There was a time when I used to catch the Rajdhani Express for going to Delhi on personal visits and sometimes even on official ones
when one could not get the flight tickets. At that time only two airlines operated out of Vadodara, viz Indian Airlines and Jet. If you wanted a cheaper flight ticket you had to book a month in advance on Apex and Super Apex fares. Canceling or changing the dates involved huge charges.
All that changed in one stroke with the advent of Indigo Airlines. This is indeed the finest low cost airline of India today. And I don’t need the “ Best Low Fare Carrier Award” of India 2007 to tell me that. Having flown most airlines in our country, low cost or otherwise, and specifically Indigo on several occasions, I could easily figure that out for myself. Consider this: a 2 tier ticket in the Rajdhani Express used to cost us Rs 1800.00 and it used to be quite a job catching the train at 11PM in the night and spending the whole night unable to sleep with the noise and jerks typical of train travel. To top it all trying to go to the toilet in the morning queue and smell and dirt et all. And the return was even worse as the train reached Vadodara at around 3.00AM in the morning! And now we just check in for an hour and 15 minutes of flying time in a ultra clean A 320 airbuses always on, in fact before time and a clean and professional service. And what does this cost, just Rs 2500.00 most often!
They operate one incoming and one outgoing flight to Delhi as well as Mumbai. Actually it’s a round route with the flight taking a Mumbai -Vadodara - Delhi- Vadodara - Mumbai route. The timings on both sides are very comfortable. I will now attempt to give you some more details about their service.
The Booking and Check in
The tickets can be booked at their website or through the various sites like cleartrip, makemytrip, yatra etc. I personally found cleartrip to be best airline booking site. If you are traveling for a personal visit and your dates are flexible, then you can benefit immensely by the fare graphs provided by cleartrip up to 3 months ahead of the current dates. You can clearly see what the fares are going to be like for all the airlines operating in the sector and choose your dates accordingly. The check in at the airport is very smooth and professional. You can choose your seat preference like aisle or window, but if you want the emergency exit row you have to pay an extra charge of Rs 100. The baggage allowed is as usual 20kg. Even though they will not mind a few kilos extra but if you are going to be crossing 25 or so you will need to pay the extra baggage charges. One option in such a case always is to transfer some stuff to your hand baggage as another 8 kgs is allowed as hand baggage but no one ever actually weighs the same.
In Flight Experience
Before I go into the onboard experience, I would like to add that the announcements and boarding at the airport are also well handled by their staff. Their buses that take you from the airport to the plane are always air-conditioned unlike certain other low cost airlines, which do not provide air-conditioning in their buses.
The planes are all A 320 airbuses with all seats of the economy type. There is no first or business class and that actually adds to the effect of space within the craft. The level of neatness in the cabin and the temperature is maintained to optimum comfort level. In spite of being a no frills airline, the number of in-flight attendants is not much less as compared to the full service airlines. Even though they do not provide any free food, they do sell several items including sandwiches, cookies, cold drinks, juices, cashew nuts etc. The quality of the food and the packing is pretty good. Even if you do not buy anything water is given free of cost.
The flights are mostly on time; in fact as many times as I have traveled with them they have been 5-10 minutes beforetime. The pilots even go to the extent of making announcements giving the temperature at arrival and other information as is done by some of the premium airlines.
The airhostesses and stewards are well turned out and professional.
In the unlikely event of a cancellation of flight, they promise to refund the money or give alternate ticket etc, though I have personally never faced such a situation. They will obviously not provide accommodation, or food, as they are a low cost airline.
I have just one suggestion for them. If they could find some way to serve tea on board even if paid, that would be a huge plus as one does need a cup of tea in 2-2.5 hours of flying time if going on the long haul sectors.
I have only one word to sum up their service and experience – Excellent!