[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Gaur

If i recollect correctly the system doesn't allow for even a 100gms over the limit and will ask to reduce the weight, i remember someone arguing about it and was then asked to go to the physical baggage drop counter. Is it still the same ?

Correct, I think it was Air Asia piloting that deployment. My take after having used this self-drop thingy at a couple of EU airports is that it is usually very very smooth when everything is in alignment including baggage weight.

The minute there is an exception, chaos ensues!

[arpanjha]

I fly 2 round trips on an average every 20-25 days from AMD to CCU and some more not fixed routes. Given the scarcity of airlines, especially after winding up of Goair and(Go first) and nearly on same path for Spicejet, I always felt or saw a saviour in Indigo. It is actually my last option, pathetic flight schedules to say the least, they have one early morning 6 am, one at 9:30 am and one at 4 PM, and thats it. Ok, coming back to the main topic of automated baggage drop, I would prefer it, but only for myself, I cannot imagine my mother or any elder person, or for that case even my wife being able to manage this unassisted.
I hope they keep both options open, in some ways, it will speed up the frequent flyer-s process and the manual counters can be there for helping the elders and not so accustomed flyers. I think having a 60:40 option would be beneficial to all, the airline, the frequent flyers and the less frequent flyers. Rolling out such automated systems in a country like India needs careful work. Indigo needs to realise their passengers are not "lean green flying machine" which they keep harping upon.

[asbshyam]

My family with 4 senior citizens (parents, uncle, aunt) faced the same issue in Chennai, on a Indigo flight to Delhi. The counters were located in no logical fashion and there were no paid services that they could opt for. The personnel on the ground refused to help.

I chose not to book Indigo for another Uncle and Aunt who travelled right after this. Both of them were senior and one of them disabled.

I will not be using Indigo for elders I know until they can get their check-in sorted.

Raised an grievance via their automated feedback system and have gotten no response.

[drive_factor]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Indigo's unhelpful new baggage check-in system

Given that flying by Indigo is a depreciating experience of a once great service now crumbling at the edges this was the last straw on the proverbial camel's back. I have three round trips to do in January and literally another 3 in February and I've told my travel desk to stick to Air India and Vistara.

And many times Indigo fare is at par with the mentioned carriers. What is the point of flying with Indigo?

[Mik]

Originally Posted by Gaur

If i recollect correctly the system doesn't allow for even a 100gms over the limit and will ask to reduce the weight, i remember someone arguing about it and was then asked to go to the physical baggage drop counter. Is it still the same ?

Yes, recently experienced the same at T2 Bangalore. We had two baggages which were 18kg and 9kg so well within the 30kg limit for 2 people travelling in same PNR. The system refused to accept the baggages.
I hope over time this gets sorted and it is associated with PNRs and not per baggage item.

[AirbusCapt]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Correct me if I’m wrong but there hasn’t been a proportional reduction in ticket prices, right? The prices of domestic flights have really skyrocketed with the average cost of flying from a tier-2 city to a metro costing ₹15,000 easily on average (2 way). The same ticket would’ve cost about ₹6-7,000 about a decade ago. Offcourse, there’s inflation but airline prices aren’t competitive as they used to be versus rail or bus - you pay a solid premium for the time saved. This is unlike in Europe where Ryanair tickets tend to be very competitive versus rail (specifically high speed rail). To put it another way, on a good day, I could catch a 2 way flight from Dubai to cities in the South for this price.

Maybe I’ve lived outside India for so long that I’ve lost track of what constitutes a reasonable price in India anymore.

When we pay such a solid premium, this kind of cost-saving is just preposterous. It’s another story if the ticket costs ₹3,000 one way.

For this please blame the government squarely who taxes the industry to death. Any reason why we have atf cess, tax on tax, luxury tax, udf in airports, landing charges and what not? The government wants to bring everything under gst, but putting a common gst on aviation fuel doesnt seem to be their agenda.

Why should fuel cost 40-50% of operating costs in India, and cost about 10/15% in other countries?

If the public wants an airline to compete in prices with road and rail, the public must not elect greedy governments who want to tax multiple times and on everything they see.

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

the spin provided by Indigo that this was to "enhance" customer experience... In our country there is a substantial proportion of air travellers who have flown 5 or less times i.e. new travellers. I dread to imagine the hassle they will face with this unhelpful and rigid system...

Given that flying by Indigo is a depreciating experience of a once great service now crumbling at the edges this was the last straw on the proverbial camel's back... for not being able to distinguish between a fare paying customer and horse manure.

Originally Posted by arpanjha

topic of automated baggage drop, I would prefer it, but only for myself, I cannot imagine my mother or any elder person, or for that case even my wife being able to manage this unassisted.

Bean counters at Indigo think they have aced the art of doing shitty things while marketing it as 'Enhancing Customer Experience'. This automated baggage drop is one more addition to list of other weasel brain stuff that Indigo is doing.

Pre-booked meals: The concept of pre-booked meal probably came into being so that the flyers could book from the menu and get the meal they want every time without exceptions. However, on my past 4 flights with Indigo (alongwith family), there was always something short. The hostess coldly telling "Sir, that's not available. Can you have something else ?". If I could have anything else, what's the purpose of pre-booking. On my last trip I wanted to create scene as they missed something that I pre-ordered for my child. But my wife advised not to push it and convinced the child.

Beverages not sold without snacks: One cannot purchase just the beverage. Indigo mandates that one must buy snack to get the 'Complimentary' beverage . This has been reported in mainstream media as well [Instance 1: Economic Times] [Instance 2: NDTV], yet they responded with bull crap not even addressing the original concern.

With authorities like DGCA sleeping, rouge players like Indigo have taken to squeeze every penny out of customers in the name of 'Enhancing Customer Experience'.

After my last trip, I am never going to book Indigo, even if it's going to cost few bucks more. To me peace of mind is also valuable. Though loosing few customers like us won't have any impact for them, I just can't give my money to them.

I hope they keep both options open, in some ways, it will speed up the frequent flyers process and the manual counters can be there for helping the elders and not so accustomed flyers. I think having a 60:40 option would be beneficial to all, the airline, the frequent flyers and the less frequent flyers. Rolling out such automated systems in a country like India needs careful work. Indigo needs to realise their passengers are not "lean green flying machine" which they keep harping upon.

That's the logical way of doing it. But when was logic last seen to be associated with Indigo.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

So essentially the baggage drop counter itself will be made obsolete or in true Indigo style, it will be paid service if you use an agent for bag drop.

That is the plan I think. Use of toilets will be next.

Originally Posted by Gaur

If i recollect correctly the system doesn't allow for even a 100gms over the limit and will ask to reduce the weight,
Overall i dont see any real benefit of this system for Travelers, except for those who are travelling relatively light and are confident/well versed to use it.
Using this system should be made voluntary and not forced else its a recipe for disaster.

Originally Posted by Mik

Yes, recently experienced the same at T2 Bangalore. We had two baggages which were 18kg and 9kg so well within the 30kg limit for 2 people travelling in same PNR. The system refused to accept the baggages.
I hope over time this gets sorted and it is associated with PNRs and not per baggage item.

The system does not accept a bag even 50 grammes above 15 kgs so you must get on to the floor unpack, repack and God help you if (like me) you carry no cabin bag at all. Also the system requires the bag tag to be identified one by one to the PNR and to the person's ID. If you are one pax with one bag so far so good. We were 7 pax with 6 bags and it was a mess with the Indigo staff refusing to assist as if they had orders to let the passengers wallow a bit. And given that at an airport time is critical things did get messy. IMHO this kind of deep callousness towards a paying customers reflects a deeper scorn coming from the top.

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

Bean counters at Indigo think they have aced the art of doing shitty things while marketing it as 'Enhancing Customer Experience'. This automated baggage drop is one more addition to list of other weasel brain stuff that Indigo is doing.

Pre-booked meals:
With authorities like DGCA sleeping, rouge players like Indigo have taken to squeeze every penny out of customers in the name of 'Enhancing Customer Experience'.

After my last trip, I am never going to book Indigo, even if it's going to cost few bucks more. To me peace of mind is also valuable. Though loosing few customers like us won't have any impact for them, I just can't give my money to them.

Indigo has peaked out IMHO in terms of market dominance and pricing power. Over the next two years as Air India gets its act together {hopefully} and at least one more airline comes up {Akasa?? - the jury is still out on them} Indigo will no longer enjoy the luxury of disrespecting its customers with impudence. The pre-booked meals "not being uploaded" is an excuse I have received more than a few times. I have even shared my inputs with their customer experience director but I doubt these things are taken cognizance of.

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

For this please blame the government squarely who taxes the industry to death. Any reason why we have atf cess, tax on tax, luxury tax, udf in airports, landing charges and what not? The government wants to bring everything under gst, but putting a common gst on aviation fuel doesnt seem to be their agenda.

Why should fuel cost 40-50% of operating costs in India, and cost about 10/15% in other countries?

If the public wants an airline to compete in prices with road and rail, the public must not elect greedy governments who want to tax multiple times and on everything they see.

Taxation of the industry has nothing whatsoever to do with shabby and deteriorating customer service. And it isn't as if Indigo or Air India or Vistara are suffering due to the taxation or paying for it out of their profits. In a country like India with an average per capita of around Rs 15,000 a month things like cars and air travel will remain heavily taxed. For my next two trips in January to Hyderabad, Bombay and Calcutta I've booked a mix of Air India and Vistara.

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

For this please blame the government squarely who taxes the industry to death... Why should fuel cost 40-50% of operating costs in India, and cost about 10/15% in other countries?

If the public wants an airline to compete in prices with road and rail, the public must not elect greedy governments who want to tax multiple times and on everything they see.

Sir, I do agree with heavy taxation argument for many ailments of airline industry, however, that can't be extended to each and every deficiency in service. I have given examples of few in my previous post.

Secondly, IMHO for any industry, cost vs. perceived value is the fundamental analysis while exploring cost reduction initiatives. In case of Indigo, it's turning out to be "penny-wise but pound-foolish".

If they are ailing so much, what's stopping them from increasing fares ? Let's not say competition, as they are the biggest players in Indian market and most of their competition already bowed out. Tatas and Akasa are trying to find foothold and would love the freedom to increase the ticket price.

Coming to impact per ticket for such hare-brained cost saving ideas, how much do they really save ? And how much inconvenience do they cause to the customers ?

[AirbusCapt]

Originally Posted by AutoNoob

Sir, I do agree with heavy taxation argument for many ailments of airline industry, however, that can't be extended to each and every deficiency in service. I have given examples of few in my previous post.

Secondly, IMHO for any industry, cost vs. perceived value is the fundamental analysis while exploring cost reduction initiatives. In case of Indigo, it's turning out to be "penny-wise but pound-foolish".

You are right in saying indigo's standards have fallen. My answer as regarding automation. Airlines will automate to save each paisa. They have no choice. In a cutthroat environment. If old people, children or the uneducated are affected, Indigo may provide a "value added" service of providing a human interaction.
As someone said above that taxes will remain high because of lower per capita income, then expect more automation and short term inconvinience. I hope everyone has seen the airline chatbots who answer queries? In future the human voice call centers will be eliminated and we all will be forced to interact with bots.
If one wants ryan air prices, one will be able to travel only with the clothes on your back, rest of the luggage will cost to move.

Oh the margins are super slim, thanks to the shady/greedy government intervention. Try 2/3% margin on a good year. So if self boarding saves 0.1% on the overall costs, its a big win. Btw Indigo removed the curtains in the front and rear aisles a few years back. The cost of 2000 grams of extra weight for the curtain assembly multipled by flights per year meant a substantial saving. Now almost all airlines have no curtains.

The future will be a two/three class airline. A business/premium economy service will get the normal perks, the economy class will be made to pay for everything with a cheap base fare. For a better understanding, look at south east asian carriers who are cost champions.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

We were 7 pax with 6 bags and it was a mess with the Indigo staff refusing to assist as if they had orders to let the passengers wallow a bit .

That's not fair. Maybe I didn't read about this, or I don't remember you mentioning it before. They must support the passengers if they have to implement something new. Putting bag tags is not a routine for anyone, and doing it correctly is a little tricky. I agree; this is going to be a paid option. But is this even legal? Why are authorities silent on this?


Same with that mandatory buy a combo to get cold/ hot drink. Though I always pay and get that seat plus food combo, for some of the guys, it might be an issue.

[xsrahul]

Indigo are setting new (low) benchmarks. Their service and attitude has been progressively worsening with bickering cabin crew treating passengers as cattle.

I frequent SIN - BOM and on a couple of occasions took the Indigo as they had a good arrival and departure time. On one such trip, I had a small glass item in my cabin luggage which was well within the cabin size restrictions.

They asked (actually ‘told’) me since it’s a full flight and given I have a small laptop backpack already to check-in my cabin luggage bag. I agreed but just asked them to put in a ‘fragile’ and priority arrival tag as I had chosen fast forward.

To my horror and dismay, they said Indigo has made away with ‘fragile’ tags and also ‘fast forward’ or any paid service doesn’t have a priority arrival of bags.

I prefer to dash out at Changi so usually don’t check in and they saying they don’t have fragile meant an argument ensued with the indigo manager which I didn’t win as they refused to even offer any solution other than kept parroting their standard line of ‘Indigo policy’.

I cannot imagine an airline which was so prompt and customer focused during the KF airline heydays stopping to such low levels.

Hence as they say, lack of competition is bad for the customer and they will remain to hold us at gunpoint fully knowing that there are hardly any alternatives. I am keenly looking forward to Akasa and many more airlines springing up especially after UDAAN opening many more airports in the country so that we have more choices.

[Bhodrolok]

Not new really. I have suffered this once in Bangalore terminal 1 couple of years ago. It was an absolute mess and I refuse to run after the bags while trying to scan them. Once I check in they have to get the bags in time so I just waited for one of the few Indigo staff present to do it for my bags.

Recently had the unfortunate experience of flying “international” to Bangkok since that was the only direct flight available with an acceptable timings but every single minute spent in the flight was a torture. From the wafer thin seats to Indigo’s refusal to keep the cabin temperature controlled on the taxiway, I couldn’t wait to get out of the hellhole. The only saving grace was that the flights were on time.

[NiInJa]

This is bad, I always thought we have better services in the low cost carrier business, especially after experiencing the laughable service of Ryanair and Easyjet in Europe/UK. But, Indigo heading towards this, I would not be so worried, if Indigo does not bring humans back to check-in counters, passengers will.

I see videos of such machines getting beaten up by frustrated passengers in the next few months.

This problem is not just India specific. Removing human interface at critical points (from customer's perspective) is a recipe for disaster when machines don't work as expected. I never understand why some organizations don't get it. Last year had a horrible experience with Norwegian airlines where the kiosk stopped printing one last baggage tag after confirming our booking for all three passengers (I, wife and kid), so we had 3 boarding passes, 2 baggage tags in hand and 1 tag of the baby stroller stuck in the machine. The other kiosk did not print the remaining tag as the system 'indicated' all of us had checked in already. The person supposedly standing there to help was completely clueless and wasted precious 20 minutes and finally asked us to use the usual check-in counter joining the long queue. My wife had to raise her voice saying no way she was going to join the manual check-in queue after wasting 20-25 minutes.

[naveenvenkatesh]

Flew BLR-HYD-BLR in early December with Indigo. Had to use the automated bag check in. However, now they have deployed some staff who 'help' out with the check in process and printing. If it was left to myself, i wouldn't have been able to figure out looking at how complicated the system was. I can image how difficult and frustrating it can be for older people, especially in a time crush.
The less said the better about the flight and food options. I didn't get my preferred meal during BLR-HYD leg of the journey which i had paid extra for. Both flights were delayed and the seats, well, felt like sitting on stone benches. I will avoid Indigo in the future. Hopefully, Air India or Akasa or Vistara can provide flights at the same time!

Edit: There was no automated kiosk at HYD airport. So we had to stand in a queue and check in using the old fashion way!