Hmmmm, so you plan to take a short air trip !

Well I stay in Bangalore and had to take an overnight flight from Chennai to Bangalore on a weekend since i could not get an overnight train for myself and I decided to take Air Deccan.

One needs to call their call centre or book the tickets online. The call centre agent might tell you to book it right away since there are limited seats, but chill, since the airlines is recently launched, you can book the tickets by calling any time of the day at least 3-4 hours prior to departure. Else you can book it on the website.

Once you have your PNR number.( i:e In the case of phone booking,) you can take it and some sort of identification to the airport to get your ticket. The ticket by far is only a paper sheet printed out. All this I believe to save on money. So far so good.

If you are a frequent traveller on Indian Airlines, Sahara or Jet, your ego might slightly be hurt at the way things would be handled once you are inside the airport. Obviously the aim is to provide transportation from one destination to another, and none of the fancy thrills of a Boeing or Airbus trip but i had really wished the entire experience would be the same.At the least the first time I was travelling via Air Deccan.

The ground staff is inexperienced as compared to the rest of the airlines Industry but they are courteous enough to help you though. Then you can go to the counter and get your boarding pass. Ooops ! did i say Window seat :-(( The lady behind the counter looked at me and smiled politely and said sir its a free seater. Ohh! sorry I said. I obviously didnt know it.

Waiting for my flight and my anxiety about media news on Air Deccan’s engines failing and catching fire started to play on my mind and I wondered if i should just take some other flight back to Bangalore. But i calmed myself and said, lets try this once...

I looked around the kind of people who would be travelling with me. Students, businessmen and perceived ...yes perceived that may be some lower section of the society will be travelling with me. I felt this flight might be the equal of a second class train journey.

The Van took us to the standing ATR aircraft. Its small and has propellers. A single lady airhostess smiled at me and welcomed me. I smiled and went inside and settled on to a window seat.

All around fellow passengers took up seats. The feeling inside is that of any other airlines except that its small. Once the flight started. you get to hear all the normal talk about safety from the Airhostess from seat belts to non-usage of mobile phones ect. if you used to the humming sound of a boeing or a airbuss, the propeller sound might unsettle you or might play on your imagination as if being louder than ususal. But thats hardly true. Once you are 16,000 feet above air, all of its whats called white noise. You will hardly notice any of it. The difference between both is for once I think, the Airbus and Boeing fly at some 30,000 feet and Air Deccan flys at half that height. Its only a statistic. It doesnt make much of a difference to your flight quality.

You do have Air deccans inflight magzine which was OK quality wise. Mine was torn by some previous passenger and not replaced by Cabin clearing crew. But my expectation for anything fancy or even basic was not really there so it was ok. Since it was my first trip my other apprehensions were much more than looking at an inflight magzine.

After sometime the feeling settled in and the flight felt comfortable. The best part of Air Deccan are their Air Hostess. There is only a single air hostess and yes she manages well. Having now travelled more than a couple of times on Air Deccan, I can vouch for the Air Hostesses people management skills.

She pushes a trolly towards mid-flight carrying cashew nuts, cold drinks, mineral water ect so that anybody who wants to purchase them may do so. Now I kind of put myself in her place and felt a bit embarassed in pushing a trolley through an airlines passageway selling to customers. The next time you fly of course you wouldnt feel it. The first time Yes you will surely feel it if you have been flying other airlines.

She was sweet, came and asked me if i need anything. I asked for a bottle of water, paid for it at normal rates. She smiled and pushed the trolley further. Given the fact that the airlines has been positioned as a cheap airlines, you can understand the kind of people the poor airhostess might have to deal with. But the Airhostess is truly remarkable. Not very pretty or sexy. But plain functional smart and Intelligent.

The flight ended in 1 hour 30 mins.

The overall experience can be summed up like this. You would surely like to travel by Air Deccan for the amount you spend on it. But surely wouldnt like to be seen travelling in the Airport for the snob value. After the first time around, i have travelled more than a couple of times and have now got used to it. If they improve their service and image, they would go a long long way in becoming Indias truly first and low cost airlines.

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	Between 4 - 6
Class flown most frequently:	No Comment