Oct 20, 2006 01:55 PM
2591 Views
Everyone knows low cost carrie are not expected to satisfy all requirements and expectations of the travellers..be it frequent ones or otherwsie but there is a certain degree and level of quality (and business ethics) that any corporation is expected to maintain.
We booked Deccan to go from delhi to Pune , and then Bombay back to delhi in Feb 2006 (a time frame of a week between the flights), and this was a vaction soone was loking forward to it for a while.
The deccan plane was late the minute we finsihed the booking , its ok , I pacified myself witht he fact that this would mean operational losses for deccan (!!). The flight got cancelled the next day and this was just about 10 days before we had to fly out. We managed to get tickets on Jet but obviously at a much higher rate and managed to get to Pune. Fortunatley this was not too messy as we had received the sms in time and were able to get ourselves into Jet airways.
Bombay to Delhi was a nightmare - We got to the aiport, went to check in our baggage and were then told that the flight had been cancelled - no sms , no call-no warning. We had also called them the previous day and had been informed that the flight was on time...??. There were about a good 50 oddpassengers crammed into a 4 sq feet area trying to get an explenation from the customer care guy..who ofcourse knew nothing, could not speak english, could not type faster than 2 words a minute , refused to get up, could ot understand the plane layout, did nt know why the fliught had got cancelled, did not know if thee was another flight, what was gonna happen to us ( remarkably surprised that he knows where he works).
Finally we were informed that there was anotherplane leaving and they wuld seatus on that..they never did saying the plane was full and that we had been wrongly informed about the vacant seats.
By this time tempers were raising the airport temperature drastically, and lucky for him he had a glass panel in front of him otherwise....well...!
Finally we were told that there is a flight leaving in the morning at 9 and we can board that, while we were still exploring the option we were told that the 9 AM flight has already been delayed to 1 PM, and then to 2 PM... looks like we may never leave Mumbai alive!!
We asked them for hotel accomodation..long shot...ofcourse did not happen and their last wrods were sorry, we will reverse the charges on your card but take care of yurself...thanks!
Eventually we got a ticket on Spice Jet - double what we had paid on deccan..but we needed to get back that same night and had no choice... moments after we got our spice jet tickets the prices went up by 500..so theres the silver lining!
Boarded the flight , overshot the takeoff time by half an hour---why------ u guessed it because of deccan...not directly but all the traffic for delhi bound on deccan was now heading to our plane... !!
I was amazed, I have dealt with a lot of airlines, I have dealt with a lot of businesses...like we all do in outr day to day lives - the understanding , that a major corporation, could behavein such a manner is unthinkable in this day to day age....as it is the industry is facing losses and competition is growing more intense daily..and they expect to stay afloat?? Really shoddy!
We will never fly again, and ur experiences have resulted in about 25 freinds and acquaintaces cancelling or never flying Deccan again..bnot a big number..but thats just us!
I had to rate all parameters of Deccan 0..what do you expect me to do?? I never even got to sit inside their plane!!!!! :)
