Plane Spotting At HYD..... Again

Ahem, well, it's time to spring-clean my cellphone, and see, this is what I found.... pictures that I had clicked while waiting for my flight at Hyderabad Airport...

This was in December 2013, there was a cyclonic depression over the Bay of Bengal, which brought with it a lovely weather to Hyderabad....

And IndiGo Airbus A320 is boarding, flanked by two Boeing 737s on either side, one JetKonnect and the other Jet Airways....

I loved Hyderabad airport for the unhindered views of the airside... This is the second edition of Plane Spotting At HYD!

And as we board, a Jet Airways Boeing 737 taxis...

Time to get back home!

IndiGo At Its Lousiest Best

After enjoying the delights that have made Hyderabad a gastronomical paradise and completing the scheduled meetings of the day, we attempted returning back to Mumbai, but it turned out that all airlines seem to have cut down on flights out from Hyderabad. I wondered whether this was a creative way of lowering supply of seats and jacking up prices or was the Telangana tangle was taking a toll on the fortunes of Hyderabad as a fledgling aviation hub.
We had to settle for a morning flight, hoping to get back to Mumbai to salvage whatever was left of the Independence Day, and we gladly chose IndiGo's flight 6E-247 departing Hyderabad at about 7.30 AM, as so far I had pleasant experiences on IndiGo that I have documented on this blog. But that was not to be, as I was soon to realise.
My colleague and I got up early and had a complimentary breakfast - few croissants and muffins with Assam tea at the lobby of the Novotel Hyderabad Airport. I must admit the croissants were the best I ever had! And then we dashed for the airport a few kilometers down the road.

The airport was tastefully decorated in the colours of our Tricolour! That really gladdened my heart....

But then came the disappointment. At the check-in counter, I encountered the dumbest check-in executive I had ever met, that too from IndiGo that claimed to be a smart airline! Ha!

The stupid soul insisted that I check-in my small overnighter simply because it was 7.5 kilogrammes, 500 grams above the so-called "threshold" for cabin baggage. All around me, passengers were carrying bigger bags as cabin baggage, but this lady would JUST NOT listen! I patiently persisted and insisted to meet the supervisor, who was multiple times dumber than her, or, perhaps, so much more egoistic. He went livid - "Check in the bag or else don't board the flight."

The idiot did not even listen or bother to see what the weight of cabin bags other passengers were carrying. I succumbed, relented. But I was grossly upset and disappointed with IndiGo, which had different standards for different passengers. Never ever has any other airline behaved like this with me.

But redemption came easy when taxiing towards the runway brought spotting opportunities.

An Oman Air Boeing 737 just in from Muscat....

Cumulonimbus clouds or "CB" as they are called in aviation terminology scare pilots so much! Luckily we avoided this CB!

The lovely sights of Monsoon clouds below and the bright blue sky made me temporarily forget the pain that IndiGo inflicted on me....

Finally approach to BOM....

The lush green mangroves!

And we had a decent landing at Mumbai.

After landing at Mumbai, I tweeted about this experience to both Indigo's tweet handle (@6eIndiGo) as well as to Mr. Aditya Ghosh, the CEO of IndiGo (@AdityaGhosh6e). There was an insincere response from @6eIndiGo but Mr. Aditya Ghosh did not bother to respond at all. How can a CEO ignore customers' anguish?

A few days later, I got a call from a flippant customer care executive, who was as dumb as the other two dumb IndiGo staffers I had encountered on this Independence Day. Her responses did not satisfy me and I demanded that someone senior speak to me. I was assured that I would get a call back soon.

It's been a month, and till now, I haven't heard from IndiGo. It is a foregone conclusion I would never fly IndiGo again and would never recommend this airline to anyone else, ever.

This is surely not the way any business is run. Watch out, Mr. Ghosh, competition is coming soon, you cannot afford to piss off frequent fliers like this.

The Paradise That Is Hyderabad....

We landed into Hyderabad on a cool and pleasant Monsoon morning. The drive into the  main city was a breeze through the PV Narasimha Rao Expressway - this is perhaps the only public facility named after the under-recognised architect of modern India. 

Once we reached Raj Bhawan Road at Somajiguda, my colleague and I were getting a little anxious searching for a decent place for breakfast. And there we found a small eatery called Swathi Tiffins, where we had the most delicious filter coffee I've ever had.

After a rather tense morning meeting, it was time to grab a bite. But for me ABC or Absolutely Broasted Chicken was a big no..... In the city of Nizams, a Nizami treat is what we deserved!
And so headed to Paradise Biryani's flagship outlet at Secunderabad....

Paradise occupies a huge building at a junction, which has aptly been renamed as the Paradise Circle....

We were quite late, it was nearly 3 PM, but Paradise was teeming with people!

The original Paradise was more like a small pigeonhole compared to massive building they have today...

But they have developed a clientele amongst the rich and famous....

And then came my chicken biryani! 

Delicious and delicately flavoured, a flavour that is distinctly Hyderabadi!

After the day's meetings were over, we checked into the hotel. Here I was pleasantly surprised to see "highway food" festival going on.... And I was delighted to have makki ki roti and sarson ka saag!

Indeed I deserve to be called a true Punjabi, for on the heart of the Deccan plateau, I gave the Nizami cuisine a miss and I stayed clear of the spicy Andhra delights!

Jet Airways v/s IndiGo - The Verdict Is Out! Part 2

On the return from from Hyderabad, I took IndiGo's 6E-231, which departs at 1920 hours.

One of the hallmarks of IndiGo is its clinical efficiency and absolute on-time performance, which makes it a dependable carrier.

Despite a delay in arrival of the aircraft and a consequent delay in boarding, we were pushed back 5 minutes before schedule.

HYD looks so neat!

Pushback done! The pushback truck "Ground Force" moves back to base!

A view of the main ramp at HYD

Heading towards Runway 09L/27L - at 4.26 kilometers, this is India's longest runway!

Lining up!

And lift off! Goodbye Hyderabad!

My complimentary snack - a lime drink (nimbu paani) and a corn-spinach sandwich

The sandwich pack was interesting with stories and health tips! That was good enough to keep me occupied!

Pilot profiles in the inflight reading material!

Poking fun at JetKonnect and JetLite!

And on JetPrivilege!

Even SpiceJet wasn't spared!

Post script: A series of incidents while flying IndiGo have forced me to reconsider my loyalties. IndiGo has completely lost its plot. Read more about what happened later in 2013 and 2014 at:

http://www.rajeevmahajan.com/2013/09/indigo-at-its-lousiest-best.html

http://www.rajeevmahajan.com/2013/09/haughty-indigo-cant-say-sorry.html

http://www.rajeevmahajan.com/2014/12/avoid-indigo-like-plague.html

Eavesdropping At BOM!

Earlier this week, I traveled to Hyderabad. Since the aircraft I was to take was parked on a remote bay at the international terminal, a long drive along the periphery of the airport was necessary.

I wasn't upset about this long drive.... I got to see a Lufthansa Cargo MD11 freighter taxiing from the cargo bays towards Runway 09-27. I was just imagining whether Felix Gottwald was on it - Felix is a Lufthansa Cargo first officer, an avid aviation photographer and has a blog dedicated to aviation - I have been following the journeys of Felix on his website for quite some time now!

On the bus, I could not but help but take a lot of interest in eavesdropping on an animated conversation between a group of American executives, who were also traveling to Hyderabad. They were apparently executives from DuPont, all middle-aged, who had arrived in India a few days earlier and were headed to the DuPont Knowledge Center at Hyderabad for some conference or an offsite.

They were kind of surprised that this was quite long bus ride. One of them commented that this was as though they were driving to Hyderabad and they burst out in spirited guffaws. In the course of their conversations, a particularly slim middle-aged guy mentioned that he had done his masters in material sciences from Cornell University. A lady who was a part of the group exclaimed "I too am from Cornell, did mathematics there. Didn't realise you too were from Cornell!"

This prompted a third guy - a portly, bespectacled guy to say that he was from Carnegie Mellon University but his son was denied admission to Cornell despite having great credentials and an extremely good CGPA. He went on to say "Had I known you were from Cornell, I would have taken your recommendation!" Did I just hear that? Ha, recommendations work in America! I was surprised.

Now this portly guy was extremely proud of his son. He went on to say that his son was very tech savvy and wanted to join FBI as a counter-cyber terror agent! Now the rest of the gang got interested. There were long conversations on how cyber terror was a real threat, on how money can be siphoned off from banks in e-fraud, etc. This portly guy was obviously enjoying the "limelight" he was getting and went on to say, "Aha! My son is like the FBI guys in 2007's Die Hard movie! He uses his iPhone to do ethical hacking. Who could think of that?"

Then the conversation turned to India. Taj Mahal it was! The group "assessed" the cost of constructing a Taj Mahal today as USD 1.6 billion! One of them made an interesting parallel between the Taj Mahal and a 26-storey home that an Indian businessman had constructed for his wife in South Mumbai. One of them found it funny that this building had 5 storeys of parking space! One guy spoke about this businessman's networth, while jaws of the others dropped in surprise. "That's a lot more than I can ever believe exists!" said one of them

Now as were headed towards new Terminal 2 of Mumbai Airport which is under construction, they all kept staring out in amazement appreciating the aesthetic and architectural marvel that it is turning out to be! They conceded that they had never seen anything as magnificent back home! 

That made me feel proud for India and for my city! Perhaps they would have liked the Hyderabad airport as well!

They lady realised I was listening to them and smiled at me. Now it was time to board!