I travelled with 2 of my friends by SpiceJet Hyderabad-Bangalore last weekend i.e. June 29, 2007. I have travelled with them earlier too - round trip on Delhi - Ahmedabad sector in March 2006, and round trip on Delhi-Hyderabad sector in August 2006. My experience was just awesome on these 2 earlier flights, but this time it was a total mess.
First of all, the flight was delayed by 40 minutes, and eventually took off with a delay of 1 hour. Ok, pardoned - as it is rainy season.
The greatest mess was their chekin counter at the Hyderabad airport. Even Air Deccan (probably the most ridiculed airlines in India) has better management at the check-in counters. My flight had been delayed by 40 minutes, and within 30 minutes of the scheduled (delayed) departure of my flight, another SpiceJet flight was supposed to depart from Hyderabad to Chennai. Well, nothing so unusual - quite often I have seen upto 3 flights of the same airlines supposed to depart within a span of 30 minutes. But, at least the airlines take care to have separate counters for each flight, and at least make proper boarding announcements.
So, now let me describe the scene at SpiceJet counter at Hyderabad airport. There was a fairly long queue at the counter. Passengers for Chennai as well as Bangalore were checking-in their baggage. When our turn came, the lady at the counter told the passenger standing just in front of me that check-in is going on only for Bangalore and not for Chennai. Poor Chennai bound gentleman had already checked-in his baggage, and so had several other Chennai bound passengers. There was chaos all around amongst Chennai passengers. I don’t know whether they managed to get their luggage loaded to correct flight or not. Fortunately, neither I nor my friends had any luggage big enough to check-in. Who knows, it may have landed at Chennai instead of Bangalore !!
Anyway, our turn came. The lady at the counter was not even seeing the tickets or checking the id-cards !! We handed our ticket, she blindly kept it and gave us 3 boarding passes without even writing our names on the boarding passes. No id checked, no questions asked !! Such was the state of carelesseness that day that anyone could have taken a printout of any ticket, entered the airport and boarded the SpiceJet flight :-). Even government bus conductors are better at checking tickets compared to those ladies in red.
Coming to the in-flight services, they provide just a couple of toffees and a 200ml bottle of water. To my surprise, they have stopped providing cotton ear-plugs - probably one of the cheapest things available on earth. When I had travelled with them last year, they used to provide cotton ear plugs on Delhi-Hyd as well as Delhi-Ahmedabad sectors. Also, earlier they used to provide cookies - which was also not there this time !!
Since I do get pain in ears during takeoff and landing, so I had no other option but to bear the pain.
Maybe, that day was a one-off case of carelessness - but we don’t expect such a messed-up check-in from any airlines. My view is - they are degrading slowly, at least in terms of services at Hyderabad airport.
Usually, their flights are on time, barring rainy season. My recommendation is - if you are travelling by SpiceJet, then keep your eyes and ears open at the check-in counter, and do carry cotton if you too suffer from pain in ears.