In the month of Oct last year, while I was surfing on the net just like that in the search for the cheapest Airfare between Hyderabad and Chennai, I came across Spicejet website. Which was pretty simple to use, didnt need to register or login to book a ticket.
I simply checked out the best possible fares on makemytrip and yatra etc, almost everywhere only two airlines were coming on the top slot of cheap fares, Air Deccan and Spicejet. Air Deccan I already had 4 experiences out of which 3 were not on time. I didnt mind at that time as they were more of casual flights and I was not time bound. First time it was when I had to go to Mumbai to drop wifey half the way home, she had the connecting flight in the morning to home so we took the evening flight from hyderabad thru air deccan which reached mumbai on the mid of the night.
This time I wanted to cut short the journey in couple of hours as all I needed to do was visit a colleagues home, have a cup of coffee and pick up the laptop officialy sent for me from US of A. Although our official carrier is Jet and I could have got the tickets booked officially too but I thought "chodo yaar kabhi kabhi apne kharche pe bhi jaana chahiye". So was looking for a cheap option.
Didnt wanted to fly with Air Deccan. Logged on to Spice website and to my amazement found a 199/- fare one way to chennai and return on the same day - same fare, I was shocked to see, Cudnt believe it, simply tried booking it and on the next step came to know that it was excluding taxes but still the total fare(Return) came out to be 2200/- . I promptly booked it as it was a Sunday morning going and evening return fare. Now that fare came so low - I thought it wont be a good idea to even claim it.
Booking was simple, just choose the destination, put in the dates, passenger no. passenger information, address, cell no. etc and its done. No registratio required. Final page’s print out was your ticket. The best part was - once the booking was over - it took me to a page where I could see the Plane map and book my seats too as per my choice, THAT was good! I took the seat closest to the door(Window seat obviously) and it was done.
Flight from Hyderabad was on time, not even 5 minutes delay, only a small bottle of water was served during close to one hour flight, Inflight magazine was already read twice and seemed like I am the 3rd reader, Crew was good. Girls wear Red Mini’s same like the Kingfisher gals do, but these were slightly less on attitude than their Kingfisher counterparts are. Captain was a smart guy. Some Foreighner - I was unable to make out what he was talking on mike as I felt like he was talking while his cigar was still on the corner of his mouth. Take off and landing too were smooth.
Return flight too was on time, same - a bottle of water was served, I read somewhere that they server some cookies too, but I aint got any, I mean nobody in the flight got any cookies or something.
I already had a good huge burger in chennai so didnt needed nothing.
I read on couple of reviews that the refund policy of spice is not good as they dont give you cash back but give u some coupon and all which could be encashed on your next booking and all(thats valid for a year from cancellation). Recently I booked tickets for one of my friend again to chennai, this time too I got fare of 499/-+ taxes, Unfortunately the plan got postponed and I had to cancel the tickets. BUt this time I booked after registering myself on the spice site as I thought they might give me some points or something if I book it from my id and was surprised to see that amount which has to come to us as refund was added as credit against my login id and as many times I login and book some tickets - it gives me a ping that you have 2500/- against your credit, so I can book the tickets with this money and pay the rest of the fare by my credit card. I found it cool. No need to talk to anybody in customer care or anywhere or no need to go anywhere with some coupon in hand to encash it. I think this is good atleast for those who travel frequently(atleast once in 6 months) now I am planning to encash that amount in my next months delhi trip.
Today again while going thru the site just like that - I found that they were offering tickets to delhi at 99 paise only(+ taxes:). I am planning to book it ASAP for the next month.
Spice seems to me to be the best and the cheapest option as of now, trust me it is more trustable and ontime than Air Deccan and 10 times better in comfort as well as man management. This I am saying after flying 4 times with them, none of them was delayed or cancelled.
Ratings and Comments are more than welcome.