• Introduction
• Clipper Lounge, Mumbai CSI Airport Terminal 2
• Jet Airways Economy Class Mumbai to Brussels
• British Airways Galleries Club Lounge, Brussels National Airport
• American Airlines Business Class Brussels to New York JFK and Five-Star Arrival
• American Airlines Premium Check-in and Flagship Lounge, New York JFK
• American Airlines Economy Class JFK to London LHR
• American Airlines Arrivals Lounge, London LHR
• Sheraton Heathrow Hotel, London
• American Airlines Flagship Check-in and Flagship Lounge, London Heathrow
• American Airlines Economy Class London to Chicago
• American Airlines Flagship Lounge at Chicago ORD
• American Airlines First Class from Chicago ORD to Dallas Fort Worth
• Hyatt Regency Hotel, DFW
• Hyatt Regency Hotel, Bellevue
• Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles
• Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Los Angeles
• American Airlines First Class from Los Angeles to Chicago ORD
• American Airlines Business Class from Chicago ORD to Delhi
• Jet Airways Economy Class from Delhi to Mumbai
• Conclusion
  

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Jet Airways 228 (Codeshare American Airlines AA7836)

Mumbai(BOM) – Brussels(BRU)
Saturday, January 22 2012
Depart: 3:00AM
Arrive: 07:50AM
Duration: 9hr20min
Distance flown: 4,271 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 777ER
Seat: 55G (Economy)
Meal Service: Snack, Breakfast

For some logic I have not been able to decode so far, Jet Airways has been operating the B777-ER on their BOM-BRU-BOM segments on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I mean, either they have a plane or two spare for the entire route, or they don’t. So, where does this capacity of a B777-ER get deployed the rest of the week.

That, by definition, translated into a huge amount of people on this flight. Add to it that my Jet Airways privileges were not at work today, and you have a pretty good idea that I was just another face in the crowd that day that 9W did not have to worry about.

Yawn, I must admit, 3:00 AM has been the latest I’ve ever gone to flight, and I am more used to being on this segment at anywhere between 12:30 AM to 2 AM. But, when I got in, I noticed a nice empty plane, and I secretly hoped the loads would be low.

I was seated almost right at the back of the plane. Since AA’s website does not integrate with the 9W website, I had no control on the seat that was assigned to me. At this moment, I was just lucky to get myself an aisle seat.

I’ve done a couple of flights to London on these planes. The economy seats are laid out in three sections, a smaller one in the middle of the plane, with 4 rows, then a 15-rows section, and a 11-rows behind.  All the rows are 3×3 abreast. The seats are quite nice on this plane, and the seat-pitch is as good as premium economy on some other airlines.

The legspace was excellent for me, and what I like on the Jet Airways long-haul planes is the little footnet that is installed. It supports the feet well on a 9-hour trip to keep them comfortable.

The plane did not take-off till about 4 AM, and that was in part because a longish boarding process and the wait on the tarmac for a take-off clearing. However, because of this slooooooooooow boarding, I had the 3 seats next to me empty right till the end, which gave me hope that I might be able to get the entire row to myself for a little stretch.

Just about the close-doors announcement was coming through, however, the seats got filled up by 3 very noisy characters. Sigh!

As the plane got airborne, service started at about 4:45 AM. I don’t think anyone was hungry at this point, but there was a midnight snack service planned though I was suspecting this was more like dawn. And there was a drinks service as well to go along. A tray landed up at my table which had a wrap inside along with a small cake. This tray pretty much went back like it came since I was not interested in the food at this hour.

Right after, the mood lighting switched to night mode, trying to put us off to sleep.

However, since I was not sleepy anymore (it was about 5 AM!), I decided to catch a movie at the in-flight entertainment system. Moneyball was loaded-up already, and since I did not watch it before, I went with that.

The not-so great part about the IFE system is that you get to only watch one or two episodes of any TV series you’d like to watch. After a couple of movies and TV series episodes, I did catch some sleep for a couple of hours.

With about 90 minutes to arrival, the captain came up on the PA system to tell us about the time of arrival.

At this point, the flight attendants came around to serve breakfast. The options on offer were omelette with sausage and an Indian option with Idli-Sambar and vermicelli along with a bowl of fruits. Yet another example of the food quantity and quality going down on the airline, considering the piece of bread you see in the tray below.

A short while after breakfast, the trays were collected and we prepared for landing. Having not slept a lot that night, I was super sleepy, and my 2:5 hour layover at Brussels airport was shrunk to a 1:25 hour layover. I was a little worried since boarding a US flight takes a lot more Q&A than anywhere else around. However, deplaning was smooth, and I was able to be off the plane in a couple of minutes. Overall, a good flight for being in economy on a long haul.

 

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