I am writing a review after a long time and honestly it got
necessitated by my experience on "Fly the Good times". I
had booked an advance ticket on Kingfisher Airlines and I must say the
fares I got were ridiculously low. I am a heavy user of the
Kingfisher First Platinum card and am very impressed by its benefits. I
was offered a complementary King Club Gold membership and that was very
welcome as well.
Here is my experience on our onward journey(Mumbai-Guwahati)
Preflight
Online
Booking - It was a breeze. Very efficient website, fast and secure
transaction handling. Another great benefit was the ability to
prereserve seats at the time of booking
Fares - Their morning
service is the only direct flight to Guwahati. Flying time is 3 hours
and 30 minutes! I think this is the longest domestic flight possible.
Having said that I got a return fare of INR 8858 inclusive of all
taxes. No complaints whatsoever.
Customer Care - This is where
our concerns begin. We were traveling with an infant and since this was
a reasonably long flight we requested a baby meal. We were told this
had been updated. When my wife called again they had no record of this
and they updated it then. I was not sure so I called a third time and
this time, thankfully, they had updated the meal request.
Check
in - Being a gold member I had access to the Kingfisher First counter
at Terminal 1a at the Mumbai airport. The staff was polite and
efficient but they had no place to accept payments for the infant
ticket. So I had to handover my credit card which they swiped at a
different location. This is something I was not comfortable with. Being
a gold member I also got access to the members lounge for me and my
wife. This was definitely a big benefit of getting the complementary
membership. The one thing I couldn’t understand is that the lady at the
counter told me this craft had no inflight entertainment. That was
surprising as I thought all Kingfisher flights had inflight
entertainment. Read on to find out why .:-)
Members Lounge -
In true Mallya style, the lounge has loads of seating space. Red
leather sofas welcome you, a selection of coffees and teas. Wholesome
hot snacks. Again no complaints whatsoever. Our little one roamed
around the lounge and was taken care of by the polite and cheerful
staff. We also got a friendly loader who helped with our luggage right
into the flight.
Security check - Terminal 1a at the Mumbai
airport is reserved exclusively for IA and IT. So not much rush.
Efficient screening of baggage. Overall no complaints
Boarding -
Thankfully skywalks are provided and this makes the boarding process
faster and easier. In no time we were checked into our seats. However a
big LCD screen close to the front gate(This also helps control
lighting etc) read "Simplifly Deccan"! Now things started to make
sense - the cheap fare, no inflight entertainment. I think Kingfisher
decided to convert one of the Deccan routes to a full service route and
still utilize the low cost planes. I honestly felt I would not have
complained had they told me in the beginning that this was infact a
"Kingfisher Red" flight. Anyway seats were alright and I did not
complain about the space.
Inflight
On Board - Enough has
been said about the "hot" crew. I am only going to say that they were
presentable with a nice smile and warm attitude. Once you have flown
enough, believe me these traits are more important than how hot the
crew looks. The inflight manager was friendly, very customer oriented
and happily responded to all our calls(thanks to infant needs).
Throughout the flight she was attentive to customers and efficient to
requests. There was a full service meal and it did not disappoint.
Portions were sufficient and food was warm and delicious. For our
little one they had prepared mashed potatoes and cerelac. Overall we
were satisfied with the inflight experience but badly missed the
inflight entertainment as the flight seemed neverending.
Arrival
- We landed on time inspite of taking off 30 mins late. Impressive.
Luggage was a breeze and yet another gold member benefit was priority
tagging of baggage that arrived as soon as we reached the conveyer
belts. A loader was provided again who assisted us throughout the way.
From
the above you would have concluded that overall I shouldn’t complain
getting all this for a measly fare of INR 8000. I thought so too but
issues began on our return journey. Read on.
Return
Tele/Web
Checkin - Web check-in was not working so we called to tele check-in.
The person allocated us the 3rd row seats but failed to inform that
they were non-reclining. It is a known fact that the customer service
executive should inform us of this small, yet important issue. I
specifically asked whether we will be ferried on a Deccan plane again.
She promptly told me that this with be a Kingfisher flight with all the
bells and whistles. Made me happy and we waited to board for our flight
back to Mumbai
Check in - There was no kingfisher first counter
so we got into the regular queue. there was ony one passenger ahead of
me but the person on the other side could not issue boarding cards for
20 mins! Extremely inefficient staff that did not know how to handle
systems properly. There was no lounge facility. No complaints though.
We waited in a very long queue for security check. I thought it was too
slow for comfort especially as there was no consideration for
passengers travelling with infants. Though our flight had been boarding
for 15 mins, the queue just wouldnt move. Later I realised that the
staff was unable to handle multiple queues. Agreed that this is the
passengers’ fault but airlines should be able to instill some
discipline.
On Board - I completely flipped when I saw that
this was yet again an Air Deccan plane! No inflight especially when
their staff confirmed that would be provided. What was pleasant though
was that the same inflight executive was there who had taken care of us
on the onward flight. Rest assured, we would be comfortable and she did
not disappoint. However, this time they forgot to put a baby meal
onboard inspite of our request two times. I was extremely angry and
asked for a feedback form. While filling this I mentioned the good and
bad. I hope they will act on some of the suggestions.
Landing/Arrival
- We landed bang on time and I was again impressed. A 7 pm on time
landing at Mumbai is hard to achieve by Jet, IC and other equal quality
carriers. Thats a sure plus point to Kingfisher. The last bit of my
problems was baggage handling. Inspite of being marked as priority
baggage, my 2 bags were the last to arrive after all passengers. I was
so angry as all taxi spots were taken and we had to wait for a long
time for them. Another woe os terminal 1a is that the meru/mega cabs
assemble on terminal 1b and it was a very long walk with 7 days of
luggage. Agreed that this is a problem of the airport but I want to
mention this as a heads up to those who land at 1a.
Overall we
had a huge contrast between our onward and return journey. I will
travel with them only when the fares are cheaper. Given similar fares
to Jet, there is no way I will prefer Kingfisher over Jet. I hope you
find this informative.