Travel and Fun: November 2008

BIAL: The myths and the facts

Bengaluru International Airport

The Myths:

The route to the airport is not good.
It takes hours to reach the airport
It is not at all complying with international standards

These are some of the few. The realities are little different.

The road to airport is good, no doubt about it.
Taking a cab is a little bit costly however it takes a maximum of one hour thirty minutes by cab.
Buses are in plenty and are inexpensive however take a little longer to reach
No Doubt the airport looks excellent from outside.
The roads, gardens and the parking facilities make it look really great
The drop off and pick up zones are also very good, except that our fellow Indians still don't maintain the discipline.
The one thing that is highly pathetic is, you will hardly find any direction boards and no help at all.
Once you get down from the bus or taxi, you cannot quickly pick up a trolley. Thats really bad.
You have four departure entrances and its tough to figure out which one to take. Actually you may take any of the four.
Now you enter a beautiful chaotic world.
You have self checkin computers like the US.
There is not even a single taker for it. I am one of the very few.
Now the fun, it takes all the information from you except baggage.
So you now have to again stand in the same line and get your baggage checked in. However in other countries, once you e-checkin and get your boarding pass, you would have to go to a different counter where just your luggage is picked up. I mean there are two counters, one for checking and baggage and the other only for baggage.
Ok after this hassle you go to the first floor for security check and boarding.
Security check is a chaos. Not because of the security personnel, but because of the Undisciplined Indians.
Now comes the part where I have to highlight. How many synonyms you may find for the words robbery and atrocity, you may use when you get hungry.
A plate IDLI (2 pieces) costs Rs. 90
A plate VADA (2 pieces) costs Rs. 90
A plate of Pongal costs Rs. 90
Half litre water costs Rs.20
Exorbitant prices - No Doubt
The restrooms are a little bit better compared to the old airport.
The smallest of the passenger aircraft carries at least 48 passengers.
The number of seats infront of every gate are hardly 18. check the picture below.

So things still need to change, however there is certainly a significant amount of internationalization that has been brought in because of the BIAL and this fact should be appreciated.

My First Experience with Paramount Airways

Being a middle class man, I have always preferred Deccan, till date. It was only a couple of times that I tried other carriers like Indigo and Kingfisher. During my recent trip to visakhapatnam, I again took Deccan. Relatively, AirDeccan the now called Kingfisher-Red, was far far better than the later. I realized that the takeover resulted only in crippling the low cost carrier nothing else.

So this time when I was returning back I took Paramount Airways. I read the ratings all over and found it to be an amazing carrier. The moment I entered the airport till I got down the plane I only regretted, "why I did not choose Paramount all these days?". It was absolutely an amazing experience.

The thing to be expressed in bold is, I bet you will not get the same seating comfort in any of the airlines in India, as in Paramount. No doubt.

It has two classes, Elite class and the Business class. They do not have economy. The courtesy and respect shown at the airport is amazing. Luggage handling is too good. I would give a 5/5 for the ground handling.

They kill you with hospitality. What I exactly mean is this is not the kind of treatment you get on any other carrier for the same class/money. One gets a nice light meal on the trip. The news papers you get onboard are very exhaustive.