About 10 days ago, John and I flew
Jet Airways from Bangalore to Goa India and back. Last Friday, we flew
Lufthansa from Bangalore to Frankfurt to
San Francisco. What a difference in experiences!
The Jet Airways flights were comfortable, well managed, and full of pleasant
extras. On both flights of less than an hour, Jet Airways quickly and
gracefully served drinks
and an excellent full meal. In addition, they provided the best in-flight
magazine I have seen: Jetwings. It has been years since I actually
took home an airplane magazine but I wanted to show my kids some of the
excellent photos of crafts, celebrations, and locations in India.
Our Lufthansa flights last Friday did not compare well. The first leg of
our journey (Bangalore to Frankfurt) was uneventful. It was when we had
to change planes in Frankfurt that all went wrong. Even though we had already
been searched in Bangalore and were only moving from gate to nearby Lufthansa gate within
the same terminal, we were searched again. This took so much time that they
ended up moving everyone trying to catch the flight to San Francisco into the
first class line. After our carryon bags went through the scanners, we were
faced with an almost gleeful guard who confiscated our water bottles (one of
which was still factory sealed). He was delighted to offer us the opportunity
to drink the entire litre bottle immediately before he threw it away. I asked
if I could empty mine and keep the bottle but “this is not allowed here”.
There was no store between the searching station and the gate and we were almost
late so we flew for 10+ hours with only the water provided by the cabin crew.
Add to being dehydrated, a tall guy in the seat behind me who pushed
my seat forward when I tried to recline it (and glared at the stewardess
until she went away when I asked for help) made our flight home most
unpleasant. I think we will fly through Singapore to India next
time!
I will watch the business progress of Jet Airways with interest and hope
that their very efficient, polite, and comfortable service will set a
much-needed new standard in civilized travel.
KatysBlog 
The “no water” thing is a rule of the US Governement, not the airline…
Credit where credit is due.
Hope you guys had a good experience in India. How ever, I wouldn’t compare flights between B’lore-Goa & BLR-FRA-SFO. As you have already observed they are short flights and also deal with lesser number of passengers Jet airways might be getting a good price on food & drinks as they are a local carrier. May be they have their own catering units across India as they are the largest domestic carriers in India. I am not sure its whether the German security requirements / US govt’s but FRA security cordons parts of the airport and does a check again. In fact, we went through a security check as soon as we got off the flight in FRA last Mar.
Singapore airlines is the best to fly out of SFO/LAX to Asia. Service is excellent but the transpacific flights are approx 14/15 hrs to S’pore. Some US carriers like AA,Delta,Continental now offer direct flights from US hubs to Delhi/Bombay in 13 hrs. From there, you can fly in your favorite Jet airways. Ditch Lufthansa and the heavy taxes on the airfare they charge.