This is a very boring and mundane report,
but I needed to do something to pass the time in the Maharaja Lounge. A
client was going to be in Delhi for the day and wanted me to be there
for some of his scheduled meetings. Since the advance loads were wide
open, I decided to use one of my nonrev passes from my dad to hop up on
Air India for the day.
3 March 2003
AI 320
Airbus A310-304
Mumbai Chattrapati Shivaji to Delhi Indira Gandhi International
===============================================================
I had the option of taking either the 345am flight or the 610am, with
the earlier one being a 3-class 744. Loads looked open on both flights
around 11pm, so I decided on the later operation so that I could get
some extra sleep.
Awakened around 315am and checked the loads again, only to find that the
Paris flight had been delayed and had rebooked a whole bunch of their
Delhi connections onto the 610am flight instead. This meant that the
wide open flight was now overbooked to 19/22 in Business Class and
210/186 in Economy Class. Every nonrev's nightmare was about to come to
fruition.
I hastily awakened my dad who called ops to check who the commander for
the flight was. Fortunately it was Mike Fernandes, an old friend of his,
so dad decided to come down to the airport with me to ask Mike for the
jumpseat if push came to shove.
We walked out the front door around 4am, but his car wouldn't start.
After a few valiant efforts to get it going, I found the keys to my
mom's car and we set off in that instead. There was absolutely zero
traffic on the way to the airport and dad dropped me off at the Terminal
II-C entrance before heading out to park.
The terminal was quiet at this early hour and I was waved through the
pre-screening with only a cursory glance at my documents. I headed to
the staff checkin desk and activated my listing, but was told that the
position looked "bad". In addition to myself, there were 8 other nonrevs
trying to get on the flight, although most of them wanted to continue
through on the same flight to Hong Kong. The situation was compounded by
the fact that there was a last minute addition of a 742 cockpit crew
deadheading up to DEL to pick up the next day's Frankfurt flight.
Dad arrived a few minutes later, followed closely by the crew for the
flight. Fortunately, today's aircraft was to be VT-EVI, the ex-Kenya
Airways plane, meaning that there were 5 spare jumpseats available. I
quickly got my jumpseat request approved by the captain and collected my
boarding pass with the JMP endorsement.
Air India's domestic passengers from BOM are being subjected to a pilot
security program where you are photographed at checkin with the image
imprinted and timestamped on the boarding pass itself. This saves the
hassle of checking ID's every time as you proceed through formalities.
An interesting concept, and one that definitely speeds up the process.
All Air India flights operate from the International Terminal in BOM,
meaning that even domestic passengers have to go through Customs and
Immigration formalities at both ends. I scribbled out my "domestic
customs declaration" form declaring my laptop and cellphone and
proceeded to the Immigration checkpoint reserved for domestic
passengers. The officer on duty there was busy watching the cricket
highlights in the break room behind his desk and gestured to me to stamp
my boarding pass myself. I accordingly affixed the red "IMMIGRATION
CHECKED" stamp and proceeded to the Customs checkpoint. There another
cricket-obsessed officer gestured for me to go the self-service route,
so I stamped my declaration and dropped it into the box before heading
downstairs to the gate.
Our aircraft was parked next to VT-EJJ operating to Kozhikode, and the
agents there were desperately paging a trio of Hajj pilgrims in transit
from Jeddah who were refusing to board until after they finished their
morning namaz prayers. The poor agents were going crazy making PA
announcements for (and I swear I am not making this up) "Passengers
Mohammed, Mohammed and Mohammed arrived from Jeddah please proceed to
gate 16 immediately".
I cleared security without any hassles and headed to the jetway where
boarding was almost complete. One of the staff stopped me and told me
that the flight was going with 3 seats open now, so I could take cabin
seat 25B instead of the jumpseat. I thanked him and headed on board. The
Inflight Supervisor was another family friend and he greeted me at the
boarding door, commisserating with me about the lack of space up front.
I settled down in 25B next to a Swedish tourist and leafed through the
Namaskaar magazine as the crew prepared for departure by distributing
the headphones for the IFE system. There was a pre-departure drink
service (yes, pre-departure drinks in economy class!) of packaged mango
juice followed by the safety video as we taxied out. Air India revamped
their safety videos in December and the new ones are a lot more smooth
flowing. Rather than alternating each instruction in Hindi and English,
it is screened in its entirety first in Hindi and then in English.
We held short of runway 27 as a Gulf Air A320 came in, and were then
airborne just as dawn was breaking over the sleeping city with an
announced flying time of 1:38. The seatbelt sign pinged off as we
crossed through 10000 feet and the crew sprung up to begin the breakfast
service.
There was the usual choice of Vegetarian or Non-Veg breakfast and I
picked the latter. It consisted of an omelette with potato, corn and
baked beans on the side, accompanied by a very tasty piece of fish. The
tray settings also included a fresh fruit bowl, a croissant with butter,
cheese and pickle, a plastic tub of yogurt and a small cup of orange
juice. My seatmate picked the Vegetarian option that consisted of the
same settings, except that the entree consisted of a potato paratha, a
cauliflower paratha and what looked like Uttapam. My selection was
excellent by airline standards and the speed at which my seatmate
devoured his implies that he was pleased by that too.
During the meal service, the IFE consisted of the usual generic airline
video magazine with the typical mix of old news, crappy tourism
documentaries, bad music videos and stale sitcoms. I decided to nap for
a while and dozed sporadically as the crew first came around with a
tea/coffee service and then cleared the trays.
We descended into a surprisingly clear morning in Delhi and touched down
three minutes behind schedule at 803am. Taxi time was short and we
passed the Druk Air BAe146 waiting to leave for Paro before we pulled
into gate 3 next to the SyrianAir 747 SP just about to head back to
Damascus. I popped into the cockpit on the way out and thanked Mike for
the smooth ride up before disembarking. The arrivals board had a very
strange mix of flights scheduled. Apart from our arrival from Mumbai,
there were also the twin Ariana Afghanistan flights from Kabul, the
Turkmenistan Airlines flight from Ashkabad, Ethiopian from Addis Ababa
and Biman from Dhaka. I cleared formalities quickly before catching a
cab to the Radisson Hotel for my meetings.
3 March 2003
AI 112
Boeing 747-437
Delhi Indira Gandhi International to Mumbai Chattrapati Shivaji
===============================================================
The meetings ran pretty much all day and we were exhausted by the time
6pm rolled around. Again, I had the option of taking either a 10pm A310
or a 1250am 744 back to Mumbai. This time however, we decided to head to
the Dum Pukht restaurant at the Maurya Sheraton downtown for dinner and
take the later flight back. Dinner was absolutely exceptional and we
grabbed a cab back to the airport just after 915pm. Traffic was light
and I dropped him off at the Jet Airways terminal for his flight before
continuing on to the international terminal myself.
10pm is absolutely the peak hour for Delhi airport with check-in in
progress for Thai, Singapore, Air France, Lufthansa, KLM, British
Airways, Aeroflot and probably some other airlines that I didn't notice.
I checked in at the empty Air India desks and was cleared immediately
into seat 11J in Business Class upstairs due to the extremely light
load. To my disappointment, our aircraft was to be VT-EVB which was
equipped with the new flat beds in F class, but still the old seats
upstairs in J class. I completed my customs declaration quickly and
headed to immigration where the lines were backed up about 30 deep.
Using a trick I learned a few years ago, I made a beeline for the empty
"crew/diplomats" line where the bored officer on duty is empowered to
clear domestic passengers as well. As usual, I was waved through without
a second glance and dropped my customs declaration in the box as I
cleared that checkpoint as well.
My Business Class seating assignment had been accompanied by an
invitation to the newly renovated Maharaja Lounge, so I headed to the
upper level eager to check it out. I was not disappointed. Whereas
anything would be an improvement over the previous sorry excuse of a
room, this lounge is definitely a top quality place. It's not quite at
the same level as the BOM Maharaja Lounge (which I rank up in my top 10
lounges worldwide together with places like the Wing, etc...), but its
very comfortable, quiet and well appointed.
I found a quiet couch in the corner and quickly reviewed my notes for
the day. A waiter took my drink order as I checked email and caught up
on phonecalls. There was a big screen TV on at the bar showing the World
Cup Cricket and I kicked back and started this trip report with one eye
on that. Time passed quickly and soon enough it was 1215am and we were
being paged for boarding at gate 10.
Security was its typically efficient self and I was switfly processed.
Boarding was almost complete by now, so I headed straight to the jetway
and wandered aboard VT-EVB. The crew greeted me and pointed me upstairs
where I settled into seat 11J. The upper deck was about half full, but
most of the passengers were seated in the rear half of the cabin. There
was a lady and her 2 kids in transit from London in row 10 and another
lady in row 12.
As I settled down, I realized why everyone had relocated to the rear of
the cabin. The brats in row 10 were probably the worst behaved animals I
had ever seen in my life. I had just sat down and was pulling out my
papers when I felt something bounce off the top of my head. To my utter
amazement, the kids were standing on the seats in front and pelting me
with the contents of their amenity kit. I alerted the mother to this and
her response was a passive "Bacche to hai, na. Main kya karu?"
(translation : Oh well, kids will be kids. What can I do?). Needless to
say, I was incensed. If I hadn't been nonrevving today, I would have
strangled the kid myself, but my status required me to simply grin and
bear it.
Things got worse when the flight attendant came around with the
pre-departure drinks. She had neatly arranged a tray of orange juice and
coconut water in glasses and was offering some to the mother when brat
#1 decided to chime in. He picked up a glass of Orange Juice and POURED
IT INTO a glass of cocunut water sitting on the tray. The FA yanked the
tray away and scolded him for doing that. TO my amazement, the MOTHER
took offense to this and told the FA not to talk to her kids like that
because "we have paid big money for these tickets". The FA apologized
diplomatically and asked the mother to keep her eyes on the kids,
bending down again to offer the mom a drink. At that moment brat #2 got
into the act, and slapped the tray downwards, sending all 10 glasses
arranged on it flying. The bulkhead splattered with juice and the poor
FA scrambled to get a towel to mop up the mess. In the meanwhile, the
kids collected the crystal glasses and began throwing them at each
other, cackling loudly the entire time. It was a miracle that all of
them landed on the carpet and didn't break.
I guess the noise had alerted the captain who emerged from the cockpit
and quickly summed up the situation. He asked the mother to join him for
a second and she returned white faced and ordered the kids to not only
sit down but to seatbelt up and not make another sound. To my surprise,
they complied and that was the end of their little drama for a while.
The FA came around with another round of drinks in new glasses and
apologized profusely to us for the problems. I smiled and told her that
she handled it perfectly, as did the woman behind me. Headphones were
distributed and I kicked back with some music as the bulkhead screens
explained that "Your aircraft is named 'VELHAGOA'" with some nice
pictures and blurbs about the history and architecture of the temple
complex by the same name.
Doors closed, safety demo was screened and we taxied briskly to the
runway from which we were quickly airborne about 20 minutes behind
schedule. The crew came around with a snack service, but I decided to
pass on it, kicked back my Business Class sleeper seat and was in
dreamland within seconds. The FA woke me up on final approach when it
was time to put our seats back upright as we descended into a lovely
clear Mumbai night.
I've found that the Indian pilots familiar with the approach to runway
27 fly it very differently to the foreign pilots who fly here less
often. Having flown into BOM on the upper deck of a Northwest 744 just a
few days earlier, this was a perfect opportunity to compare the two.
Sure enough, I noted that we intercepted the glidescope a lot further
out and consequently had a perceptively smoother approach (although this
may be due in part to the fact that our route from Delhi brought us into
the pattern from the NorthEast as opposed to the Amsterdam flight which
approached from the NorthWest - pun intended). We flared just beyond the
threshold and turned off the active runway before the domestic terminals
where Jet Airways and Indian Airlines' fleets were dormant for the
night.
Terminal II-C was full of Air India planes tonight and I counted about
15 747s and A310s parked either at gates or at remote stands. We waited
short of our gate as the South African Airways 747 SP (wow, 2 747 SP
sightings in a single day!) pushed back for Jo'burg before pulling in
right at 315am, exactly 30 minutes late. I was one of the first off the
plane and made some calls as I headed down to Immigration and Customs.
Both agencies saw my boarding pass with the big "D" (for Domestic) and
my Indian passport and waved me through without a second glance, so I
was in the car park within minutes. The drive home took about 15 minutes
with no traffic and I was in bed by 345am, a scant 30 minutes after
touchdown and almost exactly 24 hours after I had set out. A whirlwind
day had ended. |
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