In the past two weeks, I have had the chance to fly Air Deccan twice. The first was a short 55 minutes flight from Chandigarh to Delhi, and the second was the Delhi-Bangalore flight, taken the very next day. I intend to give a overall review of each, so that the reader gets a reasonable idea of the product!
Chandigarh-Delhi
The flight was at 7.15 am, and I checked in around 30 minutes prior to departure with my Rs 500 ticket(purchased around a month prior to the flight). Everything went smooth, and it was nice to see the pleasant face of the Air Deccan ground staff early in the morning itself! The aircraft used was the ATR with the two propellors, and though I slightly doubted the flight quality, everything went really well, and the 55 minute flight was one of the best flights I have ever had! What was unusual was that the plane had just one pilot and one air hostess! The air hostess, Saakshi, valiantly took care of everything from general announcements, the food cart, helping people with their babies etc.. all with a smile. Moreover, there was nothing like certain reviews which said that the airhostess sounded like a railway station vendor! The take off and landing was smooth as well. Good work Air Deccan!
Delhi-Bangalore
The flight was rescheduled to take off at 0640 hours as per a new schedule which came out a few days before my flight (and this was not conveyed to me at all, it was by sheer luck that I happened to visit their website a day before the flight and find this new flight time!). Anyhow, I had hand baggage of around 6 kilos and around 22 kilos to be checked in. I had predicted that I would be paying excess baggage charges for atleast 5 kilos, if not more. But wonder of wonders, the ground staff waved me in without charging me a single penny. Happy that I saved quite an amount(considering that I paid around Rs 2000 for the ticket including taxes!), I waited along with other passengers in the lounge, even as rival SPICEJET passengers queued up for their Del-Blr flight from the other gate. However, even as the clock showed 0730 hours, there was no sign of anything happening with our Air Deccan flight. Restlessness among the passengers brought in the Duty Manager of Air Deccan, who asked us to wait till 8am, stating technical difficulties.
True to his word, at 8am, he arrived, announcing that the flight was cancelled! And he actually had the nerve to say that and walk away without another word! All of us crowded around him demanding a detailed explanation, but all he would say was that they were helpless, and that full refund would be given for the cancelled ticket. On questions from passengers about alternative arrangements, he was blank, and said they could not do any such thing. Now, there were quite a few people who were planning to return back from B’lore to Delhi the same day, and they were holding Air Deccan tickets for this sector too. On being questioned about what would happen in such a situation for those tickets, the manager said they could not do anything about that as well. The passengers on this ill-fated flight included tourists like myself, people who had connecting flights out of the country from B’lore, and even one passenger who was put on this flight because her flight the previous day had been cancelled in a similar manner! Needless to say, a big war of words between the irate passengers and the lone and helpless Duty Manager started. A few passengers managed to bring the Airport Manager in, and one even began to call up the likes of Praful Patel, Captain Gopinath, Aaj Tak and other channels to make it a full blown issue! I joined in, feeling that something would come out of all the shouting and name dropping, but by 10 am, when nothing happened, I was losing hope and thinking of alternative arrangements.
Thats when the Duty Manager came in and announced a Delhi-Blore flight via Mumbai departing soon, which had around 15 seats vacant. Despite the heavy rains in Mumbai that day and the risk of getting stranded, I was one of the 15 who opted for this, simply because I had to reach B’lore that day itself. The flight was an Airbus, and it was a very nice flight again. No complaints at all, except that maybe the leg room was a LITTLE less, but by the time you get to to worrying about that, the destination is reached! We had a 30 minutes layover in Mumbai, where I was surprised to see the aircraft being REALLY cleaned well! I have been in a Gulf Air flight before and during a layover of around 2 hours, there was no such meticulous cleaning and refreshing done! And yeah, before I forget, the seats are indeed made of this rexine type material, but its quite comfortable. And the in-flight magazine is much better than the stuff AI and IA dish out! And of course, you pay for the food and drinks, but the rates are reasonable, and the food is good, but not really warm.
I wonder what happened to the passengers who opted to fight this issue out, unlike me, and I suppose I will never know what really happened to them. However, one thing is quite sure to me now. If an Air Deccan flight is on schedule and it takes off on time, then rest assured you will have a pleasant flight totally. If this doesnt happen, then you may end up at the mercy of some of the most unpredictable ground staff ever! Either way, one thing that you can be sure with Air Deccan is the CHEAPEST rates compared to the competition, provided you book as early as possible! That said, I would be forced to re-christen the airline to AIR DAKKAN, as a fellow irate passenger put it aptly, if the service continues to be hit-and-miss like this!