On board an Air Sahara flight from Kolkata to Bombay, my immediate neighbor was a portly, sweaty, laden with gold chains, in his fifties person accompanied by his equally portly, but more gold laden, in her forties wife. From the moment he plonked himself next to me, he was busy barking on his cell phone.
“Bhaisaab, this airline is also like Jet. No good. Same Jet-like problems. Arre, from airport to plane, too long to walk. Haan, haan those small buses in which you have to stand till you reach plane. Very small plane, like Jet only, tight seats with very short seat belts. You will face more problems than me. You travel in Indian Airlines.”
While I concluded that Bhaisaab must be ampler than him, an embarrassed, picture-pretty air-hostess kept asking him, ,“Sir please switch off your phone” as he was loud in his criticisms and had everyone’s undivided attention.
Then looking at me he said, “These people! Only glamour in plane but no facilities, see such tight seats.” Half of him spilled onto me, as a consequence, half of me was in the aisle getting jostled by the busy cabin crew.
I couldn’t help but agree with him, the seating, leg-room in Air Sahara (like Jet) was indeed tight, nothing as comfy as Indian Airlines’ large flights. I said, “Uncleji (I love this term and use it liberally. I like Auntyji too, but as my years advance its not appreciated like before) Indian Airlines’ seats are more comfortable but compare the services with those of this airline. Air Sahara has a polite crew. Have you traveled by Indian Airlines lately? They are all so rude.”
Uncleji thundered,“Polite, so what? Mujhe kaunsaa inke saath ghar basaana hai? Just because they are polite does that mean I should pay more? You youngsters may like all this, but I’m more concerned about money. Yes, one good thing is that Air Sahara charges less than Jet.”
That’s the gist. Like Jet, but cheaper than Jet. And I find this fact about Air Sahara attractively impressive.
Eons ago some clever ad-line went, “We are number two and hence we try harder.” Today this fits Air Sahara like a glove. Among private airlines, since they come second to Jet, their trying harder was noticeable everywhere.
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Number 2 tries harder
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Every staff member from ticketing, to ground staff, to cabin crew seemed striving to delight. Even the girls taking your trolley away at the baggage check-in were very service-oriented and eager to please. Smiling (genuinely) and making polite conversation that was actually interesting and not rehearsed.
When Air Sahara says ‘Emotionally yours’, you almost believe in it. Because the cabin crew and the ground staff fall over themselves to make things comfortable for you, with an earnestness that at times borders on the amusing. But I’m not complaining at all.
Compare this to the infamously crabby Indian Airlines staff. Whenever I enter an Indian Airlines flight, I always get the feeling that the air-hostess is about to yell, “Why the hell do you guys come back here? Have you forgotten the shabby treatment we dispensed last time? Don’t you have any shame?” Some day one of them even might. I won’t be surprised.
Or compare it to the off late, too big for their boots, cocky, conceited Jet staff and Air Sahara scores marvelously! I follow this philosophy: In service industry always go for Number 2, and watch yourself get served. It’s a pleasure.
Air Sahara tries harder even in ticket pricing. They have these ticket auctions in collaboration with indiatimes.com wherein you have to bid for tickets. Never tried those personally, but have heard from people who flew at rock-bottom rates. Don’t think this would continue for long although. I recommend everyone to fly this airline right now before they pull out this offer.
There were also some in-flight lucky draws and bid to win contests. On landing, I've seen fellow passengers grinning ear to ear while walking away with Samsung TV sets won in the lucky draw. (Trust my benevolent lady luck to have always won some silly cricket ball shaped key chains autographed by Sachin Tendulkar. Jealous?)
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Food
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Airline food is airline food is airline food, yet the crew at Air Sahara will baby you so much, they just about stop short of feeding it to you. They thankfully spare people who don’t like being fussed over much. Loved their tiny tamarind toffees.
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The downside
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As the fat man from Kolkata mentioned, like Jet the seats are very snug, IA was always more comfortable.
Have flown this airline in four sectors now, there is always a delay of 15 minutes in take-off. The cabin announcements have been consistent in squarely blaming airport authority for the delay. Frankly, I didn’t really care as long as 15 minutes don’t turn to 50 or even 30.
Their frequent flier programme has too much of paper work, and some kind of a passport to be carried around during each check in which seems downright silly.
The number of routes this airline operates on is lesser than Jet and considerably lesser than IA
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Off track a bit but I love grumpy people. Especially when they are flying. People may live their life in Dharavi for that matter, but the moment enter an airport or board an aircraft, they get hyper-critical about even a speck of dust, or over the slightest of ignorable inconveniences, which aren’t inconveniences to begin with.
All said and done, I also agree with the fat man from Kolkata. Since I do not intend to marry any of those airhostesses at Indian Airlines, why should I give a damn about their behaviour. It’s just some miniscule 2 hours of my life, if rude airhostesses don’t smile in that duration they really don’t cause any colossal personal discomfort.
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Happy flying!
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