Travel report – BNE-SIN-DEL-DEL-CHE-BOM-SIN-KUL-SIN-BNE

[whatsthequestionnow]

Read them... been tempted so though what the hell..My first trip report.. will keep it simple…. That is no photos

BNE Airport- 20th July SQ256

Ok.. another Y flight and again SQ BNE Office looked after me.. check in was easy.
The “improvements” to BNE continue and they have opened a new area where you now go through security before hitting the customs gate. One word .. debacle. What a mess… the lines went out both side of the escalator entry to go through customs, winding its way around both sides towards to food court areas. They had security at the top to direct people and stop them entering to go downstairs and with the lines so bad people couldn’t get off the escalator which proved entertaining to watch.. think ten pin bowling. So eventually manage to get downstairs to find the new areas with lines that felt like they stretched for 2klms. The new Xray and security areas (just opened that week) are to small and badly set out (hence the lines everywhere). So once you clear that you join another new and exciting line to clear the customs booths. New desktops but slow as normal. Now that it took nearly and hour or so to get through to airport I had 5 minutes before the flight was about to leave. Did I mention I arrived at the airport at 7am for a 9.15am flight. Enough said.

So now aboard the old 777-200 no new 300 for BNE yet. But at least I had an entire row to myself… nice. Normal serve of food and friendly service. Had a nap and watched a movie, slips my mind what I watched must have been memorable. Flight lands at T3.. and an hour or so before next flight to DEL. So decided to grab a bite to eat.

Now I head over to T2 for the SIN-DEL leg.. and excited.. it is the new 300 series with the new Y and J etc. This leg is Y (coming back is J)… first impressions… love it! Nice light and airy.. like the color schemes and the In-Seat power is a bonus for my now somewhat flat laptop. Even managed to charge the mobile. New Krisworld is cool.. even decided to plug in my thumb to see if it would play DIVX file but nah only media player formats etc.

Diner service comes around and by the time they got to me… my choice of Lamb was extinct and I was offered some kind of spinach curry looking thing that frankly was not gonna happen. I said don’t worry I won’t eat. Head guys come through and says let me see what I can do.. bang.. my Lamb arrives. Again that’s what I love about SQ.. they try to help whenever they can. Like to see that happen on QF.

So land in Delhi and the customs clearance ride begins for me and my work equipment… yep entertaining frustrating but success. Delhi customs reminds very much of the customs crew in Athens. All talk little action and disorganization. First time in India and now the hour long ride from airport to my hotel. Arrive at hotel at 1230am.. been a big day up since 4am Aust. Hotel is new 5 star Boutique… great food and plasma… good bed.

Here to work.. so lets skip all that… but 2nd day in first time ever in 5 years of travelling I am struck with what can described as “delhi belly”… 9 days later I finally get some relief.

Jet Airways – DEL-CHE

First time on Jet Airways India on new series 737-800. New plane old seats. Service was excellent. At this point just before the flight I almost collapsed with de-hydration and am placed in a wheelchair from Business lounge to go through security and to the gate. That was an experience but I was delirious and possibly should have got to a medical centre.. but trooped on .. and flew to Chennai. Arrive at Chennai… not flash but able to walk at least. Airport is old.. but a whole lot better than the nations capital in Delhi. Got a stash of Electrolytes, glucose and water and started living on that for the next 8 days. Did some good clothes shopping in Chennai… great clothes for the kids and myself and cheaper than my normal cloths haunts of KL. Stayed at a fantastic hotel in Chennai.. it was great (wish I could eat).That night the first round of bombings occur in India… in Bangalore which is around 4 hours to the north.. scary.

Jet Airways – CHE-BOM

Another JetAirways flight… this time in J… nice.. good lounge.. on-board lots of room and a great meal. Yep my first meal now in around 4 days. Great flight.. little bumpy as monsoon season. Arrive into Mumbai and their new domestic terminal… very nice! Decided I need to do a little bit of shopping that night with night markets. Got a couple of beautiful hand carved marble elephants and a couple pairs of Reeboks. The real deal at crazy prices.. big sale was on. At that point we got the call that another round of bombings have occurred this time in another city only 2-3 hours form Mumbai. Work with media.
Now to the hotel …Beach front room… great views.. pity weather was bad.

Rest A little later…

[9V-SIA]

Thanks for sharing.

Flying back to back old and new 777 puts you in a unique position to report.

Apart from a much superior IFE on 77W, do you remember what other differences exist between old 777 and 77W in Y?

Pitch is same at 32".

Seating is also same 3-3-3.

[matt_will_fix_it]

Great description of the chaos at BNE, hopefully they fix it soon!

looking forward to reading about the 77W flight on the way home.

I've flown Y on both the 777 & 77W. I find the blanket nicer on the 77W... maybe its just me but the 777 blankets always have a lot of static electricity... also I find the 77W lighter, airier (is that a word?) and the seats aren't as bulky, meaning you get more room.

[whatsthequestionnow]

Thanks for sharing.

Flying back to back old and new 777 puts you in a unique position to report.

Apart from a much superior IFE on 77W, do you remember what other differences exist between old 777 and 77W in Y?

Pitch is same at 32".

Seating is also same 3-3-3.

Thank you for your comment.. appreciate it.

I believe the pitch was the same. And it is the same 3-3-3 combo. What i like about the new set-up is around the screen area you now have some better spots to place say your glasses. There is more spots and better layout in the mag holders. And this may sound small but the big improvement is the higher up cup holder. I don't know how many times in the old layout I have knocked my water with my knees. I also like the lighting options. The LED lights from the the screen or up above.

Outside that the other difference are a newer upper head rest design.. and gotta say the pillows and blankets are a lot better. The tables also folder out in two layers.. So if it is just want to place a drink down you can.

Soon I will continue the wrap.. when I jump on Board the new J class from BOM for the first time... again.. I have only even flown J regional... so a nice comparison.

More soon!

[nickbot]

Enjoyed your report thank you whatsthequestionnow

[whatsthequestionnow]

Past Two…. The Journey Home sort of..

SQ423 – BOM – SIN – J

Been hanging out for this part of the trip. Yep the new SQ J. Have done a number of legs in Regional J PEK,JAK,BNE… but what a difference.

Check in at Mumbai International…. Ok this Airport is bad.. bad and old,, they are refurbishing but think it will still be bad. I arrive at the airport super early as Monsoon storms have been in Mumbai now for a couple of days and flooding is occurring. So was advised to make a dash to airport early. Yep I was so early I had to sit around for a good 2 or so hours until check in opened. Yes we had a very fast no traffic run to the airport. Oh well. I made this same mistake in Beijing a few months back. Beijing old terminal had only steel seats.. ouch. At least BOM seats were soft. At the airport you get the customary mobbing by people to take your gear on the trolley. By this time I am still sick but eating and really couldn’t be stuffed moving my 64 plus kilos of gear.. yep I travel light. So got them to do and paid 2 people a pretty big tip. All I had was big notes and seriously with the AUD to Rupee not major loss to me. Sound like a snob… but far from it.

So finally the Gates are about to open. In India they have this security thing.. where you get you bags scanned, stickered and cabled tied up before you get to check in. This happens at both Domestic and International flights… actually liked that the cases were cabled tied. Flying J I thought I would take my chances and see I can jump ahead with Bus line… so said to the security guy flying business.. so he then escorts me pass the line up, past everyone and he then loads all my gear on to the x-ray thingo. This deserves another tip… yep now I sound like a snob. But hell to cut out all that rubbish out I was wrapped. I had a couple of hairy moments with the local airport security as to what is in my cases.. lots of wires and batteries (no what you are thinking). So I now rock up to the counter and get directed to the first class line for checkin.. nice. Again I have to go through the customs process for our equipment… which is always stressful. Note.. BOM Airport staff are slack on information or help. On the other hand the SQ check in staff were fantastic… they looked after me superbly. As I had a code share SQ/MH connector in SIN I had a slight hurdle with excess SIN to KUL. But the head SQ guy worked out a plan that worked and I managed to avoid having to pay another round of excess with MH. So now I clear customs gate and make my way to customs counter for my gear and clearance out of India. Yep pretty much the same as Delhi… all talk.. little action and a process that drags on for half an hour. I then go with him around the back to the check in gates and belts to view my gear. Then he says I will take care of it. So I wander off to the lounge hoping that my gear will leave India. So now to find the lounge. Ending up having a guy show me where it is and surprise surprise another tip. Yep now I am euro looking guy who is marked with a target that say he “tips” or more likely to tip unlike his fellow country men. Again… not flash tired and to hell with it.

So the Lounge is BOM is a “dive”.. it is being re-furbished and I suspect a true separate SQ lounge may make an appearance at sometime.. other airlines have new ones being built. The food I wouldn’t go near… so it’s a water and the cashews I had with me. At least the leather lounge was comfy. Internet… no sir you need to pay for that. Damn it! At least I charged the laptop and watched some Top Gear eps. So now in the lounge for a good 2 hours… flight doesn’t leave to 00:25.. trying to stay awake is proving an effort. Eventually the call comes.. and it is the SQ guy who helped me out.. so that was nice.

So now getting on board… and finding my seat. I chose 19A…window seat in the middle of the second part of J. How good is this! Compared to my other J SQ experiences this is superb. I can stretch out my legs while sitting at take off.. I sound like some novice but first time. Seat was comfortable and how’s that super long seatbelt? Had a quick squiz at krisworld.. great screen… all the bits an pieces to hide stuff in or maybe loose stuff in. Next the round of hot towels (that were hot) and pre-flight drinks ( the orange juice was horrid) and the orders for late night meal. Cant remember the menu.. but I am pretty sure it was spicy lamb dish in a wrap. It was Ok… so cherry picked what I wanted.. bypassed the salmon salad (stomach not up to that).. left desert off the menu as well. One of the female stewards was excellent.. so friendly and helpful. I talked to her about the bed.. and she put it all together and said the words “you will love the bed and not want to get up”. So true. First time ever in nearly five years where I slept and didn’t stir. QF lie flat fails in comparison. SQ.. big bed.. lots of room to stretch out and great quilt/blanket thing.. I even used the super long belt thing as well as turbulence was in play at times. pnly issue is I couldnt workout how to turn the frickin flight map and tv off.. so got a steward to fix that up. So all in all.. got to sleep for around 3 plus hours straight… never done that before.

So time to wake up and get ready to land in SIN. We arrive into T2.

For someone who 98% of the time flies in Y.. to get in and experience the new J was great.

Enough for the moment… next the SIN-KUL and run back to BNE.

[N_Architect]

The way you write reminds me of a guy in the other forum (that I happen to be literally addicted to his writing style).

Nice TR, thank you for sharing.

And you're right about the customs officers in ATH, by the way...

[whatsthequestionnow]

The way you write reminds me of a guy in the other forum (that I happen to be literally addicted to his writing style).

Nice TR, thank you for sharing.

And you're right about the customs officers in ATH, by the way...

Thanks for that. Yes aren't the Greek Customs crew just "fun" to deal with! Gotta say they are one of the most difficult I have dealt with around the world. But having said that.. my last trip when I hopped from Anthens to Sophia and flights got delyed by 24 hours.. they were actually rally good. They stored all my gear as techically it had left the country... so I was surprised with them that trip. Hvaen't been back to Athens now for around 8 mths. Like it been going there a couple times a years for around 3 years.

question?

[Kiwi]

Thanks for the report and the heads up about BNE international departures. My last few trips there have involved int->int transits so I was unaware of the issue.

[whatsthequestionnow]

Thanks for the report and the heads up about BNE international departures. My last few trips there have involved int->int transits so I was unaware of the issue.

No worries.. I hope it is better with next run in a couple of weeks.

[camsean]

Thanks for the trip report. Looking forward to the next instalment. We were in Chennai at the same time, it is a small world after all.

BTW the airport code for Chennai is MAA, not CHE.

[whatsthequestionnow]

SIN-KUL

Ok.. long delay in getting to finish this one off. Outside being busy the laptop I use in my lounge decided to die.. so grabbing off what I had written was fun.

So after my “nice” J ride into SIN from BOM.. the reality sets in I am on a code share flight SIN to KUL with MH. My my… I swore I would noy get on their plane again on this leg.. last time I was on their 737 Arc (Arc for Archaic) when we taxied out there was this almight bang crash noise every few metres.. thought I was gonna die that trip.. fortunately this plane was fine.

Anyway this is Y run… but at least I in the first row and have some extra leg room… that is before I kicked out some guy who was sitting in the wrong spot. Don't you love that or when you unfortunately do it yourself… yes done it 2 times in 5 years. So with this quick hop.. it the every so nice water and tea trolley routine. Can someone tell me what the go is with the MH Guys Uniforms.. they are hideous.

Service was nice and friendly.

So land into KUL all good.. now the quick dash across to customs and baggage… gotta say I love that you don’t have to do any paperwork anymore coming into Malaysia… so much quicker theses days. Did my normal customs run with all the gear quickest on record.. out to my waiting car and off the Hilton… and SLEEP!

Get to the Hilton and they tell my room wasn’t ready… despite the fact I had an early check-in and paid for the night already… yep chucked a wobbly and magically a room appears.. love that… time to crash.. and get ready for meeting next day.

Next the Leg Home Finally

[whatsthequestionnow]

KUL-SIN-BNE

So still not well.. this is now day 15…. And Electrolytes are well and truly my friend… I am so over it all… have dinner with business partner for meeting the next day… and then decided to make a run for home a day early. So on the phone to travel agent in Australia at 1am Aust time. as for some reason my homebound leg had been deleted on the SQ website .. strange.. but apparently I was a “no show” in BOM so they cancelled everything. Any way.. after 20 minutes all sorted and I am on an earlier flight home.

Got a tight turn around… with a 55 Minute window between KUL to SIN to BNE leg. Normally I don't like running that tight.. and to make it worse it was the last flight out of KUL by SQ that night. You know how you feel confident about some airports running to schedule and other that you know you won’t.. well I lump KUL into the one that seemly is always late… not that it is always an airport issue.. but always seems to be delays out of KUL for me.

Since I lost my *G status late last year… damn those Europe trips not happening… I decided to use the pay Lounge thingo at KUL. Not that I wanted a shower or anything.. I just wanted Power for the laptop and mobile (try finding a powerpoint at KUL anywhere or a seat they were refurbishing or making a big mess one of the two). They also offered a massage as well.. skipped on that.. not the way I was feeling. So sat down and watched some Top Gear… that was after trying to hunt for a powerpoints in the lounge.. whats the go there?

Anyway plane boards around 20 minutes late… and of-course I am looking at the clock going.. oh my this is gonna be tight. So we are off and get into SIN… now the quick dash from T2 to T3. I have total confidence in Changi Aiport in getting my suitcase from T2 to T3.. once more I jagged J class labels all over my bag so added bonus… even though I am in Y.

So the dash is on.. to T3.. nothing like a brisk walk.. gee I would like to stop for a shower.. no time.. so get to the Gate and join the crowd at the mass corral … its almost like a cattle stockyard. I made it and not long after we start to board.

So I drudge past the Old J seats.. thinking that would be nice… but anyway into the old Y cabin… (can’t wait for them to change to new planes one day). Plonk myself in my normal aisle seat and no one is beside me.. YES! Then it changed… one person and the spare seat in the middle.. so that was nice. Then the next bit of entertainment arrives late.

Nothing against people who are oversized… ok I am overweight myself a bit.. anyway this guy comes down the aisle and looks around and I am going “oh no” not the spare middle seat… oh please no.. this is not gonna work… oh please for the sake of my sanity NO! This guy needs 3 seats.. he is huge. Then I feel his arm on the back of my chair… fortunately he was seating directly behind me… but as he sat down he practically reefed the back off my seat off to Anker his ass. All I could think of was the poor people behind me. Within 30 secs the head guys comes through as says Mr ???? we have got you some more room at the back… so he moved on.

So the taxi out… is way after midnight now… really don't like overnighters like this but want to get to the doctor. Take a look at the movies on tap and decide to not do much at all. Round comes the post Midnight Noodle run and a coke… and now time to get some sleep.. well as much sleep as you can in Y… but it is an art I have established over the years.

Unlike the 77W planes…. When its time to wake up on the old 777-200… the lights really wake you up in all their glory. Yep time for a hot towel that is hot… and the normal breakfast fare. Gotta say little over the breakfast to BNE. Fruit I don’t really like and dried up bread…. Could do with some improvement on that front. But compared to QF service still way ahead.

Now we make our way into BNE… nice run and in no time we are at the gates. Time to the customs bolt.

And to wrap it all up… who’s bag is first on the belt.. yes.. mark that one down as a holly moment. Now the Customs line and yep they want to XRay my bags… quick look and off I go!

So another SQ Trip finished… and I can’t wait to get to doctors. For the record… one pill and all stops in one hour! So the way to loose 5 kilos in a flash is to go to India!

Anyway till my next run… back upto KUL, India or Beijing I will see what I can maybe craft next time round.