Earlier this week I had this opportunity where I travelled on 4 different airlines in 4 sectors. I travelled Indigo, JetLite, Air India and Deccan/Kingfisher. When you do something like this the service levels do come to your attention.
Indigo :- When I walked into Bangalore airport, I could not immediately see their counter but saw a line of gleaming self check in kiosks with Indigo displayed on the screen. Impressed I checked in even though the touch screen needed a rather hard tap to type in the details. Soon I had my boarding pass which was on top of the long page that was printed out. One could have printed out at least 4 boarding passes on that paper. So much for cost cutting and low cost flying !!!!
At security I was stopped since apparently the airline should have stamped my boarding pass. Now if that is so, then why have self check in ??? After a short wait when the security searched high and low for a Indigo staff who were no where to be seen (lean and mean airline I guess), I approached a senior security guy who managed to let me in.
The counter staff came in about 30 mins before the flight. I tried my best to explain to the folks about the security problem, but he was adamant in his argument which was as follows. The self check in kiosks belong to the airport and not his airline, so if I used that, it was my mistake and problem and the airline could not be blamed. The self check in system was not their responsibility or service. I should have gone to their counter instead !!!!!. Guess low cost means no training either to the staff. Guess I better skip flying Indigo after this !!!!!!!!!!! God knows what else is not their responsibility.
Air India :- Guess this is the only airline where the air hostess has the uncanny ability to look somewhere and greet someone walking in with the most bored expression on their face. It happens every time I walk in. OK I am no Shahrukh or Sachin, but yet the look that they give is - "listen I am supposed to greet you which I do, no one told me that I smile or look at the passenger walking in, so please ignore me and just walk to your seat wherever that is.". I mean you actually feel guilty at having troubled them by walking into the aircraft.
Jet Lite :- These chappies are still confused. Are we part of the Jet team or are we the poor cousins. With their yellow dress, it seems like they are wearing their life jackets all the time. But they smile, greet and generally the service is good. I mean the hostesses have a life.
Deccan :- At one point in the past, I had a general rule - never fly Deccan, because you never knew if you would fly today, tomorrow or not at all. Once the king of good times took it over, they have undergone a sea change. They are on time, the service is excellent and even if they charge you for the food, they at least give you free reading matter. Sorry Capt. Gopinath, but lets face it, Vijay Mallya has improved the service and made Deccan a good airline.
So folks my vote is for Kingfisher/Deccan, Jet as the airlines to fly in. Air India if required.
Adios
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