Flight no: DN 606
Date: July 16th 2005
Departure: 14.20
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Reg: VT-ADY

I have moved to Bangalore on an one year contract. 17th July happens to be my girl friend's birthday. I have always been with her on her birthday ever since our courtship began. This year had to be no exception so I decided to fly down to Mumbai to be with her. A quick search revealed that Air Deccan was offering the cheapest fare on this sector. Rs. 1971.00 (US$ 46.00 approx.)

The flight was to depart at 14.20 and I was busy taking interviews up to 13.00. Cunningham Road is quite some distance from the airport. I had to request a colleague to drop to the airport on his motor cycle. A car would simply not have been able to negotiate to Bangalore traffic and reach on time for check in.

I managed to reach the airport at 13.45, checked in and was handed was given a boarding card with seat number 15F printed on the part of the boarding card which is collected by the airline at the time of boarding and a sticker bearing no. 25A on the boarding card. When I asked the guy at the counter the reason for this, he just smiled and said that it was a computer error. I had no hassles as long as it was a window seat.

The security check was quick as I had no baggage at all. The lounge was quite small. On the outside I could see an IC Airbus A320, 9W ATR 42, AI Airbus A310 and a DN ATR42. Moments later the A320 of DN, VT-ADY moved into gate 3. This is the one with the Sun Microsystems logo. This is one of the two gates with jetways at BLR. When the boarding started, we did not board to the jetway but were asked to board from the rear door. That's very strange. On board, I found that my seat was already occupied by a young girl. I assumed that she might have wanted to take the window seat. I casually asked her her seat number. She replied that it was 25A. I questioned the FA about it but she had no answer. The FA asked me to take any vacant seat so I took the seat 25C next to the girl's mum.

The take off was slightly delayed because of a test flight of the LCA. Good for me that I managed to see both the prototypes that day. Sorry no photographs. I did not have my camera with me.

The inflight service commenced after the seat belt signs were switched off. We had an option of Lays, Vegetable rolls, brownies, a variety of juices and mineral water. All priced at 3 times their usual sales price. I purchased a Lays and vegetable roll for Rs.75.00.

Due to decent tail wind, we managed to land at Mumbai on time.