You had me at Chatrapati...

I wrote about my positive arrival experience at Bombay's airport. With my departure to London today, I have completed my first arrival and departure sequence from the new international terminal.

I must admit, I'm impressed.

You had me at dedicated, fast and friendly business class checkin, security and immigration. You just overwhelmed me with flowing natural light, convenient gate access, impressive retail, moving walkways everywhere, high vaulted ceilings, creative art installations, green eco-walls, water features galore... and that's just the start.

People who read my posts know how critical I can be. First impressions here are very positive. Well done Bombay, well done.

Tons of natural light, high ceilings and no lines welcomed me to the new departures terminal.

Moving walkways, eco-walls, and convenient gate access? Yup.

Bombay's Airport Grows up - First Thoughts

I had heard a few rumblings about the new international terminal at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Having lived in Bombay for several years a few years ago, I remember the airport being the bane of my travel existence. Dusty, dirty, functionally difficult, it was everything I didn't want in a travel experience.

I am happy to report that things have changed. Here are my first thoughts from landing at Bombay after a red-eye flight from London on BA199: Arriving at BOM was a breeze. Lots of carpeted territory to cover, but miles of moving walkways to assist.  I felt like I was at Delhi's airport, perhaps without the chauvinism and fear of being shot on the highway.  I thought the art and installations were - dare I say - interesting, and this was the first time in my life that Bombay immigration wasn't revolting. That said, the customs bit was still overkill, including the massive "x" marks they scribble in chalk on suitcases they suspect contain an extra few Rupees of goods. Saw a few nice suitcases indelibly marked so.

Parking and airport exit also happened smoothly. Yes, that's right. Smoothly. All in all, though, positive marks for an airport experience I once dreaded. Thankfully, the one hour backup steps away from the airport on the Western Express Highway traversing the ill-placed and poorly-timed construction effort on one of Mumbai major arterial highways reminded me, alas, I was back in Bombay. Unlike the US, however, this was likely sheer incompetence at the highway planning department and a healthy dose of low level corruption than the efforts of a New Jersey Governor Christie wannabe at work. Ahh, Mumbai, there you are!

Turbulence in the skies over Kingfisher Airlines

One of my first posts on this blog was my review of Kingfisher Airlines. At the time, I suggested that the airline was more talk than substance. This week's earnings shortfall, reported by my friend Vikas Bajaj in the New York Times, suggests that the clouds over KF have grown darker.

Kingfisher, in my opinion, has been long on promise but short on delivery for years. I don't need a model helping me to my seat, I need someone who can manage the process efficiently (though the fact she isn't a tank may be preferable). The government should let the market rationalize supply by letting this poorly executed venture fail. Fly away Kingfisher, far away. 

Austrian Airlines - Business Class - Kurt Waldheim's Pride

Austrian Airlines - Service To Make Kurt Waldheim Proud

Business Class – New York – Vienna – Mumbai

John F. Kennedy Airport
Bldg 56 Terminal 1
Jamaica NY 11430

800-843-0002

C+
I started writing this post several months ago. The long overdue death of Austrian President Kurt Waldheim reminded me to finish my tribute to Austrian Airlines Business Class. Kurt Waldheim, you may remember, was the Nazi sympathizer and soldier who hid his past to become UN Secretary General in the 70s. Even after his past as a Nazi soldier was revealed in the 1980s, a willing Austria elected this spectacle of a man to be its President. Austrians apparently had little desire to be told that a Nazi should not be the leader of a modern country.

My earliest memory of business class travel was with my parents when I was a child. I remember that we were traveling to San Francisco to attend a conference a training seminar in Sausalito. At the time, my dad was the President of Das Consulting, Inc., an engineering software company that developed structural engineering software to analyze buildings, bridges and structures of all types. How my father – the man whose inability to program a VCR still baffles me – theorized, calculated, programmed and developed a complex mathematically based computer program that saves engineers hundreds of hours in their quest to develop and design bolder and safer structures remains, to this day, a mystery. My bewilderment notwithstanding, I digress.

My memory of my family’s United Airlines business class experience, though over twenty years ago, reminds me of what the promise of aviation – and that of refined air travel once was. Justin Shull, a dear friend of mine, now himself a pilot for Continental Airlines Express, told me a few years ago that bringing the romanticism of air travel back to the industry was one of his long term career goals. While any romanticism of air travel has left the world of economy or coach class travel quite some time ago, at least in the United States and much of Europe, I held hope that long haul carriers would justify the significant premium that business class travel bears over coach by providing an atmosphere that was welcoming and enticing.

Alas, my hopes of finding that atmosphere on Austrian Airlines were dashed each time I flew the airline over the past few months. I originally decided to fly Austrian because it is part of the Star Alliance, a network of airlines associated with United Airlines and Lufthansa. I had recently switched to the Star Alliance because the hundreds of thousands of Northwest/KLM miles I still have in my account are virtually useless. If you plan to travel on the miles you earn on Northwest and KLM, be prepared to book one year in advance, and even then, be prepared to pay for your flight. Better not to have miles than to not be able to use the ones you earn, I think. My dad has had much better luck redeeming miles on United (Star Alliance), so I decided to make the switch myself. Austrian’s business class to India from the US, was available for around $4,000, a decent price compared to other options at the time. My first flight on Austrian was actually operated by Lauda, an aging affiliate airline which is part of the Austrian family. The seats on my first flight, from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, were cramped and old. Proving that even lackluster airlines have some standouts, my first flight on Austrian was actually bearable because of the decent service. Alas, subsequent flights would not be so commendable.

To be honest, it is not that the equipment that Austrian runs between New York and Mumbai is awful. With the exception of the Lauda operated flight (which I was led to believe was an exception), the airline uses mostly reconfigured Boeing 767 planes for the New York – Vienna – Mumbai route. The seats come in two varieties: some are the Austrian “pod” design seats that have a partial cocoon encompassing each seat and good seat adjustment controls and decent room around each seat, while the older design is a more standard seat.

The food, too, was decent. The fare on the New York to Vienna route was European, with an excellent assortment of breads, fruits and cheeses. Being Austrian, an extensive list of coffees is also available on each flight. The flight from Vienna to Mumbai had some Indian fare, which was unspectacular but decent.

The downfall for Austrian, in my opinion, is the service. Service can best be described as arrogant. Hospitality – with the exception of the Lauda flight – was hard to find, and especially hard to find if you weren’t white. On my last flight with Austrian, from Vienna to New York, I remember recalling how bad I was treated compared to other white passengers near me. Alas, a smile and a drink offering to a European passenger in the seat in front of me because a scowl and stern statement when the flight attendant came to me. Those who were not rude were actively indifferent to my needs. I noticed the same treatment being afforded the other person of color a few rows from me.

While I can’t say that Austrian is the worst in any single category, the level of service – and in particular, the disparity in service based on one’s background or race – makes it an unworthy carrier for my travel dollar. Kurt Waldheim would have been proud.

Kingfisher Airlines - Business Class - Puffery in the Skies

Kingfisher Airlines Limited
Kingfisher House,
Western Express Highway. Vile Parle (E)
Mumbai 400057
Tel: 022 2626 2200
Fax: 022 5502 0625

B
I have not traditionally written airline reviews. There are many reasons for this, but primarily because most US airlines are some version of awful. Jetblue, in my opinion, now stands out in this regard because it is generally both the low cost carrier on any particular route and the service leader. Last week's meltdown in Jetblue's service levels, on account of severe weather, notwithstanding. Until about a decade ago, the same could have been said about airlines in India. Only one domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, dominated the Indian skies. Old planes, sloppy food and poor service dominated the sector. This changed with the advent of Jet Airways. Jet brought new planes, impeccable service, and on-time performance to a country where bad airplane service had been the norm for years.

The advent of Jet Airways in India ushered in a new era of air transport. Jet Airways changed the current landscape in Indian aviation. More recently, with the explosive growth of the Indian middle class and the large class of young and financial empowered Indian, airlines such as Kingfisher, Go Air, Air Deccan, and SpiceJet have ushered a new era of low cost flight options to the Indian skies. Kingfisher, in economy class, is in the middle of the pack for fares but promises to offer passengers a spectacular flight experience. Dr. Vijay Mallya, the flamboyant chairman of the airline and owner of United Breweries, the company that brews and sells Kingfisher beer, a popular Indian ale, invites passengers to fly the "Good Times" aboard his airline. The reference is unmistakably to enjoying his beers and women (he calls his flight attendants "flying models"). The irony is that Indian civil air regulations prohibit the consumption of alcohol on all domestic flights!

I flew Kingfisher quite a few times when it first launched. The planes were brand new, the generally attractive female flight attendants were well dressed in Kingfisher red skirts and jackets, and the service levels were high, both on the ground and in the air. The seats, on the other hand, were lackluster. To keep rates low, Kingfisher crammed in as many rows as it could. The result was a claustrophobic feel when seated. Reclining one's seat meant causing someone behind a shocking loss of personal space.

Kingfisher recently added a large business class cabin, called Kingfirst. Molinaro Koger's Assistant Vice President for India, Pranav R. Bhakta, and I decided to try this new service. We had booked ourselves in economy (Kingfisher Class, as the airline calls it) but paid personally to upgrade our seats. We flew on flight 309 from Mumbai to Delhi . The seats themselves are spacious and there is substantial room between rows (quite rare and nice on a domestic flight). Most business class features except for lie-flat and massage options were available on the chairs. The video display units were seemingly designed by prison inmates who sought to chuckle at the free world's inability to extract the units from storage. The following short review is excerpted from a letter I wrote to Dr. Mallya, the chairman of the airline. The video clip that plays ad nauseam on the airline, shows Dr. Mallya inviting personal comments on service to which he promises personal responses. Ahh, promises... Dr. Mallya's form response to my letter -- sigh -- is also attached.

Kingfisher gets high marks for the space given to their business class guests. Much else remains (food quality, drink selection, maintenance of equipment, attention to detail), however, before it can truly be called a first-rate business class service.

LETTER EXCERPTS

I must admit some disappointment with our experience on Kingfisher. While I do believe that the airline has done a great job with the airline in general, we were especially disappointed by our experiences in your business class cabin. First, neither my nor my traveling companion's video display units worked. We were offered the option to move to other seats. Upon inspection, we found that some other seats had malfunctioning or non-functioning units as well. Not wanting to be bothered with hunting for an operating display and having work to do, I decided not to move.

Our experience with your meal service was not much better. We recently arrived in Mumbai on Austrian Airways business class. While I have never been a huge fan of Western European airlines' meal services, our experiences on Austrian were quite exemplary for food. The food was well prepared, well presented and generally very palatable. While the lack of wine or beer service while in-flight is disappointing here in India, that is not something Kingfisher or any other carrier can do anything about at the moment. My food experiences on Kingfisher early last year -- prior to the launch of your Kingfisher First service -- were generally positive. When we arrived on board for flight 309, neither Pranav nor I had eaten lunch and were quite ready for a meal. I had told Pranav that my food experienced on Kingfisher had been positive and that we could expect decent fare. However, the meals we ordered and received, a salmon preparation as I recall, was thoroughly unappetizing. It arrived as if it had just been taken out of a frozen food container, reheated, then slathered with a red gravy of some sort. It did not taste different than its appearance would dictate.

I had a few other general comments that I won't your time recounting. I did not email you to list a litany of complaints. Again, I fully support the mission of your airline and your vision in effectuating it. Kingfisher has been part of a revolution in Indian air travel, one that promotes and enhances many aspects of life in India, including the hospitality industry of which I am a part. Rather, I thought I would share the experiences of two fairly seasoned travelers. We are perhaps the more demanding air travelers -- but when we are satisfied, we also become brand apostles who talk about our experiences, experiences that others make purchase decisions based upon.

Thank you for taking the time to review my comments. I hope you will take them in the constructive manner in which they were intended.

KINGFISHER FORM RESPONSE

Dear Abhijeet,

Thank you for your gracious e-mail of 22 February, giving me feedback on your experience of Kingfisher First, when you and your colleague Mr. Bhakta, flew IT 309 from Mumbai to Delhi. I have invited feedback from guests who fly Kingfisher Airlines as I firmly believe that firsthand feedback is the true indicator of the performance of my airline; I therefore appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to send me your inputs and your suggestions.

Abhijeet, I have created Kingfisher First specially for my guests with developed tastes and a desire for the very best in life. I have put in a lot of time and energy to transform an air journey into a superlative flying experience, so that you can enjoy the finest flying experience in the Indian skies. However, I am concerned to learn that your First experience was not all that it could have been and I do regret that you were disappointed.

I also appreciate your suggestions on the areas of our service that need attention.

Please accept my apologies that the video display unit at your seat was inoperative, and you were therefore unable to enjoy this feature of our service. I also note your feedback on the quality of food served on your flight, and regret that we were unable to meet your expectations here as well. We care about the quality of food we serve on our flights, and constantly strive to achieve consistency in this area of our service. We believe that our guests have every right to expect the highest standard of catering at all times; we also pay close attention to what our Guests tell us. I have therefore shared your feedback with our caterers to ensure our guests have a truly gourmet experience when they fly with us.

I agree that consistent levels of service have to be provided to all our guests on Kingfisher First and I apologise that we have been found wanting in this area. I know that there is a need for continuous improvement in the quality of product and service offered at every level, and I welcome your inputs. Please rest assured that I will also put in place the necessary corrective actions to ensure that my guests on Kingfisher First enjoy a truly superlative experience on board as well as on the ground.

Once again, thank you for your good wishes, and for your genuine interest in the success of Kingfisher Airlines. I look forward to welcoming you on board the “Good Times” again.

Cheers !

Dr. Vijay Mallya, MP
Chairman & CEO
Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.,
A UB Group Company