I have been flying all over the world for quite a few years now. I have flown on a lot of cheap airlines, especially southwest, the lines on which deccan has been modelled.
I have flown deccan during their introduction into India and have been amazed at their ability to keep costs down..
This experience of mine really put me off.
I was to take a flight out of Trivandrum to Chennai. The flight was scheduled for take off at around 4 PM. As usual the crowd in Trivandrum airport was crazy. There was the Indian flight and the jet flight for Chennai scheduled to take off before mine. When I checked in I asked if my flight was on schedule and the girl at the counter (man she was a real beauty) said “YES SIR, As scheduled” , this was around 3 PM. So I collected my boarding card and took off for the book shop to see if I could get a book to read (you know how boring the in-flight magazine is).
I heard the Indian flight being announced at around 4.15 and I saw no sign of my flight. So I checked with the pretty girl at counter (I was just looking for excuses to meet her again) She said that there would be a delay and the rescheduled time was 5 PM. I told her that I had to be in Chennai before 8 and if the flight was going to get delayed further I would be happy to cancel my ticket and take the JET airways flight. She said “DON’T WORRY SIR” (Did I tell you she has real beautiful CAT EYES). I was convinced and then started reading my book. I heard the Jet guys announcing their departure.
I was very engrossed in my book and did not realize the time until I heard an announcement over the PA system that the Deccan flight was delayed further and the rescheduled time was 7.30. That’s when I looked at the time and it was 5.30 PM and all my escape routes to Chennai were blocked. That’s when I decided to check the deccan counter and ask my PRETTY CAT EYED WOMAN about her promise. Well, they now had a new set of women stationed there and their excuse was that their MANAGER would be there soon to answer our queries.
I lost my cool and asked them as to why they couldn’t inform us in advance so that I could have taken the JET flight and not missed my meeting. THEY said that they were having a problem with all their flights around the country and if I needed more details I would have to wait and speak to their manager. Who of course NEVER SHOWED UP.
Fortunately I could reschedule my meeting for the next morning and therefore I proceeded to Chennai ultimately at around 8 PM. And oh I did try out one of those sandwiches they were selling on board. MAN It was horrible. The said it was a vegetable sandwich and all I could see was some grated carrots. The label said it was from Coffee Day. I did’nt know that coffee day was also going the Deccan way (CHEAP). YUCK!
My parting shot to all ye fellow travellers “ DON’T FLY DECCAN IF YOU ARE ON BUSINESS”. It’s good for a holiday cause it doesn’t make a difference if you are a few hours late as long as you can keep your costs down.