The Kingfisher Mess

[Indizen]

I am in the unenviable situation of having booked five flights on this fraudulant carrier for travel in a few weeks from now.

The airline has stopped operatios in one sector, putting my entire ity in jeopardy. I booked an alternate flight on Indigo, so all the early discounts paid for the extra ticket!

Kingfisher is yet to inform "guests" how they are being taken for a ride.... The call center guy insists all iz well, and the flight is still on, even as the airline is no longer flying to that airport!!

 

[sahilthegoodguy]

My friend had booked the Kingfisher flight from Pune to Delhi. But at the last moment the flight was cancelled. Still no refund has been provided to him.
Kingfisher is seriously undergoing some mojor problems.
While at one stage they were one of the hot favorites, now people are avoiding them.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

That’s quite bad, wonder what Kingfisher is trying to achieve by creating so much confusion in the mind of passengers. If they can’t fly to a sector, then they ought to be sincere enough to tell their passengers and refund the money.

To tell you the truth, few days ago I was wondering about what would happen to my trip to Ladakh due to this mess, and then I remembered that I had booked the ticket for Jetairways (booked over six months ago), so breathed a sigh of relief.

Not sure who was telling me at that time to wait for Kingfisher booking to open and booked them, good that I didn’t do that.

 

[Indizen]

Media reports today suggest that Kingfisher is going to cancel half of around 400 flights, causing great inconvenience to half a million passengers.
Airfares are bound to go up as a result.
Yet the KF CEO refuses to confirm this fact.
Even on the sectors which the airlines has stopped flying, instead of refunding the ticket, they are still asking for cancellation charges as per rules. So no formal notification about cancellation of flights.
How can Mallya get away with this?

 

[anupmathur]

...
How can Mallya get away with this?

We are witnessing the genesis of a new scam!

 

[Big Daddy]

We are witnessing the genesis of a new scam!

I think they are booking flights to pressurize government into bailing the airline out. This is the reason they are not officially announcing anything. With little knowledge I have, even I can see government bailout will most likely not happen and then KF will go down with many unhappy customers.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Politicians will receive their share and then the government will bail them out, already Ministers and even the Prime Minister have been all too eager to help out the airline and are forcing banks to do the needful.

 

[Indizen]

All BCMT members, let us resolve to boycott Kingfisher even if it manages to stay afloat.
Mallya is a big time crook, trying to lure others to invest in his failed venture.
The call center is non functional, emails are ignored, and the CEO claims its businessvas usual. Only the most foolish people can entrust Mallya withh their money.

 

[Big Daddy]

Government has to raise taxes to bailout Kingfisher. The first thing Government has to do is to roll back the 2.22/liter petrol discount they gave to everyone last week. Do they dare to do such a thing?

I am loving this! Government is sandwiched between a rock and a hard place. If they don't give a bailout deal to KF then a lot of KF jobs will be lost. If they give a bailout deal then exchange rate will fall leading to higher inflation in future. Either way, it is screwed.

KF should have hired professional management and managed the airlines better in the first place. Better approaches of forecasting fuel cost, scheduling staff, managing yield, and estimating freight should have been developed. A preemptive asset salvation and reducing the number of flight legs that KF serves may have helped KF.

Foolish business decision lead to higher cost to society. Now, I am looking forward to bickering in Indian congress on this issue.

 

[lloydofcochin]

Indizen, I am in the same boat as you

We have booked a flight from Cochin to Mumbai on 26th Dec and I'm not sure whether we would be able to fly...

It is a pain to reach someone on their Toll Free number. I had to wait for 28 mins to speak to them yesterday. The guy said that the flight that we have booked for has been canceled and he transferred our booking to another flight which leaves after 20 mins than the earlier scheduled one. Now I have decided to take a wait & watch approach to see how the drama unfolds hoping that the tide will change and the bankers will provide them some funds to cover the OPEX.

Mr.Mallya should have done better. His behavior reminds me of the story of the Roman emperor Nero

Maybe Capt Gopinath has a point here - Mallya found running a low-cost airline brand embarrassing, News - Cover Story - Bangalore Mirror,Bangalore Mirror