My Kingfisher experience. Review on Kingfisher Airlines

M*y Kingfisher Experience

I am employed with RINL-Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(a PSU) and admit I am not a very regular flyer. I do not know if I am truly qualified to make comments and observations on an Airline, which I just flew twice or thrice. But put together I have made more than 20 or 30 flights so far, on various airlines of India.

On 20th March-2009 the in-house travel agency of my employer, RINTRAS booked me and my family on a Paramount flight I7-470 from Cochin to Chennai and then on a connecting Kingfisher Flight, IT-2493 from Chennai to Vizag, for travel date 28-May-2009.

The arrival of Paramout airlines flight at Chennai Kamaraj Airport was 9:00 hrs while the departure time for Kingfisher was 10:40 hrs, at the time my tickets were booked. With the clean gap of 1 hr and 40 mins I was not very worried about missing my KF flight even if Paramount flight were to get delayed by a 10 or 15 mins. Last December my wife used the same flight combination and faced no serious issues other that having to rush straight to KF check-in after disembarking from Paramount flight at Chennai.

On 28th May-2009 the Paramount flight I7-470 took off at 9:00 am from Cochin and landed at Chennai at 9:30 hrs instead of 9:00 hrs. Still I was not too worried as the departure of KF flight IT-2493 as I knew then was 10:40 hrs and I was happy in the thought that there was still 1 hr for departure. The minute I disembarked at Chennai I rushed straight out to the Chennai national departure terminal, leaving my daughter of 17 and son of 16 to retrieve the flight baggage from the Paramount conveyor belt, which somehow developed a snag that day and was getting delayed.

When I reached the KF check-in counter I was happy, it was only 9:40 hrs. When I presented my e-ticket at the KF counter I was shocked to hear that my flight IT-2493 had already left at 9:40 hrs. I was horrified and kept looking at my printed ticket and I could see clearly the printed departure time was 10:40 hrs and not 9:40 hrs. For a moment my mind just went blank not knowing what to do. There were 5 of us including my aged parents and I was making a mental calculation on how much it would cost to buy spot tickets.

It was a real panic situation and I did not know what to do. I was angry and kept asking why I was not informed of the change in flight departure timings. They had no answer but the KF staff at Check-in asked me to contact the assistance crew of KF nearby for all further queries. There I met a wonderful young person by the name of Krishna Kumar. He understood my predicament and without any fuss agreed to put all of us on an alternate flight to Vizag. He initially tried to book us on a direct Indian airlines flight to Vizag but failed, as it was full. It was still not clear as to who was responsible for my predicament. Mr. Krishna Kumar then asked me to give him some time to book us to Hyd on a KF flight IT-3726, which left at 12:00 from Chennai, and then another KF flight, IT-4818 which left Hyd at 16:20 hrs to Vizag. After about an hour of toiling on his terminal he came to me personally and handed me the boarding passes for both flights and helped me check my luggage direct to Vizag. I never expected this kind of miracle to happen and I was so relieved. IT was much better to arrive late at my destination, Vizag than getting stranded at Chennai.

To tell the truth Mr. Krishna Kumar of Kingfisher Airlines(I do not know his designation) was my guardian angel that day and he did his organization proud. Dr. Vijay Mallya, are you listening? I wish you promote him and also find out why the flight timing change was not informed to me in advance as I had given my mobile no at the time of booking. At least RINTRAS my ticket booking agency should have been informed of change in flight timings. I was told that the departure timing of IT-2493 was changed 2 months back. But while on flight I noticed that the KF in-flight magazine issue of May2009 still shows the departure timing of Flight IT-2493 at Chennai as 10:40 hrs. Someone somewhere had bungled in your wonderful organization sir. I bear no grudge against you Mr. Mallya but preventing even such small mistakes is what would keep your wonderful airline unique from the rest.

My special thanks to the exemplary personal effort put in by Mr. Krishna Kumar at Chennai airport without whom I would have got stranded at Chennai and then would have ended up cursing KF airlines for the rest of my life.

Dr. Mallya, here are my booking details in case you want to act on it and avoid such problems in future from spoiling the beautiful travel experience of other passengers like me: -

Abacus Reservation code: BULXYT/1B

Ticket no: 0903516628532 to 536(5 tickets)

Issuing agent: Visakhapatnam IN/ Q7B8/ARB

Date issued: 20MAR09

Airline reservation code: DSVKAI

Date of travel: 28MAY09

From: Chennai, India, Departs: 10:40

To: Visakhapatnam, India, Arrives: 12:15

Flight no: IT-2493

Passenger name: Sabu Alex Poovelil/MR; PC Baby/MR; S Baby/MRS; Sonia S Antony/MS; Ronnie S Antonym/MR(5 passengers)

Mobile no:+91 98495 16002