KingFisher airlines - why there are the best

Had this impression that flying by Kingfisher was costly. And the reason is that initially, Mumbai-Bangalore one-way was around 4K-5K. But now its close to Rs 3300 - and that I guess is comparable with other airfares.

Had the opportunity to fly it in Jun-07 and maan, must say -those guys rock !!!

First experience:
Was on Mumbai-Blore route. Routine flight. Was impressed by these things:

Whats good about KF:
a) While waiting for the boarding pass, I had a KF ground staff come with an electronic device and print me the boarding pass after checking my e-ticket. So it was practically a less than 5-min waiting period for me at the check-in counter. This was pretty impressive. These guys sure know what a waste of time it is to stand in long queues for the boarding pass.

b) They started on time. To me thats a primer of things to come. If a flight can start in time, thats half the battle won for me, bcoz then I can stick to a schedule I have in mind, after landing.

c) Their services is impeccable

d) The facilities excellent (in house entainment, food, etc) and timely.

e) The staff is definitely young, with decent looking air hostesses (cant exactly call them beautiful). They were all very well groomed and served with a smile.

Second experience:
The second experience was on return from Bangalore to Mumbai. Not a routine flight this time...read on to find out why...

Background:
Imagine a scene where all of Mumbai is flooded and there is water on the runways. The news channels are full with 'Mumbai Under Water' news stories. Flights which land every 3 minutes at Mumbai are allowed to land only every 45 min. And 50 flights waiting in queue.

How they handled it:
a) They first announced that snacks are available.

b) Then at around 2 PM, they announced that lunch was available. They arranged for buffet lunch at Hotel Ashoka inside the terminal - this needed us to check in again and also identify our baggage again - as the hotel was near the entrance of the terminal. But there were enuf staff to ensure that it was a quick operation.

c) After lunch, we had to wait for 2 hours inside the flight, where they again served lunch or snacks to anyone who wanted them. The air hostesses were giving excellent service even when the aircraft was on the ground. The in house entertainment (TV) allowed us to view news about Mumbai and keep ourselves updated.

d) We were shifted to another KF flight after 2 hours, but even that was very nicely handled. Finally the 11:30 AM flight took off at 6:30 PM from Bangalore airport. For 3300 Rs for a Blore-Mumbai flight, such service is definitely value for money.

Have travelled by Jet also few times (other than Indian and AirDeccan). Jet is also good. But somehow, Kingfisher has an edge as you leave with a better overall experience.

Hearing lot about Indigo being good too. Need to try them out sometime....so watch this space for more on that...

Comments

Shrinidhi Hande said…
Vijay Mallya knows how to get maximum returns on his investment...
February 7, 2008 at 9:15 PM
Gautam Raisinghani said…
had the same feeling when I flew them. but a trip to Delhi and back in Jet, proved that Jet is not sitting on their laurels.

Spick and span aircraft, awesome looking female crew, absolutely great service and very very good food to eat. In short the whole experience shook me up, pleasantly.

try Jet one of these days and let me know.
March 1, 2008 at 3:15 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Permionics Water Purifier - A good customer experience

The beginning of a need: In April 2007, a sales man from a local dealer came calling to my house door. He offered to check the tap water and let me know how pure it is. I said ok - no harm in knowing. He put a thermometer like equipment in the glass of water n came up with a reading of 800 or so and said TDS was high. I had no clue what TDS meant. I tried to understand it from him and then said will call if I need one - citing high cost (8000-10000 Rs) as the reason. Deciding on a water purifier: As I said, I had little or no knowledge of TDS and other technical details about water purifiers. So I decided to turn to some review sites to know more. Like a typical person, I had also heard abt Aqua Guard, Kent, etc due to their ads.I went thru a lot of the reviews about water purifiers. And suddenly felt 'englightened' :-) Myths dashed: Reading the reviews dashed all my myths abt some brands - especially Aqua Guard - with their bad after sales support. Also, surprising found goodd
Read more

A different point of view

This is an interesting incident of how an email helped me in my life. My kid is 6 years old. She loves to watch cartoon on TV and does so for many hours a day. Since last many months, she started going nearer and nearer to the TV to watch. We used to tell her in the beginning. Then we used to get angry. But to no avail. She continued with her ways. I got an email a few days ago. One of the many forwards we receive. It showed an image of a frog. But after some time, the image turned on its head to show the image of a horse. The mail said that what we see depends on the way we look at anything. I read it and forgot about the message. While fwding it to other friends, I suddenly remembered my kid's problem with TV viewing. I was getting angry at her, without looking at the problem from her side. I immediately got up, took one of the mailers from ICICI and put it near the TV and asked her to read one of the words in large font - it said 'open now'. She could not read it ! I ask
Read more

Sharma travels - new Merc bus

Sharma Transports have introduced a new Mercedes Benz bus service between Mumbai and Bangalore. Saw it at Tumkur few days ago on way from Bangalore to Mumbai and decided to check it out on the way back. Called up redbus.in and specially booked this bus. But they dropped the bus, apparently bcoz if has some 'starting' problem. Instead they sent a Volvo bus. They explanation they gave is that the new bus is full of electronic circuits, which none of the ppl here understand ! Even during their Blore-Mumbai trip few days ago, the bus would not start mid-way. Avoid the new Merc bus - atleast for now, till they get the 'electronics' right.
Read more