This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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This TR contains Mumbai transfer details, so may be useful to some.
Seat 18C
African Queen
We arrived at T3 around 5.30pm on Staurday evening, the traffic queued all the way from the tunnel, mainly because of everyone going to the T3 carpark.
We lined up at the UC, to be met by a Virgin greeter. There were 2 counters open and 3 people in front of us. The greeter requested the people behind us, not to have any more than 3 people at the counter.
We were asisted with checkin around 10 minutes later, and secured seats 18A and 18C after a few calls. Why is it the phones Virgin use never appear to work correctly, I've lost count of the times the agent cannot ehar the person at the other end.
We received the Jet Airways boarding pass, i got 15A and my colleague got 11A.
A quick run through the Security line, no one else there, and a quick shoe shimmy after the passport check. I did n't know that the Indian Rupee is restricted and Travelex cannot sell it. The exhange rate they listed was 64 to the , whereas the hotel gave us 72.
Did a quick scout of the shops, and got into the lounge at 6.10pm to get there for my 6.15 massage, which was very good.
Decided on the Chicken Bhuna and Cobra beer, and then switched to the soft stuff. The servcie was slow again, and this was noticed by quite a few other club house guests.
The flight was called on time at 8.30pm at Gate 25, and we headed via the Duty Free shops to check out the price of Cadbury's as we had forgotten to do it earlier in our rush.
The priority boarding was not in effect by the time we got there, so we waited with everyone else.
Once we got into the cabin, the load was as we thought, which was around half full in PE, and about the same in UC.
Push back was a few minutes late, and we were told that the flight time would be 8hrs 45 mins.
The flight was so bumpy that the first drink service never came, a drink was served with dinner, I chose the Roast Chicken, and it was OK. I tried to watch Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but it crashed at least 3 times. The seat also reclined on it's own.
Throughout most of the flight during my waking hours, the little boy behind us, had his DVD on with the speakers blaring out whatever it was he was watching, if it was n't for the Bose headphones, I would have suggested to his mother that a set of headphones would have been better for everyone else in the cabin.
I slept fine for around 4 hours, again with no blanket, which had worked well for me back from SFO at the beginning of the month. My colleague on the other hand, had a blanket and still complained of the cold.
I was woken with 2 hours to go, with a breakfast that was very bland. Have a look at the Photo Gallery for the latest offering. It was not served with any OJ. A couple in the middle section of row 18 complained about it not coming on PE crockery etc, and called the FSM over.
When they had finished, I called her over by name and asked to speak to her. I fed back that this was the worst meal I had had, and beeing bland with loads of salt was pretty dire, she said she would get some fruit, as that had not been brought round. Which she did.
During the last moments of the coffee service, I asked for an OJ, and was told by the CC that she would get it. YET AGAIN, IT FAILED TO ARRIVE. See my recent LA report. So as a non Tea or Coffee drinker, I was out of luck.
There was no AU welcome, despite even talking to the FSM about the food issue, the service was pretty poor in my opinion, the crew were rarely in the PE cabin, although in my trips to the toilet at the back, as the middle one was out of action, I saw a lot of crew activity in the full Y cabin.
Pretty fed up with the hit and miss PE service these days, and can't be bothered to feed it back, because I do not want to be seen as a serial complainer. I know they could do better, and having seen Jet Airways and my hotel do Customer Service as good as you could possible want it, Virgin need to sort themseleves out in this regard.
We landed on time, and headed to our jet way. We disembarked and made the walk to the Immigration hall, where we headed into the long queue for Foreign Nationals, which appeared to move very quickly.
Once through that, it was down to Belt 4 to pick up the case, there were no signs of Priority Baggage working, and after around 15 minutes our cases came off.
This is the bit you need to know if transferring at Mumbai. Do not head Right to the Exit, but left to the transfers, where your checked luggage will be scanned again.
Bear round to the Right and re-check in, and wave your bag off on a pile of other cases, mine was pearched on the top rather precariously, we wondered if it would fall, I suspect it did as my Braun shaver case was damaged, and my electric shaver no longer works. I am hoping it just got switched on and is flat rather than broken.
We met the couple from row 18, who said that as it was 12:50pm, that they had been told earlier that the shuttle buses do not run from 1 to 2pm, and that they should take a taxi. I laughed, as I had been told by colleagues not to believe anything of the sort.
The transfer buses run regularly and are free, a short wait and we were in the Domestic terminal, which is quite new and airy. We got through security quickly and settled down at a cafe underneath the Jet Airways lounge. As the cafe is below the lounge, the free wifi can be used.....
Our connecting flight with Jet Airways was excellent, I somehoe had been given an Exit row (Thanks Virgin) my buddy had not (He is an Ag member). The welcome on board and polite discussions from the CC, are something that every airline could learn from, as well as the ability to serve a hot and very tasty snack on a 1 hr 15 min flight (Hello BA re you listening......)
We landed at Bangalore on time, to be met at the Belt by our Hotel Contact, who escorted us to our driver, for the mad drive into Bangalore. I have some pictures, you'll find some on Facebook later. I'll post the link shortly.
We are staying at the Chancery Pavillion, which has a rather good Indian Restaurant called Indian Affair.
So far so good. This is my first trip to India and it's turning out to be a good one.
Heading to Chennai on Friday for the day, and back on the VS351 on Saturday.
Anyone know why the flights appear to be numbered differently ? I thought all ex-LHR flights were ODD numbers and those back were EVEN. The only thing I can think of is that any flight heading East is ODD and any heading West is EVEN. Is this correct ?
Mark
