Jet Airways : On Time, Efficient : Customer delight!

Not the first time I travelled with Jet Airways but after this time’s experience I thought of putting it in an article as a positive feedback for the company.

The first and the most important factor when it comes to flight especially when your itenarry is relatively tight and you do not have buffer for any delays is TIME – On Time Arrival/ On Time Departure. I am convinced and trust Jet Airways for On Time arrival. This helps is planning your trip properly and do not put you in an unforeseen circumstance at a remote location. The scheduled flight 9W21 from Singapore to Chennai took off little late due to delay in clearance from local control room. Public Announcements were made in flight to communicate about the delay. Since I was to reach Chennai at around 10:15 PM IST nighttime, I thought I will have a delayed landing but we arrived On Time. Full marks.

Check in and boarding was effortless. 30Kg+30Kg+7Kg+7Kg luggage allowance was enough to make us happy while returning back from Chennai to Singapore.

Stewards and Airhostess were presentable and professional enough to take care of us. Airhostess looked at ease, as they did not have to bother about if they were looking young or old or fat or slim! We were travelling back with infant and the in-house flight service was on its toe when it came to our needs.

Food – We Indians are always on a munching spree whenever we are travelling. Be it with Indian Railways, Buses or flights. We were welcomed with a ‘Chatpata’ munching followed by liquor.  Food was good, served hot, fresh and sufficient. For me the highlight was steel-ware cutlery unlike plastic made. Though it doesn’t make a difference but the former enhances your eating experience when you are travelling. Please continue doing so.

Good food with steel-ware spoon, knife and fork!

Touch screen entertainment – It was loaded with latest Songs, Videos, Movies both Hollywood and Bollywood. Business section of entertainment had videos from CNBC Young Turks. It also stored my favorite comedy entertainment – ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ episode. Overall total enjoyment.

Security announcement via an animated video instead of Air hostess doing the drill.

Security announcement via an animated video instead of Air hostess doing the drill.

Entertainment Juke box was fully loaded with latest songs and movies.

Passenger load – I was really surprised to look at the full house in economy class. I have observed that normally flights fly with a 70%-80% capacity load. Though it was Chennai bound flight and I am told the capacity load is always at a higher end but this was my first experience with almost full load flight.

Improvements - Since there is always a room for improvement, two of the points that I want to highlight which management can take up are: Please add Coca Cola in your offerings of non-alcoholic drinks unless you have a tie-up with Pepsi and forced not to add Coke. Secondly, taste of food was far far better in Chennai-Singapore flight as compared to Singapore-Chennai flight. I know there might be supplier constraints and also you cannot satisfy each and every customer but these are things that I thought would have increased my experience. You can try to match taste of food with what is served on Chennai-Singapore flight.

After this experience I checked Jet Airways stock listed on NSE. Though the aviation industry is in trouble for several years now, still the industry is not closing. Talking about India, I find Jet Airways evenly poised providing full service and connected to international destinations. Company has posted losses last year though it was lesser than the then previous year. With stake sale to Ethiad Airways and leveraging on potential synergies from the combined resources and expertise, I would say a ‘Buy’ considering the fact that it is near its 52-week low.

PS: These are my personal and independent views based on past few experiences with Indian carriers like Jet Airways, Air India, IndiGo, Go Air and Spice Jet travels. It easily matches with the standards of non-Indian International carriers. No offences meant, if any.