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Air Deccan had decided on Radixx in May 2006 .Long before Mallya picked up the 26%.

And I dont see any reviews on Paramount.Do try it out next time you have the option.I love Embraer.

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I love all things Brazilian. Paramount however has limited sectors but truly, here's an airline I'm dying to try.

Maybe I'll just hop over to chennai or something one of these days, from bangalore.

Embraer - I never knew an airline existed by this name !!

You missed the point mentioned by me, please read carefully.

Travelled by Sri-lankan - you can make out a whole world of difference between the MAA- colombo sector and the colmobo - LHR sector. The air hostesses were downright rude during the Indian leg - but the group was so different during the LHR leg I wodnered where did they go.

Madan, it is the same experience with most of the Intl Airlines be it BA, Air France, Malaysia, Singapore etc, flights to India will get the oldest or refurbished Aircrafts, Stewards: hardly any pleasant looking ones, with a snotty attitude that they are doing us a favour by serving us etc etc.

But, the connecting flight to Europe, US etc will be a heaven apart!

We, indians, are to be blamed for this. I am talking here specifically about chennai-singapore sector. I have seen this sector used to be infested with lungi clad locals who will try to get as much as possible of that free booze on board and behave in disgusting way.
These fellows are referred to as "kuruvies".They are sent specifically to ferry loads of cell phone and other such electronic gadgets from singapore. Not sure if they still exist.

Sam,
That was an excellent write up. I never expected anything like this in a car forum.

Chennai - Singapore is still better! Have you taken the Chennai - KL flight?
It is like a State Transport Bus filled with lungi-clad locals carrying all sorts of bags and suitcases and enjoying the free booze on board!

Most of these are laborers returning for a holiday after 3 years of hard work. Kuruvies or sparrows in English are very few & far in between. :)

My personal experiences:

Majority sectors travelled are Middle East and West (US/Canada in particular).

AIRLINE experience:

1. Air Canada: Though Canadian immigration requires visa for people travelling through Air Canada (even for transit to the US - and taking visa means another 1-2 days here in Delhi), this airline had been the BEST I could ever fly on this sector. EXCELLENT food; EXCELLENT restrooms (yes even after app 17 hrs of NON stop flying from Delhi to Toronto) ; EXCELLENT service. This is probably the only airline to give you an option of changing your dates n no of times once you depart India. There is a mix of uneducated people (farmers basically) from remote areas of Punjab and westerns. All in all, a very good experience.

2. American Airlines: Second best airline as I would perceive. Excellent food quality and refurbished planes. On time performance and very friendly cabin crew.

3. Continental Airlines: Pathetic food, pathetic service....you wont get a glass of water even if you ring the service bell 4 times half past midnight. The crew will care a D**K for your requests. (happened with me twice). Connecting domestic flights are usually late, and you end up being more than 36 hrs in the total journey. Ask for a beer/alcohol, they charge $ 5 per peg/can (Budget airlines you see!) and when you hand over a $ 20 bill, you need to remind them at the time of landing that they need to give back the change.

4. Now comes the worst of the lot! The pride of India - Maharaja (read AIR INDIA). 40% of the cases they'll be late or the aircrafts would develop an hydraulic failure!! I still remember the first time I was flying to DXB, and I was horrified to note that there is no seat belt on my seat..I asked the 69 year old pretty air hostess and she casually replied "See it doesnt make much of a difference actually and you can hold the seat in front of you while take off and landing"....phew!!

5. EMIRATES: Good service, Pathetic food. French pilots dont really know if they are flying an aircraft or driving a car on delhi roads. Similar experience of steer flying in Saudi Air.

6. BIMAN AIRWAYS: Just one sentence to say it all. The moment you get seated, the air hostess says "Parachutes are under your seat....Please wear them ASAP as we dont know when you might need'em!" Only advantage to middle eastern residents coming back to India is the luggage allowance of 50Kgs. PERIOD.

Airports and Customs:

In India, I can comment only on IGI, as far as possible, always carry your valuables like amp etc in your hand baggage and dont keep anything which is subjected to customs in your checked in baggage, smile at the cop at green channel and pass. Baggages are scanned before coming onto the belt (specially DXB flights); and during scanning, if anything subjected to customs is identified the baggage is marked with a white chalk. This is the way the cop at the green channel would identify you and check. Best avoided. Keep all dutiable items in handbag. Handbags are never checked (except in certain cases).

Oman airport is pathetic, DXB airport is fantastic, Riyadh airport looks like an extended mosque, Toronto airport is excellent having more than 35 desks at arrival Terminal B; US (MN/NY/NV/) are pretty good too!!

I was also surprised to know that US immigration was done at Toronto itself. Technically, immigration is done only at the port of entry of a particular country, but being placed in C (friendly neighbourhood) category, US immigration is done in Canada only. So actually you pass through 2 immigrations at Toronto if you are heading US, one each for Canada and US.

Was pretty excited to share my experiences....More to follow!

Do they break padlocks too? While returning from LHR via DXB on Emirates, I found that padlock on my checked-in luggage was not there when I picked it at IGI.

Now I do not know where did they break and check - at LHR or DXB or IGI. I confirmed and my colleague's lock was also missing. Anyways they would have only found all soiled clothes under 5 inches thick layers of chocolate boxes. :p

Well I have travelled only on Air deccan and paramount as of now and there was a see of difference between the two.

The plane was on time and food was decent(They are free unlike AD!!!)
and the best part was you are surrounded by polite pretty looking females and that alone won me over!

The only grouse is that they are prominent only in the south and they are expensive (compared to AD)

KF has a limit of 25kgs

The windows need to be up while taking off and landing. Most people dont follow this.

Bad Point:

1) No upgrades to business class ( even for silver and gold members )

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Fantastic write-up Sam and Steeroid. Hats off to you for the effort spent.

Just my two bit, being desk-bound I don't travel much. But if I do, I try to go for Kingfisher. I would rate them the best domestic airlines. From the reception, to the staff, to the airplace and in-flight facilities, everything is fantastic. They have recently added a real-time outer view camera view in their video option. So you can watch your flight depart, take off, fly between the clouds, land and stop in front of the batsman at the destination airport! Awesome!

Another airlines I liked was Indian Airlines! I loved them for the seating space! I don't fly with them these days, though. Have doubts on their reliability, in terms of on-time flights.

I am avoiding Deccan for one simple reason.... terrible leg space. they have the most cramped aircrafts ever!!!! I think to get the max return on investments, they have cramped the most number of seats into the Boeing aircraft used! I'm not talking much about their service, as being a "low-fare" airlines I do not really expect anything from them. I personally have not faced any issues when I travelled with them, but that is mainly because as a rule of thumb, I travel light and always reach the airport about 1 1/2 hours before flight departure.

I got to travel on Indigo and Spicejet last month. I was pleasently surprised by them. They is definately much better than Deccan, but, sigh..... Kingfisher has spoilt me!!!! I have no hassles in paying a bit more for Kingfisher compared to other airlines. Their services is worth paying for.

While I have not travelled by Paramount, I have heard a lot of good things about them. The main point to note is that they are targeting the business travellers, not the tourist or family travellers. So they are charging high and providing services that a business executive would be expecting.

I don't know whether its been posted before, so I am going to list it out here.
If you are flying to or from Delhi lock your luggage. There is a 50% chance that your locks will be broken, but mostly they target unlocked luggage.
Best thing is not to carry any electronics in your baggage.
If you are coming from USA, buy a TSA certified lock(costs around 5$) so that US guys don't break your lock.
Also be very careful of your belongings as you reach delhi, esp if you are from the more honest places like chennai or BLR.
People try to rob you right at the airport. They try to snatch your luggage.
So hold on to it very well.
Imagine that everybody around you wants to harm you.
Thats the only way to survive Delhi airport.
I have had locks broken, stuff stolen(not too expensive too, just a wireless router).
Recently TOI had a story about a gang of cargo handlers who would look at luggage X-rays and if saw anything interesting like a handycam etc., would pilfer it.
So if you don't want to bolt the barn after the horse has bolted, imagine everybody around you is a thief.