Celebrating a million miles on a jurassic aircraft, and how I nearly missed the flight
Just before I went on my annual break, I was in Mumbai on some urgent work for a day. Updating my onward flight details on my FlightDiary tracker, I realised that I'd be completing a million miles of flying (sadly, that's across airlines) on the return trip. Naturally, you can imagine how excited I was at that time, and that excitement nearly caused me to miss my flight! Here's what happened.
I had two tickets blocked for my return trip - one each on 9W (2030 hrs) and AI (2130 hrs) - because I wasn't sure of when my work would get done. And since it was Mumbai, evening peak hour traffic just had to be considered very seriously. As the day progressed, I realised the possibility of not getting through with work by 6 pm (my outer limit to make the 9W flight), and so I had that one cancelled. Now, all I had was the AI ticket.
Work finally got done at about 6.15 pm, and I was going to spend half an hour over coffee with a colleague, when I Googled the flight to check if it was on time. It was, but that was the first time I noticed something strange about the flight. The equipment indicated on the ticket was A330-200. I continued talking to my colleague, and it was only a good five minutes later that it dawned on me, that A330s are international flights, and so would be departing from the international terminal. (FYI, the flight I was on, had a BOM-MAA-SIN routing.)
My colleague also mentioned that getting to the international terminal would take an additional 30-45 minutes minimum because of traffic, even though it was under 5 km away from the domestic terminal. That's when I wrapped up all my stuff in less than 90 seconds, and rushed to the airport. Traffic was quite bad, but really surprisingly, my cab driver got me to the BOM international terminal before 1930 hrs, well in time for my 2130 hrs flight.
Checking in, I realised I could pony up a relatively small fee (Rs 5,200) to upgrade myself to business class, if only as a celebration of a million miles. This was done through a paper ticket, and I haven't seen one of these in ages!
After check in, I went through security using the business class channel (which was empty), and had a couple of hours to kill before the flight. And so, straight through to the Maharajah Lounge - the most disappointing of all lounges I've been to, ever. Except for the food (which was limited), there was virtually nothing to speak about. And considering this was a business class lounge at the international terminal, there was no alcohol in the lounge at all ! I found that to be really strange. What's more, the lounge was practically empty - just two others along with me, one of whom was an AI first officer on a deadheading.
Oh and BTW, the wi-fi connectivity here is virtually non-existent, and because of the location of the lounge, data cards don't receive much signal either.
After a light snack (I'd skipped lunch earlier that day), I headed out to the concourse to have a quick dekko at the duty free (not that I could buy anything, because I was on a domestic flight). Some of the price comparisons, at least on alcohol, may well astound you.
Right, then boarding started, and it was off a bus and not the aerobridge. What this also meant, was that AI was trying to board about 4 of its flights at once (three of which had a domestic segment followed by an international one), and so the holding gate area was packed like crazy. Sadly, I couldn't snag a picture, but if I said that Times Square in NYC on New Years' Eve pales in comparison, that might give you some idea. Finally, we reached the aircraft after about 15 minutes of driving.
This was an A330-200 aircraft, and may well have been one of AI's oldest aircraft. Maintenance was reasonable, but nowhere near international standards. And considering this was an international flight as well, I felt they could have used better equipment or maintained the aircraft a lot better than this. Nonetheless, seats were quite comfortable, and in the 24-seater forward section, there were just 2 of us.
I was assigned seat 2A, but I could have had any seat I wanted, particularly 1A or 1C, which had enough space to fit a small dinosaur, as you can see below!
Before takeoff, pre-flight drinks (non-alcoholic) were served by a very attentive IFE, who made sure anything we wanted was made available to us. I had a request to make, because it was a milestone flight for me, and she said she'd speak to the captain about it.
Dinner was served half hour into the flight, and the spread was quite good - salad, mains, Indian and continental breads, dal, crackers and cheese, and dessert. And a small box containing two pralines!
There was no in-flight entertainment for this segment, and so I finished off some pending work that I had, and snoozed a bit, before it was time to buckle up once again for landing.
Once we had landed and reached our designated parking spot, the commander came out of the cockpit and personally congratulated me on my million mile achievement (of sorts). Then he took me to the flight deck, and after some more pleasantries, he handed me his captain's pin as a souvenir from the flight! Great stuff!
In all, the flight was quite OK, and while I would've preferred an Emirates First Class flight for the millionth mile (who wouldn't?), I think this flight on AI was relatively agreeable. What say?
I had two tickets blocked for my return trip - one each on 9W (2030 hrs) and AI (2130 hrs) - because I wasn't sure of when my work would get done. And since it was Mumbai, evening peak hour traffic just had to be considered very seriously. As the day progressed, I realised the possibility of not getting through with work by 6 pm (my outer limit to make the 9W flight), and so I had that one cancelled. Now, all I had was the AI ticket.
Work finally got done at about 6.15 pm, and I was going to spend half an hour over coffee with a colleague, when I Googled the flight to check if it was on time. It was, but that was the first time I noticed something strange about the flight. The equipment indicated on the ticket was A330-200. I continued talking to my colleague, and it was only a good five minutes later that it dawned on me, that A330s are international flights, and so would be departing from the international terminal. (FYI, the flight I was on, had a BOM-MAA-SIN routing.)
My colleague also mentioned that getting to the international terminal would take an additional 30-45 minutes minimum because of traffic, even though it was under 5 km away from the domestic terminal. That's when I wrapped up all my stuff in less than 90 seconds, and rushed to the airport. Traffic was quite bad, but really surprisingly, my cab driver got me to the BOM international terminal before 1930 hrs, well in time for my 2130 hrs flight.
Checking in, I realised I could pony up a relatively small fee (Rs 5,200) to upgrade myself to business class, if only as a celebration of a million miles. This was done through a paper ticket, and I haven't seen one of these in ages!
After check in, I went through security using the business class channel (which was empty), and had a couple of hours to kill before the flight. And so, straight through to the Maharajah Lounge - the most disappointing of all lounges I've been to, ever. Except for the food (which was limited), there was virtually nothing to speak about. And considering this was a business class lounge at the international terminal, there was no alcohol in the lounge at all ! I found that to be really strange. What's more, the lounge was practically empty - just two others along with me, one of whom was an AI first officer on a deadheading.
Oh and BTW, the wi-fi connectivity here is virtually non-existent, and because of the location of the lounge, data cards don't receive much signal either.
After a light snack (I'd skipped lunch earlier that day), I headed out to the concourse to have a quick dekko at the duty free (not that I could buy anything, because I was on a domestic flight). Some of the price comparisons, at least on alcohol, may well astound you.
Right, then boarding started, and it was off a bus and not the aerobridge. What this also meant, was that AI was trying to board about 4 of its flights at once (three of which had a domestic segment followed by an international one), and so the holding gate area was packed like crazy. Sadly, I couldn't snag a picture, but if I said that Times Square in NYC on New Years' Eve pales in comparison, that might give you some idea. Finally, we reached the aircraft after about 15 minutes of driving.
This was an A330-200 aircraft, and may well have been one of AI's oldest aircraft. Maintenance was reasonable, but nowhere near international standards. And considering this was an international flight as well, I felt they could have used better equipment or maintained the aircraft a lot better than this. Nonetheless, seats were quite comfortable, and in the 24-seater forward section, there were just 2 of us.
I was assigned seat 2A, but I could have had any seat I wanted, particularly 1A or 1C, which had enough space to fit a small dinosaur, as you can see below!
Before takeoff, pre-flight drinks (non-alcoholic) were served by a very attentive IFE, who made sure anything we wanted was made available to us. I had a request to make, because it was a milestone flight for me, and she said she'd speak to the captain about it.
Dinner was served half hour into the flight, and the spread was quite good - salad, mains, Indian and continental breads, dal, crackers and cheese, and dessert. And a small box containing two pralines!
There was no in-flight entertainment for this segment, and so I finished off some pending work that I had, and snoozed a bit, before it was time to buckle up once again for landing.
Once we had landed and reached our designated parking spot, the commander came out of the cockpit and personally congratulated me on my million mile achievement (of sorts). Then he took me to the flight deck, and after some more pleasantries, he handed me his captain's pin as a souvenir from the flight! Great stuff!
In all, the flight was quite OK, and while I would've preferred an Emirates First Class flight for the millionth mile (who wouldn't?), I think this flight on AI was relatively agreeable. What say?
Comments
Post a Comment