[Anonymous]

[sparkyflier]

Once again I come to this forum seeking advice, experience and insight, following great help with previous business travel queries.

It is likely that I will be going to India in the next few months for the first time for work, and that I will be in three Indian cities, and so on 2 domestic flights.

I would very much welcome your tips as to which are the best airlines to use, so I can select these to match my schedules. Perhaps you could number your choices 1-3 or 1-5.

I imagine Jet would be very good, but hear Indigo are also a smart option? Are there any airlines you avoid for safety or reliability issues?

How is Air India these days? And also is it worth booking business class seats, if the benefit brings fast track security etc, as the schedule will be tight.

If you can share your experience and insight it would be much appreciated, and help me with my travel planning.

[frustratedflyer]

I would fly Indigo out of choice. My experience is less delays and newer planes. It’s a LCC model so you choose what you want – seat food etc. I always seem to get row 1 without paying too much. If not I would probably fly Jet Airways but they do have some old planes and fly a mixture of services. Some are full service, other not.

[JordanD]

Flew Indigo twice in January, and was very impressed.

On the way back (DEL-BOM), was very impressed when my wife & I arrived at the terminal early, and casually asked if we could get onto the flight 1hr before our own (so we could get back from the airport in BOM earlier) and with no extra fees requested, they did the needful. Was kerbside to onboard the plane in sub-20mins. And the luggage made it too.

Very impressed.

[sparkyflier]

Thank you for your replies so far.

Another airline I hear could be worth trying is Vistara, which I think is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tata. Have any of you had experiences with them?

Is it fair to say that Air India is a no-no if reliability is important?

[frustratedflyer]

Yes Vistara has a good reputation but routes are more limited last tie I looked

[Kimi_CDG]

I have flown Vistara last year from Delhi to Hyderabad in premium economy. Their network is indeed limted. So are the number of daily flights for a given route.
I believe it’s the only airline offering a PE product within India. The food and seat were good. Nothing exceptional though and a bit expensive. I tend to fly Indigo nowadays.
Cheaper, more choices and a very good level of service.

IMHO, SpiceJet is not as good but still reliable. I don’t have any recollection of my last Jet Airways flight (>5 years ago) so I guess it wasn’t bad 🙂

As far as Air India is concerned, I have flown them a few years ago and was a bit afraid by the state of the plane which was a bit old. I had heard weird noises throughout the flight. Food was ok, a bit too spicy though 😉
A friend of mine has recently flown with them from Delhi to Mumbai in an 787 and was very happy.

If I have the choice, I would personally favour Indigo. You’ll get something similar to Easyjet or AirAsia. Good luck!

[MrDarwin]

Sparkyflyer – the key thing in your travel brief that I read was that your schedule is tight. “I breezed through check in and security and was through in no time!” said nobody ever departing from an airport in India. I’m sure there are exceptions, but in my experience it’s a convoluted and time consuming experience. Document check to get into the airport, then off to queue to have your bag security scanned and sealed (document check again), then off to check in to drop off your bag (document check), then start the queue for security (document check), then through security with another couple of document checks inexplicably thrown in.

Business Class passengers, when you are either noticed or make yourself known, are often bustled ahead of the queues. Embarrassing yes, but very time saving nonetheless.

[sparkyflier]

MrDarwin thank you for that, you really helped me with that concern/query that I had. I see that Vistara have a premium Y, which has separate check in, which I suspect gives this an advantage over Indigo, who no doubt will have big hubs and big queues at Mumbai and Delhi. The seating is not the issue on a short flight, but being able to skip queues and be off the plane quickly are big advantages..

[PrakashMehta]

sparkflyer, as others have mentioned, Vistara has limited network thus limiting options. But if they have a flight that serves the cities you want to go to at times that suit you, they would be the best choice.

They have new planes and comfortable seating with superior service. I flew Vistara for the first time a couple of weeks back and came away very impressed. They will be my first choice for domestic travel if their flight time works for me. PE indeed has a separate check-in (though with limited flights, there aren’t long queues anyway for any class). Another advantage of PE is they tag your bags priority (mine came out amongst the first few) and on board experience is also superior with towels, better meal choice etc. Of late, they have also become more price competitive given the competition and India being a very price sensitive market.

If Vistara does not work for you due to destination/time/price factors, the next choices would be Jet Airways or Indigo

Indigo has newer planes and amongst the best on-time performance. But it’s a LCC, and you pay for the services you choose – seat selection / food etc. Check-in queues at times can be long

Jet is a full service carrier and generally a safe bet. Nothing really stands out, but it gets the work done.

Air Inddia has the best leg room in economy amongst all Indian carriers. So, although reliability isn’t the best, AI could be considered on the BOM-DEL route due the many flights on this sector. Also they are part of star alliance, so depending on where you are collecting / using miles, this could be an option

Spice Jet and Go Air could be given a miss.

In summary, recommend Vistara, if timing/price work for you. Else go for Indigo or Jet. AI to be considered if you are a Star member and/or economy leg room is critical.

To the point Mr. Darwin made about baggage screening and sealing, might be true for some smaller airports, but not so at DEL or BOM. There is a document check to get into the airport (ticket and id) then straight to check-in or baggage drop. If traveling with no check-in luggage, one could also straight head to security (for online check-ins). Fortunately things are improving at Indian airports.

Have a safe/pleasant trip/flight.

[LuganoPirate]

Sparkyflyer, why not consider the train? I will let the man in Seat 61 explain the benefits. This is what I would do rather than take internal flights.

http://seat61.com/India.htm#.VytmUfl969I

[PeterCoultas]

LuganoP: certainly agree if you are on a tourist trip but could be a bit time consuming otherwise unless you can get good overnight trains for longer sectors. Nice to share your sleepers with a friend though.

Seat 61 mentions the Delhi station office for tourists – have used this on several occasions to plan trips for a girl friend and it is brilliant. The first thing to collect from them is their great map of the railway routes – then sit down & plan. The tourism “quota” is often a life saver on popular routes and the process is impressively efficient. All is best done if you arrive before the girlfriend as it can take a day before you collect her and head back to relax at one of the Oberoi’s

Marvellous trips but on the short day routes & especially on the Agra Jaipur Delhi triangle watch your bags like a hawk – on the racks opposite and not on those above your head! Locks to fasten bags to the racks are not a bad idea even on the overnight sleepers.

[InfrequentFlyer]

My vote too goes to Vistara. Have flown all the airlines within India many times, and whilst others have said, network is still relatively small, but if they are on the route you need, defo go with them.
Jet and Indigo are both fine, Spicejet to be avoided at all costs!

[sparkyflier]

I thought I would share some feedback on the first of my domestic Indian flights and let you know of my eventual choices following my dilemma which I shared with this forum a few week ago.

In the end on the first flight, schedule was a consideration, as well as a concern of avoiding long queues etc, as the business schedule was very tight.

So the first flight was on…. Jet Airways in “Premier” class. What can I say about this flight?

Outstanding. It was just a 45 minutes flight in before take off I was offered 2 rounds of soft drinks, pre take off sweets, cold towels, magazines and given the dinner menu and then the order taken.

The food was absolutely delicious, all 4 courses. Sadly alcohol was not an option, but the crew addressed me in person at every encounter, were very warm indeed, and ambassadors for their airline and country.

And in landing, and leaving the plane, my suitcase was on the belt in maybe 4 minutes.

Oh and the seats on the 738 were a proper 2 x 2.

A truly outstanding level of service and yet more amazing hospitality on this Indian trip.

I will share the experience of the next flight on another airline in due course, but for the moment can highly recommend 9W.

[LondonSurgeon]

We use jet to fly between Delhi and Amritsar and it’s always been a good service. Had the misfortune of using air India express from Dubai to Amritsar. It was an experience!!

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