Not sure how many people know how media awards are given…it is a fantastic story in itself. I know one CTO of a large bfsi company (who is actually technically challenged!!) who got the ‘best use of technology’ award. I know his OWN colleagues telling me about his technology knowledge. Well we all laughed.

I know one IT company whose 12 employees asked me ‘How the…..did we get the best HR practices award’?

I know one bfsi company who got an award (too damn obvious, so will not mention it) and a board member told me..now you will see assignments going to the company giving the award…LOL

So when I traveled by Jet Airways…and well here is a story.

In the last week I travelled to Chennai twice – and used 4 airlines, here is a story!

The first visit was a training visit and reaching on time was important, but unfortunately the training organiser booked me on Air India (let me make it clear, over the past 3-4 years, I have loved taking the Spice Jet 6am flight from Mumbai, so this was a departure from the norm for me). I should have been at the venue at 9.15…but I reached at 10.45am. The Air India check in was LOUSY – the lines were just too long, and the queue just did not move fast enough, we sat in the aircraft on the dot, but the take off was about half an hour late…grrrr…the food was good, the leg-space was good, the travel was comfortable. BUT IN A BUSINESS TRIP….you want to reach on time, right?

I returned by SPICE JET…it was a 20.10 flight which was supposed to land at 21.55 hrs in Mumbai. It started 10 minutes late..but landed on the dot. The staff did a very good job, and I had food – not sure how much it cost, it was paid for already..but my colleague paid a kings ransom (my onboard food menu card is perhaps not refreshed?)…and am not sure if she was happy with the food – at Rs. 450 for a meal! On board food at such prices? bah! HOWEVER, THE TIMING was superb, thanks Spice Jet.

My next trip was on 26th Oct – Diwali day. Eight of us went to the Jet Airways counter…and were told very politely ‘Sir, we are over booked and am not sure if we can get tickets for all of you’. We had a 83 year old as well as a 10 year old..and my sister had come from Pune to take this flight! Well, before panic set in on the group, I told them…’Do not worry….she will call up and somebody will say ‘release Alpha, Charlie, Gamma….’ and we will all get tickets. Well exactly that is what happened ..and we got seats all over the aircraft..all middle seats of course. The whole process took us about 20 minutes for sure..maybe 30 ..I can assure you Jet Airways sucks. I used to know a few people at the top in Jet..but many of them are now with KF, so could not even complain loudly (I reserve the cribbing to CXO levels – no point in screaming at the kids sitting on the check in terminals except spoiling their day).

Then on Sunday (today) I came back by KingFisher. I am not saying this because I know a few people there (will not embarass them by naming them!) but the experience was good. Learning from the Jet Airways experience we decided to web check in yesterday..so we sat together. Even before that, when we reached the airport 2 young boys asked us ‘Kingfisher?’ …when we said yes, they got us trolleys, got the luggage down from the top of the SUV..and helped us with the check in..Thanks RV, DV and KV…service was really useful.

I came home and while switching channels saw Jet had got the best airline award. LOL.