I travelled by Air Deccan on 2nd Sep. with my wife from Mumbai to Goa.
Website and Call Centre :
Inspite of having read all the negative reviews at mouthshut and other places, we finally decided to fly to Goa by Air Deccan. We booked the eticket. It was only Rs. 699/- (Air Fare)+ 875/- (Taxees) + 100/- (Handling charges). Not sure what the handling charges are! Total = Rs. 1674/- per person. The online site is very easy to navigate and fast. Also confirmed the bookings with their call centre. Even this experience was very good. I was given all the information. However they told me that we will update you if there are any changes to the schedule. I had prepared for this too. However to my surpize nothing of that sort actually happened.
Ground Staff:
The check-in process was also very friendly and fast. I was out with a boarding card in 2 minutes. There were no long queues etc. The lady at the counter was friendly. I asked her if they allow digital camera with its battery onboard. To which she said Air Deccan does not object this. However the airport security may ask you to remove the batteries. For safely , I removed the batteries from the DigiCam and put in the checkin baggage.
However she did a bug mistake about which I have written below:
Boarding:
The only problem we had was at the time of boarding. There was a big queue at the gate. In Air Deccan you need to rush to the gates so as to get a better seat. They do not allocate seat numbers at the time of issuing boarding pass. As I reached the lady who was verifying boarding passes she asked us to wait away from the queue. We were surprized ! Later we were taken for baggage identification. We were told that we were given a wrong baggage tag stapled on the boarding card. This way our luggagae could have reached Nagpur while we landed in Goa. Thanks to the lady who noticed it at the last moment. Other than that there were no more shocks given to us. However we were the last to board the aircraft and as a result had to compromise on the desired seating arrangement.
Aircraft :
Luckily ours was a Airbus A320 aircraft. It looked very new and seats looked very neat. Some seats has torn seat covers though.
In flight service:
I did not have any bad expereince here either. Mineral water bottle is sold for just Rs 10 here. Cool !
However I was told that they do not server hot beverages on board as there is a risk of the hot fluids falling on the passengers ! I wonder why this problem (?) is not faced by other airline. I think its their another cost saving measure.
Lavatories:
A totally bad experience here. There was no water. In fact the nozzle was broken and a bound with a tape. Also the lavatory was stinking. It was not soiled though. The lights inside did work. I did not bother to complain about this. What more to expect in Rs 699/- ?
Landing and Take off:
Both landing and takeoff were very smooth. In fact I personally thanked the captain (who himself was at the gate to say goodbye) for the fantastic performance. I have in past experienced Jet, Indian Airlines, Alliance Air, East West airlines (old), Damania (old) etc. But never experienced such a smooth take off and landing. (Was it due to the new aircarft ?)
Baggage Claim:
Baggage arrived (yeah !) in time (within 10 minutes after the belt started) and was in good shape. I had put my cam batteries in an unlocked compartment of the bag (at the last minute). However they were safely lying there.
I do not want to totally disagree with other review on this site. This was my very first experience with this airline. Also this was kind of "off season" travel. Thus their resources were not put to a real test.
It may be possible that others had a genuine bad experience. However I was more than satisfied with my very first experience with Air Deccan.