Background
This trip report covers two of Bangladesh's largest airlines - Regent Airways and Biman Bangladesh.
So it happened that recently I had the chance to visit Bangladesh for work and it also so happened that I found myself in Kolkata for one of my projects and then I was then heading to Dubai for more work. Between the 3 places, I found myself the opportunity to fly rarely reported local airlines rather than taking the predictable Air India or Emirates. Prices are also competitive in business class with just about $50 more than economy class on both sectors (CCU-DAC and DAC-CGP-DXB). That says that flying business class is cheaper than economy on large carriers like AI and EK. Awesome.
Part 1: Regent Airways (CCU-DAC)
Airline: Regent Airways
Flight: RX 792
Seat: 3F
Class: Business / PEY (sold as PEY but crew and counter and baggage tag refer to it as business)
Load: 3/12
Type: 737-800 (S2-AIH)
The journey started in Kolkata's ultra-modern airport which I adore for reasons I am going to explain later. First I find it totally charming to have the anachronistic juxtaposition of old vintage cars and ultra-modern architecture which I believe is almost a uniquely Indian scene and a rapidly disappearing one.
Queuing into the terminal building as usual as every passenger has to have their ID and ticket checked. For Kolkata, domestic and international terminals share the same contiguous check-in hall.
Inside is stunning. The roof floats like a magic scroll with Bengali letters written on them. It looks weightless and elegant and the filtered daylight is out of this world.
Regent has basically just one daily flight a day to Dhaka and an additional flight every other day to Chittagong. Their check in counter is located at the end of the terminal building.
Premium Economy has its own counter. Check in was smooth. This is sold as PEY on website, but the baggage tags and the check in agents kept referring to it as Business Class. I believe it was originally branded as business class until recently.
Immigration and security was quiet at that hour in the afternoon and I soon found myself in the waiting area which is again I really like because these days airports are generally formatted to enhance retail revenue and passengers are enclosed with retail in all direction, held captive. But here, in Kolkata, the 'old grand style' of full view to the tarmac is still there. It's a wide cinematic picture window of planes taking off and landing.
The plane that was flying us to Dhaka that day arrived 1.5 hours early. This is definitely not Budget airline style of pushing their frames to their limits.
My bag was being loaded. I spotted it.
Boarding was called half an hour before the flight and I soon found myself in a Euro-style business class cabin (with middle seats blocked). It's actually slightly better because there is better legroom on these seats. The curtain position is also permanent.
Legroom is plentiful.
First impression was good. The plane looks spanking new. And the colour contrast between red and blue is quite refreshing.
No inflight magazine. No IFE. Just this to entertain.
Warm towels were soon distributed.
This trip report covers two of Bangladesh's largest airlines - Regent Airways and Biman Bangladesh.
So it happened that recently I had the chance to visit Bangladesh for work and it also so happened that I found myself in Kolkata for one of my projects and then I was then heading to Dubai for more work. Between the 3 places, I found myself the opportunity to fly rarely reported local airlines rather than taking the predictable Air India or Emirates. Prices are also competitive in business class with just about $50 more than economy class on both sectors (CCU-DAC and DAC-CGP-DXB). That says that flying business class is cheaper than economy on large carriers like AI and EK. Awesome.
Part 1: Regent Airways (CCU-DAC)
Airline: Regent Airways
Flight: RX 792
Seat: 3F
Class: Business / PEY (sold as PEY but crew and counter and baggage tag refer to it as business)
Load: 3/12
Type: 737-800 (S2-AIH)
The journey started in Kolkata's ultra-modern airport which I adore for reasons I am going to explain later. First I find it totally charming to have the anachronistic juxtaposition of old vintage cars and ultra-modern architecture which I believe is almost a uniquely Indian scene and a rapidly disappearing one.
Queuing into the terminal building as usual as every passenger has to have their ID and ticket checked. For Kolkata, domestic and international terminals share the same contiguous check-in hall.
Inside is stunning. The roof floats like a magic scroll with Bengali letters written on them. It looks weightless and elegant and the filtered daylight is out of this world.
Regent has basically just one daily flight a day to Dhaka and an additional flight every other day to Chittagong. Their check in counter is located at the end of the terminal building.
Premium Economy has its own counter. Check in was smooth. This is sold as PEY on website, but the baggage tags and the check in agents kept referring to it as Business Class. I believe it was originally branded as business class until recently.
Immigration and security was quiet at that hour in the afternoon and I soon found myself in the waiting area which is again I really like because these days airports are generally formatted to enhance retail revenue and passengers are enclosed with retail in all direction, held captive. But here, in Kolkata, the 'old grand style' of full view to the tarmac is still there. It's a wide cinematic picture window of planes taking off and landing.
The plane that was flying us to Dhaka that day arrived 1.5 hours early. This is definitely not Budget airline style of pushing their frames to their limits.
My bag was being loaded. I spotted it.
Boarding was called half an hour before the flight and I soon found myself in a Euro-style business class cabin (with middle seats blocked). It's actually slightly better because there is better legroom on these seats. The curtain position is also permanent.
Legroom is plentiful.
First impression was good. The plane looks spanking new. And the colour contrast between red and blue is quite refreshing.
No inflight magazine. No IFE. Just this to entertain.
Warm towels were soon distributed.
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