Review: Jet Airways Mumbai to Singapore, Economy (Airbus A330-200)

by Ashwant 8 Comments

I left the GVK East Wing lounge 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time and headed towards my boarding gate. My gate number was 85, which meant that there was no aerobridge for my Mumbai  Singapore Jet flight.

Mumbai Singapore Jet flight

So, I took the elevator to the ground level from where I’d hop onto a coach to my aircraft. Once I reached the gate, I saw that the seating area was full. I managed to find a corner and stayed out there.

In India, boarding usually begins an hour before departure, but in this case, it only began 30 minutes before scheduled departure. That indicated that we wouldn’t be taking off on time.

I found the boarding sequence to be a bit confusing. When boarding is announced, the airline usually calls out business class passengers and JetPrivilege elites along with passengers needing special assistance first. In this case, there was no call for business class passengers and elites. So, I wasn’t sure when boarding started.

I was quite tired at this point so I walked over to the counter to try my luck with boarding. The gate attendant looked at me for a second, then quickly glanced at the boarding pass. Once he noticed that I was a Platinum member, he scanned my boarding pass and let me through. I wonder if he thought I was too young to be Platinum or what.

There was a second round of security check before boarding. The airline’s security staff was frisking passengers randomly before boarding. Around the world, I’ve seen carry-ons getting scanned, but I’ve never been searched at the gate. After a five minute ride on a freezing cold bus, I reached the aircraft. Today, I was flying the Airbus A330-200, which are the older ones of the Jet Airways Airbus fleet.

Jet Airways 9W 12
Mumbai CSIA Terminal 2 (BOM) – Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3 (SIN)
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Departure: 01:15 AM
Arrival: 09:26 AM
Duration: 5 Hours 41 minutes
Aircraft: Airbus A330-200
Seat: 16A (Economy Class)
Meal Service: Dinner

Jet Airways has a two-class configuration in their A330-200s. They have reverse herringbone seats for business, and the economy class is configured in a 2-4-2 layout. Once I got to my seat, there was a blanket and a set of headphones waiting for me. The seat also had a power port located below the seat where I could plug my universal adapter and juice up my phone.

Mumbai Singapore Jet flight

a red pillow and a stack of blankets on a plane

The seat pitch was 32” which meant that there was plenty of leg room for someone like me who is of average height. The recline and the adjustable headrest of my seat worked perfectly.

a seat with a pillow and a watch on it

a person's legs in a pocket

Soon the cabin filled up with passengers, and we were ready for pushback. The safety video was playing as we were taxiing to the runways and by around 1:30 AM, we were on our takeoff roll.

The seatbelt sign was switched off 20 minutes after take-off, and shortly after that, the drinks carts rolled out. I had a glass of apple juice which was served with Indian snacks including bhujia and namkeen.

Shortly after that, dinner was served. It was Indian fare, with roti, rice and chicken curry. The portions were alright, but I was in no mood to eat it all at 2:15 in the morning. I took a few bites and passed along the meal.

a tray of food on a tray

I browsed through the in-flight entertainment options and found the selection to be alright. It is no KrisWorld or Oryx with thousands of hours of content, but it did have some new movies.

a screen on a plane

Shortly after, I cocooned myself using the thin blanket and dozed off.

a map of the world

About 45 minutes before landing, the crew woke everyone up and started preparing for descent. There was no breakfast, but at the same time, I think a tea/coffee round would’ve been nice. We touched down at 9:17 AM in Singapore, and after 10 minutes we were at the gate. The deplaning was haphazard (nothing unusual) and before I knew I was airside at one of my favourite airports in the world.

Bottomline

I found very little difference between this flight and Jet Airways’ domestic flights regarding the service. It was sterile, robotic and frankly, forgettable. The silver lining though was the aircraft which I’d choose any day over a narrow body to get from A to B. Too bad, currently Mumbai to Singapore flights are also being operated by Boeing 737s on some days.

The Pros

+ Comfortable seats
+ Meal portion sizes

The Cons

- Impersonal service
- Inconsistent gate procedures

Rating

Comments

  1. Slightly different topic. I was checking Jet Airways Mumbai Singapore flights in November December. All seem to be 737 s . What is going wrong about the A330s @Jet Airways ? Are they being phased out at Jetairways ? here you had reported 3 planes being parked at Chennai permanently. What is the story. As far as I remember the 9W11 (1950 flight SG Mumbai) used to be 330 and used to be full always.

    On other note I have travelled SG Bali by Jetstar 737 & Bali SG by Garuda Indonesia in July. Garuda 737 was much better flight.

    Reply

  3. I think the platinums in India apart from being in there late 40s to 50s also tend to not be wearing shorts in flight . That explains the doubts in mind of the staff at boarding gate 85

    Reply

    • @Ajit, don’t think there is a class of Platinum travellers. What about all the young entrepreneurs who are travelling like mad these days, or the anchors and the actors and the event managers. Also, what about me in my 30s. or Shipra who is even younger than me.

      Reply

  4. Good to know about the power port for charging and the food looks sorta interesting-good! I agree Jet Airways can feel a little sterile, but food and individual entertainment included + charging port… that blows my skirt up. 😉

    Reply

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