And everyone knew her as Nancy -- Part 1

Our trip to the southern east coast of India last weekend yielded an array of varying experiences and observations. I intend to provide a series of briefs that cover the varied subjects that arose out of our trip. But first and foremost, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi airport in Shamshabad has it all over Chennai’s airport. Oh, the jungle airstrip is just for affect. One of my colleagues at TNS conducted a study for the Port Authority of New York on customer perceptions and satisfaction with the four Port Authority airports in the New York/New Jersey area: JFK, Newark, LaGuardia, and Steward, the last being the latest addition and eventually destine to take part of the strain off the other three. The study looked at the customer experience at the airport: shopping, lounge areas, and, of course, restrooms to name a few. Both male and female travelers understand the importance of restrooms at airports. Even the Port Authority of New York believes in good restroom experience, Senator Larry Craig’s type of experience not being one of the criteria, particularly the “wide stance” argument.
It’s been just about two months since we first stumbled out of the Hyderabad airport at 12:30 in the morning. Last Thursday morning we trundled back into the airport, this time to fly domestically on none other than Kingfisher airlines. No, not the King Fish from the old Amos and Andy radio and TV series, but the same people who brew Kingfisher beer in India also maintain one of the largest domestic air carriers. I guess I don’t want to see what’s in the fridge in the crew lounge after working with Anheuser Busch years ago. We were treated to the “Kingfisher experience” which included (1) a greeter who instantly identified us as western tourists (duh), (2) took us to the Kingfisher check-in kiosk where another Kingfisher representative took our confirmation numbers and (after an Indian 2-minute check-in) we were guided by the Kingfisher greeter to the Kingfisher check-in desk. Deb and I are still trying to understand what the Kingfisher kiosk experience was supposed to accomplish. Never mind. Moving on: (3) the Kingfisher rep checked in our bags and gave us our boarding passes, (4) we headed to the segregated security (men versus women – and there’s more about that in a later post as well). This really wasn’t a unique Kingfisher experience, but, OK, I screwed up. I took the sun block lotion and bug spray in my backpack. I took the first aid kit as well which contained blunt-nosed scissors – a no-no. Indian security has become sensitive since that Mumbai incident when 50 Pakistanis came into Mumbai carrying some serious armaments that weren’t detected. It reminds me of the Dallas Police who didn’t see Jack Ruby with the drawn gun in November 1963. Well, anyway, I had to take my pack back out and go through check-in for a second time. We went down to the gate to board the bus to take us to de plane. But Deb had taken her purse out of her carry-on and it didn’t have a tag on it. The Kingfisher experience was deteriorating as the security guy mumbled something like “you’re going to have to go back to check-in” at which point Deb was ready to detonate. However, her quick thinking said “I’m gonna stuff my purse back in my carry-on which has the tag which seemed to be just fine with security. Now Deb’s purse could have had enough C4 to level one of the tent cities and certainly enough to bring down the plane, but OK, OK, checked carry on was OK.
We just starting (5) arrive at the plane, rear door has stairs. Final Kingfisher rep checks boarding pass at bottom of stairs. Enter cabin. Walk forward. Sit down. Kingfisher experience has two rows facing in the front. Fortunately we’re facing forward. Deb would NOT have been able to take a rear-facing flight. Instructions from the Kingfisher in-flight attendant is canned, our REAL Kingfisher attendant is not into the instructions today. (6) We actually leave the boarding area on time!!! As we are taxiing to the runway, the Kingfisher experience continues with the attendant dropping off a micro-processed bottle of Kingfisher water and a yellow loaf in plastic wrap. All the Indian passengers (read everyone except us) unwraps the loaf. We follow. The loaf is a moist corn-meal like texture with a filling that has recognizable kernels of corn and something else – elusive in both taste and texture. We eat it. It’s part of the Kingfisher experience. We spend the rest of the trip filling out a Kingfisher air club application and the customer satisfaction survey. The survey scale is from “wow” to “poor”. I really didn’t get a “wow” from any of the experiences so far, but I hope the crew is not threatened by their supervisors for not getting “wow”s for everything. Besides, as a researcher, I was probably the only person that filled it out.
(7) We land – on time. Not bad!
The next installment gets us into our tour of Chennai. See you later.