Very Customer Unfriendly. Review on Kingfisher Airlines

I am stranded at the Delhi airport now and keying this review on my laptop with Tata Wireless card. This is as live as it gets.....

The Brief

King of Good Times turned out like a nightmare for me. I was in Delhi with an open ticket to go back to Ahmedabad, but as my luck would have been due to rush back after Diwali vacations when all Gujaratis are headed back home I was not able to get my open ticket converted (in Jet) so decided to try out an alternative route. I booked in Kingfisher for my Delhi-Mumbai trip and after a gap of two hours a flight at 10:00 AM from Mumbai in Go Air.

The Nightmare

Slept late at night and got up late despite an alarm .. my friend took me to the airport in record time and that is when my luck ran out and I encountered the ground staff of Kingfisher Airlines. All the promise on their website about training each and every individual went for a toss. As I was walking into the terminal, boarding announcements were happening which means I could be accomodated.

The response from the airlines ''Sorry all the formalities are over and we cannot put you on flight''. I was 5 minutes past their 30 mins deadline... If you look at the rules of the airlines it sounded perfectly logical and based in cold facts. I had erred and had to be punished, no amount of pleading that I would miss the next flight fell on deaf ears and there I was at 5:50 AM in the morning.. stranded in the IC terminal in Delhi. King of Good Times failed to deliver on the promise.

Possible Alternatives

There have been instances when I was travelling with Indian Airlines or Jet Airways and they take extra care of pulling you through long security check in queues and made sure that you boarded the flight if the doors are not closed, leave alone when boarding announcements are being made. But Kingfisher ground staff was totally unresponsive and never tried to go that extra mile or that extra few minutes. The problem of flying these airlines is that they do not take any care of you as a passenger.. even the staff of low frill airlines like Spicejet or Go Air with whom I talked later responded in a better manner today and even in the past.

My Recommendation

Don't get pulled in by the name or the false promises that are there on the website of being treated like a king etc... an airline which cannot deliver in exceptional circumstances is not worth spending time on. In regular circumstances every one and any organisation will deliver, but being treated like a pauper by an airlines claiming to treat you like a king.... well all I can say is Kingfisher Airlines you have been tried, you have been measured and you have been found wanting..... and not up to the standard.

If this were a class in Brand Management I would conclude by saying that the Brand has failed to live upto the promise.......

If you still have to fly this airline....... make sure you have read all the fine prints.. or in cases of emergencies and exceptions they will throw the rule book at you and you will be left stranded....

The Fine Print

To understand the problem with the airline I read their contract of carriage and the problem become clear. The airline is trying to project itself as a full service airline but is no better than Spicejet, Go Air or Deccan. The website states that it is a point to point airlines and does not offer any sort of connectivity. As this is not a scheduled airlines it can cancel any flight, offload any passenger withour giving alternative means of transport or endorse you to any other flight. Really disturbing as you would prefer this over other NO FRILLS airlines just to find out that it is no better. An IATA airline like JET or IA offers so much in terms of customer care. The airline surely charges like a full service airline and even in terms of a death in a crash the compensation offered is peanuts to the tune of Rs. 7,50,000 as against an IATA airline where all these conpensations are fixed internationally. As far as I know the compensation is US$ 20,000/- . I am sure experts in airlines industry will tell the difference but its a befitting case of BUYER BEWARE!!!!!