Background
Air India and Vistara are merging on November 12th, and since it looks like Air India's mileage redemptions are terrible compared to Vistara's, it made sense to use up as many Club Vistara miles as possible. I also wanted to fly Vistara one last time.
This flight was booked for 8,500 miles in premium economy, since economy was all sold out. There were also morning flights available but this was easier to transfer onto.
In the end though some issues came up and I ended up spending the night in Delhi anyway, with a layover of just over 24 hours.
It's very unlikely that I'll ever fly Vistara again so this was a bit of a sad flight in some ways.
Enchainement de vols
- 1
- 2
- 3UK737 - Premium Eco - New Delhi-Kolkata - Airbus A320neo
Indira Gandhi Airport
There was a bit of a line to get into the airport, but no line at all for check in.
Security didn't take too long either.
Here are some of the departures from T3 this afternoon. The Tata Group is very dominant in this terminal.
DEL is a nice airport, plenty of shops and places to eat.
There was also an interesting sculpture:
I had a Krispy Kreme donut and took some pictures while waiting for boarding.
Here's our plane: VH-TNH, a 6.7 year old A320neo that has always flown for Vistara.
Some of the other aircraft nearby:
Boarding started soon. Unfortunately only business was called, and then there was a general boarding with no separate boarding for premium economy.
There was a priority boarding lane but just one line, so it was possible to cut to the front of the line. It still would have been better if they had premium economy boarding before business.
Seat & Departure
There is a separate cabin for premium economy, curtained off and with an extra 4" of legroom.
The seatback design is a bit poor, it also makes the cabin feel old somehow.
Adjustable headrests, they were very comfortable.
The only issue with this was there didn't seem to be any power outlets, I searched quite a bit but didn't find any which was surprising for a full service carrier, especially in premium economy.
View from the window with a Vistara 787-9 going by.
Let's have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket: a sickness bag, streaming IFE information card, safety card, and magazine.
As you can see a lot of it is pretty worn out.
I looked through the magazine a bit, focusing mostly on the section about Vistara
Their network seems to be a lot more concentrated in Delhi/Mumbai than other carriers, including Air India.
I hadn't realized their A321neo fleet was so small, it was really surprising.
I noticed that there were different colored lights for each cabin, matching the colors of the boarding passes and check-in counters. Yellow for business, blue for premium, purple for economy. And a bit of purple on the side in all cabins.
The crew passed out menus while we were waiting which was a nice touch even though I had a special meal.
Pretty good options as you can see.
Finally we began to push back.
Orange lighting was turned on
We were stationary for some time, during which I saw both JAL and ANA aircraft landing.
And a Vistara plane taking off
An Oman Air 737 MAX 8 on the way to Muscat went right by us.
Air India A319 landing.
As we moved toward the end of the runway we passed by an unpainted IndiGo aircraft, it might have been one of their leased jets.
The Oman Air 737-8 again… I want to fly Oman Air sometime, hopefully on their 787s.
The old and the new: an Air India A320neo in the legacy colors and a new A350.
I want to fly the AI A350 too
Passing by T3 again
And we're off!
I happened to look back and see a Nepal Airlines A330! Along with some more boring international widebodies.
IFE
Soon, an announcement was made that the Club Vistara entertainment system was available. I connected to the wifi network but it took a few minutes before the IFE started working.
To be honest, the selection was a bit underwhelming. It looked like there were a lot of different options but most of the movies were repeated under multiple categories so there weren't actually that many things to watch. Definitely more than enough for this flight but I hope that their 787-9s that fly to Europe have a bigger selection.
Meal & In-flight
I guess this is dinner? Luckily Vistara has a proper meal service during the afternoon, unlike Air India with their "refreshment"
Special meals were served before regular meals.
Special additions for premium economy include a packet of "aftermint" and well as wipes and a fancy little rope around the napkin holding the cutlery. Maybe economy has one less side or smaller portions, I'm not quite sure.
Pretty good meal, as you can see. I'm getting a little hungry looking at it again. I do wish there was one more side, though, maybe a breadroll or something.
Good "aftermint" too
A very good meal overall tastewise, but the quantity was on the low side. It's a minor criticism though, their airfares aren't high enough to justify much more than this.
Beverage service took a while to start, so by the time the drinks were served I was done with my meal.
I got apple juice.
There was a great sunset as we got closer to Kolkata.
I asked for a sprite just before landing… the cup really could have been filled a bit more.
More sunset pictures. The sky was actually very pink, but the colors didn't come through in the pictures.
Arrival & Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport
The lighting inside the aircraft matched the sunset as we got closer to Kolkata.
It got dark very fast.
Welcome to Kolkata!
The only interesting plane on the ground was a Myanmar Airways International A319 that had arrived from Yangon, I wasn't able to get a picture of it, though.
Within a minute or two of our parking, an AIX 737 MAX from Kochi and an IndiGo A321neo parked next to us.
Unfortunately people were in a real hurry to get off, much more rushed than on my AIX flight.
Last view of the seat.
Some rushed pictures of the business seats.
Final pictures of our plane.
Bags arrived very quickly.
That concludes this flight report, which is likely going to be my last flight on Vistara.
Thanks for reading.
That meal looks nice! I will miss Vistara, even though I've never flown with them. Nice to see one last UK report here!
Thanks for reading! It was a nice meal and yeah, it's sad that they won't be flying anymore
Thanks for sharing one of these final looks at UK, before it vanishes. The seat is very aligned with the US “premium economy” model, which makes the value questionable over just economy on such a short flight, but the service elements are very nice with a menu, metal cutlery, and the rope around the napkin. Agree that the lack of power connectivity is a large minus since everyone would be using devices to access the streaming entertainment.
The service is definitely better and while the cabin isn't that much of an upgrade, there is more legroom and the dividing curtains make it feel nicer. Also, it has an extra 5kg baggage allowance compared to economy and the fare difference is sometimes so low that it's worth it just for that.
Nice report as always! It's nice to be able to follow along the evolution of the AI/UK merger through reviews. We'll see if the service levels remain as good once UK brand disappears. We'l find out soon I guess! What is a good sign is that AI are retrofitting the 320 family cabins with nice new cabins similar to Vistara narrowbodies (not the long-haul 321neo though, of course) and it's a good sign that AI have introduced a Premium Economy cabin like Vistara on these aircraft. So in these early days, AI are moving upmarket to meet UK service levels more than the other way around. But I guess time will tell, and it will continue to be interesting to read AI/UK reviews.
Thanks for sharing!
Yeah it'll be interesting to see what their service standards look like in a year or so. For a while Vistara flights will operate as usual even after the merger but once they fully integrate there will probably be some changes.
Thanks for reading!