August 12, 2004
I went to the Air Deccan website to check out their Rs.500/- offer. Was really thrilled to know that I could travel by air and that it was actually affordable for a personal visit. So, I booked a ticket from Chennai to Hyderabad on November 12, 2004. At that point in time, my friends and colleagues (and ocassionally even myself!)used to tell me you don’t know where you will be tomorrow and you are booking a ticket three months in advance. I also had to hear words like, you are wasting 500 bucks! Little did they know or even I know what was going to happen later!
Without paying heed to any of the generous pieces of advice I booked the ticket and felt nice that I would surprise my parents by calling them from chennai at 5.30PM and joining them at the dinner table at Hyderabad! It was a long time dream to give this kind of a surprise to my family. Also, there was this feeling of elation because it was going to be my first trip with my hard-earned money! Air Deccan didn’t quite like the idea of me having such nice feelings I guess! :-(
November 9, 2004
Tring!! Tring!!
Me: Hello
Voice on the other side (Ms.Air Deccan - MAD): Good Morning Sir! I am calling you from Air Deccan! You have booked a ticket with us for November 12, 2004 chennai to Hyderabad flight no.XXX.. PNR No. so & so.
(I was indeed elated that for 500 bucks they are actually calling you to remind you that you have a flight in the next two days)
Me: yes
MAD: (In as unempathetic tone as possible) I am calling you to inform you that we have cancelled the flight for technical reasons. (Oh!) We are offering you an option of choosing another flight on the someday or we will give you a complete refund! (With special emphasis on the ’complete’)
Me: Well, in that case, what are the other flights you have under the offer? (Still hoping for some rabbit out of the hat!)
MAD: Sir, we have a morning flight. 0640 hrs.
(Oops! I am working on friday! And can’t take leave at such short notice!)
On conveying the job responsiblity
MAD: In that case, we will give you complete refund Sir! Shall I do the refund?
That complete again
There goes my dream of calling from chennai and dining at hyd!
And now I am mad at her. But expressing great restraint I ask her why was the flight cancelled.
MAD: Technical reasons Sir!
(Can’t he understand when told once?!)
Me:Ok then. Please do the refund.
(I am sure I wasn’t so polite. Since I don’t remember what I said I am conveying the essence of what I told her at that time)
Click. That was the next thing I heard. With that click Air Deccan lost a customer forever!
So what if it’s a low-cost airline. That doesn’t mean they should give bad service.
I was overjoyed when Air Deccan began their operations. I was under the impression that it was the beginning of the low-cost airlines era in India like in the western countries. But alas! if Air Deccan is any indication then they would have driven away every possible customer away from a ’Low-cost’ airline!
Hopefully some service provider comes in with a more robust business model. Low cost doesn’t always have to mean horrible service. And I am not the only one to have experienced this with Air Deccan. The following are the first hand experiences of my acquantainces with Air Deccan:
A flight is cancelled two hours before the scheduled departure and the passenger is again offered that complete refund. He later went by some bus he managed to book himself into!
A flight is postponed by two hours from the scheduled departure time and this decision was taken one day before. The passengers were informed only on the day the flight was scheduled and that two just two hours before the new departure time.
There are many more such instances....
The bottomline: Air Deccan - Avoid if possible.