Been using Jet Airways since 2007 on short hauls between Kuala Lumpur and Chennai and this review is after more than 35 trips with them. The reason why I use Jet Airways and not MAS or IA on this route is because MAS can be pretty expensive sometimes and IA is too unreliable to trust and now they don’t even fly to KUL anymore.
Checkin: On the Kuala lumpur side Jet airways doesn’t have any staff and they use the generic KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) staff to do the checkin and other landside duties. There was one problem with Jet till this year that you can’t through checkin to a final destination even if you have a ticket for a domestic jet flight. This has be solved this year and I am quite happy they did. Checkin at KUL is as routine as it can be. Efficient most of the time except for those tourist critters who keep arguing they have full rights to carry twice as much as their baggage allowance. By all means please kick them out of the queue I am hungry and irritated.
On chennai side it’s as bad as other airlines. Since the Chennai airport is falling apart one information screen at a time, it’s usually exhausting to go check with the jet guy’s counter about checkin time. Usually checkin at chennai would take a good 1 hour or more compared to less than 30 minutes on KUL side. I know it is not possible to improve on that at Chennai airport and I ain’t asking for it. Besides carriers in India are known for their obnoxious bureaucratic way of doing things and just maybe I am used to it by now. So the person reading this can judge it.
One thing that worries me about carriers in India is that why do they have to give me another fancy boarding pass when I already have a print out of it? Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of me doing a web checkin?
I am not touching immigration/security because it is not controlled by any airline. I’ll b*tch about it if I write reviews about airports.
Boarding: on KUL side boarding is pretty smooth, babies and oldies first and everybody else next. Since parking/handling charges for aircraft is cheaper at KUL we get to use the jet bridge to get into the plane.
On Chennai side probably Jet is too poor to park it’s aircraft at one of the jet bridges I guess. Most of the boarding chaos is due to the silly bus ride to the plane. It’s not a freaking competition people, you have your bloody seat numbers on your boarding pass. You don’t have to fight your way to get out of the bus and into the plane! Probably next time I am gonna borrow Thor’s Mjollnir for the bus ride.
The Journey: Jet is using the aging 737s for most south east Asian routes and as usual seats are small but comfortable enough for a 4 hour journey. Noise levels is pretty high on this plane as well. It’s not Jet’s fault the aircraft was designed for the 70s and Jet is too poor to afford any upgrades(except for the winglets) I assume. Food is pretty average and the assumption everybody who travels on Jet would love a curry in their meal is simply weird. I like my scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast please. The stewardesses are mostly attentive and usually in some kind of trance and talk among themselves for quite a long time if somebody pushes the "help" button (yes I like to call it the help button). Maybe they are just too shy? that should probably be it. Usually the toilets start stinking within an hour of takeoff so I usually avoid peeing on a Jet airways plane. As for my fellow passengers, they are the usual bunch who are either flying for the first time or second time and the flight crew try a little to make them comfortable.
One thing I like very much about Jet is that the scheduled landing time from KUL to MAA is at 10:45 AM and every single time Jet was ahead of schedule and lands well before 10:30 AM. Thanks for that guys. I know it doesn’t take the alleged 4 hours to cross 2650 km on a plane and you are proving to be useful.
Overall, I don’t mind flying with Jet airways on short hauls at all. I would worry about them only when I have to go on a trip to say Brussels on a Jet, which of course I would gladly get an Emirates or Lufthansa. Would I recommend Jet airways? well it depends on how much you are willing to spend on a ticket. want no frills Air Asia would be better. Want the very best full fare ticket, get a Cathy Pacific, Thai or MAS for SE Asia. want something in the middle, take a Jet Airways flight.