Almost Always The Truth

This blog is about small incidents which have occured in the life of Neel Arurkar. Neel also writes about his family and friends in this blog.

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Name: Neel Arurkar
Location: Mumbai/Bangalore/Pune, Maharashtra/Karnataka, India

I am what you see :-)

Holi Bumper(Updated 14th Nov)

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Spice Jet vs Air Deccan

With the proliferation of low cost airlines in the Indian skies, I find comparing Air Deccan and Spice Jet irresistible. The comparison is based on my personal experiences and from a few reliable sources.

Aeroplanes :
Air Deccan has relatively newer A320s. Spice Jet's fleet looks quite old.
Staff :
Spice Jet has a more smiling and a cheerful staff than Air Deccan. I found them all over the airport and were more than willing to help passengers. The Spice Jet air hostesses are more courteous than their Deccan counterparts.
Snacks :
Deccan does not serve any kind of snack. Spice Jet serves 5 rupees worth of Ruffles' Lays/Haldiram's Seng, 200 ml of water worth 3 bucks(unlimited I guess) and one Alpenliebe candy worth 50 paise.
ID Checking :
From what I have heard from people, Air Deccan asks for ID proof only when you are flying on a cheap ticket. They always asked me for photo-id. Spice Jet guy asked me once for the positive id as they call it and on my return trip the girl did not bother to ask. That probably was because the flight was delayed.
Delays : Air Deccan flights are delayed most of the time. In the first month of Spice Jet's operation I heard that they were on time 91 % of the time.
Informing when delayed :
Deccan does this sometimes, whereas Spice guys don't do it yet.

I do not think that the above comparison is in any way going to affect the airlines you choose. Even if you earn a fat salary, you will go for the one that is cheapest. That's called The Middle Class Mentality.

PS: One of the untried way for impersonation that can be used. Get a railway identity card(costs 1 rupee) that accompanies a railway pass in Bombay suburban trains. You can get it from your friend who stays in Bombay. Put your photo on it and write the name of the person in whose name the ticket is booked. Laminate the card for an authentic look. Now you look like a railway employee. Of course don't try this trick at Bombay Airport. Please note that I live by my values and do not recommend impersonation.

9 Comments:

Blogger reva said...

Hello sir,thanks for visiting my site.Your own way of comparing the 2 different airways is really good,but which one of them do u think is really worth the money and time for a middle class person?

Thu Jun 23, 09:40:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Neel Arurkar said...

Sir? Regarding your question I am sure whenever you have to travel you will make the best choice. If money is the criteria for comparison, then at times you may get Air Deccan tickets cheaper whereas at other times, Spice Jet tickets might be cheaper. If timeliness is a criteria, I found Spice Jet to be better even though my flight was late by 3 hours. An interesting fact to be stated here is that I wanted to travel from Blore to Bombay and inspite of Spice not having flights on that sector, I travelled till Pune and by bus thereafter. Thats the sort of compromise the middle class is ready to make to save money.

Thu Jun 23, 09:55:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Art said...

nice comparison...

Wed Jun 29, 12:49:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Neel Arurkar said...

Thanks

Wed Jun 29, 12:50:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Het Waghela said...

Hey Neel,
Good blog.
Nice post bout spice jet comparision. Tommorrow i wll b flying by spicejet, and only concern for me is that hope it doesn't get much delayed, and plz plz plz god forbids it gets cancelled. I know its not going to be its weekend but buzz around bugs me a lot bout that.
Ya i will be blog rolling you, hope u don't mind that.

Wed Jun 29, 08:08:00 PM PDT  
Blogger t~gr81~ said...

hey neel...
good job done...
i guess u should have mentioned about the make up of the deccan and spice staff...
while deccan ladies go for a painted look the spice ject girls look more natural...
i found the ass to aisle ratio to be higher in deccan staff than the spice staff...
so after an occassional brush off the bum...get ready for a non plussed sorry...
simplifly....dont worry abt the time...

Thu Feb 23, 10:15:00 PM PST  
Blogger PG said...

I love that comment about the ass to aisle ratio :)) Those who have read computers would know about this term wypiwyg - i call it what you pay is what you get!! Compare spice and deccan to the coaches of "bhartiya rail", and compare the air hostesses with the pan-chewing TTEs and u will enjoy the difference and the flight as well :)

Thu Nov 16, 07:12:00 PM PST  
Blogger Neel Arurkar said...

Het : i am too late in replying :-)

t~gr81~ : Lol! That is an interesting statistic :-)

PG : Agree with you. The common man is really thankful to Air Deccan for that..

Fri Nov 17, 02:41:00 AM PST  
Blogger rt r said...

Hey neel...
I was searching for "air deccan 1 rupee ", and guess where the search led me...
To the external blog of a very well known infoscion...
It is a happy coincidence..
I'm happy to see your blog here, and miss all the fun in Infy blogs...

Sun Aug 19, 09:43:00 PM PDT  

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