It was a rainy evening on the 9th of July 2003, My wife and I were coming back from Shimla. At Delhi we decided to fly back to Bombay instead of continuing our train journey. And since there was not much time to reach the air-port and all such stuff we bought the first available tickets that we got, and this happend to be Air Sahara.
As we entered the air craft, from the 1st class entrance, my initial rection was that ’’Hey Honey ! Look the seats are super big’’ (It did not strike me that we were in the first class) and so that did not last for long, and found ourselves in the 1st class section. So we headed towards the economy class and occupied our respective seats. The seats here were relatively cramped, however are very comfortable as compared to other air crafts / lines.
The cabin crew was quite attentive though not very professional. It seemed that one of the air-stewards was flirting with an air-hostess which was very visible. Also the person making various announcements did seem to be giglling all the time, for what reason God and he alone know. (May be he found the affair thing kindda funny).
The furnishing, seats, carpet, lights, headsets, blankets, pillow et al were super clean and almost like new. My wife and I just love new things, so that was one great thing, yet again - after comfotable seats. Also they were blue in color or in shades of blue, which happens to be my wife’s favorite color and my second best color.
After we setteled comfotably and took off, the hostess served everybody with some sort of juice / beverages etc which was later followed by food service. As what I recollect, Air-Sahara serves food provided by The Taj. The food was amazingly delicious and hot and just great.
We did not feel like having a meal a few thousand feet above sea-level. Both of us had non-veg meals that consisted of Fish and Rice. The fish was super fresh, as though it had just been caught and cooked. Even the friuts in the friut salad were as though the have just been plucked off the trees - sooooo fresh.
The toilets were like in all air crafts, cramped, but very clean - one thing both of us are very particular about. The temperature of the air conditioner was also just perfect for us - we dont like the a.c. too high, were one has to roll a blanket around.
After landing there is a shuttle that takes you from the air-plane to the exit terminal, this shuttle was also super clean unlike other domestic air-lines, this was very comfortable and clean.
Overall the entire journey, in the air and post landing, was great rather perfect, if I may say so. However, while we were buying the tickets at some agent’s office next to New-Delhi Railway Station, and as it was at the last minitue, the agent did not give us a good price and made an extra buck. We paid something like Rs. 4500/- per ticket from Delhi to Bombay + Rs. 500/- as agent commission. However, the entire in-flight experience more than compensated for that.
Hats off to the entire Air Sahara Team for such a wonderful experience.
Keep up the good work.
And do let me know if you guys are starting international flights.
PS : We were returning from our honeymoon, and Air Sahara provided an excellent return journy to it. This one has been a memorable one.