[amitoj]

Originally Posted by TKMCE

Amitoj

When you have multiple alternatives, all I am saying is choose an alternative whch gives you less incovenience!!!
From London to BOM/DEL the choice is not just one or two we are talking about a mere 20-30 !!! Of course not too sure whether Syrian Arab Airlines, or Iran Air are still options!!!

I will say this again, either fly direct or choose a middle east airline with a little more stable reputation on this route!!!

Meanwhille please go ahead and stick to your favorite airline, I will stick to mine. and ofcourse phamilyman can stick to his .. Let the world be as tranquil as it was earlier...........Cheers

NB : By the way I happen to be a historian - so do google BA 149 about discovering a little nugget of history... That was a little more "warmer" experience than your cold night at FRA on the same airline thanks to the weather gods!!!


Good luck and God Bless..

Agree with the part in bold above.

Nice piece of info there. Thanks! Very interesting. I will see if i can catch that Discovery documentary.

And i am sure you'll be able to answer this. Which airlines has the best record in aviation safety?

By the way, BA is not really my favorite airline. It would probably be Emirates if i could manage to fly it once.

[binand]

Originally Posted by amitoj

And i am sure you'll be able to answer this. Which airlines has the best record in aviation safety?

Very difficult to answer. Qantas has had only one accident since WW2 when someone died, and that was in 1951.

More relevant to the current discussion - Austrian Airlines has not had a fatal accident since 1960 either. They offer LHR-VIE-DEL connections. :-)

Many of middle eastern airlines have impeccable safety records too (Etihad, for example) - but they have not been around for that long I guess. Same goes for Virgin Atlantic and Jet Airways.

(I have considered only fatal accidents here. Austrian, for example, has had a plane hijacked once in the nineties in Berlin).

[TKMCE]

QANTAS has a good safety record but again since they mostly used to operate long haul international for msot of their history their average stage length is relatively higher.

EVA Air of Taiwan is another one with a clean record but again they are a fairly young airline (20 + years). They were the frst to start Premium Economy service.

Jet has a good safety record as mentioned , as does Kingfisher although both of them had an ATR each written off in accidents but there was no loss of life. Same with Air Deccan, a brand new aircraft (again ATR 72) was a write off at Bangalore.

[CrackedHead]

I am flying from Mumbai to Male (via Colombo). The Mumbai to Colombo flight is a Jet Airways flight and the Colombo to Male flight is a Sri Lankan Airlines flight. The connection time is 2 hrs and 40 minutes - Is that enough time? I seriously doubt it.

If I fly Sri Lankan Airlines all the way then the connecting time is even lesser (1hr 55 min) .

Will I have to clear immigration at Colombo to catch my second flight? Also - how good or bad is Sri Lankan? Should I stick to Air India?

Don't want to mix airlines because it Jet does not have have a thru check-in agreement with Sri Lankan.

[drjanakpatel]

I m in male right now. I flew air Lanka. U don't need much time in Colombo. It's just a transit point.

[TKMCE]

drjanakpatel is right. Srilankan has upto five flights a day betwen Colombo and Male and even if you miss the connection which is unlikely as you go straight to the departure gate at CMB (your luggage will be through checked in), Srilankan will put you in the next flight. Drawback of course is the ungodly hour of the Srilankan departure ex BOM (very early in the morning - the have only one flight from BOM).But I believe Jet Airways is even earlier!

I would seriously not recommend using a Jet Airways/Srilankan combination. If Jet flight gets delayed, Srilankan will not accept responsibility most of the time. Jet is likely to have a baggage interlining agreement with Srilankan, so your bag may be checked through (recheck this with Jet in advance if possible), but most likely you will have to go to the transfer desk at Colombo and collect the onward boarding pass whch will further slow you up. Further if the Jet flight gets delayed, Srilankan may charge you for transferring to its next flight, so any time it is better to fly Srilankn both legs.

And co-incidentally effective today (16 November) you can fly NON STOP from Mumbai to Male on Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives. Only draw back is that flights are thrice weekly (Wed/Fri/Sun) but the plus side is the convenient timings 0830 Dep Male 1200 arr Mumbai 1300 Dep Mumbai 1530 arr Male. Equipment is Airbus A320 same used by Srilankan. Flight takes 3 hours each way.

Other non stop flights from India to Male include Air India - daily from Bangalore and Trivandrum (separate flights- the Bangalore flight should connect both ways to Mumbai) and Maldivian - daily from Trivandrum and effective yesterday (November 15) thrice weekly - Tue/Thu/Sat to Chennai. Both Air india and Maldivian use Airbus A320s.

Hope this helps

NB :Srilankan is perfectly OK. Just flew them last week. CMB duty free is also good.

[CrackedHead]

Originally Posted by drjanakpatel

I m in male right now. I flew air Lanka. U don't need much time in Colombo. It's just a transit point.

Thanks. Good to know. Do you have any stay recommendations for Male?

Originally Posted by TKMCE

I would seriously not recommend using a Jet Airways/Srilankan combination. If Jet flight gets delayed, Srilankan will not accept responsibility most of the time. Jet is likely to have a baggage interlining agreement with Srilankan, so your bag may be checked through (recheck this with Jet in advance if possible)

Thanks - that is exactly what I'm thinking - plus - I checked with Jet already - they do NOT have a baggage interlining agreement with Srilankan.

Originally Posted by TKMCE

And co-incidentally effective today (16 November) you can fly NON STOP from Mumbai to Male on Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives. Only draw back is that flights are thrice weekly (Wed/Fri/Sun) but the plus side is the convenient timings 0830 Dep Male 1200 arr Mumbai 1300 Dep Mumbai 1530 arr Male. Equipment is Airbus A320 same used by Srilankan. Flight takes 3 hours each way.

Will check them out.

[drjanakpatel]

I am staying in kurumba. It's good, no complaints. I am in private pool villa, so don't know about other rooms.

[volkman10]

Have a booking to be made for travel to Europe. Have options for bookings on Air France, LH or Qatar Airways.
Have in past taken the AF and LH flights. Any feedback on QA - if it is better than the other two?

Cheers!

[TKMCE]

I flew Qatar them a few years back... No complaints.......... you wll most likely get a widebody - twin aisle... from Doha to Europe but your flight from India to Doha may be a narrow body (A320/A321). It is still okay


Food was good and onboard service is defintely no worse than LH (havent flown AF)

I would suggest... go for it...

[raghu230506]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Have a booking to be made for travel to Europe. Have options for bookings on Air France, LH or Qatar Airways.
Have in past taken the AF and LH flights. Any feedback on QA - if it is better than the other two?

Cheers!

I flew by QA a couple of times on the last 8 months, and I would suggest go for it. In comparison to LH QA is far better in terms of food, seating comfort and inflight entertainment.

Cant compare with AF as I never flew with AF.

-Raghu

[volkman10]

Thanks. ( Raghu , TKMCE)

AF flies the A330. Will check between AF and QA. Also need to see the transit time which would be clinch the deal.


Cheers!

[TKMCE]

A word of caution regarding connecting times. Some airports are much better than others in having shorter connection times. Places like Vienna, Copenhagen, Helsinki etc offer much shorter connecting times than Paris CDG or Heathrow. So even 2 hours at the latter two may be tricky at times. Even for Lufthansa, I believe Munich has much shorter connection times than Frankfurt .

And a small correction - Qatar Airways code is QR. QA belonged to a defunct Mexican airline called Aerocaribe which later evolved into MexicanaCick airlines which itself shut down in 2010.

It is all the question of I guess first come first served although no idea why QANTAS never staked its claim for QA. Interestingly Aerocaribe was founded in the early 1970s while Qatar Airways came much later. Even Qatar initially was Q7 and then changed to QR. May be they will change again now that QA should be available but it is not so easy nowadays to change codes just like that... Sorry if I went a little OT.

[vasoo]

Traveled on Etihad the first time in my current US trip. Good and bad experience.

The overall flying experience, in spite of the 15 hr long trip from AUH to ORD was quite good with comfortable seats, good food and a quite helpful cabin crew. I would rate them 8/10, at par with Emirates or Qatar.

However the Abu Dhabi airport is pathetic to say the least. Too much crowd, too little amenities such as eateries or coffee shops and rest rooms, and far too many duty free shops with nothing appearing cheap. Saw long lines with 50+ people in front of rest rooms and coffee shops. A secondary security check for US flights leading into a "pre-boarding" area without rest rooms or vending machines, even drinking water. Of course the security prevents any liquids to be taken in. So keep yourself well hydrated before you decide to board a plane to US. And for that stand in line for 45 minutes at a single shop across the terminal.

I believe a new airport is being built. Hopefully that will be as good or better than DXB. My overall rating for AUH is 3/10, the only positive being decent choice of general shopping (other than food/drinks) and helpful staff.

[BoneCollector]

Guys,this is slightly off topic.I searched but couldn't find a specific thread so asking here.A family friend of mine is traveling to India from US.He wanted to know what documentation is required to travel here as he will be taking train journeys here.He was an Indian citizen earlier but now is a US citizen.He has no Indian id cards.

Mods ,please merge this in a thread related to such queries if it exists.