Air Costa flight review
I've been off the radar a little bit because of a lot of travel these last couple of weeks. During this time, I've had a couple of stays at the JW Marriott, Bangalore, which I'll write about pretty soon. More importantly, I realise that not many of us have perhaps flows Air Costa. And because I recently had the chance to fly them on a short MAA-BLR segment, I thought I'd put out a quick flight review here.
MAA-BLR
Air Costa LB 487 | Embraer 190 | 1 hr 00 mins | 167 miles | Economy class
Air Costa runs two different aircraft - the Embraer 190 (which is an all-economy configuration), and an Embraer 170 (with 7 premium economy seats, the rest being economy seats). I flew the all-economy aircraft from MAA to BLR.
At MAA, they have different check-in counters for the premium economy pax, and the other pax. Given the very few seats they have for premium economy, I thought this was unncessary. Nonetheless, I found it useful because I used the premium economy check-in counter to check in.
I really loved the positive attitude of the check-in agent, who was smiling and chirpy all through the transaction. I can tell of some other airlines where they can get quite grumpy (and no, I'm not necessarily referring to Air India!). While check-in procedures were taking place, a baggage loader with the airline attached the hand baggage tag to my bag (I remember Kingfisher doing this earlier), which was thoughtful too.
Boarding was by a bus in MAA, since the aircraft was parked at the apron (in fact, there's just one parking slot available for Air Costa in MAA - I've always seen their aircraft at just that same spot, every time).
There was a little bit of a hold up at the boarding point, while we were still in the bus, because it was a short turn-around and the cleaners weren't off the aircraft yet.
However, it wasn't a very long wait, and we began the climb up the stairs in a couple of minutes. I was one of the first on board, and the plane wasn't too full, so I managed a few pictures before most of the other passengers got on board.
The seats were reasonably well spaced out, which meant a fair amount of leg room - certainly better than many economy flights with Jet, though I can't remember if Paramount (which shut down a few years back) had more leg room back in economy.
One possible reason could have been the thickness - or rather, the relative thinness - of the seats, which struck me as quite different from what I've been seeing on other airlines and aircraft (mainly the A320s and B738/739s).
The crew was also very professional and appeared smart (no pictures, though). Soon after take off, the trolley was wheeled in, peddling food - wafers, juices, cookies, etc. Prices were quite similar to what I've seen on Indigo and SpiceJet, for similar stuff.
I can't be sure, but I have to presume that the premium economy passengers (where that service is available on board) are entitled to complimentary food.
Being the rather short flight that it was - we reached BLR in a flying time of 35 minutes - there wasn't much to review. But on the whole, the flight was uneventful, which isn't always a bad thing. The aircraft was clean, the service efficient, the crew smart, and together, these made for a fairly smooth, if short, flight. They do fly some excellent routes that connect key cities in South India, so I'm quite keen on flying Air Costa more...maybe next time, I'll try the premium economy product.
MAA-BLR
Air Costa LB 487 | Embraer 190 | 1 hr 00 mins | 167 miles | Economy class
Air Costa runs two different aircraft - the Embraer 190 (which is an all-economy configuration), and an Embraer 170 (with 7 premium economy seats, the rest being economy seats). I flew the all-economy aircraft from MAA to BLR.
At MAA, they have different check-in counters for the premium economy pax, and the other pax. Given the very few seats they have for premium economy, I thought this was unncessary. Nonetheless, I found it useful because I used the premium economy check-in counter to check in.
I really loved the positive attitude of the check-in agent, who was smiling and chirpy all through the transaction. I can tell of some other airlines where they can get quite grumpy (and no, I'm not necessarily referring to Air India!). While check-in procedures were taking place, a baggage loader with the airline attached the hand baggage tag to my bag (I remember Kingfisher doing this earlier), which was thoughtful too.
Boarding was by a bus in MAA, since the aircraft was parked at the apron (in fact, there's just one parking slot available for Air Costa in MAA - I've always seen their aircraft at just that same spot, every time).
There was a little bit of a hold up at the boarding point, while we were still in the bus, because it was a short turn-around and the cleaners weren't off the aircraft yet.
However, it wasn't a very long wait, and we began the climb up the stairs in a couple of minutes. I was one of the first on board, and the plane wasn't too full, so I managed a few pictures before most of the other passengers got on board.
The seats were reasonably well spaced out, which meant a fair amount of leg room - certainly better than many economy flights with Jet, though I can't remember if Paramount (which shut down a few years back) had more leg room back in economy.
One possible reason could have been the thickness - or rather, the relative thinness - of the seats, which struck me as quite different from what I've been seeing on other airlines and aircraft (mainly the A320s and B738/739s).
The crew was also very professional and appeared smart (no pictures, though). Soon after take off, the trolley was wheeled in, peddling food - wafers, juices, cookies, etc. Prices were quite similar to what I've seen on Indigo and SpiceJet, for similar stuff.
I can't be sure, but I have to presume that the premium economy passengers (where that service is available on board) are entitled to complimentary food.
Being the rather short flight that it was - we reached BLR in a flying time of 35 minutes - there wasn't much to review. But on the whole, the flight was uneventful, which isn't always a bad thing. The aircraft was clean, the service efficient, the crew smart, and together, these made for a fairly smooth, if short, flight. They do fly some excellent routes that connect key cities in South India, so I'm quite keen on flying Air Costa more...maybe next time, I'll try the premium economy product.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have traveled from tirupati to Hyderabad on June 27th 2016 4pm flight. After reaching Hyderabad I forgot a gift rapped lord photo in luggage space which was kept above my seat space. I have contacted the ground staff as soon as I entered the airport at luggage area in 5 minutes after I got down from the flight, he contacted the flight crew from his Wallis talkie and initially he said they found the item and after waiting 10 minutes he came and said they did not find it. I was able to see the flight from luggage area and did not see any one getting the gift wrap from the flight and they are saying they did not find the gift item. This is not the service people are expecting. He did not even took my contact details to send the item if they find it. This the worst service I have seen, steeling people stuff. Please don't trust aircosta staff and make sure you don't forget any items while coming getting down.