Having flown a number of low cost domestic carriers in different countries, I was somewhat disappointed by Air Deccan. Low cost shouldn’t mean inefficient and uncomfortable, which is what Air Deccan is.

Here’s what happened to me:

I booked a ticket on Air Deccan from Bombay to Delhi. The booking process itself was pretty easy (I did it online) and I managed to get a decent price (3.6k), though no where close to the 500 bucks that I saw advertised. Anyway, it was a much better price than I was getting on other apex/bid fares on Jet or Sahara. So far so good.

I reach the Bombay airport to check in. Although there were three check in counters for Deccan, the Delhi flight only had one counter assigned to it (even though the other 2 counters had short lines). So it took about 45 minutes to check in while sweating it out in the bombay humidity (didn’t seem like the A/C was working...but then that’s not Deccan’s fault).

Once on board, the plane was delayed by 30 minutes. The aircraft itself was new, so no complaints about that. But while waiting in the plane, they refused to switch on the A/C, and therefore we were sweating away, and you can imagine the interesting odors emanating after about 10 minutes of the sauna!

We take off...finally. No apology from the captain. There are only 4 air hostesses in the plane ... part of the low cost, but they could not service the demands. We bought some food, which was okay.

We land in Delhi...finally! As soon as the plane haults, they switch off the A/C and lights!!! so you had to grope around in the dark, and start sweating again!!

Conclusion: Unless you are saving at least Rs. 1000-1500 I don’t see the advantage of going through extremem discomfort and inconvenience. I would recommend even IA over Deccan. But still worth it if you don’t mind going through a terrible 2 hours plus.

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	Between 1 - 3
Class flown most frequently:	Economy Class