Kudos: I traveled several legs on Indigo (Bhubaneswar-Hydearabad-Bangalore, Bangalore-Kochi, Kochi-Goa, Goa-Hyderabad-Kolkata). All of its flights were in time and some reached destinations before time. Excellent service. Free food is not given but one can buy food on-board. Very happy with this airline and am glad to see they will be connecting Bhubaneswar with Mumbai and Kolkata from Jan 29th. My best wishes to this airline.
mini-Kudos: Used the site http://www.ezeego1.co.in/ to book ticket two days before a flight. They were offering great deals.
Mega disaster: I had booked Bhubaneswar-Bangalore flight on Jetlite through a travel agent from Bhubaneswar, who I thought I knew well. When I called Jetlite the day before the travel (a) first they told me that my reservation was canceled because the travel agent did not do something in time. (b) later I found out that they had just canceled the Bhubaneswar -Bangalore flight altogether and neither the airlines nor the travel agent informed me about that.
So-so: I am familiar with three main travel sites for booking tickets in India.
- http://www.ezeego1.co.in/: Has great deals. Does not seem to accept international credit cards.
- http://makemytrip.co.in/makemytrip/MMTHome.do: Accepts international credit cards. Has software issues: When I booked a ticket with me as the booking person and my wife as the traveler it booked the ticket in my name and I ended up having two tickets on my name on the same flight. Great customer service over email and phone in correcting mistakes. It did not inform me about the cancellation of Kolkata-Bhubaneswar flight. But after I told them, they issued an immediate refund.
- http://www.cleartrip.com/: Does not seem to accept international credit cards.
Disappointment: Indian canceled Kolkata-Bhubaneswar flight that I was booked on and I had to make alternative arrangements just 2-3 days before my travel date.
Dealing with a local Bhubaneswar travel agent with office in Jayadev Vihar: I thought since I knew this person well, he will give me better service. It was somewhat of a disappointment; but I am not sure how much I can blame the agent for this. Following are the good and bad parts. (a) Jetlite claims that the main travel agent (Eastern travels) that this travel agent went through did not do some thing in time so they canceled my booking. The local travel agent (Orissa travels) responded that Jetlite often finds flimsy reasons to do such cancellation. I don’t know whom to believe. (b) His deals for a Kerala package was Rs 22000 (instead of the Rs 23,800 that I paid to the Bangalore agent) but involved worse hotels. (c) Did not inform me about Jetlite flight being canceled; but did promptly inform me about the Indian flight that got canceled. (c) While makemytrip refunded me completely for the Indian flight that got canceled this travel agent says Indian only gave him a coupon to be used in 1 year. There is no way I can use this coupon. (d) The tickets in Indigo that I bought from this agent were all fine. (e) Paying him for the tickets was convenient as his people came and picked up the money from my parents. They also refunded to my parents, albeit not so promptly.
Travel agents on the net: Came across two very good travel agents to arrange my Kerala trip and my Goa trip. (Did have to spend time in finding them. Also, may be I was lucky.) They both gave good deals and things went pretty well. I sent money to their ICICI account from mine; it was easy and quick. The two agents and the various companies involved in these trips were:
- http://www.malabarholidays.indiatourism.com: Mr. Shekar based in Bangalore 09448230450 / 09343835483 (Kerala Trip) is the agent I communicated with initially and Tours India International, Cochin, really took care of the reservations locally.
- Avenue Regent Kochi: Wonderful hotel, will stay again here if I am in Kochi.
- Backwater Resort, Kumarakom: Decent resort in Kumarakom. Will stay here if in Kumarakom.
- NAS group house boat: Not as great looking as the other house boats. (It may not have been a NAS group house boat, but a temporary rental.) Had a deck which many don’t have and view from the deck is even better. A/C control not in the room so the night spent was not as nice as it got cold and noisy and there was no way to turn it off. The overall experience was marvelous, but next time I will make sure about the particular boat I am in and solve the a/c issue beforehand.
Indian Railways: Was able to buy e-ticket on the net using International credit card. Could get 3 a/c Kolkata-Bhubaneswar ticket in Coromondal 2 days before the trip. (A/C chair car tickets in Janashtabdi were not available. But as my wife told me, regular sleeper tickets are better than a/c chair car seats as one can sit as well as sleep on a sleeper ticket.)
Jet airways: Unlike the disastrous experience with its subsidiary Jetlite, the Bangkok-Kolkata-Bangkok flights in Jet airways were very good. The food was great, the entertainment available in the seat back sets were very good, the flights were on time and the tickets were the least expensive in that route. I hope they fix the problems with Jetlite asap; otherwise the negative impression that Jetlite will make will harm the overall brand name.
Lessons:
- Have an ICICI account. It is very useful in sending money to make reservations.
- Have access to rupee based credit card as many airlines in India do not accept international credit cards.
- Avoid small local travel agents for out-of-state travel. They have less clout, so they may not be able to do the best for you, even if they want to.
- Avoid Jetlite and Indian.
- Patronize Indigo.
- For Kolkata-Bhubaneswar leg, good old Indian Railways is the most reliable means.
- For hotel rooms make sure what kind of a/c it has. Does the a/c have an automatic temperature control or you have to manually turn it on and off.
- For visits to particular part of India look for travel agents in that part of India. You may get lucky and come across good ones.
- For air travel within India check out the three sites http://www.ezeego1.co.in/, http://makemytrip.co.in/makemytrip/MMTHome.do and http://www.cleartrip.com/ and see who has the best deal.
- Airlines change their schedules frequently. Check often.
