• Introduction
• Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Mumbai Terminal 1A
• Airborne: Flight AI 660 (BOM-DEL), Air India, Economy Class
• Check-in: ICICI/American Express Altitude Lounge Delhi Terminal 3
• Airborne: Flight AI 657 (DEL-BOM), Air India, Executive Class

One of these times in the past couple of months I was going to visit the family in Delhi, I thought of trying out something new, or rather different from my regular experiences in the past months which usually would be Jet Airways and the regular lounges which would include the Carnations Lounge at Mumbai Terminal 1C and the Plaza Premiere Lounge at Delhi Terminal 3.

Since this trip was personal and I had to book up in advance, I decided to use a couple of my PremierMiles vouchers, the ones you used to earn before May 2012 for spend per Rs. 1,00,000. I’d heard a lot about some people on FlyerTalk (you know who you are if you are reading this!), that Air India had improved its service levels over the years. I thought I’d take one for the team and try out Air India’s domestic services instead of ‘the usual.’

Also, for the lounges I was not going to head out to the regular, I had intended to check out the American Express Platinum Lounge in Mumbai, now that I had access with my Jet Airways American Express Platinum Credit Card. However, I ended up trying out a couple of lounges which go with the ICICI Bank issued Jet Airways Amex cards, which were not bad at all.

So, sit back, relax and over the next few days, check out a review of Air India’s domestic economy and business class, as well as ICICI/Amex lounges at Mumbai and Delhi.

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Unbundling airfares was expected to take off in a while, however the airlines are already set to go ahead and charge exotic varieties of add-on charges on top of your ticketed price right away.

Indigo was one of the first to take off with the new charges, and will now charge an additional Rs. 200 if you want to pre-book a window or aisle seats on their planes. If you want a front row seat or an emergency exit, you should be ready to fork out another Rs. 500 for this privilege. They’ve fondly called this Seat Plus. If you intend to pre-assign a non-premium seat, just pay Rs. 100. This is working out exactly as I predicted on May 1.

Like you see, for an international segment, the charges go up to Rs. 300 for a window/aisle and Rs. 800 for a premium seat. For any other seat, it would be just Rs. 200. However, if you turned up at the airport and these seats are going vacant, you could switch to them for free.

Air India has been working on cutting out the free baggage allowance for customers. It used to have the most generous free baggage allowance of 25 Kgs per customer in Y, which was reduced to 20 Kgs a few years back. And now, a customer on an AI domestic flight can only carry 15 kgs of free baggage, while excess baggage will be charged at Rs. 250/kg. In case you have your Air India Flying Returns number on your ticket, you can still carry 20 kgs without any problems.

With Jet Airways, they are starting to charge for advance seat reservation, albeit only on a single route right now (of Mangalore – Dubai & v.v.). I am not sure if they are test-marketing at the moment or there are other issues w.r.t. rolling this out.

So the party was good while it lasted. Now, get ready to be nickeled & dimed at every step of the way going forward.

Related Posts:

• How will unbundling work out for India?
• India, welcome to unbundled fares!
• Air India advised to axe in-flight meals
• Get ready to pay for better meals on Jet Airways, and lounge access, and preferential seating

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I’m just trying to wriggle my way out of a bad bout of cold and flu which kept me out of action since 2-3 days. I figured a complete, medicinal recovery would be better than trying to drag my feet and keep up with work and other stuff, so I missed out some things. Here is a recap for you:

• Travel Agents across India seem to be off work on Tuesday 7th May 2013. So, if you depend on them, organise your business a day before or after.
• I am still refusing to believe this fully, but I am scared for flying Air India if this is true. Apparently on a Bangkok – Delhi flight, both the pilots went to nap, and put two cabin crew in charge of the cockpit. One of them switched off the autopilot.
• Yours truly got quoted in the Hindustan Times about the latest on Unbundling airfares in India. You can read my post on how I think the whole thing will play out here.

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