SpiceJet – India’s Low Cost Carrier With Great Service

I had originally planned this adventure for sometime in 2015 at which time Sri Lankan Airlines would have been a One World member so I could have gotten the Bangalore – Colombo route for 4500 Avios.  Since I brought the trip forward, I would have to buy tickets since I couldn’t use miles for this route.

IMG_3047After checking all the local airlines, SpiceJet came in the cheapest but we would have to transfer in Chennai.

.

You can easily book this ticket online and pay with a foreign credit card – unlike buses & trains which require you to jump through hoops!

.

The YQ is way more than the base fare but I couldn’t find a way to fuel dump it!

.

Since the entire ticket only comes to around $85 I wasn’t going to lose sleep over it!

.

The one drawback was a 5 hour layover in Chennai from 7pm – 1am and there is nothing near the airport to do at that time of night.  The aircraft is a smaller one and our carry-on backpacks barely fit in the overheads which was annoying but no one challenged us or made us gate check them.

.

The one advantage was that the seats were 2 x 2 so we didn’t have to share a bank of 3 with a stranger.  The crew were very friendly and a snack and soft drink were offered to everyone.  Of course you can’t compare to Singapore or Cathay Pacific but for a low-cost carrier, I thought they were pretty good!  Both legs departed and arrived right on time.

IMG_3058 Laying over in Chennai was a pita.  There was nothing to do but sit and wait.  I did have some Kindle books on my netbook, my husband people-watched and dozed off.  They won’t let you check in until 3 hours before the flight.  Chennai does have some nice artwork in the terminal.

IMG_3061 IMG_3062

These little shuttle carts will take you from the arrivals terminal to international departures for free but they do expect a tip.

IMG_3063 IMG_3064 IMG_3065For once I was hoping for a delay as I really didn’t like arriving in Colombo at 2:20am but the flight was right on time!  Since we had only carry-ons we were off the plane in no time waving goodbye to the friendly crew!