Jun 05, 2008 09:36 AM
2780 Views
On my recent trip to India, I took a short family trip within Asia and flew Mumbai-Hong Kong-Mumbai in Economy Class on Jet Airways' new flight. We had a great experience! The plane is a brand new Airbus and has a 2-4-2 configuration. The seats are very comfortable - loads of leg room and when they recline, the bottom seat cushion comes out slightly to provide extra support for your legs. They also have a very nice hammock-style footrest that is surprisingly comfortable for the feet. The flight was not very full, so both ways I managed to get an empty set of 2 seats, meaning the seat next to me was empty and I could stretch out my legs and sleep a bit.
The service was excellent, in line with our expectations of Jet. Each way, we were immediately given a small bottle of water and a small bottle of nimbu-pani on take-off, plus a hot towel. Full drinks and dinner service followed with 3 meal choices(Indian non-veg, Western non-veg and Indian veg) each way. The food was very good both ways, although surprisingly, I thought the food was better on the Hong Kong-Mumbai flight.
Good entertainment options on the flight. Very large PTV's(10 inch screens which is unusual for Economy) and the best IFE I have ever seen, with loads of new and classic Hollywood and Bollywood movies, TV and news programs and a huge line-up of CD's with the ability to create your own jukebox on the fly. Punctuality-wise, we arrived bang on time in Hong Kong, and on the return flight, reached Mumbai 10 minutes early. Very good baggage handling - as we were sitting towards the front of the cabin, we de-planed quickly and cleared immigration very fast, but only had to wait a few minutes before the bags arrived on the belts.
Overall, I would say this is an excellent flight for the Mumbai-Hong Kong sector and can highly recommend it. My only gripe is with Mumbai airport. Both leaving and arriving at Mumbai, we did not get the aerobridge and were forced to de-plane via steps and go in a coach to the main terminal. There were several people on board who had difficulty walking down steps. I fully recognize this is not Jet's fault, but find it outrageous that Mumbai airport cannot arrange for the aerobridge facility for international flights for a major Indian airline! Some of the other passengers were telling us that all the aerobridges have been kept for either the Europe and US flights or Air India flights, which I find very discriminatory. I really hope Jet can use its influence to get more aerobridge facilities for its Asia flights to ensure that its passengers don't suffer.
