I must be a masochist. I am sort of convinced. Among the other things I do to sock myself, booking late night flights stands out.
Surge pricing by taxis? How much? A few hundreds? Try booking Planes! A thousand rupees in a minute! A 7 pm flight that was Rs. 5000 just went up by another Rs. 4000 even as the booking was being made! Just in front of my eyes!
All said and done, middle class saving induced brains will never accept daylight robbery. So the next available option was the 'cheaper' flight. With other flights making the 7 pm flight seem like an angel when it came to lightening your pocket, the 10 pm flight at 4500 seemed reasonable. Booked. With a beaming face - 'I saved!' 'Beat you!'
Flights that depart late night and arrive early next morning are knows as red eye flights as they then to give you a red eye due to induced sleeplessness. Red eye flights are cheaper but the trade off is what they do to your body, the eyes in particular. The term 'red 'eye' is derived from symptoms of fatigue that can be seen in the eyes turning red, which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel. You lose sleep waiting at the airport and saunter to the destination in the other city where you land in the wee hours of the morning - yes, the traffic less roads another boon, by the way. The issue is that after trying to get sleep throughout the flight, you end up getting sleep but it is time for the plane to land.
Bombay international airport is tastefully done. Very aesthetic, with beautiful artwork and a pleasing theme throughout. My favorite international airport in India. One can spend a lot of time just walking around and taking in the sights and sounds. With a multitude of shops throughout, uniform air conditioning and Mild instrumental music being piped, waiting is a pleasant experience. Isn't the government partial to cities like Bombay and Delhi alone when it comes to loosening the purse strings for development? Well, that's for another day!
And yes, the silent airport (major announcements like delays and gate changes only) is both a boon for people like me who cannot tolerate cacophony but a bane for those accidental sleepers and people who like to be hand held into the plane. Many a time, it is our wont to wait for the next announcement of our flight and we have to adjust for this initiative at some airports.
Since I have this habit of checking in well in advance for any trip(something I picked from my father), I had ample time to check out many shops in the airport. Window shopping is that easy!
One chain by name Vaango! (meaning 'please come!' In tamil) was selling South Indian food. 'OK,', I thought let me go since they were 'calling' . The menu card made me realize that the welcome was restricted to the, well, welcome board only. 300 rupees for a plate of upma! Two spoons! And they call it a 'value meal'! By what stretch of imagination? I guess it is value for them, which is why it is called so. Missal pav at 200, Masala dosai at 300... These are examples of daylight robbery. Lest I forget to mention, there was a queue for this! Ah, middle class, middle class!
As for the shops, I wonder who shops at these shops. There seems to be no one even mildly interested in checking them. A shop selling pens, for example. 'Gifting options from Rs.10,000/- onwards'. What the... Ahem!' Many of them seem to be pricing their wares only for a category of people who can be termed rich or super rich. Perhaps it is for the international traveller. But a lot of domestic airports also have similar shops only.
Air Deccan changed the way India flies but the commerce at the airports seems to be caught in a time warp. I can understand that it is not your everyday roadside shop, but, even considering the overheads and stuff, selling something is better than not selling at all. How many Rs. 20,000/- pens does one sell in a day? A week? It is for a category, I understand, but how do these people manage with such sparse sales? Food for thought?
Coming to the flight, well at 9:30 pm, when I was just loosening myself to step into the flight, came an announcement that it was delayed by an hour. Then, forty minutes later, - 'Jet Airways regrets to inform you that due to (whatever damned reason it was) there is a delay of one hour to departure. The revised departure time stands at 00:00 hrs!' Seriously! Where does that appear on the clock - all the four zeroes, I mean? Heartless. Your flight is already scheduled to depart when most of the world is sleeping, but they sock it in by delaying it by one more hour!
The Bombay airport is notorious for taxiing issues. Planes need to Queue in for close to 30 minutes for taking off. So Much investment on aesthetics but not much thought on infrastructure and logistics. A shame. I mean, 30 minutes more to take off after boarding. 12:15 am would be the taxiing and close to 1 am would be departure making it a 2:45 am 3 am landing. Come on, even ghosts would have gone to bed!
Red eye flights are 1 am plus flights. But most of the flights departing... Sorry scheduled to depart by 11 PM or so seem to crown themselves with their invariable power to give you a red, blue or whatever eye anyway.
And the announcement again. 'guests on the Jet Airways flight to Chennai...' Hey... hey... hold that! Am I a 'guest'? The land of 'Athithi devo bhava?' Do you treat your guests like this? OK, I paid a few thousands less for a late night flight, but seriously not for this treatment, man! This is like... Third class! Thankfully, it was a flight where they served meals and I was not required to pay 200 rupees for a cup of noodles!
No web check in and I got the 'prestigious' middle seat! Next to two fat smelly chaps, who took both my armrests! And one of them was drunk!
Did I say I was a masochist?
2 comments:
To make you happy, you must think of all the upmas you can now have with the saved money or whatever was the opportunity cost of that money....:) which you saved....
Notional, yes.
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