Ihad Air Deccan tickets to fly to Trivandrum on Friday at 4:00 pm. TheAir Deccan people called me in the morning and said that the flightwould be preponed by 15 mins. Wow! I’ve never had that happen on Indian Stretchable Time. I got to the airport at 2:45 only to be informed that due to technical reasons departure had been delayed till 10:20 pm and didn’t you get the SMS?! Turnsout that I wasn’t the only guy who didn’t ’get the SMS’. One of theother passengers asked to see the manager to arrange accomodation tillthe departure since he had a new born baby with him. The guy at thecounter replied that they didn’t have a manager (?!) and that if there was a Jet Airways flight (which there was’nt) they could schedule us on it and the Road Comes Free (Copyright) Reebok. Idecided to head back to NGV and wait till the evening. I recieved THEsms saying that the flight had been pushed to 10:20 pm at 4:00 pm. Just in Time! But what if the flight had taken off?!
I tried to get a bus or train ticket but thats impossible on Friday evenings. Icalled the call center the following morning and asked if the flightwas scheduled for departure at 3:45 pm. They said that since theycancelled the flight I would be given one free rescheduling. Yippie!.
The return flight on Monday was also delayed by 2 hours. I’veheard that Air Deccan is unreliable but the service is bad too. My onlyconsolation is that the tickets were free. Next time I want to flywithin India, I’ll take Jet/Sahara/Kingfisher. Otherwise I’ll take thetrain. (would have taken a lot less time than this flight..).
[EDITED on 22nd September 2006]: After my really badexperience on Air Deccan last month, I had decided never to fly thiscrappy airline again. Unfortunately I had to book my parents on it fromBangalore to Cochin in the last minute today since there was NO othertickets available at such short notice. I made a mistake while bookingonline - I didn’t change the Mr. to Mrs. in the title for my mother andnoticed it only after booking the ticket. I called up the call centerand the girl at the other end said ’give me Rs. 200 and I’ll changeit’. I sent an email to the customer feedback and they replied:
"Weregret that our reservation system does not enable us to make changesof any kind in a ticket once it has been generated. Please note thatmodifications can be done, wherein you will be charged Rs.200 perpassenger per trip." (Didn’t the second statement negate the first? Mathematical proofs anyone?)
Deccansnot really low cost if you book on short notice - which is often thecase since you need to travel for emergencies and you take a flight. Iwas in Cochin last week and the prices for Cochin - Bangalore wasalmost the same (~Rs. 500) for Kingfisher Airlines and Air Deccan. Andfor the Rs. 500 extra - Kingfisher has great food and seating, friendly staff, great service and it won’t get delayed or cancelled onaccount of faulty aircraft, lack of staff etc. It doesn’t make sense totake tickets on Deccan if you are doing it in advance either - there isno guarantee that the flight will take off on time for the ticket youtook 7 months prior.