So it’s been the longest membership in the making for the Star Alliance perhaps and it might turn out to be an effort in vain after all. Star Alliance invited Air India (AI) to join the alliance in 2007, in an effort to penetrate the Indian market which was starting to make its mark in the global aviation industry just about then.

The current AI used to operate as two carriers then, where Air India (AI) used to serve the international routes and Indian Airlines (IC) used to serve the domestic market. The whole process of merging the airlines, including the IT systems only completed in April 2011 and then the airline had already missed the deadline of joining in 2010. Even as on date, the AI ticketing systems seem to be hosted on the servers of SITA, the aviation IT company which finally managed to bring the IT systems migration to a closure.

Of late, there has been a lot of discussion on FlyerTalk about AI making it to the alliance or not. See here for the second part of a long discussion on this topic.

The happenings over the past few weeks have had everyone concerned. The airline is financially strapped, bad enough to not pay it’s employees salaries, but the government won’t swallow its pride and privatize it.Have a look at this story. Instead more of my money (as a taxpayer) goes into this airline which I don’t fly till I absolutely have to! Not just that, on the other hand, the airline is planning to almost double its fleet now and induct new 787s in the fleet. Where is the money I say?

The safety standards are of course, questioned all the time with the pilots using it as a negotiation tactic with the airline management now. They wrote a letter to the Star Alliance management bringing to light the situation on the ground. And it seems like the members of the *A did take note of the situation. Because some of them are right now making noises about the safety concerns.

The frequent flier program is in shambles also. I stopped traveling with them a long while back but it seems they still have not fixed the gaping holes in their program. There are no fixed levels for attaining or retaining elite benefits, and neither are there any special benefits enlisted to go elite. A peek at the terms and conditions states that it’s subjective (read as, ‘at their discretion’). So, I wonder what will happen when a Star Alliance Gold member turns up at the check-in counter. Does he get an express queue, a lounge voucher, or any such thing? We don’t know.

Time is running out fast, and it looks like Air India is sitting it’s in cocoon thinking it will barge into this club of airlines without making all the effort. *A is not exactly an epitome of slick! Fly Air China and you’ll know what I am talking of. Tardy experiences of that one. So I am looking forward to the 31st of July to see how things pan out.

On the other hand, the earlier this episode gets over the better it is for frequent fliers. The grapevine is abuzz that Star Alliance will court a second member in India, and the name doing the rounds is that of Jet Airways. Jet Airways clearly is the gold standard in Indian aviation, and too bad it seems to be leaning towards joining the Skyteam alliance just now. That puts it in some elite company like Delta (pun intended!). However I hope it moves over to *A

The other name doing the rounds is Indigo (6E). Being a LCC, I am wondering how this will play out since they fly point to point services and the alliance concept depends on airlines feeding passengers into each others at connecting flights.

At this point, all I wish for is a closure to the curious case of Air India and the StarAlliance. The doors are closed and time to take off for me now!

So the much needed vacation is coming closer to take off date. End of this week, I fly over to the United States for a 3 week holiday, which will also give me a lot of time to post on topics I have on my mind. I am taking Jet Airways Premiere to travel to JFK via BRU (2 hours layover) and after a brief layover on Delta to Seattle (SEA) via Cincinnati(CVG), in Coach (yeah!).

I have been on 9W to BRU several times from India, using it as an alternative to go to AMS on Delta. The experience has been good, in Coach as well as in their Business class (Premiere). The hard product and the soft product are very good overall. That is reason enough for me not to get experimental while on business and use the same carrier over and over again!

So after an expectedly good travel experience in 9W, I will be subject to Delta for 6-7 hours. Delta, well, I’ve been on their coach for BOM-AMS once, and I refused to go on that again due to the appalling nature of their inflight crew. As fate would have it, when I had to book an internal trip in the States (JFK-SEA-JFK), I wanted to maximise the little benefits I would have as being a Skyteam Elite+, so Delta was the only option. I recently ran out of Star Alliance Gold and hence US Airways and United/Continental were out. The only foreseeable benefit I see is I get to check-in 2 bags free. However, thanks to the much-talked about Delta IT team, my Elite+ status is still not showing up on my ticket. The only answer I could get from the DeltaAssist team on Twitter (@DeltaAssist) was that once I check-in the status would show up. They contacted FB also, apparently. I’ve heard good things about DeltaAssist on Twitter. Too bad they have not been able to fix my ticketing issues yet!

This is how the trip-plan looks now, both ways. That is a cool 21,000 miles added to the travel log for the year!

BOM-BRU-JFK-CVG-SEA-JFK-BRU-BOM

Look out for the details of the trip coming up shortly!!

Introduction & Trip Index

Jet Airways 309

Mumbai(BOM) – Delhi(DEL)
Wednesday, July 20 2011
Depart: 7:05PM
Arrive: 9:05PM
Duration: 2hr00min
Distance flown: 708 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 737-800
Seat: 10A (Economy), 1C (Premiere)
Meal Service: Dinner

After the tormenting time earlier, I was on the flight boarding queue finally. And yes, gently reminded by 9W that there will be no upgrade. I was fine with the fact and content with what I was getting. Until I realised there was a guy ahead of me was signing off an upgrade voucher at the gate. Now, no hard feelings were coming through, but when my turn came to scan the Boarding Pass, I was just let through without another mention of that stupid upgrade. So, I asked out of curiosity if it was off or on. I was informed the entire waitlist was cleared. Yeah, right!! I said to myself. And then the gate agent checked one more time to show me that the entire J class was full.

I went on for boarding the plane. We were boarding through an aerobridge, and like it always is, there was a human traffic jam on the aerobridge.

Aerobride Boarding BOM Terminal 1C Gate A3 - Note the human traffic jam

I was greeted once on board the plane and directed to my seat. I must say the plane looked quite full and I had to make a small maneouver to fit my carry-on bag in the one lonely empty space in the overhead compartment near my seat. Subsequently, I went on to 10A and twisted the overhead ventilation to give me some cool air in my face. The coat was put in the closet. Here is the planespotting view from the window, a Go Air (G8) plane getting ready to take off. I like some of their aircraft livery like this one painted in blue. Go Air also has some ugly pink painted planes also!

Go Air A320

Boarding completed almost on time, and this plane was as packed as sand in a jar. The All ground personnel to deplane announcement was made. However, there was still a trickle of people in and out of the plane. And then came this guy looking for me from the gate crew. He was running as fast as a stallion if not faster, and mumbled something to me. It took me 30 seconds to understand that he said, “Sir, do you have your upgrade voucher with you?” And yeah, it was lying around somewhere in my pocket so I told him I had it. Once I showed it to him, he asked me to sign off on the voucher and told me I was being upgraded. Err, it did not look like he asked, but he told me. I wanted to know about which seat was available, but looking at him, I just gave it away. Sorry buddy, if you are reading this, no brownie points for you since you missed a little professional courtesy in the excitement of giving me that upgrade!

Heck, anyways, next thing, I was supposed to produce my boarding pass, which was closeted with my coat. And after a puzzled moment, this chap tells me that he will let the staff know that I was upgraded and no need to retrieve the boarding pass anymore. On an afterthought, I was wondering, if I had said I don’t have the voucher, would I have been given an op-up, or 9W would have off-loaded the pax who was going to get my seat 10A eventually, or was that pax going to get 1C? Questions, questions….????

Once I was seated on into Premiere, the cabin crew working the front cabin quickly stepped forward to bring me a welcome drink. I was offered a choice between an (orange?) juice and a Chocolate Milkshake. I went with the Chocolate milkshake. Here are some pictures of the cabin and then the welcome drink:

Jet Airways Premiere Domestic (Seat 1C)

Jet Airways Premiere Domestic Seat Pitch

9W Premiere Welcome Drink (Chocolate Milkshake)

The welcome drink out of the way, the cabin crew came over to hand out the dinner menu cards and take meal orders for the dinner meal. The crew went sequentially around the cabin to take orders. The menu card was very interesting, in line with 9w’s series of cultural covers on the Premiere menus. This one depicted an ancient Mughal Painting in Rajasthan. Here are the excerpts of the menu:

9W 309, Dinner Menu Premiere (with the Mughal Painting cover)

9W 309, Dinner Menu Premiere (The painting explained!)

9W 309, Dinner Menu Premiere

The meal on offer was a good mix of Indian and Western entree courses and desserts! I went with the Tomato Basil Soup (appetizer) and Murgh Kolhapuri, Diwani Handi, Lehsuni Dal Tadka and Pulao (main course). Looking around, the cabin seemed to have gone with the Prawns in Hot Garlic Sauce, but since I am not too much of a sea food junkie, it was okay! The purser came back later to inform me that the flight was loaded with Murgh Sagwala (Chicken in spinach gravy) instead of the original chicken dish and gave me an option to change my meal order if I wished. I told her to continue with the original order.

Subsequently, the first officer made an announcement that we were in the take off queue and awaited the ATC instructions. a 1905 departure did not happen, and eventually we left the gate at 1950. This was apparently due to a long take-off queue. I had a feeling that in the boarding confusion described earlier, the captain could not leave the gate on time and was put at the bottom of the queue as a penalty.

Once we were airborne, the cabin crew got to work quickly and laid the table. Then, they brought me some soup shortly. Also came along a nice salad of greens. Breads were offered. Chose to skip them.

Appetizer 9W 309 Premiere (Tomato Basil Soup, Greens Salad)

This was followed by a main course helping, which contained a different chicken entree than on the menu, but it was tasty nevertheless. The side dish, however, was also different and turned out to be Dahiwala Bhindi instead of Diwani Handi. Breads were served, and I chose to go with some Roti (Indian breads).

Dinner Entree 9W 309, Premiere (Chicken, Basmati Rice, Okra)

The meal service was well-paced, and friendly. No one was rushed at all, and all of 45 minutes were spent on meal service. After the main course service was completed, the crew asked for my choice on desserts. I spotted the Key Lemon Pie and went with it. This was once recommended by a crew on an international service of Jet Airways, and has been a favourite since.

Dessert Jet Airways 309, Premiere (Key Lemon Pie)

The entire meal service was in Rosenthal cutlery, which was introduced with much fanfare in December 2010 on Jet Airways domestic flights. Coffee was offered and served subsequently. Magazines were offered for reading, and I went with the Business Today. At this point, I decided to get some work done and booted up my laptop. However, the desire to get work done was a short-lived one as the Captain announced the descent. All of 15 minutes was what I got before I went into this mode….

Hibernating...

The flight landed at 1:45 flying time, and we did not have to wait for an aerobridge in Delhi. A small commotion ensued because the coats got mixed up. My coat was untracable for a while since it went to the new occupant of 10A

I quickly paced and stretched a bit for the upcoming walk to the exit gates, considering Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3  is very large as compared to Mumbai, and it takes quite a bit of walking to get out of the place.

Delhi Airport Terminal 3 Arrival gate

Delhi Airport Terminal 3 (The artifacts on the left...)

Delhi Airport Terminal 3 Arrival Artifacts wall

The bags arrived on the belt shortly, and from there, it was all about hopping into a cab and heading home!

<- Check-in: Mumbai Airport T1C / Carnations Lounge | Check-in: Delhi Airport T3 / Plaza Premium Lounge ->