Jan 22, 2012 11:53 AM
172835 Views
(Updated Jan 22, 2012 04:10 PM)
I’ve flown with Indigo for 4-5 times now and on all occasions, the experience has been satisfactory. And I’ve flown with all other airlines too at various times in the past, so my observations have a large enough sample size.
Indigo prides itself on its on-time performance in all its advertisements and marketing communication, and they are right. Only once was my flight delayed, and that too by just 20 minutes. The planes are clean and spacious. But their planes, despite being new, make a lot of noise as compared with other airlines’ planes; I don’t know why.
Indigo’s website is good. The booking process was smooth and without any glitches. They also have good time-slots on metro routes. Del-Mum route has excellent timings.
Pricing: Indigo is not the cheapest; but it is generally within Rs. 300 from the cheapest fare available. I believe that for a better probability of punctuality, this premium is justified.
Now, to the most important aspect of any airline – the in-flight service. Being a low cost carrier, there are no newspapers, magazines and TVs available. The cabin crew is efficient and quick. Most perverts choose an airline based on the perceived hotness of the crew. I don’t understand this; how do the age and appearance of an air hostess matter? I mean as long as you are not getting a welcome-on-board kiss, the only thing that should matter is how quick the cabin crew is when you need a glass of water or a cup of tea/coffee. In fact, there is one airline whose cabin crew is hot according to many people. I’ve travelled 2-3 times with them and I personally found the crew to be overweight. But then, this is a nation where people find even Vidya Balan hot! So, no comments here. Anyway, enough of digression. The cabin crew is courteous and quick.
There is no free food – not even a bottle of water; the cabin crew comes around with food items that you have to pay for. These are mostly Indian food items with prices in the range of Rs. 100 – 250. I find this cheap and messy. I mean, people haggling over the contents of kulchas and samosas and all that seems damn irritating to me. And it is a non-sense too because the food items are served at cabin temperature (which is about 13-15 degrees I think), read: cold! I wish they eliminate these cheap tricks and just give a 500 ml water bottle and small pack of wafers/cookies free to all. Nobody dies if he/she does not eat food for 2 hours!
They announce the luggage belt number on which to find your checked-in luggage before landing itself. This is a little trick that is very neat. Saves some time in locating the luggage belt on the arrival airport.
Overall, I would give 3.5/5 to Indigo and recommend it for its punctuality and good time slots.
