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…
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Indigo gets arrogant and pops fun at competitors
I’ve liked the Indigo brand from the word go, including their IATA identifier 6E, their look and feel and their tongue in cheek approach to everything including in-flight catering, crew to their advertising. Most of all, their on-time performance and the tight-ship approach which they follow to ensure a professional experience on every flight. However, it looks like of late the customer-centric approach is being taken over by some amount of arrogance. I’ve met passengers in the past few months who’ve complained of service without a smile, and non-responsiveness from the airline when things don’t go right. I’ve personally faced this issue with them, since they are the only airline who don’t seem to be interested in refunding customers the…
How to work the current fare sales in India: a primer
I thought I bored you guys enough with the barrage of fare sales that hit yesterday. There were one too many: Jet Airways, Indigo and then Spicejet. I know all of you are not being able to get through, so I will try and do the best I can to help you. First, lets go with Jet Airways. In the post I wrote yesterday, I told you the basics of their offer. There was a small footnote there, which I was not sure of at that moment, and hence not in the main text. Small tip: look for one-way tickets. Round-trip will not show the correct fares! It turns out that Jet Airways has now included this in their terms…
Indigo undercuts Jet Airways Fare Sale!
Indigo had to do this, after all, how could they let Jet Airways walk away with all the marketshare. Jet Airways announced this morning the biggest airfare sale of the year, with fares at a low of Rs. 2250 all inclusive onwards. In my post on the sale, I presented an example on Mumbai – Delhi fares being down to Rs. 3300 from their usual Rs. 5,100 one way. Now, it turns out, Indigo is matching the sale, however, offering a smaller range of flights. Have a look for BOM-DEL for a different date than what I mentioned in the Jet Airways sale: These are a full Rs. 10 lower than Jet Airways. So, if Indigo is your airline of…
14% discounts by Indigo for bookings till Feb 17
Indigo has sent out targeted mailers to select customers today, offering them a base fare waiver on one-way or roundtrip reservations on their domestic as well as international network, for up to two people. One needs to have a promotional email in their mailbox itself, and the discount is on base fare, so it does not show up as a separate amount when you are trying to make a reservation. However, I did confirm that it exists. If you’ve flown Indigo or signed up for their mailing lists, now is the time to check the spam folder for this email in case you are intending to book some tickets in the days ahead. Related Posts: Indigo takes top spot from…
British Airways and Indigo discuss interlining, and why this may be a dream!
Indigo has been one of India’s best run airline operation, with typical LCC discipline running in their blood. I’ve written a bit about them in the past and how they grew to be India’s biggest domestic airline by marketshare about 6 months back. Yesterday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported that Indigo and British Airways were in talks for an interlining agreement. Media quickly ramped up the discussion to an investment deal by BA’s parent IAG into Indigo, talking about how Indigo was the best deal for an investment into Indian aviation. Here is what is apparently happening as per the news report, already moving into speculation. The same reporter filed a report with Reuters, where he stated, an interlining…
The economics of Spicejet’s fare sale and justifying the regulator’s action
I got quite some amount of pushback on the SpiceJet sale that happened last weekend and I thought I’d pen down my thoughts here. I think there were 2 sorts of concerns, firstly about people not being able to find the fare and secondly about the concept of the sale as a whole, with a bleeding market as a whole. I first heard about the sale on Friday morning 0800 IST approximately, and immediately got down to work on rearranging some of my existing travel which would have anyways happened for me or my family. For instance, I had a ticket booked for my brother, who was going to be on a DEL-JAI-BOM flight during the sale period and was…
Indigo & GoAir matching SpiceJet sale on some routes
It turns out price warrior SpiceJet is not alone in this fare war since this morning where they released tickets for Rs. 2013 all inclusive. Indigo joins in, without advertising the sale on a lot of routes with an all inclusive price of Rs. 2010. I suspect this would last as long as SpiceJet offers the low fares, so if you are looking for a weekend trip of sorts or a visit someplace, do also look up the Indigo website for your options. Like with SpiceJet, the tickets are also available with travel agents, including online travel agents such as Yatra, Cleartrip and the others. Update: GoAir is also now in the game with Rs. 2007 fares to most places…
Indigo reshuffles South-East Asia, cuts BOM/DEL-SIN and BKK
While there is no official announcement from Indigo on this, they have apparently pruned their Singapore operations from Mumbai and Delhi, as well as Mumbai to Bangkok. Reservations for BOM-SIN-BOM (6E051/052), DEL-SIN-DEL (6E011/012) are closed for flights from 1st March 2013. Also, Indigo is closing Mumbai – Bangkok route and reservations on 6E071/072 have been closed. It looks like Indigo could not keep up with being an unknown brand in the other market. Using just a web-based ticketing system, Indigo is not present on the Global Distribution Systems such Amadeus & Sabre which are used by Travel Agents worldwide to source and issue tickets. Over the years, on the Singapore route, there have been flights offered by Air India, Jet…
Indigo starts going into losses too?
Indigo, the 6-year old low-fare carrier, which became the largest Indian domestic airline, a very professional and cool one at that, and the only profitable Indian airline might be slipping up as well. It seems their dream run seems to be finally coming to an end. As per a newsreport published in the Economic Times today, Indigo has lost the plot. India’s civil aviation minister, in an address in the Indian Parliament, states that the airline made a nominal loss of Rs. 88 Crores ($15 million) in the period April 2011-March 2012. In the preceding periods of 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, the airline made a profit of Rs. 18 Crores ($3 million), Rs. 447 Crores ($80 million), Rs. 603 Crores…
Indigo unveils new retro-cool uniform for pilots
Indigo just went uber-cool all over again, with their new uniform innovation. Though they are a low-fare airline, perhaps they are India’s best at marketing themselves with a tongue-in-cheek cool about them. Incidentally, they are also India’s biggest domestic airline now.I’ve previously talked about their meals in matchboxes which I totally love, and also their Runway musical which is a class apart. Indigo just came up with new uniforms for their pilots, which boast of a Navy Blue Bomber Jacket, White shirt and Trousers. And this goes away from the traditional civil pilot uniform where a shirt+tie+blazer is the official look. Have a look at the video they posted: Do let me know what do you think of this. Does…
