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IT 206 TRV-BLR to attend the meetings after my holiday

Curbside
On arrival in front of the departure entrance the by now known uniforms of kingfisher porters swarmed towards me, the quick “kingfisher sir?” cleared the way to them taking the bags out of car boot.

The usual CISF ticket inspection on the entrance to a dedicated kingfisher bag screening unit (yes, a separate one).

Check-In to Boading

Once that was passed the porter escorted me to the check in desk where massive queues were forming. Some blue suited guy saw me standing in line and approached me with a quick “Mr xxx?”.

On acknowledging that he gave me my boarding pass and lounge invitation and told the porter to bring me to the lounge. He then saw the bags and apologized and informed me, he will check them for me and get the new boarding pass to the lounge for me.

The porter than proceeded to bring me to the lounge (which in fact is a restaurant with tables all around). The porter handed my invitation to a waiter who with loads of “welcome welcome” proceeded to show me to a table and tell me to help myself to the buffet.

After a while I decided to clear security and wait nearer to the gate. This was fun, one entrance guarded by the CISF leading directly to an x-ray. Loads of tourists all bewildered as to what they have to take out of the bag (laptop or not, plastic bag with liquids or not).

Than to the left are 4 metal detectors (2 for male/2 for female) and it is amazing to see tourists struggle with the separation of gender.

The usual frisk later bag to the chaos that is the end of the x-ray machine. A guard only gave me back my laptop against noting my boarding pass number and details in a book. Strange, but then again maybe that is local custom.
Right after security are the 2 departure gates with limited seating areas, but upstairs there is plenty of space to sit, buy some food/drinks and wait for the boarding call.

The flight was delayed according to the sign but boarding started 10 minute before the time marked on the boarding pass. Usual security check of stamp on boarding pass and bag later a Kingfisher person marked the sequence number of his sheet and directed us to a bus.

The bus than went about 500 meters to an aircraft (I think they wanted avoiding mixing us with people who walked from an arriving flight via the front). Funny enough the people behind me than were asked to walk as the arriving plane passengers were all gone.

Flight:

On board 3 people in Kingfisher First but for some reason they had put me in a seat next to an Indian gentlemen who was not to happy not to have his row for himself.

A quick check with the FA from my side I was allowed to move and he was happy.

On a 70 minute flight Kingfisher manages to offer me a choice of non vegetarian or vegetarian sandwich or a hot snack. All is served on a tray at once (starter, main, desert) and drinks (non- alcoholic as it seems to be not allowed to server alcoholic drinks on domestic flights.

The seats as previously said are great 2x2 seating with a deep recline, why can’t an European airline offer great seats and service like that in their business class.

Arrival Service:

We arrived 10 minutes early in Bangalore. As this is a connecting flight (it goes on to Dehli) when leaving the aircraft the boarding pass was inspected.

A young lady than saw me and said “Welcome back to Bangalore Mr…, nice to see you again”. Now that is service.

A quick walk down to the belt with no bag in sight. About 5 minutes later the belt sprung into action and the same lady from the gate directed a porter to my direction and told him “2 bags, one red roller which is heavy, the other is silver”. The bags came as number 3 and 4 and once I pointed to them the porter put them onto a trolley and told me he will bring me to the driver or taxi. I declined thanking him as I needed to see the cash machine and he immediately explained where the machine is.

Seriously I know I was the only foreigner coming out of that aircraft in business class but what is that for a service, recognition by name and helpful staff.