Five Stars are FOR WHAT ?????. Review on Kingfisher Red

Kingfisher Airline(KFA) is a Five Star Airline? But according to me they have lost this status. Dr. Vijay Mallya has to spent lot of time to get back to its earlier status.

Five Stars are for what?

1. Chaos by ground staff

2. Dirty unhygienic cabin

3. Bad unhygienic food

4. Mostly late as per display monitors of Delhi Airport on 30th May

5. Age-old entertainment system

6. Cost of tickets is not lower than others

Last Saturday(30/5/2009), I decided to fly Kingfisher when coming back to Pune from Delhi. Reasons for choosing KFA was because of good service. But, I was let down by KFA.

1. As per monitors at Delhi Airport, flight was at 2050 hours and boarding gate no 17. At gate number 17, 2 -3 male staffs were there and like many, I too went to them to confirm its departure time and boarding gate. They said yes to all. At 2025, LCD monitor at gate 17 displayed same message. I was first in the queue and I waited almost 3 hours to go by KFA. Until 2045, ground staff was not able to check & clear our boarding pass because there was no CISF staff at gate no.17. These staff were there since 2000 hrs…. why they have not checked availability of CISF staff instead of blaming them. According to CISF official, they were not informed by the organizer or by KFA. At about 2100 hours, CISF could bring one guard but there was no bus of KFA to take us to aircraft. We waited at-least 10 minutes for the bus.

1. There were two stairs for that Airbus 310(not very sure about the no.) and there were too many guys of KFA around but boarding was from the first stair only. But Why? It took almost 20 minutes to board the aircraft and lot of chaos inside the cabin.

*3. Food………. ohhh my god………… it was pathetic

Cabin crew said Biriyani will be served. At around 2140 hours they served food in a paper box that looked like a box of cookies. Opened it and could not believe my eyes. There were Three Plastic-ka-dabba and a plastic ka spoon.One was for curd of Mother’s Dairies; Second one looked like Gulab-Jamun-ka-dabba of a road side sweet marts and third one still pathetic…. A flimsy plastic container with about 50 gms of some unknown sweet. In that, Gulab-Jamun-ka-dabba there was about 10-table spoons of veg. biryani without any vegetable in it. Is that enough for an adult person? I saw, some passengers demanded more food. And humiliated staff had no option but to serve one more packet. Pathetic.

A Five Star Airline served this type of food on 30 May 2009 to the passenger of Delhi-Pune flight IT 3154. It was a late evening flight of almost 2 hours. We reached Pune at around 2305 hours.

That Biriyani in that plastic-ka-dabba was hot. Is it hygienic to serve hot food in this type of plastic container? …… I doubt. Too bad.

4. Dirty Cabin – Carpet was so dirty. Strip of carpet on aisle was almost black. Lost its original red and some other colors combination. From the color of upholstery, one can make out desperate need of replacement by this Five Star Airlines. Is it hygienic to travel by patients and very small kids by KFA?

Fortunately, there was sufficient tissue papers in toilet. You need it when you travel like this.

5. Entertainment – JetScreen is much better. At-least, promoter did not appear with tall claims. Earphone was not working. I had to turn it right-left, up-down to set it right. In JetScreen, you have much better choice.

Few more observations at Delhi Airport–

a. One ground staff was sleeping at the food court. Must be very tired due excessive workload or they may be like that only.

b. Check-in-point – Some guys were managing the queue and was busy gossiping among themselves. Total chaos. The girl in the counter was very polite and active like past.

One couple in the queue was praising Indigo staff just opposite to KFA counter.

c. A girl in information counter above departure lobby was busy talking to his male counterpart. I could not see her doing anything other than that. May be I am very old fashioned.

d.I have traveled by KFA several times in past but experience was good and I always liked their service. But, this time it was pathetic.

e. On that particular day, many fights of KFA were delayed.

KFA, Jago reee ……. Otherwise, you are not better than any low cost airlines. Or someone may call it a Budget Airline and save your face……… please do not call it a Five Star Airlines.

KFA should at-least announce ………. “Because of so-called recession, we are cutting cost at our convenience. Please bear with us and continue to fly”. At least we can decide to fly Indigo etc and save some money.

Will never recommend Kingfisher Airline to anyone until it improves in all sectors

Read review of sabualex's . too bad experience