Flying to Bangalore via. Kochi on my Second Flight of the day
Here's my 9th Trip Report (My 4th on Flight-Report.com)
COK-BLR (3rd December 2015) Air Asia India/I51125/Airbus A320-200)
Here is the entire video of this trip report:
Planing Process
To be honest this was my Cheapest Option to get to Bangalore from Kochi on that day,being priced 50% less than the other carriers on offer.
Without much hesitation, got myself a seat on this red-eye flight to BLR even though that meant that i'd have to spend quite a few hours in Kochi.
My Insane itinerary: to get myself to Bangalore takes on its second leg!
2015-12-03 UL167 CMB-COK 14:05 15:25 ALK A320 4R-ABO (12A)
2015-12-03 I51130 COK-BLR 22:05 23:10 IAD A320 VT-BLR (25F) [Trip Report 9]
2015-12-06 I51125 BLR-COK 10:05 11:05 IAD A320 VT-APJ (11A)
2015-12-06 UL168 COK-CMB 16:15 17:30 ALK A320 4R-ABL (19A)
Check-in/Immigration
After having a layover of almost 8 Hours in Kochi, I managed to get to know every nook and cranny of the airport and it was a great place to spend a long transit in.
However a power-bank is highly recommended as finding a power outlet in the airport is absolutely impossible!
A plus point of Kochi Airport is that they do provide 45 minutes of free Wi-Fi which was pretty cool
Anyways on to the Check-in process
Didn't have to pass through Immigration due to the nature of this flight being a Domestic Route.
Headed to the Air Asia counter to drop off my luggage
Aircraft
As expected, Air Asia India was operating one of its A320-200 on this sector today. VT-BLR was the aircraft I got for my first experience on a Budget-LCC
Departure was delayed by 45 minutes much to my agony as that would basically mean that my "Long Layover" just got a bit longer.
Oh well….
With BLR being one of the oldest in the fleet of I5 i couldn't possibly complain as it was maintained pretty well although it wasn't cleaned on arrival from BLR on the previous flight probably due to the delay.
Airline: AirAsia India (I5/IAD)
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Registration: VT-BLR
Flight: I51130
Seat Number: 25F
Trip Report 9
The crew
The crew where quite welcoming however they didn't make much of a show probably due to the fact that it was a red-eye flight.
There where no on-board sales carried out which was strange as most LCC's make quite a bit of their revenue buy doiwhich was pretty disappointing as i was trying to get a AirAsia India Model for my collection.
Seat
The seat was average for LCC standards and as expected it was pretty cramped up.
Well i guess you basically have to pay for what you get.
Meal Service
No food or water was served let alone being available for purchase was a little disheartening since i was looking forward to some dinner on board. Guess I'd have to grab something at the hotel
There where no IFE Systems since Air Asia India operates as a low cost model and only reading material being provided.Consisting of Air Asia India's In-Flight magazine and an In-Flight Sales catalog.
IFE was actually not required for two reasons:
1) The flight being under One hour and 5 minutes
2) A red-eye flight with most of the passengers trying to get a bit of a nap
Landing into Bangalore was smooth and just after after midnight
Disembarked fairly quickly with the baggage coming within a matter of minutes and was off to my hotel to get some much needed dinner
Hi Aaqib,
Thanks for the trip report. I5 seems to be a decent carrier for short hops but not sure if its the same for flights across the country. Lack of BoB is disappointing for a low cost airline. Kochi looks like a nice little airport. Love the traditional architecture of the terminal building (as seen in your previous report). Seems they are giving much publicity to their green airport project.
Thanks again!
Cheers!!!
Hi Thurya,
Thanks for your Comments.t
From what I've found out, the BoB facility isn't available on short routes like this one which is pretty surprising for an LCC. However from what I recall, on flying from Chennai to Madurai on SpiceJet, they too didn't have the option available. I guess there is some sort of category of flights chosen to have BoB as well as in-flight duty free sales.
Kochi is indeed a wonderful airport with as you said the terminal architecture being a highlight.
You can see a find out a little more about a relatively better flight on Air Asia India on my next FR so stay tuned.
Cheers!!
Nice report, thanks for sharing.
Kochi looks like a god awful mess compared to BLR/BOM/DEL ! I am surprised you survived 8 hours there.. Heck, I was dying to get out of MUC after such a long wait there!!
This is not the first time I have read about AirAsia India not having a meal service. I have seen this happen (on this very route) very often, in other reports. The key is to order a hot meal if those are for sale online.
Most of AirAsia India's older planes are ex-AirAsia (the original story)'s.
Looking forward to the return trip!
Thanks for your Comments Jish!
I agree, spending 8+ Hours in BLR would have been way better. On the other hand Kochi was average TBH however it was better than KUL for sure (you'd know why once I upload my next series).
Thankfully the return leg on I5 had a BoB meal service, I guess its the red-eye flights that do not have much to offer.
The return leg has been uploaded do check it out
Cheers!!