Jet Airways: same route with 2 J Class products world's apart

[SQueeze]

Background

This will be a trip report for Jet Airways (9W) between Singapore and Mumbai on 2 aircraft types - the A330-200 and the 737-800.

For those not familiar with this route, SIN-BOM is served by 3 airlines: SQ (3x), 9W (2x), and AI (1x). Pricing wise, it is very diverse. SQ is charging SGD 1,200 Flexi Saver, an amount AI is charging for their business class! 9W falls somewhere in between and their booking engine way outshines SQ's in that it allows mixed class bookings and I have been flying mixed class (Y class outbound day flight and J class inbound redeye with a nice bed) for just about SGD 200-300 more than SQ's Y fares. Very worth it. As of November, a 737 starts flying the route too and Jet is pricing the business class on this flight much lower too and a return trip in business class is now matching SQ's SGD 1,200 fares!

9W has no doubt become my carrier of choice in this sector in both J and Y. Not only that it is rarely full in Y (unlike SQ which is popular for connecting pax from Oz and NZ), its business class product is full flat herringbone style. Meanwhile, SQ's best timings (SQ425/426) are served by refitted regional 2-2-2 aircraft and are constantly full. Waitlisting is required for business class. The flat beds depart either at 8am in the morning killing a full day of work or at past midnight which is dreadful to wait for long hours at the overcrowded LH lounge.

For this particular trip, I bought a return Y ticket in order to make use of my upgrade vouchers. These vouchers are gifts by the frequent flyer programme at every status upgrades and I have accumulated 11 of them through Platinum status and expiry is approaching. Reports on flyertalk complain that they are hard to use and many expire before usage. My experience is contrary so far. I have never failed to secure an upgrade at check-in. True that one has to be waitlisted all the way to the counter. As long as there is an empty seat, the upgrade will go through. The exception is one time on a DEL-BOM sector (a business-heavy route), I got upgraded only at the aerobridge.

Anyway, now to the photos.

Flight: 9W 11
Route: SIN-BOM
Seat: 9A (Window)
Aircraft: A332 (VT-JWH)

As usual I arrived at the airport 1.5 hours before the flight departure time at 19.05. There has been quite some reshuffling of check-in counters at T3 recently and Jet Airways is now at Door 6 occupying what was previously Vietnam Airlines check-in counters. Upon arrival, I proceeded straight away to the Premiere counter. Nobody was in the queue and I got served immediately



A notice for excess baggage specifically for TVs. I guess this is peculiar only for India flights. But for Mumbai, I never see anyone bringing in TVs. In Chennai, it's quite a sight to see gigantic TVs after gigantic TVs coming off customs.



Economy Class was quite a long line. Jet now offers 4 flights per night bound for India. 2X to BOM back to back at 1905 (A332) and 2005 (738), 1x to DEL, and 1x to MAA. In the morning they have 1 other to MAA and DEL each for a total of 6 flights per day. They started with just 1 737 flight BOM-SIN back then in 2006.





As is usually the case, my check-in was smooth, the vouchers were claimed and I was a happy man. I initially was requesting for seat 10A which is the last row of business class seat. But it's taken so I settled with 8A which has been usually my seat since 10A is almost always already taken by somebody else. I like the 2nd cabin because there are less seats overall (4 rows of 1-1-1). I also prefer A seats. G and K seats face each other. Well, you can't really see each other unless you lean forward but the A seats are definitely more private. Note that in the forward cabin, it is the K seats which are more private. I also prefer row 10, the last row, because there is an additional counter space next to the seat because it is the last module. Row 9 is to be avoided as there is no window.

I then proceeded to the lounge as there was still about 1h 15m before the flight departure. Jet Airways uses the SATS Premier Lounge next to SQ's *A/KF Gold lounge
As per my observation the last few years, lounge food has been getting from bad to worse and worse still and that includes the Silverkris lounge.
For tonight, we had very very very dry chicken rice (too dry that i just took 3 morsels to show in the photo and not to be eaten), some curried cauliflower which was the only good thing at the buffet. They were quite tender florets.



Since the rest of the food was not appetising, I went straight to dessert which was forgettable at best. The fruit cake was labelled as healthy (ahem, fine it had fruits, but it was so sweet and the fruit was preserved prune). And there wasn't much selection in the first place.
Can't go wrong much with cheese so I had quite a bit of it as well.



30 minutes before the flight I started strolling down towards the gate (B5)
Jet Airways initially surprised me that they could board passengers as early as 1 hour and kept everybody on the plane. But tonight, it seemed like it's running late. When I reached the gate, I saw a long snaking queue at security. The gates B5/B6 use the same security screening area and both 9W flights to BOM and DEL were being screened. No wonder it's long!

[SQueeze]

Anyway, past security, 15 minutes before departure, boarding had not started yet.
It didn't seem too crowded either. Unlike some Jakarta-bound flights, everyone had a seat.



Boarding started soon afterwards. First called were business class passengers and Platinum members. Well, the order was completely ignored. Everyone, old and young, rushed through the door and no such priority privilege for premium passengers. This is always a problem with Jet. Same case with disembarking, the curtain dividing the two classes is not usually guarded like on SQ and the Y class queue will keep pushing forward to the J cabin before the door is open for disembarkation.




I proceeded straight to the 2nd aerobridge for Y class pax since I know my seat is 2 seats right after that door.
And here's my seat - Window 8A. Initially, before I ever flew with 9W, and was used to SQ's 35-inch wide seats, I always thought that these herringbone seats are claustrophobic. They are actually way way better in feel than it looks and I love them. Not to mention the unusual sensation of taking off and landing at an angle Very comfortable in the sleeping position too with good shoulder space, at least good enough for my size. The best thing is that on Jet business class, there is real duvet with soft blanket. Beats SQ anytime in this area.

Jet Airways's latest business class is a staggered business class concept installed on their A333s. Horrible. Those are really claustrophobic in all position. Nothing more than Y seat with a useless oversized table next to it. They used to fly these for 2 months this year and after trying once, I flew SQ for awhile. Good that they are out and the conventional herringbone is back.



Boarding soon completed at about 1910, 5 minutes past schedule and the door was closed. I peeped into Economy and it seemed pretty full, may be about 80%. Most of the pax seemed to be returning Indians. I noticed the same in the business cabin. I was the only Chinese onboard but not the only oriental-looking one either as many of tonight's stewardesses are North-eastern Indians. It's quite common in India for people from the Northeast to be in Hospitality and Airline industry.



Business class was almost full too with only 3 seats remaining unoccupied.



I hung my jacket and in no time a friendly stewardess came to offer to keep it in the closet for me. She soon came round afterwards with cold towel (as opposed to SQ's hot) and glasses of juice or water (no alcohol!) Service tonight was smooth so far and the stewardess that served my section, a Nepali-looking girl, was quite at ease with her tasks and very natural in her approach. Service and staff attitude is always a hit and miss with Jet. On some flights, there could be superb staff who offer to make beds for you. On other flights, only cold nonchalant attitude offered. Tonight seemed to be one of the better.



Orange juice was very orange. It was definitely from syrup. While it was very orange in colour, it tasted very vaguely of real orange. I will be happy with water next time



We were soon taxiing and as is usually the case at SIN at about 7pm, it took about 20-25 minutes or so before we took off.
Upon taking off, the mood lighting was on. We headed northwest over peninsular malaysia, the straits, the bay, and beyond.



Soon after, the seatbelt sign was off and we were free to move about.

[SQueeze]

Menu cards were distributed and meal orders taken



9W 11 is a dinner service. There were 2 international selection (veg and non veg) and 2 indian selection (veg and non veg). I know from experience that the oriental selection has been quite tasty ex-SIN while the Indian one tastes all the same after awhile. But do not expect authentic chinese or thai. what they serve is indianized. It usually comes with a lot of sauce. I have my expectation adjusted and will embrace the Indian-chineseness of the offering. So for me, it would be fish in kong po sauce as per how they spell it.



Here's the supper service for the red eye 9W12. I usually sleep through the service. It's way too heavy for supper - lamb with gravy and paneer kofta don't give good night sleep while they are still in the tummy.



Checking out the toilet and disappointing indeed. Very basic.



Next, the Bollinger arrived with some unheated nuts. They used to be heated. It may be part of Jet's inconsistencies. Since I like to keep my lap free during the 1.5 hour of so of meal preparation, the only space available to place these is at the side in a somewhat awkward edge of the seat.



20 minutes later, I thought an early meal was coming but I got a surprise instead. This is a first time - popcorn!



2 hours after departure, meal was served. Table was prepared.
Notice the pathetic-looking salt and pepper packets. Sigh - cost cutting or just one of Jet's inconsistencies. I don't recall seeing them in previous flights though.
The bread selection was good and as usual, i had my pick of paratha and an olive roll. Both are usually quite good.



First course then came. Menu showed both soup and salad. On SQ, one will receive both. On Jet, it's actually an "either or".
It tasted quite decent. The leaves had some bitterness to them which is never my favourite in a salad but the dressing was good. Next time, I think I will try the soup instead.



Main course was the afore-mentioned pseudo chinese food with kung po sauce. It's good indeed! The fish was well-steamed and cooked and tasted fresh with that little bit of hint of acidity at the tounge. Very very difficult to achieve onboard. My only criticism is the proportion of protein to the carbs. Jet, two morsels are not good enough for business class. For fine dining, the proportion on the plate will be reversed. The dried chilli had quite a good bite too. I don't regret this order.



Next all the plates and cutleries were cleared and dessert was served. As per menu, cheese and fruits are also offered. On SQ, one will receive all three. On Jet, it's an ëither or". But I was already too full to take all of them anyway. I settled with the dessert and almost always settled for western dessert as Indian desserts tend to be wayyy too sweeeeet for me.

[SQueeze]

Next is IFE time. On Jet, as on AI, Indian selection is aplenty. 3 categories are fully Indian: 100 years of Indian Cinema, Bollywood movies, and Indian Regional Cinema. The latter is subdivided to more categories based on regional languages e.g. Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, etc. The Art house category also contains a lot of indian movies.



In flight magazines



Jet Airways international route map. It has grown really fast the last 10 years. From a purely domestic carrier to an international carrier with Singapore/HK on one end and Toronto / NY on the other. Also noticeable strength on gulf routes.



The domestic network



An even more extensive Jetkonnect network. Jet segmentizes their domestic market. They have Jet Airways, Jetkonnect, and at some point Jetlite. The first is full service with business class and economy class and with meal services in both classes. The second is sort of LCC with business class with meal service and economy class with b-o-b meal service. Jetlite is former Sahara Air with S2 code with I think is usually all economy class and b-o-b meal service only. Now it is streamlined to just Jet and Jetkonnect.



SQ, please watch! after the meal, there is still 2hour plus to enjoy the wonderful bed that Jet Airways has - all due to the nice duvet and soft blanket. And this is besides the fact that on the night flights, Jet crew will even make this bed for you without asking - a service offered only in SQ F. As can be seen in the pic, the space is actually quite wide and is far from claustrophobic. Jet, please keep flying these beds and stop getting more of the staggers.



Half an hour before landing, the captain announced that there was traffic congestion at BOM (what's new?) and that we had to be in holding pattern for 15 minutes. Still an improvement than in the olden days when an hour holding was common and very frequently one was number 15-16 on the queue for landing. Landing was finally at 1015 local time, 10 minutes past scheduled time of arrival. There is definitely a lot of padding in the schedule for congestion at both SIN and BOM. Flight time is usually 5 hours at the most, sometimes 4h40 but the schedule allows for 5.5 hours. As usual, landing approach in the evenings was from the east over the Mumbai Creek and down the main runway at BOM. Always a harrowing sight to fly so low over the slums abutting the airport. Long taxi soon followed as the east-west approach means that the landing terminated in the west end near the domestic terminal. Unfortunately, tonight's flight would dock at a remote bay.

Disembarkation soon followed. As usual, the Y queue started squeezing into the J cabin. Initially I expected the bus to be mixed-class. That was the case some time back on a KWI-BOM flight. Tonight, however, the crew recognised the J pax and stopped the Y pax from boarding. The bus was only for J pax. We arrived at the terminal building to an empty immigration area. Wonderful. I proceeded to the normal lanes knowing that the First/Business class lanes already had 4-5 pax and would take much longer than the normal lanes. As I cleared the normal lane, I saw the business class pax kept stacking up on the special lane. How silly, the normal lanes have common queue and the queue would move much faster.



Mumbai airport post-immigration clearance. The long and dingy walk through a corridor with musty smell. But it's not going to last much longer. The new terminal is coming up. Looking forward to its opening.



Glimpse of the new terminal which is supposed to be open by December this year.



Staying at the Hilton (former Le Meridien). The room is done rather versailles-style. Not my taste but it is comfortable. There are pictures of old princes and other dead people in the room which in India is quite common. But they know my preference and they always pre-prepare the room by taking down the photos (they call them artwork btw). The room could have been more busy with these artwork. But anyway, well done Hilton for the customisation effort and it's recorded in their system so I do not need to request for them anymore. Anytime Mr SQueeze comes, no pictures in the room.

[eminere™]

There are pictures of old princes and other dead people in the room which in India is quite common. But they know my preference and they always pre-prepare the room by taking down the photos (they call them artwork btw). The room could have been more busy with these artwork. But anyway, well done Hilton for the customisation and it's recorded in their system so I do not need to request for them anymore. Anytime Mr SQueeze comes, no pictures in the room.

That's quite impressive!

[SQueeze]

Some impressions of Mumbai between the hotel and the office. I usually see it only from the car. It's always tight schedule. I need to take some days off / leave to explore this dynamic city







After a short stay, I was back to the airport to catch the new 9W morning service from BOM. I picked this flight because I was intending to do an upgrade and I can't bear the risk of reaching the airport only to find that the red eye is full and not accepting upgrade. I will do with a lesser hardware as long as i have zero risk of sitting in coach for a brutal 4 plus hours of night flight across the Bay of Bengal. 9W 10 is a newly-introduced service this November. It is served by a 737 which is probably the right aircraft to deploy as the day flight is less popular for business travellers. This flight will also feed better to the QF bank of departures at SIN in the evening with which 9W has codeshares with. Unfortunately, the discrepancy in hardware product between the A332 and the 737 is really vast.

Flight: 9W 10
Route: BOM-SIN
Seat: 4A (Window)
Aircraft: 737-800

Since the Hilton is just a stone throw's away from the airport, I had a leisurely morning knowing I would reach the airport in less than 5 minutes. I arrived at BOM just after 830am for a 950am departure. It was like a ghost town as most international flights from BOM depart between midnight and 6am (poor Mumbaikars for being squeezed between Asia and Europe).



Barely a soul at the Jet Airways counters. Very few flights depart around 10am. Only 1 to SIN, 1 to DXB. They are both 738 flights.



More emptiness around the immigration area. What a breeze.





Security was a breeze as well. And I was out into the transit area in no time.
A reminder notice to get security stamps. Only in India, and there are way too many checks. They stamp the passport at the immigration, someone down the line then checks if you have an exit stamp, then it's the security stamp, and then someone down the line checks if you have a security stamp, and then you are checked again before the aerobridge to see if you have the stamps and sometimes on the aerobridge too just before the plane (the last only happened to me once on a UL flight)



The FIDS. All the morning's flight can be squeezed into one page.



The F&B selection has grown substantially over the years. There is no shortage of food now. The lounges like the LH lounge is way too overcrowded these days i wonder sometimes if i would be better off outside the lounge. There are also quite a few foot massage places and SQ is currently giving business class pax vouchers for massages as well, perhaps to reduce the overcrowding in the lounge.

[SQueeze]

I then made my way to the Clipper lounge. Shame that Jet Airways doesn't have their own lounge. This is a shared lounge used by MH, LY, etc. In the evenings, this lounge is dark and overcrowded. I was hoping that it would be peaceful and nice in the mornings. Well, it was peaceful but it was a post-war kind of peace. The night was busy, the place didn't get cleaned and it was a total mess in the morning. Tables and plates not cleared. Cutleries and cups not replenished. Food spills and stains everywhere.





Very unappetising presentation and they looked like mystery ingredients. On the left is strawberry porridge, light pink colour is gross. On the right is some sort of watery soup / curry / i can't tell what it is and i forgot to look at the label




More unappetizing sambar and idlis.



More unappetizing scrambled egg and chilli sausage



Since the food made me sick just by looking at them, I settled for a cup of cappuccino from the machine. I happily carried it to my seat only to discover upon sipping that there was no coffee in it. It was boiled milk. Grrr, so the night people had drunk all the coffee and the machine was not topped up.



Fortunately, I didn't have to spend much time in the dreadful lounge. Soon, it was boarding call, and I made my way to Gate 13. The airport was a ghost town at this time of the day



Gate 12-13 is down a discreet corridor



After a few twists and turns, voila, it is actually a remote gate. Again!



Boarding had already commenced and this was 45 minutes prior to departure. So it was straight to the bus. No J class-exclusive bus for this flight. May be because there were only a handful considering the size of the J cabin

[SQueeze]

some views of the dilapidated back-of-house areas of BOM airport. It's unbelievable that this building was built around the same time as Changi T1 and what a huge difference they are. But it's hopefully going to be different in a month or two when the new combined terminal is open - a much needed change for BOM









Our plane was parked at the new pier. An El Al plane was next to ours





Onboard, I was cheerfully greeted by the stewardess, another special crew from Jet. Or may be they are indeed improving their hospitality.
My seat is 4A, a vintage-looking classic recliner. It is poorly-maintained and looks like it came from the 80s.







I was playing around with the features and I discovered the surprise - an IFE screen. So this seat is actually not that vintage. It is just so poorly maintained that it looks so old. Then it dawned on me. This is a 738. It should be fairly new. And this fold-out personal IFE was a big thing for Jet way back in 2004-2005 when they first went international. So it's not an old seat, just a badly-maintained one.

[SQueeze]

And then the service started with the usual cold towel followed by drinks. There was watermelon juice which looked unnaturally very water-melony so I skipped it remembering the very orange-coloured orange syrup the other day. I picked coconut water instead and nice, it came from real coconut - definitely not from syrup.



Menu card was then distributed. As per 9W's norms, there are 4 selections (2 non indian veg and non veg and 2 indian veg and non veg)



Right on time, at 0950, we left the gate and taxied to the runway. The main runway was closed for renovation since the day before and until June 2014 so air traffic congestion was inevitable. The taxi route was long and circuitous and we passed very close to the domestic terminal towards the secondary runway which is the diagonal axis in the northwest-southeast direction.



Although technically Jetlite no longer exists, the colour is still around



A busy time at the domestic terminal - 2 Indigos side by side



Indigo's unusual ramp in place of a stairs



We were sequence 4 for taking off and since there is only 1 runway in operation, 4 landings were in between each take off. So effectively, we were 8th in the queue to use the runway. We were behind a Fedex which was really loud as it was taking off. Not too sure if this is a DC-10 or an MD-11. I think it's a DC-10. Am not too familiar with these two airliners.



Dense Mumbai from the sky.



Interesting urban planning form



Very neatly-packed slum



And finally the beautiful views of the Western Ghats

[SQueeze]

Headsets could be found in the slot to the right of my seat. Unlike on the A330, this was wrapped in a cheap-looking plastic.



Next it was the pre-meal service with wine and nuts. Nuts were unheated. Both stewardesses serving the J cabin made frequent rounds and loved everyone to top up their glasses. I had to stop at my 2nd before the meal. She looked rather disappointed that I refused the third round.



Before an hour, the first course arrived - the feta salad. I couldn't resist feta so I picked the salad. Unfortunately, I don't like cucumbers. I do notice that salads in India may come with a lot of cucumbers. I would rather have bitter arugula greens.



And then the surprise, soup came too. I wonder why both were not served at dinner. It's good tomato soup. The stewardess came around to offer 2nd servings. It was unexpected generosity on her part but I had to decline as I needed to save my stomach for the next courses.



Since it's lunch and I was hungry, I decided to take a heavier option - the Paneer Kofta (cottage cheese dumpling in mild curry) with bhindi (okra) at the side. The dumplings were light. The curry not overpowering. And the bhindi was tender and delicious. The rice was fragrant. No regrets. But again, the protein here is only 2 morsels next to a big portion of carb. Too little protein for a business class meal. The two stewardesses kept going round with the bread basket and kept offering more bread, which I had to decline. The crew on this particular flight was really generous with the food and drinks. It's a good thing.



Since the Indian Main course was delicious, I was inspired to try the Indian dessert, not my usual first choice. I should have picked my usual western selection. The gulab jamun (fried dough in syrup) topped with cream was just too sweet.



But a cup of sugar-free spicy masala tea made me forget the dessert ordeal soon after



It was then a long uneventful flight. Seats reclined and the lights were off. The recline as shown in the pics seems good. That is Row 3. Row 4 has much less recline than the first 3 rows - only about half. So avoid Row 4 is to be avoided.



Over KL



While on holding pattern over Riau islands prior to landing at SIN



On final approach along East Coast Park, Singapore



And shortly after we docked at Gate B5 slightly past schedule at 1815 - parked next to a 9W A330 which was to be bound back to BOM that evening. The flight I was on would also be flying back to BOM 2 hours later.



My experience with Jet Airways has so far generally been positive on their international flights. Their hardware for the A330 is definitely 5-star standard although I would rate it 4-star if they roll out the new stagger business class seating across the fleet. The duvet cover and the soft blankets are easily the most comfortable and it makes a huge difference in the sleep quality onboard. On the red eyes, pyjamas were given out as well. The 738, on the other hand, is 3-star at best.

Service is usually hit-and-miss but the flights that have been the subject of this report had above-average crew. They didn't address pax by name and the call buttons had to be pressed many times to get them to come. But at least they were generous with their smiles. The crew of the inbound flight was more generous too with the F&B offerings and they seemed genuinely pleased when I took the offer. They are not 5-star SQ guys and gal yet but they area far from bad.

Food is middle-quality in terms of taste and presentation. Nothing to be impressed about. And the carb-protein proportion could be improved. With 4 selections, the variety is good and everyone's tastes is catered for.

Value is there certainly. A return business class at the same price as SQ Y-FlexiSaver is a definite YES for me even if it is on the 737.

[yflyer]

Thanks for posting...a very good read. I used to fly Jet Airways a lot in India, mainly in Y, and mainly domestic, between DEL and BOM. Good food in Y (if you don't mind the spiciness). I found service in Y very good too.

[SQueeze]

Thanks for posting...a very good read. I used to fly Jet Airways a lot in India, mainly in Y, and mainly domestic, between DEL and BOM. Good food in Y (if you don't mind the spiciness). I found service in Y very good too.

Me too.

But I find the domestic hardware can be quite testing. It is knee-crunching crammed, no difference than any LCCs around here. Most of the pax are males and generally big-sized too. And very frequently, it is always full, and many times I am a sandwich squeezed in the middle seat.

But then in India, we are left with almost no choice other than the ever popular IndiGo now. And if it is for J class, 9W is the only rule now. Kingfisher is gone, Spicejet is always late, GoAir doesn't have extensive network, and Air India which has been having too many sensational news lately.

[jammed]

thanks for the post i had placed my wife on a Jet SIN-DEL JCL flight sometime ago and your pics put the visuals for her stories.

She did point out there was no pop-corn on her flight though, so you are definitely favoured! And she said no PJ too even hers was a red-eye

[SQueeze]

thanks for the post i had placed my wife on a Jet SIN-DEL JCL flight sometime ago and your pics put the visuals for her stories.

She did point out there was no pop-corn on her flight though, so you are definitely favoured! And she said no PJ too even hers was a red-eye

Oh, the popcorn is only on that particular flight.

The PJ i think is only for the planes fitted with flat beds. The DEL flight is using recliners (737-800). The PJ is also hit and miss. Sometimes I had to ask for it, although rarely.

[jammed]

Oh, the popcorn is only on that particular flight.

The PJ i think is only for the planes fitted with flat beds. The DEL flight is using recliners (737-800). The PJ is also hit and miss. Sometimes I had to ask for it, although rarely.

thks for that info, and the great pics and report