Indian vs US Air Travel

The airline industry world wide is going thru hell. Rising fuel costs, lesser number of travellers and what have you. However, what amazes me is the glaring difference between the United States' based airline companies and the ones back home.

The horror of travelling in the US begins at the check-in counter itself. The reps have some sort of an air as if they were doing us a favour checking us in. These days there are more number of auto check in kiosks than there are people checking in customers. At least the kiosks are more polite !!

Well...once your checked in you basically head into the long lines at security and are subjected to "a random search" by the airport security most of the time. I don't know how the "random" selection is done. However, I learnt, by personal experience that you basically get selected for the special treatment if you are from the sub-continent or surrounding countries. However, after years of travelling the security finally accepts that you are not a threat to the country and are not selected for a random selection any more.

You then head to the departure gate and board the plane to an artificially welcoming host / hostess who are called 'cabin crew'. Then begins the on board experience. Wow !! On flights that are even as long as 5 hours all that the airline serves are food boxes that could be bought ! They serve it with some soft drink / juice (which is thankfully free). For flights of a lesser duration forget about any food at all. They simply throw a minuscule packet of pretzel or peanut with a drink and thats it. A far away cry from the "Kingfisher Experience" !!

Cheers to the Indian Airline Industry for top notch service and providing us with a truly world class experience.