The travel - first leg

Chennai to Brussels

Hi,

First of all, I had to apologize since I couldn’t connect to the internet for couple of days, and so couldn’t really blog :-( anyway, here comes the account of my flying from Chennai to Helsinki via Brussels

To start with, I left home at around 10.45 pm (IST) to the airport by a taxi, and reached the place well in time... around 2 hours prior to departure. Fate has it that I met some of my relatives after a long time... I mean it... really a long time almost 6-7 years. They are part of my extended family, cousins' husbands' in-laws' brothers' ... quite a distance huh!!! They were actually flying to the United States via Brussels (?). After the customary inquiries I bid bye to my mom who was there to send me off! and proceeded for check in

Now, starts the fun... flying Business Class is definitely an experience to savor! Well, they had a separate counter for checking in, but unfortunately the entire system was slow so took some time to reach the counter. Before I reach there was this beautiful girl walking around with a laptop on a moving stand, checking the passports and stuff like that. One of the privilege is that when you fly business class, you don’t need to wait in the queue to screen your baggage... the airline staff do it for you and ensure that you get all kinds of tags that ensures that your baggage gets a priority everywhere... I really don’t know where though! After checking in, went through the immigration department and got an "Exit" stamp on my passport confirming am flying out of the country! Next in line was this lounge where you are accepted for free of charge (really?) Actually I forgot the name of this lounge... but man there are at least 5 of them in Chennai Airport, I started imagining how many will be there elsewhere

Had a cup of coffee and a sandwich before I went in for the Security Check. Now, you don’t get any privilege or priority for the security check... and behold there was a looooong queue there... believe it, there are 7 international flights scheduled to leave Chennai between midnight and 2 am. So, I had at least 100 people before me. Finally, after all these things, headed to the aircraft with 15 minutes to spare!

Walked through the aerobridge (Gate 6) to board the Jetairways flight 9W 226 to Brussels. The sight of the new Airbus A330 was really captivating… it reminded me of my office light gray color interior accentuated with dark gray… wow! Found my way to seat no. 2C (aisle) on the left side of the aircraft. Just before taxiing out of Chennai all passengers got two pouches, 1. Body lotion, lip guard, Facial spray, a perfume and one kit to groom yourself. 2. A pair socks with grippers at the sole that u can walk with. Cool!! There were a lot of controls to the seat… you could adjust everything from the lumbar support, leg rest, seat height from the aircraft floor, and even a massaging system for your back. You can change your seat position to cradle (more like our Indian semi-sleeper buses) and then the best part… a full flat bed! The crew was kind to make bed for all the passengers and they did it with a smiling face.

My neighbor was a Doctor based in Chennai travelling to a conference in New York via Brussels and he was a great company! A little talkative though... but was constantly comparing the service between Jet airways and all the other major airlines that he has travelled upon. He rated Jet, far higher than most of the airlines he compared and I had to admit! that the service is definitely good. Watched a couple of movies, wasn’t getting sleep... (Cheeni Kum and Black) and went to sleep at around 4am IST... not really sure which time zone I was in then

Most of the flight time was very soft... you never know you are flying as the cabin is very silent and no shakes as such. Had a nice sleep and got up about 4 hours later... and waited for landing in Europe...