Review of Spicejet flight Mumbai Hyderabad in Economy

Airline Spicejet
Flight SG421
Class Economy
Seat 23A
Aircraft Boeing 737-800
Flight time 01:20
Take-off 21 Jul 15, 05:20
Arrival at 21 Jul 15, 06:40
SG 13 reviews
jish.b
By 1943
Published on 22nd April 2016
Hello all!
Here is the fifth installment of my Summer trip across India, from last year.
You can catch my previous parts here (or to have a preview of what's to come!):
Jet Airways 9W255 on July 12th 2015 Colombo to Mumbai (Boeing 737-800, VT-JBF)
Vistara UK944 on July 12th 2015 Mumbai to New Delhi (Airbus A320-200, VT-TTC)
Air India AI20 on July 13th 2015 New Delhi to Kolkata (Boeing 787-8 Dream)liner, VT-ANT)
Jet Airways 9W626 July 17th 2015 Kolkata to Mumbai (Boeing 737-900ER, VT-JLH)
SpiceJet SG421 July 21st 2015 Mumbai to Hyderabad (Boeing 737-800) (this report!)
Air India AI966 July 21st 2015 Hyderabad to Mumbai (Boeing 747-400)
Jet Airways 9W252 July 21st 2015 Mumbai to Colombo (Boeing 737-800)

My India trip so far had been based around three cities. New Delhi (where I went to meet my brother and friends), Kolkata (meeting family and finishing off some paperwork) and Mumbai (again, meeting friends and family). This was prior to my trip to the USA. However, this is where things got a bit out of hand. The aviation geek in me was devastated when a summer 2014 chance to go on an Air India Boeing 747-400 just had to be cancelled. I had to get on the magnificent bird at least once. A potential Mumbai-Hyderabad (or reverse) was my best chance, since Air India operate the Boeing 747-400 on the Mumbai - Hyderabad - Jeddah - Hyderabad - Mumbai sectors on Tuesdays and Fridays. Since I had booked a 6pm departure from Mumbai to Colombo (Sri Lanka) on a Tuesday, I set my sights on the Boeing 747-400. And lets just say, everything fell through!

Owing to good exam grades and very frequent sales among Indian airlines, I soon realized I would make the opportunity work! I had just enough JPMiles to book a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad, but there also was a 'cheaper than train fare' sale on SpiceJet. It was looking good for me. With a fare of Rs. 1200 (including 15kgs of luggage, and a pre-paid meal) (roughly $18, €16) on the SpiceJet flight, I booked this one with ease. And of course, there was the Air India flight to book, but that was done with the Dream)liner flight (three flights were booked on one day!)

And now, on to the FR itself! Here is the video link:


My trip in Mumbai was pretty nice! Meeting some people and eating great food - however, I was saddened and shocked by the news of the death of Jules Bianchi, a young Formula One racer. I tried to get over this by going on a couple of suburban trains, a tradition that I follow ever since I moved out of Mumbai in 2011…


'You know Jish? Everytime you fly out of Mumbai, it rains a few hours before. I hope that happens once again tomorrow!' - said a close friend of mine, whom I met up at a very last minute decision. That's true - every time I flew out of Mumbai (after I moved to Colombo that is), it has rained at least the night before.

It was the 21st of July 2015, the day that pretty much brought Mumbai to a standstill. My morning was supposed to start at an unearthly 0300 hours. No doubt, I was inconveniencing my gracious hosts, but they pretty much saw me grow up into who I am today, they had no qualms about the avgeek in me taking precedence. Anyway. I was up and about at 0230 only. I had some uneasy sleep.

I heard some pitter and patter of the rain. I was fooled by what I saw because this drizzle turned into a rain shower as I headed out for the airport, thanks to a punctual taxi driver. I had planned to leave at 0330, it was 0345. Going from the eastern suburbs to the airport, I didn't know my way. I feared that I probably wouldn't make the flight's check in closure. I planned not to take any of my suitcases, thanks to the domestic limits of 15kgs. This also meant a lot less hassle for me to pull around trolleys - a masterstroke idea from my mother, something I wouldn't have thought about!

Torrential rainfall had started while we were at BKC, very close to the airport. I was once again thinking - jeez, there is so much that can go wrong! If SpiceJet delays, I'm in a lot of trouble! Before I started worrying, there I was at Mumbai's oh so familiar T1B.
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Jet Airways and IndiGo lines were empty (IndiGo didn't have any staff there, Jet had a few..), while the SpiceJet counters were nice and busy. The staff were pretty efficient in their jobs, it was all being carried out very quickly. The nice lady asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a seat with more legroom. I politely declined. My boarding pass was printed pretty quickly, I asked her if the flight was on time, to which I got a reply in the affirmative! So despite the weather, it was alright. Gate 6 for me that morning, I went through the security check lines, which were long, but were clearing pretty quickly.
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As soon as I was done with security, I saw boarding had begun, so I joined the pretty long line - and who knows, more people on board already? I boarded the cold bus - it was pouring. I was preparing to send a rant message to my friend who said it always rains. This was quite bad.
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We went by many of the planes, most of them with lights off, just a remote bay stairs attached. Mostly IndiGo A320s, the odd Go Air planes preparing for departure, and a few Air India Airbus'.

As is always is with SpiceJet planes, they were parked far away from the main terminal. Bay 86 and Bay 87 for the two SpiceJet planes. No activity next one of them, which was VT-SZA. Just darkness all around it. And the other, VT-SGX. This had all the activity around, including a food loader truck of Ambassador SkyChef. VT-SGX had been doing the Mumbai - Hyderabad - Vishakhapatnam - Hyderabad - Mumbai - Mangalore - Mumbai - Hyderabad - Vishakhapatnam - Hyderabad - Mumbai runs the past few days, so I knew that'd be my bird. SZA would later head to Delhi. A Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER majestically took off for its flight to Doha.
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The bus pulled up right beside the stairs, again, amazing stuff by the Mumbai drivers to give passengers minimum inconvenience. Boarding passes torn off, I headed for the plane. I was disappointed to see hints of yellow light, which meant that the plane had no Boeing Sky Interior! :(

Anyway, in the middle of a warm welcome by the flight attendant and the pouring rain, something loud took off, a propellor plane. I couldn't see up, but it sounded pretty Russian. Just like VT-SUD from a few months ago (a company Q400 I flew on from Chennai to Colombo), VT- SGX too looked very very tired inside, the seats especially. The SpiceMax seats had plenty of legroom, but the regular seats had some pretty cramped legroom, and I felt this as soon as I was seated. Luckily this flight was only for an hour. I couldn't get my big camera out, which was a shame. But ah well. 0500 in the morning, and everyone was chirpy. No one was quiet!

At 0502 ground personnel were asked to deplane, all doors armed at 0508, pushback began ten minutes before time, at 0510. Now the engines - they sounded BEAUTIFUL. Rains perhaps played a role, but that's unlikely, the CFM56-7B24 engines sounded like the GE CF6 engines on the A330! A smile on my face, but of course. The welcome announcements and safety demo was done at the same time, as they entire crew was introduced to the passengers. When their names were called, they'd do a namaskar (a traditional Indian gesture to great people, by putting palms together close to the chest). We taxied past the international terminal in the increasing rain, waited for a Jet Airways Boeing 737 to land before we blasted off runway 27 for a steep take off, and then headed south-east for Hyderabad. It was still pretty dark outside.




The trolleys were pulled up front as all of a sudden, the sun popped up giving the skies a wonderful colour. While that happened, I saw quite a few people had made use of SpiceJet's pre-booked meal service, many people's names were on the manifest. A few announcements thrown around here and there, one of them informing the passengers who haven't bought a meal online to call the flight attendant(s) instead. It took quite some time for my meal to arrive: I paid for a hot non-veg breakfast, but I got hot non-veg snacks instead. There was a hot meal box, and a standard box with either a croissant or yoghurt (I got the former), jam, butter, and red plastic cutlery. And a mixed fruit juice tetra pack.

Sunrise pictures and the menu:
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My meal contained just one chicken kathi roll split into two. It was warm, but not too extragavent on the quality front. It was okay. There isn't much that you can expect from a low-cost carrier, so SpiceJet had more or less delivered the goods. The trolleys went back up the aisle once again, this time for people who wanted to buy food.


Very tight legroom, very uncomfortable!
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0558, I felt SGX drop down by a little. Seatbelt signs came on exactly ten minutes later. The four-crew team went up the aisles twice to pick up all the trash, while they made sure ALL of it was picked up - they asked us passengers to check the seat pockets as well. A good way to save time on the ground during the turnarounds, me thinks. Once again, the crew members lined up on the aisles to thank us for choosing SpiceJet, once again, a very nice little gesture. SGX slowly but surely got closer and closer to Hyderabad and Earth.




Some nice contrails formed as we descended towards runway 27L. A smooth landing at 0626 hours, we taxied straight in to an aerobridge, the first one. As engines were cut out, us Hyderabad bound passengers were informed that disembarkation would be through both, the front door aerobridge and the rear door stairs. As disembarkation begun, I went for the fun way, of course!


We reached the baggage claim area. I had nothing to pick up. There was a pretty sweet view of the tarmac. But with the rising sun, the light didn't help, for a picture at least! photo IMG_5021

I headed out at around 0710, and headed up the departures level.
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I went up the escalators towards what would be a very special flight - onboard the Air India Boeing 747-400!
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Verdict

Spicejet

7.3/10
Cabin5.0
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Buy-on-board menu8.5

Mumbai - BOM

7.8/10
Efficiency7.0
Access9.5
Services7.0
Cleanliness7.5

Hyderabad - HYD

8.0/10
Efficiency8.0
Access8.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0

Conclusion

Prior to this flight, I had two pleasant experiences on SpiceJet's Boeing 737s. That was back in 2008. They didn't have the SpiceMax seating. Today however, making space for the SpiceMax seating meant that the regular rows lost a lot of its legroom - bad bad bad! This made for a very uncomfortable flight, even if it was barely an hour long.
The crew did a decent job, considering how early they must've woken up for work. But they weren't anything too special, they went about their jobs with a smiler thrown in here and there.
Among the three major low cost airlines in India, SpiceJet has the best meals that could be bought, hands down. The warm meals sounded delicious in theory. However, I was a bit disappointed that I did not get a full breakfast entree this time, just the snack. But it didn't taste too shabby!
No newspapers were provided, the magazine was decent. Reach Hyderabad well ahead of schedule, too!

And ALL of this are at a time when SpiceJet is turning around from nearly shutting down - their entire fleet was grounded in December 2014 because of a lack of payments, and now they are one of India's most profitable airline! Amazing how quickly things can turn around, kudos to SpiceJet!

Mumbai and Hyderabad were both great airports, however T1B at Mumbai is kinda boring...

Information on the route Mumbai (BOM) Hyderabad (HYD)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 3 compagnies sur la ligne Mumbai (BOM) → Hyderabad (HYD).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Jet Airways avec 7.3/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 27 minutes.

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