I recently had an opportunity to fly Air Deccan again after some gap. They surprised me with a decent flying experience. Do not look to them for inflt food (even for purchase) or entertainment but they do seem to have an increasing network, better timings and stabilizing operations.

Kingfisher had a bunch of delays around the days I was in India (Jan 2006). Jet was still the best in handling delays but Air Sahara was not too bad. SpiceJet seemed to have issues with limited fleet size to react to ATC and weather delays.

All in all, all the carriers seem to have improved a lot.

I had posted earlier of feedback that I sent Dr Mallya of Kingfisher. Was sceptical about a reply but did get one signed by him addressing all the points I had raised. The well written reply was obviously by someone passionate about customer service. Great to see feedback mail getting replied.

Kingfisher Airlines now has an FF program: King Club

http://www.flykingfisher.com/kingclub/

Thanks for the info.

The Indian frequent flyer programs don't cut it for me. This one has it so that it takes 90 flights to go from general member to Gold.

Based on the language in the Royal FAQ's, it only takes 60 flights to go from general member to Gold. The language in the rules section indicates the same. However, what is misleading is the "table" in the rules section. That indicates you need 90 flights to go from general member to Gold. It's probably a mistake given that you only need to fly 50 flights to retain Gold.

That sounds much better. I've had enough of BA type programs where your points toward a higher-tier get reset upon qualification of a new tier.

I noticed a change since last month: www.flykingfisher.biz does not work anymore, I could only book through www.flykingfisher.com, and they have removed the price discrimination between Indians and foreigners ^

The website also says "Please note that we have revised the fuel surcharge on our fares to Rs. 750 from 5th September 2006", but I can't see any fuel surcharge on a booking I just made:

Fare: INR 2625
Taxes/fees/charges
Taxes/fees/charges: INR 225 WO Passenger Service Charge
Total: INR 2850

Pretty good fare for a GOI-BOM flight in December...Jet Airways was at INR 4400, Go Air at INR 3000 and Spicejet at INR 2400. I booked my outbound BOM-GOI on Spicejet at INR 2600, since every other airline was above INR 6000.

I flew GOI-BOM and BOM-DEL on IT in July and was very impressed. Kingfisher porters in red uniforms waiting at taxi drop-off areas to take your luggage through the checked bag xrays and to the checkin counters. Bulkheads and exit rows were not available during online seat selection, but I got exit rows at checkin for both flights. IFE had 5 TV channels, mostly Hindi shows and one sports channel. There were about 10 radio channels - I ended up switching between the 4 english radio channels on both the flights. Meal service was similar to the Jet Airways meal service, with an extra coffee/tea/soft-drinks service soon after takeoff on the BOM-DEL sector. Welcome kit was as stated in post #2, with a little printed menu inside. Cabin crew was good, but 9W crews are a little warmer.

Hi,

I'm going on IT and 9W in Dec and Jan. I'm flying BOM-DEL-BOM-GOI with IT and GOI-BOM-CCU-BOM with 9W. What should I expect (meals, entertainment, amenities, service etc) on each leg.

Thanks,
Josh

Anyone????

Josh IT and 9W offer different experience. I am not sure if the segments you're flying are on turbo prop (ATR) or Airbus/Boeing. IT uses turbos on some small routes and 9W does the same. The experience on turbos is comparable. On jets it is different. Here is my take.

On the Jets:

IT flies A320s while 9W flies B737s (multiple types including NGs). IT has inflt entertainment including a channel for maps while 9W did not have any (new fleet order for 737 supposed adds IFE). Unfortunately the maps does not work consistently for IT but the Indian TV channels do show up. I did not notice any movies on IT other than TV/satellite channels but I was not looking.

Food wise both are comparable. I prefer 9W sometimes. They seem to have Indian meals with a few western choices. IT had more of snacks and sandwiches on some of the flts. Food is something you can enjoy on domestic Indian carriers - very different from North American and European carriers.

Amenities wise, 9W does not usually provide any amenities. IT provides a small plastic bag with mostly junk stuff (a poor quality pen, ear buds, etc.). I don't take it most of the time. If you're flying with kids, 9W used to have better kid amenties though they're cutting down on that in recent years. 9W's kid stuff is usually better than IT's.

On other factors - IT used to have a far superior ground experience. Staff used to help you with luggage and refuse tips. These days, after the introduction of Kingfisher First (which was fantastic on a recent trip), their economy (Kingfisher class) has definitely seen a downgrade in service.

9W has experienced and better trained staff across. IT has younger, cheerful crowd but often they don't seem to be industry savvy. You see the differences in the way 9W handles baggage or follows procedures - predictable and consistent. Staff at both airlines are generally friendly and do seem to defer to customer requests and needs.

On Turbos:
No IFE for IT also. Food service better on 9W on flts I flew.

Overall, I consider both decent carriers for the 2 to 3 hr flts with superior in flight services. Do not compare with international services of SQ, CX, etc. That is a different category.

Thankyou so much, that was really helpful. I'm flying jets on all sectors unless Air Deccan opens the Kolkata-Jamshedpur route be January however, it is looking unlikely.

Thanks again,
Josh

I don't know specifically about Kingfisher but the higher charges are for non-residents and NOT non-citizens (got into a heated argument with an IA staff member years ago when I first experienced this daylight robbery).

I know that Indian citizens living abroad pay higher fare (legally - of course, may figured out ingenious ways to hoodwink this) and non-citizens living in India pay the lower fare (legally but they have to go the extra mile of showing proof of residence in India).

It is the stupid rule imposed by Indian Government from the socialist era of fleeing the brave and the few tourist that dare step into the country.

-------Edited to fix typo---------

i am indeed pleasantly surprised esp. after I just posted something to the contrary.

Havent looked up a fare in 6 months, but last I checked

Air Deccan, Kingfisher and Spicejet had the same rates online.
You may get a different rates from a TA though.

This sort of policies are not specific to India. I've seen the same thing
with lot of other countries for the Airfares, hotels and the car rentals.
(Check out Australia)

Your point about the legal fare discrimination being done on the basis of residence (not citizenship) is generally correct.

The dual-pricing (i.e., resident rates vs. non-resident rates) set-up existed even before the Indian government existed and is not limited to government entities. And it's not limited to airlines, as it exists with hotels too. That said, I've never been a fan of dual-pricing because it seems like I'm meant to be on the wrong side of it.

Plenty of non-citizen Indian residents -- Russian, Turkish, Egyptian, Somali, Afghan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Israeli, French, Brazilian, Colombian, Venezuelan, and Mexican citizens (amongst others) -- legally avail themselves to the local air fares without showing proof of residence in India. And, alternatively, I've also seen resident Indian citizens being asked for proof of being "local".