Avis du vol entre Mumbai et Kolkata en classe Premium Eco avec Air India

The previous flight report has a bit of background for this short trip.
With this flight specifically, there were a limited number of flights at reasonable times that had seats available with the premium economy vouchers so this was really the only viable option.
The flight, by the way, had been late every day that week. It seemed to arrive in Mumbai on time but then take a very long time to turn around (more on this later).

The now very familiar Mumbai departures.

There was no line at the document check to get into the airport.
It wasn't totally clear where premium economy check-in was immediately. At the counter next to the economy check-in they pointed out the direction. At first it seemed like there was nothing in that direction with the whole area empty but then after going past some a small construction barricade/signs and there was a first, business and premium economy check-in, right at the end of the terminal.

It was nicer and brighter than the rest of the terminal (which was strangely dark for late morning). I appreciated having premium economy with the actual premium classes as it made it seems a bit more fancy.
The lines for premium eco, business and first all got mixed up but there weren't too many people. Still there was a bit of a wait as some counters were unstaffed.

The staff were friendly enough, and they also had people helping with the bags which, while a bit unecessary, was a nice service.
Security wasn't too long though as always there was a shortage of trays. I was through everything within half an hour.
Domestic departures:

Not too much activity on the apron, but a few international planes.
Including a Virgin Atlantic A350 pushing out to London.

Beautiful plane.

Just then an Ethiopian 767 (I think) came by.

And the British Airways 777 that had come in a bit earlier.

I waited for a bit at the gate seating; everyone was already lining up.

It seemed like they were starting boarding so I went ahead to the Group A line, which included premium economy, but it turned out that nothing was happening.
At 11:10 or so they asked for volunteers to check their bags in and said boarding would be in 5-10 minutes. The crew arrived around then too.
Scheduled departure was at all 11:35 and the plane had landed at 10:44, but they were obviously incapable of sticking to the scheduled departure. Appeared to be an issue every day so I'm not sure why they stuck to that schedule.
Surprisingly, boarding actually did start in five minutes with a zone/group system. It was mostly respected although people did crowd around. They let me through to my line with no issues when premium economy was called a few minutes after boarding started.
After the gate there was an escalator to the lower level. They stopped people at the entrance to the jetbridge and didn't seem to be letting anyone through, until starting the actual boarding a few minutes later with no more delay.
Our plane, VT-TQC. An ex-Vistara A320neo of just over 5 years. Interestingly enough I flew it with Vistara on the same route in November 2023.

With Emirates and Etihad in the distance.

And welcome on board.

A look at the business seats.
Note: some of the pictures of both cabins are from the end of the flight.

And premium economy.

My seat.

Overall quite similar to economy, besides the colour scheme, and in premium economy there's an adjustable headrest as well as slightly more legroom.

And like economy, hangers, USB-A ports, lights, vents and device holders at each seat.

The same magazine, sickness bag, entertainment info card and safety card.
The magazine was not in great condition.

Boarding was still in fulll swing by our scheduled departure time.
The crew gave out hand towels, which were cold, slightly wet, and quite refreshing. They smelled nice as well.

They also handed out menus, although with my special meal order I didn't need one.

Around 20 minutes after we were meant to leave they claimed that the late departure was because of the aircraft's late arrival, but it had actually landed early.
They announced that the crew spoke English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati. I feel like Bengali may have been more useful than Gujarati on a flight to Bengal but whatever.
As the wait continued, VT-JRB, one of the new (ish) Air India A350-900s came in from Delhi. Cool plane, I hope I get a chance to try it out sometime.

While there hadn't been much activity until that point a few international planes started going out just then.
A Kenya Airways 737-800 to Nairobi. A bit of a small plane for such a long route, though it does at least have screens (well, when I took the flight in 2019 it did anyway)

9V-SCC, a Singapore Airlines 787-10 whose destination you can probably guess.

With an IndiGo/Norse 787-9 landing behind it…

…and an Air India 777 taking off.

Finally we pushed back, with the entertainment wi-fi system starting immediately, though the entertainment portal didn't load until takeoff.
We followed the SQ for a little longer before going ahead of it. It was a short taxi.

And we were off, without much of a view.

Entertainment was immediately available on takeoff. It was the same as the last flight and I've reviewed it in a little more detail there.
The meal cart came through the cabin almost immediately as well, but sat in the aisle for a few minutes before service again. Special meals, including mine (though it seemed like nearly half the cabin had one) were served first.

The difference from economy being the appetiser, wipe and metal cutlery. No nice little red ribbon around the cutlery this time.

Drinks came a few minutes later and I got apple juice.

The meal wasn't great, usually Air India is much better than this. The dessert was better than usual with the opposite the case for the main and appetiser. At least it was slightly more different than the usual chickpeas (though they were still in the appetiser here, Air India really loves their chickpeas).
The crew weren't too friendly either this time around.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. When they announced landing would happen shortly and people should use the lavatory now, I got up to do so. But after waiting for maybe a minute I was told to go back to my seat.
The entertainment stopped working during the descent.
And soon we were arriving.
Welcome…

to…

Kolkata.

We made back some time during the flight and didn't land too late.
As always, a very diverse and interesting lineup on the ground in CCU. IndiGo, IndiGo, oh look there's another IndiGo, with an IndiGo next to it, what's that back there? Oh, IndiGo.

And… Smartwings for SpiceJet!

Cabin pictures from the way out are earlier in this report. The crew were talking to each other but did reply to my thank you.

A quick look at some of the domestic arrivals.

I didn't notice the baggage claim number on the screen somehow😅 and my flight didn't show on the screen in the arrivals hall so I walked down until I found it.

Premium economy gives priority baggage tags so the wait was less than a minute.
And with that this short trip is over, with likely no more flights until May. Thanks for reading.