Saturday was getaway day and Mrs. SFO is happy to be leaving Delhi. "Can you go home today?" LOL. With a noon pick-up, we had plenty of time this morning to relax and catch up on the latest political news back home.
And then our first with Air India. Meh, not an auspicious start as I tried to check in online but the woefully challenged airindia.in was not having any part of this today. 45 minutes of mostly heavy traffic, we arrived at DEL Terminal 3.
Where our Peirce & Leslie greeter accompanied us into the terminal and to the counter.
To the Air India counter where a pleasant agent checked us in, issued our boarding passes and invitation the the Air India Lounge.
Then an Air India escort (not sure whether he was an AI employee (or just an entrepreneurial independent contractor) took us to security where we endured the most thorough non-body cavity search is a long time. OK, these guys seem seriously.
They also like to stamp your boarding passes using lots of ink, which takes a long time to dry.
Inside security, we headed for the Air India Lounge.
Reasonably comfortable seating area.
But with a selection of food offerings that didn't look very appetizing.
I left Mrs. SFO and headed off to explore other options.
The Plaza Premium Lounge looked much nicer.
But I kept on to the food court.
Went back to retrieve Mrs. SFO and we opted for Pizza Hut. LOL.
Then off to the gate, passing an American Express Lounge which I didn't have time to visit.
Delhi to Jaipur
Air India 491
A319
2:25p-3:15p
February 20, 2016
Seats 2AC
Strange boarding process as in no announcement. Agent just opened the gate door and people started to queue.
OK, this is one old plane. Isn't helped by some of the worst livery colours in the industry.
Pre departure offerings of juice or water.
And magazines.
The DEL-JAI is all of 30 minutes, but AI serves a hot meal in Business Class. I wasn't really hungry but took one for the photo op.
Looks like a vegetarian Paneer wrap.
Cheese sandwich.
The cake I tried... tasted like a heavy carrot cake.
After I'd told Mrs. SFO that Jaipur was much more attractive than Delhi, we landed at the not so attractive side of the airport. Mercifully, we pulled into Gate 13 and a jet bridge, where a half dozem AI staffers greeted the plane and specifically some notable in 1AC. Turns out he was a former Air Force General, now a government MInister. Not the most friendly person as he elbowed his way past me to get his bags over the first row on Economy.
OK, we definitely take security seriously in India.
