Airlines for all. Review on Simplifly Deccan

Travelling by an airplane is a dream for all (especially kids). Many dream but never make it or never dare to attempt for it with the fear of overshooting their respective budgets. With many airlines getting into action, there is a visible competition in the facilities, schedules and fares of the airlines.

The Indian domestic airline industry is still in a cocoon stage. With the launch of Air-Deccan in most of the major metros in India, the future of domestic travel can be assumed to be more economical, fast and peaceful.

The Air-Deccan Rs. 700 offer beats all offers from any other airlines. Though there are a limited no. of seats per flight, still the overall max. rates are less than any other domestic airlines. I personally have used almost all the domestic airlines including Air-Deccan. Luckily got a chance to travel using Air-Deccan twice @ Rs. 700 ;) That was a huge saving with the same benefits and pace.

This article shares my own experience with Air-Deccan and with due honour to all other airlines. It was my first day with this newly launched airlines, which I had never heard of before. Luckily got a ticket from Bangalore to Mumbai @ Rs. 700. I had done an online booking of the ticket as soon as they had launched the Mumbai-Bangalore and vice versa flights. After the booking took a printout of the form it displayed in the Internet explorer.

I wasn't sure if that was the ticket, hence drove to the airport to get a official ticket like the other airlines. There was a big queue in front of the Air-Deccan counter at the Bangalore airport. I was astonished to learn that the A4 sized paper, which I had, was my air ticket.

After the transient, I realized that, it was a good way of saving adequate bucks spent on ticketing. Then came the day of travel. The ticket mentioned that you should check in 1/2 hr before the scheduled flight time as the counters get closed after that.

Checked in before 1/2 hr, passed thro' the security checks and walked further towards the gate to board the flight. A surprise on my way again. There was about 1/2 hr for the flight but still a long queue to enter. To my curiosity, I asked a young lady at the boarding desk what was the queue for? to which she replied ''to board the flight and to catch seats.'' ''Wow!'' I said to myself ''that?s really interesting.'' I checked my boarding pass to find that there wasn't any seat no. mentioned on it. ''No difference in fares and classes'' - Thats what I learnt next about the airlines.

On entering the airplane, every one was rushing to get a seat (a window seat normally) like we used to do it in trains while traveling to college. Fun isn't it? It was fun but the rest was same like any other airlines I flew with, expect the food. You have to buy food. But that again at a normal rate and not a exaggerated one.

To my surprise after take off few screens popped out of the roof to display us some previously recorded reports from NDTV. Buy your self an ear phone (worth Rs. 30) and enjoy the show and your flight. Overall it was a wonderful experience. I had one more chance to use the same airlines after a few days.

To summarize:

Advantages:

1) Less fares

2) Online booking

3) No need of contacting a travel agent or visit the airport for tickets

4) Ticket is the printout of the form u see on screen

5) Adequately priced food

6) Entertainment in flight using screens (NDTV reports)

7) Similar to other airlines

8) Tickets can be cancelled up to 72 hrs before the scheduled flight date and time.

Disadvantages:

1) Catch your seats (stand in a queue)

2) Less baggage (weight) allowed as compared to other airlines

3) No food