Choosing seats while flying

Being in a job which involves lot of air travel, I have developed my own preferences while flying. This may or may not work for you and are solely my views.

1. First few rows are the bumpiest as they face the turbulence first.

2. The last few rows swing and bump like a see saw.

3. The most stable rows are on the wing although the engine noise is noticeable.

4. Seats near to toilets are the worst because of Odor, People Hanging around to go to the loo, etc.

5. Aisle seats are good for easy access, but if you suffer from motion sickness they are the worst seats.

Few Tips for the Nervous Flyers

1. Develop a habit such as Writing, Watching Movies, Listening to Music, Reading Books, etc. Basically anything that will divert your attention.

2. Try to take up window seat as you feel more in control because you can see around and make out what is happening around you.

3. Take up seats in emergency exit rows so that mentally you feel secure.

Flying with Indigo

Except for Mumbai airport if you are a corporate traveler make sure you get the bunny rabbit sticker on your baggage tag when you check in.

This sticker is to fast track your luggage, something like Priority tag on Jet.

Flying with Indigo

While flying indigo airlines please do not sit at row 10 or the last few rows.

Trolley 1 ends servicing at row 10 and take up to 1 hour 20 mins to serve food which is pathetic if your flight is 1 hour 40 minutes (Mumbai - Delhi). If you ever get the seats mentioned have food before you sit in the flight.

Bon voyage! 

Full Service Airlines, India

After the embarrassing closure of Kingfisher Airlines, India is left with only 2 full fare airlines.

1. Air India

2. Jet Airways

We in India love bargains which is clear from the number of low fare airlines. Among the two full fare airlines mentioned above. Except for leg space there is nothing much to write about Air India.

Jet Airways gives some decent service which is at par with Indigo or slightly above.

I have been travelling a lot with Jet Airways lately; as most of the corporate(s) prefer to fly their executives with them. But, I cannot relate to Jet Airways as a full service airlines.

1. The food portions and good for a 10 year old.

2. They do not serve any soft drinks / mocktails.

3. Most of the food served is "Street Food" like Veg Noodles with Manchurian, Ragda Patties (Mumbai Steet Food), etc.

4. Planes are ageing. Which is evident from their upkeep.

5. In today's age they do not have any screens to watch movies, etc.

The only hope is Tata and Singapore Airlines tie up to fly in Indian skies. Lets hope and pray that it happens. At the moment it is stuck in red tape.

British Airways Offers

Return Flights from Mumbai to London at 51079INR only and host of other offers.
Click Here to see the details.

Dragon Air

Flying to Hong Kong from Bangalore just got easier.

Dragon air a sister concern of Cathy Pacific has started a daily service from Bangalore to Hong Kong from 2nd July, 2008.

Spice Jet

Spice Jet Flight - Bangalore to New Delhi
Experience on a Spice jet flight, on a recent trip from Bangalore to Delhi.

I have been on this same flight on two occasions, and it has never been on time. The original flight was at 8:55PM (Friday). As usual I got an SMS 1 week before; that the flight has been rescheduled to 9:30PM.
However, I was expecting further delays.

On the day of flight; the flight was then delayed to 10:30PM. However on reaching the airport the flight took off only at 00:00AM. The only plus point was, that the luggage was released quickly and I was out of the airport within 30 minutes of landing.

Well coming to the point. The whole idea of taking 8:55PM flight was that I will reach New Delhi at decent enough time and the problem is, that on both the occasions the flight was rescheduled and took off at midnight.

What I understand from this is that the airline ignores customer feedback. However I will have to take the same flight again if I book the tickets late as it is the only airline available.

Jet Airways - flights to San Francisco

According to the advertisement in TOI today,

Jet Airways is announcing flights to San Francisco from Mumbai on daily basis.
This flight is starting from May 5th, 2008.

I will review international and national flights of Jet airways in next post.

Travel Websites - India

In recent years there has been a boom in number of websites offering air tickets, packages, hotel packages etc. Here is a short list of few popular web-sites:

1. Makemytrip
2. Yatra
3. Cleartrip
4. Indiatimes travel
5. Ezeego
6. Travelguru

Air Travel in India

Air travel in India was a good experience till last year when I travelled Jet and Sahara. With new year's start (2007) I travelled with Paramount, Sahara, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo.

Well Air Travel especially with -SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo is a nightmare. My advice to people travelling especially with IndiGo is to go 1hour late as all their flights run 1 hour behind schedule. We always talk about Deccan being late and not being on time. But these other no frill airlines have crossed the limit.

First the boarding call is delayed by 15-30mins and then after boarding the plane, one keeps sitting inside for 30-40 mins for god knows what. So overall - Indian no frill airlines I give a thumbs down. I only travel through them because I have no other option. Travelling through no frill airlines is a painful experience, especially if you are one of those very few punctual flyers. Who reach airport on time and check in on time.

Moral of the story: If these airlines cannot get a person from Point A to Point B on time these airlines are useless. They don't solve the purpose of travelling with them. No frills airlines provides no extras and the only service provided by them is to pick up a person from one city and drop them to another city. If they fail to provide timely and efficient service, then I think they have failed as a company and as a airline.