Surprisingly pleasant!. Review on Indigo Airlines

I traveled in Indigo air twice only, which was in September 2008 and November 2008. I, along with my wife and son, were coming to India to have a month of vacation in my hometown (near Calcutta), so the flights we took was Mumbai-Kolkata and back. Let me share my experience with you stage by stage:

Reservation: I bought my ticket online using credit card, the procedure is user friendly and fast. You also have an additional facility to choose and reserve you seat while buying your ticket. You get your valid e-ticket by e-mail immediately.

Check-In: This is the only section I feel indigo needs to improve. They were not bad actually, but they need to be much better. In the check-in counter I felt the staffs were a bit nervous and lousy. They were trying hard to cope up with the number of passengers checking-in and dropping their baggage. This can sometime favor the passengers as well, like while coming from Bombay to Calcutta they did not even check how many hand luggage we had or the weight of them (we were a bit worried about that as three of us had six bags). But I consider the mess they did in Kolkata airport was even more severe. The domestic terminal in Kolkata is always crowded, and we forgot to get our baggage x-ray scanned. In the check-in counter they took our baggage without noticing that the baggage were not cleared by the security. When we realized our mistake out luggage were already gone, so we did not made any effort, but it could be dangerous as far as security issues are concerned in these days.

Boarding: the boarding was smooth, and I specially want to mention it that we had a baby-pram with us and while boarding they took good care of that as we were not allowed to take it inside the cargo. Moreover as we had our baby while carrying six hand-bags in Bombay airport, they sent a porter along with us inside the plane who helped us carrying some of our hand bags and to settle inside the plane. Most of the people commuting seemed to be on business visit traveling very casually which also gave us a relaxing feelings.

Journey: Both of the time the plane was bang on time and reached it destination just like that.

Food: This was my first time in India travelling in a budget airways. So as expected we saw that food and drinks are not served but sold. Though the prices were awkward (like a plain sandwich for 125 rupees or a 500 ml water bottle for 50 rupees or something), but in any case the air ticket cost half of what jet or kingfisher takes. Moreover one can always carry food and drinks in the handbag.

Air hostess: They were pleasant and cooperating.

Cargo: They were pleasantly comfortable and clean. Seats are economic class (3 + 3), no business class.

Overall, I would be glad to travel again by Indigo, provided they keep their standard as it is now.