I flew with Air India to Sri Lanka and with Indigo to Nepal. Both have been recent vacations, I have enjoyed a lot on both. And guess what? All the flight were on time too! The choice of the air carrier was determined by cheap airline tickets.
To Sri Lanka I was traveling with my nephew who talks a lot! It was great fun to have him with me. I have been on some Air India flights on the domestic sector where there was TV on the seat on an Air India flight. So I told him Air India has entertainment on domestic flights too and that was my undoing. When we found none on our Delhi-Chennai flight he went on and on about it, teasing me to no end! Thankfully they had enough food this time (unlike my Delhi Bagdogra flight) on all the four flights I took with them, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Colombo and back the same way. On the Colombo Chennai flight the entertainment set was not working in our row. As the flight was not full, my nephew changed his seat to a row where it was working. All this for a 45 minute flight! Both of us were happy, he watching some program and I having some peace and quiet.
I heard the most bizarre cockpit announcement ever on my Delhi-Chennai flight. The pilot came on the intercom after breakfast and said, “ladies and gentleman, you all would have got up early to catch the flight. I would suggest that you put the window shades down and take a good nap.” I kid you not, this was the announcement and it made me a bit jittery given the reputation of Air India and sleeping pilots. Anyway this one apparently didn’t go to sleep and landed us all safely at Chennai.
Air India and Indigo
On the other hand my Indigo flights had no such announcements and both the flights were on time. Last year also for Nepal I took Indigo flights and my return flight was terribly late. So was really thankful that both my flights were on time this year. All my Indigo flights have been generally hassle free. I usually buy something to eat on the plane so I was looking forward to buying upma this time. Only the serving flight attendant was visibly tired/annoyed. She would make such a grumpy face at everyone that I too didn’t feel inclined in the least to say thank you and I hardly ever don’t say thank you. When I asked her for upma she acted surprised. When I reminded her that it was listed in their menu she suddenly remembered and gave it to me. It was instant upma but it was good. I actually felt sorry for the girl. She was so young and was either tired or upset and had a job that didn’t allow her to be any of these! I saw her laughing only when she was saying bye bye to us after the flight landed.
But both the flights were good overall and I remember both of my trips fondly. After all what is a flight if there are not a few hiccups in it as long as they are not of the technical type!
