Kingfisher Vs PVR, Who Wins?

'I guarantee you the finest experience in the Indian skies', says Mr.Mallya of Kingfisher fame. I vouch for it. The inflight experience is great. In fact, the experience is great right from the time you check-in till you check-out. Yes, it's truly the finest experience in the Indian skies.

However, the 'ground reality' seems to be far from fine.

It's 10 days now, that Arya and I attempted to book tickets for Mumbai - Delhi for the 11th of August on the Kingfisher website. Seasoned warriors at this, we thought it would be a cinch. Far from it.

After entering the credit card number, the website decided that there was some error and expressed its regrets and inability to help us. What followed is the most pathetic customer experience in my experience till date.

ICICI told us that the credit card was reflecting a charge from Kingfisher (for the three tickets). We then started calling Kingfisher to get the matter sorted out. Interestingly, most of the contact numbers listed on the website failed to work. As a King Club member, I finally managed to get through to King Club's helpline, only to be curtly told that they couldn't help me out and maybe, I should approach Bookings? After 20/30 attempts during which the IVR simply failed to recognize the numeric inputs for the various options, we got through and then we were told to email guestcare@flykingfisher.com. So we sent the email on July 11th.

Email sent, we waited for a response - which came exactly over 48 hours later in the late evening of July 13th. We responded to this mail promptly, and sent follow-ups as well... the last one on July 18th. No response till now.

We kept trying the various numbers meanwhile - same problem. Either the numbers don't exist or nobody picks up. The worst is their 'Mumbai office' number which keeps promising to connect us to the operator but reneges on the promise every time.

I had exactly the opposite experience with PVR on Saturday. I was planning on watching 'The Matador' on Saturday evening and proceeded to book two tickets by credit card. A similar happenstance happened. However, in this case, the telephone numbers worked. I sent an email to which I got a response within 10 minutes on my mobile phone. PVR proceeded to call me 3 times afterwards to update me/get more details and ultimately apologise for the inconvenience.

And guess what? I felt like a King :)

P.S. I did watch the Matador. I visited the theatre in the evening and completed the transaction in 'good ole cash'. The hall was empty and the movie was a barrel of laughs. For someone who has been playing a Bond-like role, right from his Remington Steele days, this was the most 'un-Bond' like role of Pierce Brosnan ever. Sure, he still has a smokin' gun and charms women, but you gotta see it to believe it... Haha!