Confession 1- I had already told myself, and everybody else who cared to read my last review I was done scribbling random thoughts for the year.
This is the last one for 2005, I promise.
Confession 2 - I have yet to fly Paramount. This review, and the rating given is purely for its customer service. Once I complete my journey, I will get my son, ms id- pikles4me, to write a review on whether the complete flying experience matches the service.
Now, on to the review.
My darling husband has a knack for hunting up the cheapest flight tickets. If it means we have to sit on a flight for 12 extra bottom-numbing hrs, and visit Sri Lanka and Hong Kong to get to LA because it costs a few dollars less, we will do all of that.
His search brought him to Paramount Airways, a recent contender in the battle for a piece of Indian skies. He flew one sector, and came away quite impressed with the service, the stewardesses, and the shiny interiors.
When he mentioned that my son and I had tickets to fly Chennai - Cochin via Coimbatore, on Paramount, I gave thanks that it was not Air Deccan - no offence meant, just that I like to be pampered once in a while, even if I’m paying only enough for standing space in a Chennai-Cochin cattle truck.
For reasons I will not go into here, my son’s ticket had to be cancelled. I was told they would levy only a Rs.250 cancellation charge. Pleasant surprise this; normally one has to cough up at least 50% of the ticket cost on cancelling apex fare tickets.
It seemed too good to be true, so I probed a bit, and to my horror I found Paramount had discontinued its Chennai - Cochin flight, and that they would now be dropping its passengers off at Coimbatore.
Indignant at having to pay that Rs.250/- for no fault of mine, I made a bit of a hullabaloo, and was then told they had ’agreed’ to drop that too.
It being the holiday season, tickets can’t be had for either love or money - I checked with Air Deccan, Jet, and IA - so there was no question of my booking a ticket to Cochin on any other flight. My smoked ham was ordered, my bags were packed, and now it seemed like my holiday plans were all dashed to bits!
On one hand I was very annoyed, but on the other I was also curious about how Paramount would handle this situation.
When I called to check, I was told all sorts of blood pressure raising things by both my hubby’s secretary and Paramount’s booking office, so by the time I reached their Coimbatore office on the phone, I was frothing at the mouth, ready to chew up and spit out anybody who so much as dared sneeze in my direction.
Imagine my surprise then when they apologised, very politely, and told me that
Paramount
1 - offered a full refund of the ticket fare for those who wanted to cancel
and
2 - for the others who wanted to make the trip, they would be arranging surface transport from Coimbatore, where they terminated the flight, to Cochin
I know airlines offering tickets at rock-bottom rates have empowered the Indian traveller by giving him more choices. The business traveller and other frequent and not so frequent fliers fly for far less, and the customer who till now took a train, can fly for roughly the same cost. A win-win situation one would think.
Reality, however, is quite different. Along with getting rid of high fares, most low cost airlines have also got rid of any kind of accountability to their customers that extends beyond getting them to their destination in one piece.
To all those who claim that safe transportation is what is most important, I agree that it is the most important, yes, but not the only important issue on hand.
The provider of a service, if they fail to provide the service for any reason, whether it has a legal obligation or not, has to offer a reasonably acceptable solution to those customers who have availed of the service in good faith.
Pointing to fine print on tickets and saying ’’See, we are not obliged to do anything for you other than get you to your destination only on the flight you have paid for.’’ simply means the customer is being taken for granted, and that his rights are not respected.
Look at this example –
I had a late night Madurai to Chennai flight on Air Deccan, and was travelling with my children. The flight was first delayed by about an hour and then around midnight they announced it was cancelled.
They refused to get me accommodation saying ’we don’t do that.’ Fair enough, their ticket clearly stated that.
But they also
refused to even help me find accommodation in a hotel in the city
refused to help stranded passengers to find transportation to get into the city, which was about 45 mins drive away. Luckily for me, I had a car, and had instructed my driver to wait till the flight took off
refused to refund the ticket money, saying I had to get it the same way I had booked my ticket - through my travel agent. Luckily for me I had a credit card, and so could pay for my hotel room
refused to put me on the flight leaving the next day saying it was full
I drove 10 hours, in the pouring rain, to Chennai the next day
Not a pleasant experience at all!
Now compare this with what Paramount has done – They
Quick and effective solution to the problem.
Everybody stumbles, makes mistakes, and has problems. It’s how problems are deal with that matters.
Paramount, going by this, my first experience with you, I will definitely choose to fly you over Air Deccan!
note - Paramount does not claim to be a ’low cost airline’ like some others do, but does offer tickets at costs not too much higher than those available with other low cost airlines
for the actual flight experience - check out
https://mouthshut.com/review/Paramount_Airways-90448-1.html