Because of our tight schedule, we've decided to fly between the provinces in South India that we wanted to visit (Kerala, Goa, Majarashta). India has quite a few budget airlines that flew in these cities. We picked Kingfisher because its website was easy to use. We did hit a snag getting tickets online, because my Visa card would not approve the charges. Amex did approve the charge, but the Kingfisher required bank verification of credit approval within thirty minutes of my booking and required that I call their toll-free US number. Which did not work.
Talk about stress! After some harried searching on their website, I found another customer service number and spoke with the Kingfisher rep, who insisted that I get bank approval. Good thing the Amex rep I spoke with smoothed everything out.
Btw, Kingfisher Airlines is part of the Kingfisher beer empire. Interestingly, its head CEO had been on trial for tax evasion.
Welcome kit: refreshing wipe, free pen, Mentos.
The great thing about Kingfisher is that they will feed you, no matter how short the route is. The meals are included in the price of the ticket. For our Kerala to Goa flight, which took two hours and involved two stops, we got two meals, and declined the third one. The attendants were able to hand out the food really fast, because everything was prepacked in these Kingfisher meal boxes that eerily looked like cigarette cartons.
Breakfast. From left: chickpeas with yogurt; basmati rice with corn and beans; mousse.
Breakfast #2: the mousse made another appearance. Tomato and cheese sandwich. Potato salad.
This meal was served on the Goa to Mumbai flight that we later took. The tomato and cheese sandwich came with a sweet bun and fresh fruit.
We were very pleased with Kingfisher and would definitely fly with them again. I would say that the only gripe I could possibly have was that flights to the Andaman Islands were hard to find at the last minute, but really, this was more our fault for booking tickets really late.
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