Travel Book Logs

In the latest edition of my ongoing comparisons between domestic carriers, I flew last week to Chennai and back on the new Deccan (http://www.airdeccan.net). The airline has successfully completed the transformation from Air Deccan to simply Deccan complete with new trim thanks to the new ownership.

Evidence of the new ownership can now be seen on the new website and and the online reservation system among many other changes. Yellow and blue has been replaced by Kingfisher Red. Seat numbering is another change but I never had a problem with the old arrangement. Perhaps the busy holiday season was a good reason to implement this. Another new feature is Tele Checkin (Dial area code – 39008888) Everything seems to be pretty smooth with the new transition. Over all it seems to be a big plus for Deccan passengers.

Kingfisher has placed its stamp on the airline without taking away anything from the old service. Instead we find the airline offering additional services for a very fair price. Purchased a week in advance I scored tickets for Rs 500 each + Rs 1,575 tax. Round trip cost me Rs 4,150 which is really good considering that one way on Kingfisher or Jet was about Rs 6,000 anyway. Deccan thankfully still continues to offer great value for money.

The flying experience was more of the same which I have come to see in Deccan for some time now. Departure was ahead of schedule from Hyderabad to Chennai which gave me some satisfaction in arriving early for my appointment instead of the usual half hour travel delay we all have got used to. The return flight showed promise as I received an sms with information that my flight was preponed by 40 minutes! The good news didn’t pan out as with several sms(es) later I was informed that the aircraft would be delayed by an hour. It was a late night return leg so it didn’t bother me this time but I can’t say about the the next time.

Another thing which stuck me at the time of travel was that the flights were really not that full. Both going and coming I had all three seats to myself. Compare that to the elbow to elbow jostling on a Jet flight or any other airline for that matter. Our line to board the plane was barely 40 people. I looked over to the Jet Airways line for a Bangalore flight and it was swollen to the point of it curling behind one of the pillars in the boarding area. You can’t complain about more room and it’s a lot better when you know you’ve paid half the price!