Feb 06, 2007 07:56 PM
4670 Views
I am an old traveller, having served in the Indian army for 23 years as a doctor at the mercy of indian airlines or , largely the indian railways. Since entering the civie street in May 2001, I have only travelled abroad on vacations.Having hear
d about the aviation boom, I decided to risk a domestic vacation this time , to Goa. The last I went to Goa was to celebrate the millennium new year 2000 and that fateful day, my mother suffered from a heart attack in Delhi and there was only 1 outgoing flight per day from Goa, Indian airlines which was booked solid. So had to travel by cab to Mumbai and take a flight , again with difficulty as there were only 5 flights per day from Mumbai to Delhi.
Well was glad to see that all was changed now and there were at least 10 flights a day between Goa and Delhi. To my good luck, my travel agent booked me on spicejet airlines. I say good luck as I do not have the means to compare it with the other airlines but could see the plight of passengers travelling by them. The greatest advantage of spicejet was that it allots seat numbers to passengers . The passengers travelling by deccan airlines were rushing to get seats together as that airlines does not allot any seat no.
That is ridiculous.Imagine a group of 7 or 8 people flying together and they do not get seats together. So, thankfully whenever the check-in be, at least a seat number is allotted.The second thing that I liked was that spicejet gave us water and ear plugs and a sweet(not important). After reading reviews here I was under the impression that not even water is served on flight. That is bad as going thirsty is not possible for such long time and , with security restrictions at times on fluids in hand baggage, it causes problems. Now other stuff to eat I have never found palatable even in the best of airlines so it hardly makes a difference whether food is given or not but water is important.
The 3rd advantage of spicejet was that all their planes are Boeing 737 and up, so chances of bumpy flights and technical snags are lesser. I also found the staff of the airlines both ground and aircrew to be pleasant and nice during both the flights.The baggage handling was also very efficient. Another useful feature was information. From confirming tickets, to flight delays to reason for flight delay all information was readily transmitted either by sms, phone or at airport.
All in all, it was a very pleasant flying experience. Nice to know that one has so many choices today. The airlines may not always be cheap esp for popular destinations ex on 28th Jan the fare I was getting was 14000 rs one way so had to postpone by a day to fly for 4500 rs. However, the convenience makes one feel like a king. when the younger travellers crib about the poor quality, remember just 6 years back we were starved for a single seat and flying was a luxury. Today consumer is king .
As far as staff attitude is concerned, you ought to see the British airways staff or even other airlines , even asian ones at times. Not only are they unsmiling, brisk, businesslike but they are rude too. Here at least the staff is eager to please and energetic. As far as I am concerned it is 3 cheers to the aviation industry in India esp in terms of value for money.
