get me.
Common area for both intl & domestic flights
CHECK IN
We took our spot in the check in line - was a Swedish family ahead of us, who presumably got 5A, 5B and 5D, the emergency exit row. Check in was done by a largely attentive staff, except that they were more attentive in what their coworkers had to say than to serve us, thankfully the request for a window seat granted, and the inquiry about checking in bags shot down with a ‘you need to pay (the) money’ - something not mentioned on their website of course, but not a surprise given the $2 base fare. Hmm, so is Bayon a no-frills carrier then? Definitely.
Boarding pass in our hands, the generic airport’s own brand, it was off to security. Domestic & international departures are separated, with us heading towards the left from check in.
(NERVOUS) COUNTDOWN TO DEPARTURE
It is a bit of a walk with not a whole lot of life around, but once at security it was quick & professional. We were in line for check in at 0843, and done with security at 0849, most of it being spent walking from check in to security, but no biggie. Not a whole lot in the domestic departures - a RELAY store, a cafe, a book shop and seating area(s). There’s 3 gates in the domestic part, gates 1 & 2 further divided in to a & b for remote bay boarding through a bus, while 3 is a jet bridge.
With most of the morning departures gone and the Angkor Air flight significantly delayed it wasn’t overly busy. Plenty of seating room, nice & clean, pretty open spaces meaning nothing was overly crowded - I liked what I saw of Phnom Penh International Airport. On to planespotting then!
A Cambodia Airways A319 registered XU-787 was about to head out: this being a new airline that started operations barely a month prior to this trip being taken, a 2 over-wing exit door plane. Nice!
In the mean time, one of two Bassaka Air’s A320s taxied to the runway as a Thai Smile A320 & Bangkok Airways A319 landed from Bangkok.
Some other internationals included a China Eastern 737-700 from Kunming, while the Thai Smile A320 was HS-TXM, the same that got us from Bangkok barely 2 days ago. This was however, 30 minutes late, breaking the airplane’s record of being on time for the past several days during it's rotation.
BOARDING, I THINK?
Saw time count down, but no one at the gate. Once again, the nerves kicked in…
Eventually however someone showed up to be present at the gate 40 minutes before departure, and 30 minutes before departure boarding was called. Gate 1b was being used for the delayed Angkor Air flight to Siem Reap, those passengers patiently waiting around and not throwing a fit about it. We headed down to a well air conditioned bus.
Boarding pass
Gate
Being an LCC (I presume?) they waited for everyone to board at once. A Silk Air 737 MAX 8 headed back to Singapore - who even knew what a reputation this plane would build for itself.
More Boeings on the ramp
We waited in the bus for about 10 odd minutes, a total of 35 passengers including the two of us. 35 out of 50, a 70% load factor. With most domestic planes being parked at the South-West corner of the field, Cambodia Bayon’s two Xian MA60s were parked in the northwest part. Just a couple of choppers around.
Staring down at the 2 Xian MA60s in Bayon's fleet - my brother presumably unimpressed with the realization that these aren't an ATR or a Q-series..
With seats pre-determined, it wasn’t a bad idea to wait a bit, for who doesn’t love remote bay boarding! I wasn’t the only one enjoying the sights of the Xian, but the same couldn’t be said about my brother as his face grew small just by looking at the turboprop.
XU-002 would be our bird, presumably a 4.5 year old plane, there is no official information I can find about this. With XU-002 doing what is perhaps Bayon’s only flight(s) of the day, APU running, several crew around etc, XU-001 was shut off and parked for the day. Propellers feather on both airplanes, but of course XU-002 had the tug ready to push back.
Choppers
ONBOARD
I was onboard at 1000 hours, 10 minutes before departure time, to a pretty anonymous crew, if anything. This Xian MA60 was equipped with 48 seats in Economy, and 2 awkwardly placed business class seats on each side with a curtain at the very back of the fuselage. The first for me: a 2 class turboprop!
Took seats 6A & 6B, although I was assigned 6B the aisle seat, my brother gave up the window seat without even trying.
As I killed the apps on my phone the crew sternly asked me to put my phone away - things were off too a shaky start to say the least. Two crew members on this flight - the one doing the safety checks before departure, and the other doing the announcements.
DEPARTURE...PUSHBACK...
Before we knew it, XU-002 was being pushed back for departure, 5 minutes before time. Always fun aboard a turboprop seeing the engines whirr in to life - more so with the MA60 & the Q400, seeing as the ATR72 has a hotel mode where the propellors move a while after.
Start Up...
....THE RUN UP & THE CUT OUT......?!
But anyway, this where things got fun. The pilots did a run up on the taxiway, I could clearly hear the feathering of propellors, but after a few seconds of it being in high power, the number 2 engine just quit. Like, dead.
That’s when I thought to myself that we were in for a big long delay, but not until the engines fired back up just fine and we started taxiing. 
And it was at this point that even my face grew small, absolutely terrified of what seemed like a high possibility of an engine failure in flight. ‘Hey so planes CAN fly on just the one engine right?’ asked my brother, arguably with an even smaller face, as BD115 was cleared for an intersection take off from Runway 23. It was a short taxi, but with the start up and…whatever that run up was, it took nearly 10 minutes.
.....AND THE TAKE OFF!
Props set, throttle slowly advance forward, brakes released, we were rolling down the runway and off the ground at 1014 hours, with both of us being absolutely terrified, almost like first time flyers or something. Climbed up to what looked like about 18000 feet or so.
Take off from Phnom Penh
IN FLIGHT
Most passengers kept to themselves, while my brother and I broke in to a sweat as there was some turbulence to complicate things, perhaps even being religious for once.
Have something psychologically messed up, and here you are on what possibly is the worst flight of your life. Crew pulled up a tiny cart. Just water on offer. It was 14 minutes in flight. I enjoyed the scenery below - there were some hills underneath as we flew southwest. The seat itself while comfortable had very little legroom - given that they squeezed in more seats due to business class taking up tons of space. 
Just the water, but that's perfectly fine
I had a window mate...unfortunately it was dead...
DESCENT & ARRIVAL
16 minutes in to the flight the crew had to rush service - we had commenced descent in to Sihanoukville. Over the terrain it was quite the bumpy approach - I couldn’t gauge how high above we were but thanks to the flaps I could tell we were getting close. Gear down, in full landing configuration the approach got very bumpy very quickly - to the extent that my brother got a little sick. I reassured him that we weren’t more than a few hundred feet off the ground as we touched down a few seconds later, a 3 point landing, at 1045 hours after 31 minutes in flight on Runway 21. We floated for quite some time past the 1000 foot markers, but leg 1 was complete, and we were there pretty shattered.
Landing at Sihanoukville
Announcements were made indicating that all passengers had to disembark, including us to Siem Reap. Parked beside us was a JC Airlines A320 heading to Siem Reap, a flurry of activity going on beside it. There are 5 bays over at Sihanoukville, with about 20 international or domestic scheduled flights in to the small airport.
The fuselage shook violently, almost being pulled to the right as the engines were turned off. It was 1050 hours, with 50 minutes to departure.
THE LAYOVER
Everyone disembarked quick as some ground staff created somewhat of a shield around the plane to make sure no one walked up to the propellor or engine. Walked across the tarmac to the very small terminal - 30 people walked straight to arrivals, with just one or two bags needed to be delivered on the conveyor (made me wonder how expensive the baggage fees were) - but just 5 of us who had to re-clear security even though we just got off the plane. This was a dedicated security for transit only, while departure passengers came in from elsewhere.
Business class on the Xian MA60
That was....quite the flight
CRUCIAL CONNECTION #4: WILL WE GO BEYOND SIHANOUKVILLE?
Boarding was just about complete for the JC Airlines A320 - my brother reported a decent viewing area from the smoking room, which is where I headed.
I also kept an eye on the Xian MA60 taking us over to Siem Reap - rather alarming to see absolutely no activity next to it, almost lifeless. Looked like the plan had been left to park for the rest of the day. Little by little, I felt like this turned to yet another crucial connection, knowing that we were further away from Siem Reap compared to Phnom Penh, and that a drive up would take several hours. What if they found a technical issue that would ground the plane?! As nervous as I got, the anxiety shot up.
Just left there, hung to dry...
BOARDING...?
As the number of passengers increased at Gate 2 - the clock went past 11am. An announcement was made, first in Khmer followed by english. ‘Bayon Airlines flight BD115 will (now) not fly to Siem Reap’. My heart skipped a beat. WILL NOT FLY DID WE JUST GET CANCELLED?! Turns out, I had misheard it, big time. Doors opened, screen changed to boarding, all passengers lined up at the gate to board the Xian MA60. Whew! ‘Alright man, let’s get this over with!’ said my brother, as we joined the line. It was 1102 hours, barely 15 minutes in the terminal but it did feel like forever! Another turboprop, the more reputable ATR72-500 of Cambodia Angkor Air showed up from Siem Reap.
Assuming the transfer card was a souvenir - I hid it away in my backpack. Unfortunately - this had to be returned, I helped up the line a little searching for it. Luckily, I found it with maximum struggle.
Walked across the humid tarmac to the Xian - JC flight had departed. While the 3 planes on the ramp were heading to Siem Reap - these represented 25% of the day’s operations at Sihanoukville!
It was the same crew, it was the same seat: one of the crew members were at row 5 ready to brief the emergency exit procedures, but skipped it once they realized it was the same family in those seats who boarded at Phnom Penh.
Boarding was done pretty quickly while I noticed someone in decidedly informal clothes doing a walk around before heading to the cockpit…. hmmm.
DEPARTURE
This flight was also not very full: closer to a 65% load factor on this one. Everything went on quick from here: chocks removed at 1121 hours, 19 minutes before departure time, and we pushback not more than 3 minutes later. Way on time! Usual announcements, this flight would take 1hr05min. 1hr05min too long, my brother and I thought. This would be my 6th leg on a Xian MA60, but certainly the longest by some margin. Both PW127J engines were fired up - no run up this time, no crazy shutdown this time.
Start Up at KOS
Taxied back on to Runway 21 and departed at 1131 hours, 9 minutes before scheduled departure time. Headed southwest for a bit, before turning North/Northeast. We got a quick glimpse of the beaches and coast before tucking back in above the clouds.
Take off video
INFLIGHT
Having regurgitated the sights & sounds of a Xian MA60 from my flights 5 years ago prior to this one, I found out that we were pitched up quite a bit - at least 5 or 6 degrees or so, to maintain altitude. There were some bumps along the way due to wind shift in the clouds, but beyond that nothing too exciting. Not like we needed an inflight engine shutdown anyway…. Service commenced, once again just water on this longer leg. This was done at 1147 hours, 16 minutes in flight.
My brother took a nap, looked like he was in much more ease on this leg, while I too had come down from that scary run up at Phnom Penh… I flipped the magazines. Given that just like most other Cambodian carriers, Bayon Airlines was a JV with a Chinese company. Several magazines & brochures were in traditional Chinese. I flipped through most all of these, while barely getting a location on Google maps: this would be the inflight progress - we kept tracking north without too much drama.
Seat pocket contents:
Cabin:
Overhead: not too different compared to a Q400 or ATR
DESCENT & ARRIVAL
Descent commenced about 40 minutes in flight, with the crew preparing for arrival. If anything, quite the relieve for both my brother and I: an interesting adventure was about to come to it’s end. We came closer and closer to ground before I could finally start recognizing some of the landscape thanks to Google Maps - it looked like we were coming in to land on Runway 05.
GO AROUND THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN
If there was anything dramatic about this uneventful sector - it was right during the final moments before touchdown: power was reduced, and while in the flare we went way past the 1000 foot markers, floated a long ways down before I realized that power was being added for a possible go around, but the Xian MA60 was down with yet another 3 point (but hard) landing: we had made it to Siem Reap, and how! We touched down at 1225 hours, 54 minutes in flight. The flight had come to an end, and just barely 2 hours ago we were a bunch of nervous Nellies!
Landing video
Parked at a remote bay: I believe the Xian MA60 was the only non A320 aircraft in Siem Reap at the time, then again not a whole lot was going on at both the intl and domestic terminals. At stand for 1230 hours, 15 minutes before arrival time, the fuselage once again felt like it was pulled to the right for when the engines were shut down.
Got off and thanked the crew for the flight as I bid adieu to what was my third (and possibly the last!) Xian MA60 flight. Always joy walking across the ramp back to the terminal.
Ooo, an A321!
Thank you for the ride XU-002, that was a fun one (in hindsight)
Was a cute domestic terminal - just the one luggage return conveyer! Since there was none of that for us - it was off to arrivals whee our ride was waiting. Unfortunately however, the had information for BD111, the direct flight that was cancelled and combined with BD115, this one. No confusion there since we made it anyway… Aaaaand that brings me to the end of the Xian MA60 flight report!
Headed for lunch after checking in: it would be our now favorite Fish Amok & more Angkor Beer
Tuk Tuk
Smile of Angkor show was quite nice
Interesting fusion for dinner - and Angkor Beer
CONCLUSION
Chasing an adventure on a rare aircraft and an unknown airline for a relatively cheap price was always going to be a gamble, one that thankfully paid off. Talking about what did go right: well, we got there, safe and mostly sound, flights were on time, and the booking process was surprisingly easy. I appreciated the water service on both legs. Crew went about and did their jobs, but it didn’t feel warm: robotic if anything. What did not go as well was the lack of information on the website regarding baggage, the run up which contributed to the overall stress & anxiety of the flight itself, and perhaps a go around that should’ve happened on the 2nd landing.
As far as operations for the day itself went: XU-002 had a seemingly easy day going back as BD116 to Phnom Penh via Sihanoukville, reaching back at base 10 minutes before scheduled time and home after being away for 6.5 hours: not the highest of utilization, especially given that the other airplane sat idle.
As far as operations currently go: a curious search for this flight in October 2018 yielded that Cambodia Bayon Airlines has in fact stopped flight altogether, and with no definite timeline of when they’d be back in the air, citing a lack of aircraft spare parts. WHOA! I mean I am glad they’e keeping it safe by not flying un-airworhty planes, but how long before they get parts and resume flying?! With apparently 18 more Xian MA60s coming in, fueling a rapid expansionary drive, this does not seem realistic and perhaps may just be the end of the airline. Interesting stuff indeed….
My trip reports:
2018
Scintillating Summer 2018 (9): Fly Smart, Fly Sabai, Fly Thai Smile! (BKK-PNH Y A320 Aug '18, pics + video) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (8): Purple plane, purple plane! Cambodia bound on Thai's A330 (CCU-BKK Aug '18, pics + video) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (7): The Final Leg Home - jetlag jetlag jetlag! (Vistara A320 DEL-CCU Jul '18, pics + video) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (6): #NotJustAnotherNEO - Vistara's Premium Economy! (BOM - DEL Jul '18, pics + videos) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (5): Was That My Last Flight on Jet Airways?! (A330-200 DEL-BOM Y Jul '18, pics + videos) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (4): Tantalizing Turkish - a missed connection? (777-300ER IST-DEL Y, Jul '18, pics + videos) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (3): Turkish Delight! (777-300ER MIA-IST Y, Jul '18, pics + videos) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018 (2): American Airlines' Refurbished 777 (DFW-MIA Y, Jul '18, pics + videos) (video trip report)
Scintillating Summer 2018: Envoy Air ERJ-175 FAR-DFW (Y, Jul '18) + BONUS Air Force One & Thunderbirds (pics + videos) (video trip report)
A, B, C & E of airplanes: A Spring Break in NYC (4): The Comfortable CRJ?! (UA4851 ORD-FAR Mar '18 Y)(video trip report)
A, B, C & E of airplanes: A Spring Break in NYC (3): Red Eye hub-to-hub on the A320 (UA2139 EWR-ORD Mar '18 Y)(video trip report)
A, B, C & E of airplanes: A Spring Break in NYC (2) - DeIcing Delays; The Big Boeing 777! (UA1995 Y ORD-FAR Mar' 18)(video trip report)
A, B, C & E of airplanes: A Spring Break in NYC (1) - United Express/ExpressJet ERJ-145LR (UA4082 Y FAR-ORD Mar' 18)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (11): The cramped CRJ conundrum (DL3896 MSP-GFK, CRJ-200LR Jan '18)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (10): Frozen Fuel Truck - uncertainty ensues! (DL461 JFK-MSP, B717-200 Jan '18)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (9): BA's logo jet, the uncertainty of NYC's winter storm! (BA173 LHR-JFK, B747-400 Jan '18)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (8): The Red Eye 747! (BA142, DEL-LHR, B747-400 Jan '18, pics)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (7): Vistara's amazing Business Class! (UK778 CCU-DEL A320 Jan '18, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
2017
*NO FLIGHTS* Wobbly Winter '17/18 (6): Himalayas, Palam Air Force Museum, Heavily Delayed Rajdhani Express
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (5): Fly Smart? Not quite: The GoAir Debut! (G8128 CCU-DEL A320 Dec'17, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (4): Efficient Air India! (AI401 DEL - CCU B787 Dec'17, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (3): Elegantly British? (BA143 LHR-DEL B747-400 WT Dec'17, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/18 (2): A British Concorde, A British Queen! (BA116 B747-400 World Traveller Dec'17, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
Wobbly Winter '17/'18 (1): Insane tailwinds to the Big Apple! (DL A319 MSP-JFK Dec '17 Y, pics & video TR)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (10): Software glitch'd? (SkyWest Delta CRJ-200ER, MSP-GFK, Jun '17, w/pics & video TR)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (9): Yet no CRJ-700 for you! (IAD-MSP UA E175, Y, Jun '17)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (8): A tale of 2 Etihads - electronics BANNED! (B77L/B789, BOM-AUH-IAD, Y, Jun '17)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (7): Jet's extended range B737 (9W472 CCU-BOM, Y, pics & vids)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (6): Delays galore, inefficiency ensues! (SpiceJet, B737-900ER, SG517 BLR-CCU, Y)(video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (5): Missed opportunity with Jet's A330 (BOM-BLR, Y, B73H, May '17) [pics & video TR](video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (4): Short flight on the Etihad A380! (AUH-BOM, Y, May '17) [pics & video TR] (video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (3): Elegant Etihad? (JFK-AUH, A380 Y, May '17) [many pics & video TR] (video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (2): No MD-88 for you! (MSP-LGA, DL Y, May '17) [pics & video TR]] (video trip report)
A (slightly) unlucky summer '17 (1): No CRJ-700 for you! (GFK-MSP, SkyWest Delta) [pics & video TR] (video trip report)
Spring Break 2017 - To the Pacific Northwest! (AMTRAK, BC, Idaho, NO flights!)
Winter Break 2016/17 (9): The Final Hop Home (AA Eagle ERJ-145, ORD-FAR, Jan '17, Y) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016/17 (8): Ultra long haul with Etihad (AUH-ORD, Y, Jan '17) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016/17 (7): Enticing Etihad to Abu Dhabi! (CCU-AUH, Jan '17, Y) (video trip report)
2016
Winter Break 2016 (6): My last flight on Jet Airways' ATR (GAU-CCU, Y, Dec '16) + Scintillating Sunderbans (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (6): My last flight on Jet Airways' ATR (GAU-CCU, Y, Dec '16) + Scintillating Sunderbans (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (5): Konnecting to Kaziranga (S24363 B73H CCU-GAU Y, Dec '16) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (4): Take us home, Qatar Airways! (QR540, DOH-CCU, Y, Dec'16) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (3): Long haul middle seat - our first flight on Qatar Airways! (QR28 MAN-DOH, Y, Dec'16) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (2): Pencil Jet across the Atlantic (AA54 MAN-ORD, Y+, Dec'16) (video trip report)
Winter Break 2016 (1): The Frozen Embraer Delay - missed connection! (FAR-ORD, Dec '16) (video trip report)
Thanksgiving '16 in the Sin City - My Allegiance with N891GA, to divert or not to divert (LAS-GFK Nov '16) (video trip report)
Thanksgiving '16 in the Sin City - My Allegiance with Allegiant! (Part 1, many pictures) (video trip report)
The day I flew the world's most popular plane (GFK-FAR-CKN-GFK, C172)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 14: Delta Connection, a quick hop in the Midwest! (MSP - GFK, Aug '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 13: Super old, Super 80, Mad Dog Across the Midwest! (AA ORD-MSP, Aug'16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 12: Flying the Friendly Skies... (United Munich to Chicago, Aug '16)) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 11: Epic Lufthansa, Epic A340! (Delhi to Munich, Aug '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 10: Konnect, Lite, Delight...(S2 B73H CCU-DEL, Aug '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 9: Take me home, Vistara! (DEL-CCU, Jul '16) (video trip report)[/color]
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 8: Vistara's INAUGURAL flight out of Kolkata! (CCU-DEL, Jun '16)) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 7: Efficient IndiGo! (Mumbai to Kolkata, A320, May '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 6: Big delays, cracked windshield, angry passengers (SG CCU-BOM B73J) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 5: Air India's domestic Dream)liner (DEL-CCU May '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 4: Nearly First Class - stories of the empty A380! (LH FRA-DEL May '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 3: World's longest jet, Lufthansa's B748i! (ORD-FRA May '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 2: ChicaGO on United's A319! (MSP-ORD, May '16) (video trip report)
Summer '16 trek back home - Part 1: Sun rise onboard the long range CRJ (DL GFK-MSP CRJ-900, May '16) (video trip report)
The pencil jet(s) for spring break! (+ Iron Maiden bonus): Delta MSP-FLL-MSP, March '16 (DL1608 video trip report, DL2027 video trip report)
De-iced & Delayed, cold onboard a CRJ! (ORD-MSP-GFK on Delta, Jan '16) (ORD-MSP video report) (MSP-GFK video report)
Delta's aged B767-300ER across the Atlantic! (CDG-ORD in Y, Jan '16) (video report)
Air France's NEW Economy (B777-200ER, Bengaluru to Paris, Jan '16) (video report)
Delays and despair: stressed out in the middle seat! (Jet Airways B737 Mumbai - Bengaluru, Jan '16)
Air India's hybrid babybus from Kolkata to Mumbai (Jan '16, Y) (video report)
2012
South Africa 3: 12 days in Scintillating South Africa (Kruger, Kulula and Rand Airport, Apr' 12, LONG!)
South Africa 2: Elegant Emirates Economy! (DXB-CPT, B77W, Apr '12)
South Africa 1: My first flight on Emirates, my first flight on the 777 (CMB-DXB, Apr '12)
2011
International transit with Jet Airways (BOM-MAA-CMB, Oct. '11)
Konnecting to Bhubaneswar (9W BOM-BBI-BOM, Jul '11)
Three trips between India and Sri Lanka (9W BOM-CMB-BOM: Jun '11, Jul '11, Oct. 11)
To India's Orange City: Mumbai - Nagpur - Mumbai on Jetlite & Tadoba National Park (May 2011)
My last flight on Kingfisher Airlines (and 2 other Jet flights, May '11)
