Vistara Business Class experience: DEL-BOM

[SQueeze]

Continuing from my earlier report on the Premium Economy experience, I would like to now share Vistara’s business class offering.

Flight: UK981
Route: DEL-BOM
Aircraft: VT-TTD (A320)
Class: Business
Seat: 3F
Load: very poor (4/16)

Just like in my earlier report, I arrived at DEL’s T3 in the early evening of a Friday only to find a completely empty Vistara’s row. They do really need to work hard to snatch loyal customers from Jet.



Business Class has its own counter.



Which has a stack of newspapers of the day for passengers. Premium Economy counter also has these.



Luggage tags are colour coded based on class. Gold is Business, Blue is Premium Economy, and Aubergine is Economy.



Vistara now runs a lot of promotion and it runs head to head with Jet’s. Jet offers triple miles on all Vistara routes. And Vistara offers free premium economy tickets for every business class flight. Wow – it can’t benefit customers more than such superheated competition.

Vistara’s special promotion of free premium economy tickets to ALL passengers on a particular date!



Jet’s business class counter. Obviously they have more routes, and larger customer base.



Business Class boarding pass that looks like SQ’s Suites. And Lounge Pass to the common Plaza Premium Lounge.



It’s a decent lounge with lots of seats. The only thing I find bothersome is the bad ventilation which is having a hard time exhausting the curry smells. But I usually sit far away from the food counters.



Long walk to the gate as usual.



Boarding through separate lanes for the 3 different classes.

[SQueeze]

Checking out the seats – pretty classy





Leg room is plentiful as is recline.



Nope, no PTVs.



Crew was very friendly and chatty, very intrigued by my colourful shirt.

Service started with a refreshing cold towel and with a smile certainly. Just like in Premium Economy, standard of service is no different than SQ or MI.



And then pre-take off drink of lychee juice was served.



In flight magazine



And menu card.



There were 4 selection: international veg and non-veg, then indian veg and non-veg



Meal service began with the laying of a crisp white table cloth with Vistara emblem and a glass of refreshing watermelon juice.

[SQueeze]

Meal was served in courses.

Very tiny Salt and pepper containers and butter to go with the bread.



The first course comprised salad appetiser which was a salad of greens and cheese. Personally this was not to my fancy.



And then a bland soup of pumpkin and cheddar. The soup was disappointing.



My main course was a vegetarian steak which read in the menu as japapeno and cheddar steak. It sounded interesting so I ordered it although I am not a vegetarian. But it was disappointing. I couldn’t tell the jalapeno and the steak was too starchy to hold it together. Again, another disappointment. The presentation was good though.



Dessert was a choice between kulfi (indian milk ice cream) and fruit tuile. I picked the kulfi and oh boy, this was bad. It was partially heated or partially cooled I am not sure. Kulfi is supposed to be more solid than liquid but this has a solid cold centre and a melting lukewarm part fluid around it. Something was wrong and it was served to me. I don’t think this was intentionally to be like this. In any case, I still finished it. Haha.



Cup of green tea (my choice) was served together with the kulfi.



Last but not least - after mint. Very common in India



After the meal service was wrapped up, then every business class passenger was distributed with a gift as part of the promo to attract more customers and expand their loyalty base : free premium economy tickets!. Fantastic offer. Now I need to think where am I going to use it to.





Vistara does not offer PTVs on each seat but for business class passengers, a Samsung tablet is available for every pax in the cabin. This is one distinguishing feature over Premium Economy and also over Jet’s business class. Together with the tablet, we also get the noise cancelling headset.



Decent selection of TV shows and movies for a short regional sector.



2 hours after take off and after a few rounds of holding patterns which are typical at BOM in the late evening, we landed and taxied to the international terminal for disembarkation. Currently only Vistara uses this Terminal for domestic flights but I heard that Spicejet and Air India are moving soon.

Verdict:

Vistara is definitely a solid premium carrier in Premium Economy and Business Class. The hardware is good as is the service. Based on my 2 experiences, I think food is still their weakness. I hope feedbacks will improve its quality. But between Vistara and Jet or Air India, I think Vistara still wins in overall quality. Its struggle is its limited routes and schedule. For example it's only useful for me on the Delhi-Mumbai runs. Their Bangalore flight is fine in one direction only. And their other flights depart at inconvenient business hours.

As can be seen in my two reports, the new carrier obviously struggles. They can fill their economy class cabins packed to the brim which shows where the market is in Indian aviation sector. Premium Economy is in the range of 60-70% full and I personally will fly it because it is good enough on short sectors. Business Class has been bad – no more than 4-5 passengers each time on a peak Friday evening hours on one of the world’s busiest premium route (DEL-BOM). Jet’s flights are always full in the front by comparison.

[Durian]

Thanks for the TR !
To add to this, ex-BOM, Vistara flies from the international terminal, way better than the domestic one. That said, with the domestic operations for most airlines moving to the international terminal building (soon), this advantage will vanish (when is that ?)

[SQueeze]

Thanks for the TR !
To add to this, ex-BOM, Vistara flies from the international terminal, way better than the domestic one. That said, with the domestic operations for most airlines moving to the international terminal building (soon), this advantage will vanish (when is that ?)

Am flying BOM-BLR today afternoon.

Will check out the lounge too. This way of departing is much much better than departing with Jet using the overcrowded T1B.

Will post supplementary TR of this sector soon departing ex-BOM's gorgeous terminal 2

[Durian]

Am flying BOM-BLR today afternoon.

Will check out the lounge too. This way of departing is much much better than departing with Jet using the overcrowded T1B.

Will post supplementary TR of this sector soon departing ex-BOM's gorgeous terminal 2

Depends on your tier and travel class, but try to go to the Lounge by GVK/Performa, not the Clipper lounge. That one is awesome !

[SQueeze]

Depends on your tier and travel class, but try to go to the Lounge by GVK/Performa, not the Clipper lounge. That one is awesome !

The awesome lounge is in the international section.
Domestic is downstairs and I used this temporary lounge at Gate 86, which is a smaller part of the previous international interim lounge.

I travel biz class with no club vistara status but with SQ PPS.

Posting update soon. After work, today

[SQueeze]

Thanks for the TR !
To add to this, ex-BOM, Vistara flies from the international terminal, way better than the domestic one. That said, with the domestic operations for most airlines moving to the international terminal building (soon), this advantage will vanish (when is that ?)

I just flew AI dreamliner from T2 from BOM-DEL. This is still the best of the lot. AI crew now smiles .... very much welcome.

In T2, Vistara has its own gates below.
While AI has domestic departures direct from the International section as my flight goes BOM-DEL-PVG. my BP has a big D on it.

Also I read in today's newspapers, entire AI domestic operation will shift to T2 on 1 October.

[Avenger777]

what a lovely product!!1

[yflyer]

Thanks for posting, SQueeze! The hard product looks really good, and the catering looks very elaborate for such a short sector.

I've only flown J on an Indian domestic sector once, on Jet Airways, BOM-DEL, on an op-up many years back. A very eventful flight, because Shah Rukh Khan was on that plane, also flying up front in J. Very friendly guy, who was chatting with the passengers seated close by.