I recently flew Kingfisher Airlines(KF) for the first time Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai in Economy over the Christmas-New Year period. I was flying with my parents(both long time Jet Privilege members) for a family holiday to Delhi and persuaded them to try KF this time as I’d heard a lot about the airline. We had a great experience! To begin, check-in is very good, Mumbai and Delhi airports are a real mess right now with the renovation going on, but there are loads of KF people(easily recognizable because of the red jackets they wear) patrolling the airport entrances and they rush forward to help you and take your baggage in all the way to the check in counters, so you avoid all the hassles. And I agree with the previous reviewers, these guys neither want or expect tips, they insisted "Madam, not allowed" no matter how hard I tried!
The aircraft is brand spanking new, very nicely decorated(personally, I love red!) and the seats are very broad and comfy which we all remarked on, since we were sitting in Economy. The food was awesome, going to Delhi there was a choice of chicken makhani or paneer kalimirch, and very nice seviyan for dessert. Coming back to Mumbai, there was a choice of thai chicken curry or soya paneer and a great chocolate cheesecake. The service is great, very attentive and they really try to take care of all your needs. The PTV’s were very nice, we were all glued to NDTV and it was amazing to get live TV on board. Punctuality-wise, we were about half an hour to 45 minutes late each way, but this is not surprising in view of the congestion at Mumbai and Delhi airports.
Overall, we had a great experience and even my parents who are die-hard Jet fans, said they really enjoyed it and would like to travel on Kingfisher again. However, my dad who travels a lot within India on work had an interesting comment. He felt that he would still prefer Jet for business travel just because they have a much larger and established network and many more flights. As an example, they have a flight every hour on the Mumbai-Delhi sector, so if he missed the flight he was originally on due to meetings running late, etc. he could just hop on the next flight within the hour(as a Gold member they waive a lot of change fees). Whereas for KF, since they have a smaller network and fewer flights, that might be a problem. But for leisure travel, we all felt it was the best. From a personal perspective, I work in the US, so can only compare it to domestic US airlines, and can tell you that compared to the horrors of flying in the US(aging aircraft, surly flight attendants, no meals served), this seems like a slice of heaven! Am eagerly looking forward to the start of their international operations.