Discomfort both inside the plane and now outside. Review on SpiceJet

In general I have noticed that the travel discomfort and ear pain is peculiarly high in SpiceJet in comparison to other aircrafts - including all the low-cost fliers. In addition, they have that metallic frames around the seat pouches in front of you poke into your knees and the pain last for at least a day.

Anyway, I thought I would vent what a horrible experience it was travelling by SpiceJet in the North-East.

I had two major function to attend during this September. One was the wedding of a friend in Aizawl and then an event with Mensa India - Shillong chapter.

Owing to some crises at work, I was unable to board my original flight to Aizawl and had to hurriedly book a last minute ticket through SpiceJet on the 2nd(PNR - J5M69S) at a highly inflated price even though SpiceJet was giving out pretty discounted tickets of late. However, it was of essence that I was in Aizawl on the 2nd and having flown through SpiceJet many a time over the last many years, I spent the money and took the last minute ticket. That trip was smooth. However, on the 8th there was another booking through SpiceJet(PNR - IGEPUR) to Guwahati from Aizawl and that was nothing but a nightmare.

After reaching the airport well in advance, I went through the security check and then was in the waiting hall before boarding at around 9:45 AM. for a flight scheduled for departure at 10:25. The boarding pass however said that the boarding was scheduled for 10:50. So far so good. No big a deal if the flight is late by 30 minutes. Then, no sign or information whatsoever of boarding even at 11 AM. 11 then became 11:30 and 11:45. None of the Spicejet employees were to be seen at the departure gates. And Lengpui airport has these annoying fans that made the temperature really cold and the passengers too began getting restless. I could see some passengers quarreling with some ground staff of SpiceJet. But no information or announcement was being made of what was happening to the flight. One ground staff then told some passenger that there was some glitch in the flight and it was getting repaired and would be done in another ten minutes. This ten minutes then became twenty and went on and on till it became noon.

Now given how ridiculous that our procedures of security especially in India are and given that Lengpui is really really far from Aizawl city, passengers would have departed no later than 7 am and it was well past lunch time. People were starving. Finally a text arrives saying that the flight was scheduled to depart at 2:30 PM! A little later, another message saying it was rescheduled for 3 PM. And ultimately we only boarded at 3:30 pm.

All through this mess, the security personnel refused to allow passengers to walk out of the terminal to have food or take a walk. SpiceJet staff refused to co-operate in asking those military/crpf staff to allow passengers to go out and check back in again.

When flights have a stopover, passengers are allowed to leave the terminal and enter later and check in again before departure. Does SpiceJet, Airport Security staff think we are prisoners to be held hostage for 5 godforsaken hours without food or water and in the cold temperature?

Apart from the mental harassment, my hosts in Shillong had already sent a taxi on my request at 11 AM to Guwahati. With no idea whatsoever of when I would reach, the taxi driver kept waiting and waiting with me telling him that it would only be some time more - basis the information given by SpiceJet staff. Ultimately I reached Guwahati at 4:30 only to have to shell out 2000 Rs extra to the driver towards waiting charges because he had to cancel his next booking. After all this mess, all that happened was I missed the lunch event I had to attend in Shillong - scheduled at noon.

When people reach the airport barely 5 minutes before closure of check-in counters, they are refused boarding. In this scenario, shouldn't SpiceJet be refunding or compensating for the passengers' troubles? An airline company like Spicejet couldn't keep enough materials in the respective airports to do emergency repairs or tyre changes? It was found later that the tyre became faulty and it was brought over in an Air India plane. Not even a SpiceJet plane! Also, SpiceJet for sure would have ample amount of parked aircrafts which could have been dispatched to Aizawl in a matter of 30 minutes - maybe from Nagaland, Agartala, Guwahati.anywhere. Just to save fuel, the company thought it was ok to keep dozens of passengers imprisoned for 5 hours. This certainly wasn't a case beyond the control of Spicejet. It wasn't a weather problem nor a case of riots or something preventing SpiceJet from operating. This was nothing but a total callous attitude of the staff in the Eastern division.

In the first place, the event in Shillong was of primary importance and that was the reason I paid a huge amount to ensure that I flew to the North-East even by paying for a last minute booking on 2nd September, to further go to Shillong on 8th. I would have cancelled the whole trip had it not been for this.

In all, with all the mental harassment, I suffered losses amounting to nearly 2000 Rs for taxi fares, last minute flight booking and the hotel rent for having stayed back at Shillong - all for nothing. Will SpiceJet be paying me for all these losses?