Just last week, I was away to Vietnam on Jet Airways’ latest route, fully aware that Jet Airways operates a Boeing 737 flight, via Bangkok.
Now, as a 22 year old airline, I can appreciate that Jet Airways has inducted planes over the years. But to have a zillion uncoordinated products, is not really giving customers on the international segments a harmonious experience.
For instance, when I flew from Mumbai to Bangkok on 9W70, I got a plane (VT-JBY), which had a leatherette business class, however, with no Audio Video on Demand. There was a simple overhead screen, playing a video. However, there was no audio channel to hear out the video on. There was no in-seat power, so, my assumption that I could use my laptop to watch something on the plane, was useless as well because with 3% battery, there was not much I could do for a whole 4 hours.
Top it up, there was just one copy of a business newspaper on the plane, which was taking off from Mumbai on a Friday morning. The flight attendant had to beg, borrow, steal to get that copy to me. I did read all the words apart from the adverts on that newspaper, I can tell you that.
On my next flight, 9W 64, which is a DEL-BKK-SGN flight, and we were going to fly the BKK-SGN segment. On this segment, which was a pretty short flight by the way, I had in-seat IFE, where I could select and watch some programming. I forgot to take a picture, but I was so happy to be able to watch some amount of The Big Bang Theory on the plane.
On my way back, on the SGN-BKK and BKK-BOM segments, I got the same product. I flew 9W 63 and 9W 67 on VT-JFW and VT-JFY, both are planes which are less than 6 months old. These planes had in-seat power, but no in-seat IFE.
Considering these were brand new planes, I am wondering if Jet Airways thought it through to have a harmonious product and is planning to retrofit all the old planes as well. Also, I miss why they wouldn’t put In-seat IFE consoles in the newer planes.
Stuff like this makes you feel that the airline looks at themselves as a transporter of people from point A to point B, rather than an experience. Such a buzzkill.
Anybody else feel unhappy like me with the tonnes of disparate products strewn around Jet Airways’s Boeing 737 planes?
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Ajay,
I guess I get your reasons for flying Jet even internationally (miles, elite status,etc); however, the experience is so poor that I prefer flying an Asian or Middle-Eastern carrier even if I have to fly Economy. Also, with Air India in Star Alliance, I would just sign up for KrisFlyer or TK Miles&Smiles, fly AI in and around India, and credit everything to those programs. Just my $0.02.
@Hitesh, I have multiple programs I am elite with: air India, jet, British airways, Etihad and American. With Jet, I have enough reasons to give them business. Also, one needs to always have status on home carrier for benefits as well. For instance, I do have lots of last minute work trips. If I don’t have air India or jet elite status, I would be paying an arm and a leg just towards change fees.