A Minority Report. Review on Jet Airways

I am probably one of the minorities who write disparagingly about Jet, nevertheless, let me plod on...

When Jet Airways commenced its operations in the early 90s, there was a hugh sigh of relief from several of us who had to suffer Indian Airlines for our airborne time till then... After all, why do eskimos like blubber so much... no other reason but that its probably the only choice at the arctic dining table...

Anyways, 12 years and several ''Best Domestic'' awards later, I wonder if its time to re-rate this airline... Don't get me wrong folks but I find the service slipping and if we still continue to rate Jet Airways quite high, its only because the competition pales in comparison...

So let me look at Jet in itself as a monopolistic domestic carrier for the frequent (business) traveller... What would I look at - (a) fares, (b) service destinations, (c) punctuality, (d) inflight service and (e) ground service including check in, etc.

On (a), I believe Jet is competitive - 7/10

On (b) they are extremely good - 9/10

On (c) they are better than average, bordering on good, although they seem to be slipping a bit these days - 8/10

On (d), on an average, they simply suck and that too quite badly. This takes into account the fact that I fly at least once or twice a month, almost always on Jet for a domestic haul and I have flown Jet on the Mumbai London Mumbai sector a couple of times. The inflight service almost borders on a snooty aloofness with most of the air hostesses. I was actually shocked to hear the responses that some of my fellow travellers and I have had to put up with at times. The tone just stops short of being supercilious and rude. Add to that, wrong meal service, uncooked food (yeah, a close friend of mine was served raw potatos masquerading as ''Aloo something'') and a lack of service response questionnaires and you see a pattern emerging. The new breed of inflight attendants are beginning to erode the goodwill that this airline has built up in the last decade. The only time they actually smile (sorry, bare their teeth), is if you are flying business. I sometimes wonder if there is a polymer more elastic than plastic, that probably describes their smile best. My rating - 2.5/10

On (e), I have mixed emotions. Check in staff have in 3-4 cases out of 10 behaved quite nonsensically and have issued me boarding passes without updating my FF details or sending me RIGHT to the BACK of the plane when I have requested for a seat as close upfront as possible, or the luggage attendants have dumped my suitcases on the belt like it was trash, etc. However, the remainder of the instances have been quite pleasant and sometimes quite superlative as well. My rating - 6/10

The point I want to make here is this. Customers in India today have a lot of choices in matters from pins to planes. Also, this is not the era of ''let-the-buyer- beware'' any more... Consumer activists, online forum such as this one where I am writing, etc make our sentiments known, quite harshly at times. Given the huge reputational and others issues involved, it now slowly becoming a case of ''let-the-seller-pay-heed-or-sacrifice-market-share-and-profits''

For those who've had only great experiences with Jet Airways or for that matter any other airline, let your good run continue... For those who've had sloppy experiences similar to mine, I empathise...

Cheers

S