Domestic Flights in India
 

Looking at flying Khajuraho - Varanasi & then Varanasi-Delhi.
Airline choices seem to be Air India, Kingfisher, Jet & Spice. Any thoughts on these? Do any stand out as definately not?!
Thanks in advance
J

Jules: Kingfisher for curbside service. Jet is perfectly fine, I've flown 'em lots. Coming IN to VNS is no big deal, but getting OUT I found a hassle last time[but I was flying to KTM...] They are all perfectly fine, I fly Jet or Kingfisher by preference.

If they're the same price, we thought Kingfisher was great.

I love both Jet & Kingfisher.
Would only fly Air India if there was no other choice.
I always hear that Spice is very unreliable. The one time I tried them, they moved a flight up by two hours (yea, they left two hours early!) on their only flight of the day.

I was soooo concerned about Indian Airlines before we went to India in late May because our flight Nagpur-Delhi was ideally serviced by Indian - timewise. Kingfisher took to long via Mumbai. Jet had already canceled that route.

I was terrified by the thought of flying Indian.

The flight was very good. The aircraft seemed well maintained - well what we saw ;-) -, the staff seemed to knew what they were doing , flight on time and smooth ride.
They even serve meals and drinks.

Nothing to complain.

My research earlier lead to the result that JET is best followed by Kingfisher.

I would not fly any other - again I might be too psycho here

Happy Planning!

SV

Thanks everyone. I know we have flown Indian in the past with no issues but am not sure we had any other choice at the time!
J

How have you made bookings? Indian travelocity???

kayak.com will search most of the domestic indian flights now. I know Kingfisher and Jet have their own websites too.

easy to make bookings jules: just use the airlines own websites - there's no real reason to go thru a third party. The flights are so cheap. Dunno when you're traveling but be safe and book your KHAJ/VNS/KTM segment in case one million Japanese tourists arrive on the same day.

Thanks again everyone. Dogster we are not planning on going until Jan/Feb 2010. Just in that getting a plan of attack phase!! I will look at the airlines own websites & take it from there. Just wanted to make sure no one had a big red flag that said it was not reliable to do that!! Thanks again & happy & safe travels. J

Anyone have any experience with spicejet. They're quoting Delhi - Varanasi rs.1 + charges & tax which come to a total of rs 2330 Seems a very good price but if they're not reliable maybe we would be better off with Jet.

claek lcuy quotes her experience with Jet above.

Nobody has suggested that Spicejet is unreliable, Clark.

spaasvogel, who has taken a total of one flight in India, thought Spice might be iffy - but then, she was convinced Indian Airlines would crash. She has acnowledged that she may be a bit 'too psycho here'. lol.

I'd grab the fare. There's never any guarantee, my friend - delays happen. I tend to go with Jet or Kingfisher 'cos I like the service. Bigger airlines, better back-up, I guess. That's all.

Actually Dog, I did say that!

After my experience with Spice, I heard from several Indians that they have a reputation for "free style" rescheduling, and are not very diligent at notifying customers of the changes.

However, every flight I went on this month - 2x Jet, 3 x Kingfisher- was at least half an hour late, so I don't think I would rule out spicejet, just would choose KF or Jet first.

Even Kingfisher was over two hours late on my Delhi- Simla flight, but they provided credit at the Deli for every one to get lunch and the newly opened domestic airport is a really nice place to wait. Best of all, I'd misread my docs, and we arrived 45 minutes after the original departure time, so the delay gods were clearly looking out for me that day!

This is why I always try to leave lots of room in my itineraries for disruptions. Just part of the charm of Indian travel.

Yeah, I think we have the same technique. I've learnt to recheck every flight before I leave the hotel. I've only been caught once when the flight had been cancelled for months and nobody told me. Mostly things go smooth. I treat myself to Business class so if there's delay they have to look after me. I must've caught a dozen flights last time. All smooth. No drama. There seem to be new airports sprouting everywhere too, making life much easier.