I had heard only bad about Deccan, but it was good compared to other’s experience.
First, I am not a person who like Credit Card and has CC, but probably Deccan is the only Airline who gives so sevral debit cards for making payment. Good for me. If you book through Travel Agent then there is Rs 50 more charged as Agent commission.
On the day of flight, some 8 hours before the flight I got a SMS saying the flighte has been delayed by 50 minutes. Well, It takes just 50 minutes from Hyderabad to Chennai. Felt bad, but I knoew that. But my roomie cautioned me that last time when he got a SMS about flight delay, the flight departed on time. He was lucky to take taht deccan flight as SMS regarding Flight on time was not sent to him.
I checked in the stuff. My luggage was kg 7 over weight, so I had to pay for taht. As I had no cash, I don’t carry cash much (have ICICI ATM next door) and had not thought that I would be over luggage. Well I paid just Rs 210 (3 kgs). The bill had the option for payment made by Credit/Debit card, but sadly (or luckily) he had no payment machine.
In waiting lounge, there was no information screened on any damn monitor about Deccan flight. I was damn pissed. Flights till 10:30 in night were shown in screen but none of deccan flight. they had 4 flights in one hour time. Bangalor, Tirupati and Nagpaur paart from Chennai.
One suggestion. As Deccan has open seating arrengement, you can sit anywhere.. (They can’t spend enoguh money to get the seat booking made online. Even many bus operators provide it and I believe all airline have online seat booking). If you have Air bridge then be first to take the bridge as if you are taking bus, take last. so that when bus stops you are the first one getting down. So you can choose best seat (window).
The only reason I was annoyed by Deccan was that one crew memeber told me to switch off my mp3 player. I know the harm of using instrument that uses radio or micorwave frequency. These instrument interfere with pilot talking with Air Traffic control. In history there were near crashes due to Radios on plane. Those who all are reading it and don’t follow this rule please follow now onwards. THIS CAN BE LIFE SAVING. My mp3 player will not collide with pilot frequency, but she pestered me and I switched it off.
I enjoyed flying over clouds. My all earlier flight were last evening or night. Enjoyed it. os could not enjoy it well. Deccan is good. Itna bhi bura nahin hai jitna suna tha. They give you good service at reasonable price. (Please use Deccan to travel. I have its shares.. he he..) Seat selection is a problem. Not available yet. Generally don’t have air bridge access. flights are delayed very often (even w/o notice). Book your ticket online. Save on time and agent commision. Book early, so as to get best deals. Booking through web using Firefox is very frustrating. You are forced to use Internet explorer. I like Firefox very much.
------Update on 2nd Dec 2006-----
[Just booked another ticket - Chennai to Mumbai]
They provide following methods to make payment
Visa/Master
Citibank EMI
Diners and Master/Visa
ICICI Bank Direct Debit
Citibank Debit Card
SBI Direct Debit
I really didn’t understand the difference of 1 and 3. If you know then please do let me know.
Remember. They don’t accept American Express Cards. But I believe no LCC accepts it as of now. Even not all full carrier would be accepting that.
I had to cancel the ticket due to project work and I could reschedule my ticket in breeze. I am really surprized by the sad stories related to ticket cancellation. I would strongly suggest that you should book ticket online. There is no jhanjat of tedious procees of refunds (if it happens).
Regarding the price. If you want low fare book early. For booking tickets of any flight in next two days AD is pretty costly compared to Even Jet.
Hope it help. I’ll update the review as and when required or suffered. :-)