My PIA KHI-LHE trip report

[behramjee]

PIA KHI-LHE flight # PK 304 on 23rd Nov 05

Aircraft : the old A 310-300s of the 1990s and not the leased SU-Jamaica ones.

Flight load : 60% in Business class and 85% in Economy Class

Overall experience of PIA : C+ grade

Fare : RS 4870 one way KHI-LHE all taxes inclusive

Cabin Crew service : B

Cabin Crew fluency in English : D grade

Cabin Crew fluency in Urdu : A+

Inflight meal : ordered McDonalds at Departure lounge...god bless them for opening a stall there.

Boarding and Check in experience : A+

Overall PIA experience : C+

Brief report : This was one of those 1990 ordered PIA A 310-300s and its age showed. When I entered the plane, I didnt smell Biryani which was a relief. As I was passing the Business class cabin, I noticed how bland, boring and old their J class seats on the A 310s look compared to EDs A 320.

Then I passed through the biggest joke of a cabin i.e. Economy Plus. I stopped and just laughed because the seat is the same as is the leg room etc...biggest rip off in the world!!!

I was seated in row # 46 of the A 310 and the seat was ok...nothing great...it measured 30 inches in seat pitch and I was hoping no one would sit next to me so that I could sleep but unfortunately luck wasnt on my side.

Anyways what really pissed me off and I made this known to every single cabin crew member in the kitchen is that why is the big screen tv in economy class showing just the boring route map of the flight where as in ECO + its showing a nice cricket match of Pakistan vs Australia from 1999 World Cup. I was like there is no inflight entertainment in Y class but if u pay RS 1135 more u get to see a cricket match + a stupid cartoon in Eco+!!! Wheres the business logic in that !!! 3 of them (out of 5) even agreed with me but said that they cant put it on in Y class cabin.

Cabin Crew service was good...2 good looking young airhostesses on board.

Conclusion : I only flew PIA KHI-LHE because I needed the afternoon flight enroute to YYZ via LHE-KWI-JFK on Kuwait Aiways...I would have loved to take the ED flight of 7pm to LHE but didnt want to risk it due to the LHE fog delaying my ED flight.

However if my timings are flexible and if I have to fly Economy within Pakistan...ED will get my business if the difference is under RS 1000 in the airfare...Aero Asia and Shaheen will never ever get my business. If I have to fly J class I will only fly PIA if the aircraft is a B 777 or B 747...if its any other PIA aircraft then I would rather fly J class on the ED A 320 !!!

[PK777]

Interesting review Behramjee,

Put allyour reviews on the the following website,

www.airlinequality.com

[pk757]

Nice trip report although u cou;ld tell me one thing... di du travel on the refurbished 310s or th e old livery ones? cuz two of the origional 310-308s have been fitted with the new business plus 777 like seats i.s.o th eold ones, AP-BDZ AND AP-BEQ for sure. anyhow what were the business plus seats like ? Also id like to state that PIA staff deoderize the plane air by spraying fresheners its only when th efood is being warmed that the food aroma kicks in!
ne how u mentioned that they were showing a cricket match?! strange they had a no domestic IFE policy a month back i dunno how they changed that though i have regularly found headseats being left out aftewr int sectors on th e310 domestic sectors. was there boarding music aswell?

[zerbaer]

Nice trip report although u cou;ld tell me one thing... di du travel on the refurbished 310s or th e old livery ones? cuz two of the origional 310-308s have been fitted with the new business plus 777 like seats i.s.o th eold ones, AP-BDZ AND AP-BEQ for sure. anyhow what were the business plus seats like ?

The business plus class seats on the B777 were from Avio Interiors (Italy) and BFE (buyer furnished equip/PK). Last management liked 'em so much they decided to install the same on A310 fleet (now 12 aircraft). However, there was & is a serious problem - A310 is not designed to accomodat the particular (much heavier) seats. In order make the required changes to meet the regs, a STC (supplemental type certificate is required). CAA had required from PK the STC from Airbus on receiving PK request for approval. STC is a very involved procedure and also is very costly - Last time PK got an STC for something it took 12 months and one $ million, many years back.
Same was the issue on installation of Matsushita IFE systems on PK's B74ms since the new IFE required development of modification to the Weber seats.

Same make of seats were installed on a larger aircraft by a major Asian airline but were soon after service, removed - the airline decided to take a loss rather than continue use of Avio Interiors very expensive seats.

The sets have not at all performed to satisfaction on PK B777. Nonetheless, current PK powers were given a presentation in Sept and it was decided before the end of program that PK will go ahead with the seats on B777 yet to be delivered and whereever else they could be used.

This week Avio Interiors have been in ISB and have made yet another presentation to PK and other powers. One of the presentations is believed to have been at the residence of Avio rep: Niaz Hussain.

[piyya]

behramjee...

where the EK comes in your report and secondly, why you always highlight the the negative things about PIA. It's your own right to think of PIA as you like but PIA is not as bad as it is presented.

Remember, English is our Second Language and it was a domestic flight not International....................

I you can gasp, i will disagee that PIA is that bad, it's in middle as most of US airlines are...i don't much about Europe so i won't comment on that. In middle east, it's unfair to compare with them as they are not commerical and bussiness oriented airlines, they receive subsidy in fuel on their hubs and above all heavy cash in injected by respective kings in their day to day operation.

on average PIA does bettter. Everybody know, there are some deficencies but those are minor ones and we can come over it if political situation is corrected in motherland.