Our flights had been rescheduled (delayed) with no information to us at all. BOM airport services were OK. The inflight experience on BOM-DEL IT 301 was a disaster. Once on board we requested cabin crew for a blanket and pillow each for my wife and me.
She made grumpy faces and brought only one blanket and no pillows after some delay. We asked for the pillows to which she mentioned they will be provided. After a 15 minute wait, I walked up to the flight ’manager’ and apprised her of what was going on. She apologized and assured me that things would be handled well going forward.
After take off when the food service commenced and my wife was asleep. So I requested the cabin crew to pack some whole fruits for her which she could take with her while deplaning as my wife was fasting. She confirmed she would do the needful after the service. However, this cabin crew conveniently chose not to provide the fruits. On deplaning I made my displeasure known and they had nothing to say except that ’Madam was sleeping so I did not bring the fruits. ’
The same crew member was very rude to me. Having arrived from a 10 hour overseas flight I was badly jet lagged and having woken up early again for the morning departure I needed to sleep. I made a simple request to her to provide me with an eye mask if possible. To this she arrogantly replied that eye masks were only available to first class passengers. Her expression was almost like I was trying to avail of something above and beyond my ’entitlement’. A simple reply saying they were unavailable would have been enough. Why the arrogant reply?
Similarly, after the meal trays were collected, I wanted to use to washroom but the aisle was blocked by the food cart. So I asked the crew if I could use the KF First washroom.They hesitantly agreed.
On arrival in DEL we waited for the coach to arrive. We were informed that due to ’administrative issues’ it would take 15-20 mins for the coaches to arrive. A few mins later the first class coach arrived but the crew would initially let only first class passengers deplane. When passengers expressed their displeasure for having to wait for another coach, it was then that all passengers were allowed to deplane and board the same coach.
I was trying to express the problems we faced to the KF DEL manager but she abruptly cut me off and simply told me in an uninterested and apathetic tone that ’ pls allow us to make amends.’ I was upset but not surprised because I could see and experience the poor attitude of the KF staff at DEL airport.
Whilst at the boarding gate, the signs pointing to the Jammu bus, mentioned ’Bangalore’ so I did not board the bus. When I asked the KF rep, she simply shrugged her shoulder and mentioned that maybe the sign was not changed but it is the bus taking us to the Jammu flight. Professionalism? Correct information sharing? The bus was jam packed to save money I guess.
The flight time was changed from 1015am to 1105am. We departed only around 1135am with no information from KF except an apology from the pilot.
Similarly on our return the real let down for the Jammu Delhi flight was a very long delay. This flight IT 3655 was originally scheduled to leave at 12noon. The flight was rescheduled to 1250pm with no information to us (as high lighted in an earlier). When we were already on our way to the Jammu airport today we recd a text message at 1034am stating that the flight had been ’rescheduled’ aka ’delayed’ to depart at 1.45pm. The airplane doors however, closed at 2.20pm and we were airborne at 2.30pm. There was no information provided about this progressive delay.
Finally we landed around 3.40pm. I knew we would either miss our connection or the connecting flight would be late.
The KF DEL ground staff who met our aircraft on arrival gave me and another passenger wrong information that the connecting flight would board in 10 minutes around 4pm. What she did not realize is that I had overheard her colleague stating that the flight to Mumbai IT 334 would only land in Delhi at 4.05pm. So obviously it would not leave until close to 5pm.
I was very upset at this wrong information and requested to be rebooked on the next available Jet Airways flight to Mumbai immediately. We have since then cancelled all our future KF bookings and are now flying with another carrier and are happy.
Dr. Mallya claims that he has handpicked the crew and have instructed them to treat us as guests in his house. Our experience shows otherwise. Is this how guests would be treated in his house?
The service standards at KFAirlines has really deteriorated and the crew treat you badly. So, its probably better to chose wisely and use other airlines for your travels.
No, one from the managerial level or guest relations responded to my feedback, despite calling them 3 times and leaving messages. The first interim response I got from the ’chairman’s email id’ was 10 days after my feedback was sent. Again, it was just a formality and did not really convince me that Dr. Mallya was really concerned about my feedback.