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  • Air India BOM-LHR-JFK

    This is the return of my trip to India. Hope you enjoy.

    Flight Number: AI 101
    Routing: BOM-LHR-JFK
    Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 (VT-ESP Ajanta)
    Date: August 3rd, 2002
    Time of departure: 6:30 am
    Time of arrival (LHR): 11:30 am
    Time of arrival (JFK): 15:55 pm
    Total Flight time: 18 hours and 40 minutes
    Seat: 72 K

    We started from my grandparent's house in Malabar Hill, which is near the center of the city, to Bombay International Airport at around 2:30 am. It was a quick 40 minute drive, since there was no traffic other than the drunk kids going back home after a night of partying. We arrived at terminal 2 at around 3:15 am and we said goodbye to my uncle, aunt, and cousin, knowing that I would not see them for a while since they are moving to Tanzania. We entered the terminal and had our bags pre-security checked and our carry-ons secured shut (I have know idea why they do this) and proceeded to the check in line. I was very surprised and happy since there wasn't much of a line for check in, when usually the line is long and slow. We got to the counter and were greeted with " You guys are late, you have to be here at LEAST 4 hours before departure, now I don't even know if I can get you on this flight!" Well great, I thought. He scrambled around on his keyboard and said "I got you the last three seats in Economy, but they are all apart, but for your mother I have given her an Executive class upgrade!" NOT FAIR AT ALL! So after grabbing our boarding passes from the surly agent, we proceeded to immigration and got our passports stamped. We then headed to the Maharaja Lounge, where I was told that not all of us could enter and only one guest was allowed with the Executive class passenger. Well Fine, I said, even though the lounge looked very inviting and nice. So we headed to the gate, as that was our only option at this point. Before long, security check commenced for our flight and we went through the usual thorough check by the Indian guards. While sitting in the waiting lounge, I saw AI flight 159, a 747-300 (Shivaji VT-EPW), to Delhi and Paris. I must say how much I love Air India's color scheme, but they are definitely due for a change in colors. They have to find a way to incorporate the palace windows with a newer, modern, livery.

    We boarded the plane, after clearing a mad dash by everyone trying to enter the aircraft all at once. No priority for upper class passengers. I got my sisters seated together and there was a window open right next to them so I decided I would take it. Soon, an ugly looking lady came, and said that's her seat. I explained the situation to her, and she yelled at me saying that’s her seat and she wants it now! Fine! A stewardess walked by and overheard this and told me that she would do whatever she can to find me another window seat! Great! It was funny, how every time she walked by the lady she would say, "Can't even help a bunch of kids, I wonder how she'll help her old mother?...God some people are so unhelpful, can't even help a small kid sit with her brother and sister. What is this world coming to?" This was great! I had a stewardess on my side, and she said she would give her hell for the rest of the flight! Hahaha. I eventually found my way to seat 72K and thought great at least I had a window, and there is no way that this flight could be any worse than my flight to India. Boy, was I ever wrong! There came this old old old old old and not to mention smelly lady and sat down in 72H. Great, WHY ME! We were offered pre-flight drinks, menus, and hot towels and pushback commenced. During pushback, I observed a rather busy Bombay Airport, with a lot of international traffic consisting of an Ethiopian 757, an Air Mauritius 767, an El Al 767, a Cathay Pacific A330, an Emirates A330 and no fewer than 7 Air India A310s and 747s. We taxied to runway 27 and started our long and slow take off role. We used up most of the 11,500 ft runway before we rocketed into the cloudy morning sky. We set course toward Muscat, Oman and before long, leveled off. Service then began with a beverage service, where i had a glass of OJ. Then came Breakfast. Good cause I'm hungry! It was a choice of 2 items: non-veg and veg. Now non-veg consisted of Eggs, chicken sausages, mushrooms, with fresh fruit, yogurt, and warm rolls. The veg option, which I had, was the Indian option as well, and it was warm parathas, upma, and masala dosa, with fresh fruit, yogurt, pickle, and an indian sweet dish. It was very very good! After this I was offered some tea or coffee, which I never usually have, but said why not had a cup of tea. I now know the reason why Indian tea is so good, and this cup no less satisfying! After the good meal, I decided to take a snooze since I hate IFE that has no PTVs, plus I was dead tired. Wouldn't you know, old smelly lady had the same idea, only thing was that she did not want to sleep on the seat. She lay down right there on the floor in the space between the seats. This was bad, since AI is not known for its legroom. I had no legroom whatsoever and quicky rang the steward. He came over and tried to move her, but she acted like this was invisible and stayed on the floor. After a while of trying, the steward gave up and apologized to me. The heck with the idea of sleeping, so I turned to my trusty cd player and listened away.

    I eventually dozed off and woke up a couple hours later to find that we were overflying Turkey. The old hag was still passed out on the floor. My whole body hurt so bad. I needed to get up and walk a little bit, so I decided to stretch my limbs and see how my sisters were doing. My little sister was asleep, but my other sister was awake and I asked her how she was. "That guy by the window thinks he's Grimace!" He was all covered up and snoring with his mouth wide open. It's so funny watching people sleep on the plane. I went to the washroom to freshen up and headed back to my seat. Guess what? It was taken! By who? The old old hag! I told her immediately to move to her seat and gruffed at me, and this time I was not nice. She did not speak a word of English, and she spoke very little Hindi, and started to babble to me in Gujurati, which I don't understand a word of! Finally, she moved and I moved back into my seat. By this time, we were overflying the lovely city of Budapest and Ferihegy Airport. As Vienna and Flughafen Schwechat, lunch serviced commenced. We had a choice of 3 items: Indian veg and non-veg, and Lamb Constantine. I had the Indian non-veg, which was Chicken Nawabi and was served with saffron rice and spiced vegetables, salad with dressing, yogurt, pickle, and an indian dessert, which was halwa. Again, it was very good. Oh, it also came with roti. As I was finishing up lunch with another good cup of tea, we were overflying Dusseldorf, and beginning our decent into Heathrow. Soon we made landfall just south of Southend and proceeded toward London. I viewed LCY, which looked like it was quite busy, and the millenium dome. We circled for a little while and landed on runway 9L.

    While taxiing to the the gate I viewed a very busy Heathrow, as usual. Tons of BA and VS planes, and well as numerous European operators, and some exotic ones such as a Kuwait 777, an Emirates 777-300, a Saudi Arabian 777, and a Malaysian 747-400. As we pulled up to our gate in Terminal 3, I observed that there were so many AA and UAL planes and it made me realize how far I was from India already and how much I miss my grandparents (even though they would be flying the exact same flight a week later in First Class(They were booked in Executive!)). We parked next to a Varig 777 and an SAS MD-87. Since transit passengers have to deplane, we did, and got our transit cards and proceeded to recheck in. After this we, sat a while in the dreadful lounges that they have in London and waited for the flight to begin boarding. We had a 2 hour transit in London, and eventually boarded the plane. As I walked back to my seat, I prayed that the old hag got off in LHR, but low and behold my luck was still bad as she was seated again in my seat! I wasted no time in telling her to move, and reclaimed my throne! Soon enough, after all the cargo was loaded, we proceeded again on another 100% full AI flight. As we taxied to the runway I spotted a South African 747-400, an Air Mauritius A340-300, and a Kenya Airways 767-300. We taxied behind a slew of BMI planes and took off from runway 27R. We headed in a northwesterly direction and climbed to our initial cruising altitude of 33,000 ft.

    As we leveled off, service began with beverages, and I ordered am ice cold ginger ale that came with a packet of indian snacks. Lunch commenced once again, also with 3 items: Chicken Tikka Makhanwalla, Aloo Gobi Masala, and Pan Seared Salmon. On a side note, Air India does not serve any pork or beef products, due to religious reasons. I had the chicken and it did not dissappoint me! It was served with all the traditional fixings and accompanied with roti. I was stuffed, and passed on the coffee and tea, simply dozing off! Hald way through the flight I felt something on the floor near my legs! You guessed it; old hag back to her old ways! This time I would not let her have my space so I put my backpack on the floor between my seat and hers so she couldn't sleep. It worked and I slept happily! I woke up to find that I Am Sam was playing and we were just making landfall over Newfoundland. Ahhhhhh North America. Home at last! Well not quite, since I had a 7 hour wait for my flight to Pittsburgh. As we overflew Portland, Maine and its jetport, we were served afternoon tea, which was veg and non-veg sandwiches, scones, and cake, along with a beverage of choice. It was good, but the name of the meal was kind of amusing (must have been the British influence!). Immigration cards were passed out, but I only needed a customs form. To my surprise, the old lady took an immigration form, looked at it, then put it in the seat pocket. Wonder what happened to her at immigration? I leafed through the Namaskar inflight magazine and put it in my pack to read later. We overflew Boston and Logan Field, then proceeded over Providence and T.F. Green Field, before starting our decent over Long Island. Islip Airport passed on our left side and passed over the beautiful Long Island beaches. God, were there some hot girls down there! We circled in for an approach and landed on runway 22L on a very bright and sunny NY afternoon. While taxiing back to the international terminal and parked next an ex-Saudi Air Atlanta Icelandic 747-200. Does anyone know where it was going? The gate next to it was a PIA 747-200, and next to that was an elegant El Al 777. We were finally back home in the U.S. We deplaned and walked the mile to the immigration. As I was sprinting to meet up with the rest of my family, I saw 2 Swiss A330s and 2 Aer Lingus A330s all parked in a row. I love the A330s and I hope AI will pick up a few, as I have no doubt in my mind that they will look great in the livery. We proceeded through immigration and then to the baggage claim, where we waited a god awful time for our bags to come. While we were there, freak lady was also there and I gave her some dirty looks which she exchanged back. I'm sure had a bad flight, so I left it at that. We finally got our bags and proceeded to the customs line. We were nicely welcomed home and proceeded out of the secure area. To the left of the Arriving passengers line is the connecting passengers desks and we headed straight to the AA desk and got our baggage off of our hands. This was going to be a long 7 hours, so we headed to the AA terminal and checked in for our flight to Pittsburgh, which was scheduled to leave at 11 pm. Nothing to do but sit and wait, but I was glad to be back.

    As always, questions and comments are always appreciated.

    Take care,
    Pete
    Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

  • #2
    Oh my god Pete!!! You seem to have the worst luck ever as far as air travel is concerned. First a smelly man, and now a smelly woman, who insisted on sleeping on the floor!!! It's the first i've ever heard of :P .

    Atleast the food was good as usual.
    "The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."

    -- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'

    Comment


    • #3
      hey, great report...how old are you? or is this older, just wondering (i'm 14)
      Click Here to view my aircraft photos at JetPhotos.Net!

      Comment


      • #4
        Tanuj,

        Believe me, this only happened to me on AI. For some reason, my mom insists that we fly it, and we are next month from Newark. Luckily, I have my dad sitting next to me both ways so no trouble with a bad passenger. I'm sure you know the only reason most Indians fly AI is because of the food. Thanks for replying, oh and by the way are you coming to the US or India anytime soon? Maybe we can meet up?

        777-400,

        Hey, thanks for the nice comments. I'm 21, but I was 20 when I flew that trip. This was last summer, so it's not that old, and pretty much what you can look forward to as AI is concerned. Don't let that scare you though! It's absolutely worth it for the food! If I can get some pics of the meals, I will post them, nevertheless, I will definitely get some shots next month!

        Take care guys!
        Pete
        Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

        Comment


        • #5
          Oh hey, I forgot to tell ya, even my grandparents live in Bombay, near Breach Candy - not to far from Malabar hill!!

          I may be going to India for the summer vacations, but i'm not sure yet.
          "The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."

          -- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'

          Comment


          • #6
            Thanks, Pete, for another great report on AI. Again I got quite hungry, your description of the fine Indian meals is just fantastic. One question, however, came up. You said that lunch service started over Schwechat, and by the time you passed Dusseldorf you had finished your meal. Since, at my best guess, the flying time from VIE to DUS is 1.5 hours, does this mean that you had to wait for your lunch to arrive for an hour, or was that lunch so huge that you had over an hour to manage it? I never had more than 15-30 minutes for a meal onboard, it's usually not that much, and eating is not comfortable onboard. Was just wondering.

            Anyway, another good reading. Please post a report of your forthcoming flight. And yes, I can not immagine sleeping on the floor between seats, as I normally can not even sleep in a seat!

            Regards,
            Peter

            Comment


            • #7
              Tanuj,

              Yes, I definitely know where that is! If you want to meet up while in Bombay, I'm gonna be there for May 8th till the end of May. By the way, I was born in Breach Candy Hospital! Take care.

              Peter,

              Thats pretty much how I remember it. They started lunch about the time were over Vienna and had the entire service cleared away and done by the time we were over Dusseldorf. Since we were already in the air and at a high altitude, it did not take 1.5 hours, and was actually closer to a little more than an hour. Thanks again for the kind comments! More reviews will be on the way!

              Take care,
              Pete
              Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

              Comment


              • #8
                Even I was born in Breach Candy Hospital, Pete!!!!

                Wotta coincidence!!
                "The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."

                -- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'

                Comment


                • #9
                  Tanuj,

                  That is awesome. Major coincidence! So you live in Hong Kong now? How do you like it? What airline do you fly? My grandpa was (now retired) the Chairman and M.D. of Pfizer (Asian Region) and used to frequent H.K. a lot from Bombay. I remember him telling me that once he was actually booked on Egypt Air to Hong Kong via Bangkok. It was so bad, he cancelled the return and flew back on AI. It so happened that his would-have-been return flight on Egypt Air crashed in Bangkok. (25 Dec 1976 EgyptAir 864 Bangkok, Thailand Boeing 707-366C SU-AXA) What are your experiences on this route? Any special experiences? Have you flown internally in India? If so, what airline do you prefer?

                  Anyone flown internally within India? What are your experiences? What Airline do you like?

                  Take care everyone,
                  Pete
                  Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Hey Pete. I lived all over India for 15 years, but primarily in Delhi for 9 years. Every year I used to go to Bombay during the summer vacations to visit my grandparents.

                    As for flying within India, even though i've mostly flown by Indian Airlines, I much preferred the 3 flights I flew by Jet Airways. If you plan to travel domestically, travel by Jet. Even though their terminal is pathetic compared to the brand, spanking new Indian Airlines terminals, their inflight service and such stuff is way better. And so is the food.

                    I manage to travel HK-India atleast once a year. I've always travelled by Cathay Pacific. Best Airline in the world, if you ask me. Great lounges at the airport, great food, great inflight entertainment system, great stuff overall. Your grandfather had quite a close shave there. Whew.

                    I've flown by Air India once, from Calcutta to Delhi. It was actually a hopping flight from somewhere to somewhere. I don't remember that flight too clearly though.

                    Tanuj.
                    "The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."

                    -- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Tanuj,

                      As a matter of fact, next month I will be flying Jet from Bombay to Trivandrum. I've flown Jet in the past, say 1998, from Bombay to Bangalore and back, and from Chennai to Bombay. I like their service and food a lot, but last year my parents flew Jet and said that the service and standard has really declined, not to mention the meal size has gotten smaller as well. Wanna shed some light on this?

                      Air India, I have only flown US to India routes, but I have flown inter-Indian routes as well such as Bombay to Bangalore and back, and Bombay to Delhi and back, and I quite liked their service. Eventhough, the timings are bad, and the food less in quantity, they were top notch for the flight. I will surely post trip reports of my flights in India. Come to think about it, I have a total of 6 flights coming up in the next month! I'll try to post one for each!

                      Take care,
                      Pete
                      Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I flew Jet in December 2002, and quite liked it. Maybe your parents had the odd bad flight.

                        Keep posting trip reports. They make pretty good reading.
                        "The Director also sets the record straight on what would happen if oxygen masks were to drop from the ceiling: The passengers freak out with abandon, instead of continuing to chat amiably, as though lunch were being served, like they do on those in-flight safety videos."

                        -- The LA Times, in a review of 'Flightplan'

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Tanuj,

                          I will definitely keep doing just that!

                          Take care,
                          Pete
                          Pete at PIT.....KPIT Rocks!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            That was a very interesting report indeed, Pete.

                            Too bad about the lady next to you on the first leg. But the flight attendants and food seemed really good for AI.

                            Cheers,
                            Trent Wallace

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              That's cool..

                              This is my first time to hear about trip on Air India. Hope i will have a chance to expeerience them in the future.

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