IndiGo Airlines Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhai AMD- Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji BOM
Airline: IndiGo Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Origin: Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhai International Airport AMD
Destination: Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport BOM
Departure Time: 5:55 P.M
Arrival Time: 07:10 PM
Departure Terminal / Gate: Terminal 1 / Gate 3
Arrival Terminal / Gate: Terminal 1B / Unknown Gate
Class of travel: Economy / Coach / Lowest Fare
Aircraft Registration: N/A
Flight Duration: 1 hr 5 minutes
Inflight Service: Economy- Food / beverage for purchase
Inflight Entertainment: Magazine
Additional: A very short hop - only 40 minutes
Baggage: One carry on, one laptop per person, along with 9 checked bags
Remarks: No sharklets, paid for excess baggage
IndiGo Airlines is India's leading Low Cost Carrier, LCC. It is an airline that, according to me, has service that can be rated beyond excellence. This airline uses an A320 and does not have any high class ( first or business ) to keep their airline low cost and well maintained. Low Cost Airlines believe that "you pay for what you want", especially Spirit! Even IndiGo. Premium Seat? Pay Up! Bottle of Water? Pull out some change! But this airline has a special twist to that saying that makes their Low Cost service very special.
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Origin: Ahmedabad Sardar Vallabhai International Airport AMD
Destination: Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport BOM
Departure Time: 5:55 P.M
Arrival Time: 07:10 PM
Departure Terminal / Gate: Terminal 1 / Gate 3
Arrival Terminal / Gate: Terminal 1B / Unknown Gate
Class of travel: Economy / Coach / Lowest Fare
Aircraft Registration: N/A
Flight Duration: 1 hr 5 minutes
Inflight Service: Economy- Food / beverage for purchase
Inflight Entertainment: Magazine
Additional: A very short hop - only 40 minutes
Baggage: One carry on, one laptop per person, along with 9 checked bags
Remarks: No sharklets, paid for excess baggage
IndiGo Airlines is India's leading Low Cost Carrier, LCC. It is an airline that, according to me, has service that can be rated beyond excellence. This airline uses an A320 and does not have any high class ( first or business ) to keep their airline low cost and well maintained. Low Cost Airlines believe that "you pay for what you want", especially Spirit! Even IndiGo. Premium Seat? Pay Up! Bottle of Water? Pull out some change! But this airline has a special twist to that saying that makes their Low Cost service very special.
The start of my day:
My day started off.....well this was an afternoon flight, so I can say that before my flight, I was busy packing my bags for my flight to Mumbai. This was a connection flight to Mumbai so I could catch my onward connecting flight to Dallas DFW on Qatar Airways. Of course there were many options to how we could get to Mumbai. One was train, but we knew that with so much luggage, we would not be able to keep an eye on every single one. Especially since it was a stop train and so much baggage would cause chaos at Mumbai Station. Bus and car were never an option, so we took a flight! There are over 15+ flights a day from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, but not as many after 7 PM. Our Qatar Airways flight was departing the next day at 4:00 AM, so we needed a good flight after 9. There was an option of Air India and Jet Airways, but being India's mainline carriers, there was no way the ticket was to cost low for us, so we looked for low cost carrier flights, however the closest LCC flight that day would be IndiGo, which was too early, leaving us at Mumbai for around 5-6 hours! But since there was no other option, oh well...IndiGo it is! We took it for $102 ( around -/6500 ( rupees) ) and then it struck us that we needed excess baggage, so we had to buy a LOT of excess baggage that cost us the same price our tickets cost us! $102! And there was really no other way to get the baggage through, so we payed another -/6500, which made our total bill -/13000 or $200! There honestly was no other way! Anyways...after packing we had taken a rickshaw with some bags and in our car some bags and made it to the airport!
My day started off.....well this was an afternoon flight, so I can say that before my flight, I was busy packing my bags for my flight to Mumbai. This was a connection flight to Mumbai so I could catch my onward connecting flight to Dallas DFW on Qatar Airways. Of course there were many options to how we could get to Mumbai. One was train, but we knew that with so much luggage, we would not be able to keep an eye on every single one. Especially since it was a stop train and so much baggage would cause chaos at Mumbai Station. Bus and car were never an option, so we took a flight! There are over 15+ flights a day from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, but not as many after 7 PM. Our Qatar Airways flight was departing the next day at 4:00 AM, so we needed a good flight after 9. There was an option of Air India and Jet Airways, but being India's mainline carriers, there was no way the ticket was to cost low for us, so we looked for low cost carrier flights, however the closest LCC flight that day would be IndiGo, which was too early, leaving us at Mumbai for around 5-6 hours! But since there was no other option, oh well...IndiGo it is! We took it for $102 ( around -/6500 ( rupees) ) and then it struck us that we needed excess baggage, so we had to buy a LOT of excess baggage that cost us the same price our tickets cost us! $102! And there was really no other way to get the baggage through, so we payed another -/6500, which made our total bill -/13000 or $200! There honestly was no other way! Anyways...after packing we had taken a rickshaw with some bags and in our car some bags and made it to the airport!
Now here's the interesting part! After reaching Ahmedabad Airport, all we could see was mad rush! And we knew that today had only one operating flight which was out flight! We were a bit confused on what was going on, but we ignored it! After getting through security ( in India, they have a security check when you enter the airport), it was then when a stampede of people were running and yelling and we saw security guards that took a scary position! I was so scared, but instead, I went ahead to see what was happening, and started screaming as loud as I could:
AAMIR KHAN! AMAMIR KHAN! AHOUSHKA SHARMA! OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!
I went into a trance mode and started bombarding through all the people and in fact a security guard pushed me off, but I was snapping pics 5 every second! Of course very few of them came, and they were all blurry, but I only got Aamir Khan's photo. You can have a look, and after sometime, they had gone and I had returned to regular mode, and headed to check in!
AAMIR KHAN! AMAMIR KHAN! AHOUSHKA SHARMA! OH MY GOD! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!
I went into a trance mode and started bombarding through all the people and in fact a security guard pushed me off, but I was snapping pics 5 every second! Of course very few of them came, and they were all blurry, but I only got Aamir Khan's photo. You can have a look, and after sometime, they had gone and I had returned to regular mode, and headed to check in!
The check in's were actually mostly closed, but I was not surprised knowing that my flight was really the only flight. Considering that Spicejet was going through "Financial trouble", all flights were cancelled from that airport, except the Dubai flight which was departing at Terminal 2. GoAir did not have any flight that time, but would later at night have a flight. Ii must say, I am quite darn impressed by GoAir's service, and their check in counter was looking quite standardized and much better than any other airline there. jet Airways had an open counter for a Delhi Departing flight that was delayed by 50 minutes. Otherwise we headed straight to the check in counter.
The Mumbai counter was quite full so another ground service agent had called us to the Kolkata Check In line, and we completed check in, however the check in took some time to complete, for the fact that we had over 8 check in bags! Other than that, we were making it through the check in. The agent was very friendly and smiley and she completed her task very professionally. No complains for check in! Thumbs up!
The Mumbai counter was quite full so another ground service agent had called us to the Kolkata Check In line, and we completed check in, however the check in took some time to complete, for the fact that we had over 8 check in bags! Other than that, we were making it through the check in. The agent was very friendly and smiley and she completed her task very professionally. No complains for check in! Thumbs up!
After completing check in, I made a long farewell to my relatives, who were sad that I was leaving. It took a lot of time to say bye, but then after that, security was not much of a long walk. The line was just plain empty, so it was passed very quickly. Surprisingly, no questions asked, except for name! When we passed that, we would look at the ground level of gates 5-10 ( I think ) where the Jet Airways delayed flight was bound for, at Gate 5. However that flight had not even made a sign at the gate, and there were no passengers. What surprised me was the fact that all the jetbridges were empty except mine, but the decision was still made to board from busses and stairs. After that, I took an elevator upstairs to my gate! And I must say, very clean terminal! Glossy white! No problems! No smell! No crowd!
Upon arrival at my gate, I could see that there was one hour to departure however the plane had not arrived yet. We thought that there was a gate change, but that was not the case. The whole airport was empty! After 15 minutes, the delayed Jet Airways plane had arrived, but not a clue of our IndiGo plane! I was shocked! But apparently no one else was! I waited, but no plane, and then after 10 minutes, the plane had arrived! Well that was "certainly early!" Only 30 minutes to departure! Whoah! That's a pretty short time for completing catering, deboarding, crew change, boarding, luggage handling, etc.! How would they get it done? But that was not to worry, because just 10 minutes after the plane arrived, boarding was called! I was honestly shocked! They let passengers with priority seating called XL board first, and then the back rows of the plane, and slowly to the front. Boarding was very quick and efficient though with this mayhem of last minute departure!
Once I took my seat, the plane had been on the ground for about 10 minutes and then we were off! In those 10 minutes, I saw the Jet Airways 737-800, which was the Delhi bound flight, and an IndiGo Airlines crossing the tarmac after hardstanding ( or maybe arriving from its other destination ). That aircraft had sharklets, however I could not catch the registration for any aircraft, even mine! In the meantime, I had taken pictures of the legroom, and the seatback content and menu and all that good aviation geeky stuff! But soon, the gate was pulling away, and we were reaching for the sky. It did take me time to realize that we were 30 minutes late! Oh no! But surprisingly, the flight was only 35-40 minutes long as well! Wow!
Goa Arrival and Delhi Departure IndiGo A320 Sharklets!
After a smooth departure, the flight was pretty darn uneventful. The "Hello 6E" magazine was quite interesting however! The snack service did start, but never made it past row 13, which was my row! And I was quite hungry, so I made my way to the back of the plane where I picked up a snack for 150/-, which is less than $3. The snack consisted of Coffee Cookies along with spicy Pepper nuts! I must say, they are a first for me, but they were just too small of a food packet, and just too much money! What I loved about their airline was the reusable tins! IndiGo airlines packages some of their food in reusable metal tins, which are quite cool and nice to have as an aviation geek! Not worth the 150/-, but still loving the cans. I saved the nuts as we slowly made our way down to Mumbai, and hey, guess what, the flight time was supposed to be 1 hour, but it was only 35 minutes! What a flight!
The arrival was pretty fast, and taxiing didn't take too much time, and we were at the gate. There were gates that had gate bridges, but those were literally all full, so we had found a parking spot at the other end of the terminal, and it was a pretty cool view when disembarking the aircraft. I was once again dozed into my world, and just started looking around. I though didn't want to cause suspicion by staying too long and snapping pics, so I got onto the bus and which was an IndiGo bus with all the cool facts on the side, and the IndiGo logo and stuff. I liked the bus. But in no time, we were at the small terminal and we were picking up our 9 bags, which didn't take too much time to find! All in all, great flight!
IndiGo Airlines is a low cost airline, but is said to have a really big market share in India, and with over a 100 A320 aircrafts, the destinations and routes are pretty high! The airline is a very pronounced airline with refined service and friendly smiles and assistance. The airline is a great airline. The options of flights and the number of routes in India operated by this airline is probably more than any other airline! Just because they charge for drinks and seats, doesn't , make them a bad airline! Spirit is just completely different. But I would highly recommend traveling on IndiGo Airlines if you make a domestic India flight! My next LCC in India I am aiming for is either GoAir, or the new full service airline, Air Vistara! But still IndiGo is always an option for me!