On the Jet ATR72 again, BLR to COK.

I was confused - where to go or not! I generally head home every third saturday - but I hadn't decided for March. I hadn't gone home in February as well (due to a self-imposed ban on travels). A low priced ticket offer on another airline made me book a ticket for the return journey. I kept browsing websites for tickets to head home. It so happened that I noticed a promotional fare ticket on a third-party ticketing website - and the same fare did not exist on the website of the airline. Without wasting time, I booked a ticket on the ticketing website - This is one website that has given me good rates very often. After getting the PNR, I headed off to the Jet Airways website and confirmed the booking. It was then the long days of wait before I'd fly an ATR again. For some reason, I love the ATRs - they are slow, noisy and make a hell lot of vibrations, but I still love them. No middle seats is an added advantage.

A day before my journey. I tried checking in for my flight through the Jet Airways Mobile App - the internet connection was damn slow. But later, as the connection picked speed, things went ahead smooth. The app is easy to use and asks you only the FFP number (or the PNR Number) along with the city of origin - it retrieves the booking and confirms the details before going ahead. Once you confirm that you aren't carrying any prohibited items, it lets you select your seat. It took me sometime for me to decide which seat I wanted. Finally I selected a seat on the right side (still wondering why I did that). As usual, I saved the mBoarding pass on the phone, and decided to either get a boarding pass at the check-in counter or from a check-in kiosk.

March 20, 2015:
It was 2.30pm, and I was still in office! The airport is around 45-50 minutes from office (advantage of having the office on the northern part of the city). I left office a while before 3pm - thankfully got a bus very quickly as well. I was at the airport by 1530hrs. Had a quick snack from Chai Point - their yummy homemade Banana Cake (it reminds me of the cakes my mom used to bake at home) and a Mango Milkshake. It was then time to get inside the terminal - a girl was blocking the queue, which she took her sweet time to search for her identity - I had to be a true Indian here - cut across. She protested, and I asked her to step aside and not block the queue. I headed straight to the Jet Airways Check in counters.
The boarding pass...
Since it was a festive weekend, I was expecting huge queues - but except the Indigo counters, most other counters were deserted. I got my boarding pass in no time (I had checked in online earlier) and headed towards Security Check. I was quite shocked when I saw the security check - it was empty. There was hardly any queue around! Security check was done in no time, and I was in the security hold by 1606hrs. Since I had adequate time to go for the departure, I decided to do some spotting near Gate #1. At Gate #1 was Go Air's VT-WAH heading to Goa, while Air Asia's VT-RED just came in from Chandigarh and was being prepared to head to Jaipur. A few minutes later, two Jet Airways ATR72s landed - one was VT-JCU and the other was VT-JDC. Sometime around 1630hrs, I headed to my gate - Gate #5, on the lower level. Boarding was yet to commence. Sometime around 1635hrs, the agent at the gate called out for passengers to Kochi, flying 9W2655.

Date of Journey: March 20, 2015
Flight No: 9W2655 || Seat: 14F
Aircraft type: ATR 72-212 || Regn: VT-JCU
Sector: BLR-COK
STD: 1710hrs, ATD: 1701hrs
STA: 1835hrs, ATA: 1813hrs

Unlike in Kochi, there was no zone-wise boarding. Two passengers who needed assistance were prioritized, followed by others. I took out the first bus to the aircraft. Boarding started only a while after the first bus reached there. In the mean time, Go Air's VT-GOJ headed out to Delhi. I was inside the aircraft by 1647hrs. Boarding was swift and we were all done by 1655hrs. The welcome announcements started soon - at the deck were Capt Joshua Fernandez and Capt Suresh, while in the cabin were Swastika and Sapna. The safety demo also followed. The door was armed at 1700hrs, and we were pushed back at 1701hrs. There were two empty seats (appears to be no-shows). While we were waiting to start taxi, an Indigo A320 headed towards the runway, and we followed her. Our taxi started at 1703hrs. It was a long taxi, and we held short of the runway at 1708hrs. A minute later we were holding on the active runway. We were finally airborne at 1710hrs from Runway 09.
My plane! VT-JCU boarding...
Lining up for take up - thats an Indigo A320 ahead of us (VT-IET)
Taking off.. thats the Bangalore Airport terminal.. 
We took off towards the East, then did a couple of right banks and we were finally headed South-West. The seatbelt sign was turned off at 1717hrs. An announcement was made to this affect, and the on-board service commenced. Service was fairly quick - and I got my snack box soon. The box contained a Veg Roll, a Chocochip Muffin, the Imli candy (Tamarind Candy) along with a bottle of water. The roll was cold - and a bit rubbery. The filling was nothing great to speak about. Clearing the thrash took quite some time. The seatbelt sign came back on, followed by an announcement that we were preparing to land - at 1759hrs. The thrash was not yet cleared - the attendant came around asking people to close the tray tables and thats when she noted thrash was not cleared. Trash was then quickly cleared.
Thats the snack box, with the water bottle
Somewhere above TN - that water body seen below is Bhavani Sagar Dam
Inside VT-JCU
On the finals.. 
The flight was very eventless - I chose the wrong seat, and I was straight in the line of Sun this time, and had to keep the window shades closed for most of the time. I spent almost the entire time reading JetWings - the onboard magazine. I could open the window shades only as we turned around to align to the landing path - of course, I had to open the window shades as the aircraft prepared to land. We finally touched down at 1811hrs on Rwy27. Interestingly, soon after landing, a flurry of announcements followed, including one about us arriving well before time. We finally parked at 1813hrs - on the Apron was a SpiceJet B738 on the domestic side and a couple of Jet Airways B738s on the international side. I decided to be seated till most of the crowd got off the aircraft - I was out of the aircraft at 1822hrs, and took the second bus to the terminal. I was finally out of the airport at 1827hrs - a full 8 minutes before the scheduled arrival time!
Thats VT-SZI which gave us company on the apron. The ATC tower can be seen in the background
I was a bit disappointed this time - the food wasn't great, and the service was a bit mechanical. The attendant seemed to frown on guests who hadn't closed the tray tables - which was because they still had trash out there. The aircraft was clean - as usual, and we were perfectly on time at both the ends.

Ratings:
Check-in: 5/5 (used Online check-in - it was all fine and smooth)
Cleanliness: 5/5 (the interiors were clean)
Punctuality: 5/5 (Before time at both ends)
Crew: 4/5 (Very Mechanical service)
On-Board Service: 4/5 (Jet needs to change their menu)
Overall: 4.5/5 (Good flight at a nice price)

Comments