Differences between flying in USA vs flying in India

Based on my two weeks of flying around in USA, I have compiled a list of differences between flying in India vs flying in USA. There're lots of subtle differences in flying around in these two countries. Table that follows provides a quick summary.

#	Factor	India	USA
1	Extra charge in name of convenience fee	Yes	No
2	Boarding	Random order	By groups/zones
3	Standing up soon after landing	Happens	Happens
4	Crowd at airport	Very high, only ticketed passengers can enter	Low, anyone can enter, no visitor ticket concept, passengers exclusive from security onwards
5	Cabin Crew	Usually younger staff are employed (except Air India)	No age limit- people of all ages including elder people
6	In flight WiFi	Not available yet, under consideration	Available with some airlines, chargeable in most cases
7	Automation	Low, baggage tag still reqd in many airports	High- self baggage tagging, mobile boarding passes, automated passport control etc
8	Delay, cancellation compensation	Poor to non-existent- passengers need to chase, beg and wait for compensation, alternate flights, refund etc	Very good with well defined process and prompt service
9	Transit	Need to clear security check	No need for another security check
10	Arrival	Can’t enter departure area, need to collect bag and leave- no place to sit, hardly any shops	Domestic arrival gets mixed with departing passengers- one can access all the shops in airport, can relax as long as they wish before leaving
11	Baggage allowance	1 bag, 15 kg check in & 7 kg cabin bag allowed due to DGCA rule, cabin bag only fare available	Varies- some airlines charge even for cabin bag (spirit, frontier), Southwest offers 2 check in bags free, concept of 'personal item' in addition to cabin bag.
12	Pricing models	Low cost or full service, with some minor variations like Economy Lite, Cabin bag only fare etc For a given distance, I find fares in India are cheaper	Multiple- Spirit n Frontier have bare minimum basic fare but charge for cabin bag, airport check-in n almost everything else Full service airlines also have a basic economy pricing
13	Immigration	Standard-clear upon arrival/ before departure. Manual.	No immigration for departing passengers Arriving passengers can pre-clear immigration in some cases at origin airport- convenient but if you've to clear immigration during transit, there's a risk of missing your flight. Partly automated Fast track programs (like Global) available, faster lanes for US, Canada citizens
14	Security	No special lanes	Fast lanes for premium customers, TSA Pre-check concept available for faster clearance
15	In-flight announcement	Standard, often boring	same stuff, have seen cabin crew make an effort to make it interesting/bit funny as possible
15	Major full service airlines	Air India, Vistara	United, Delta, American, SouthWest
16	Major budget airlines	Indigo, Spicejet, AirAsia	Spirit, Frontier, Jet Blu,
17	Airport Services	No special lanes. Airport Fee included in ticket, most services are free Public transport to airport may not be available in all cities	Trolley is chargeable extra, most airports offer long term economy parking in far away areas with shuttle, car rentals at airport very common Public transport/free shuttle often available to reach city/downtown You can take your emotional support animal with you
18	Aircrafts	A320 family seems more common	B737 family seems more common (Boeing is a US company)

Jennifer Kumar says she has never seen same aircraft dropping off some passengers and picking up some (hopping flights) in US.

If you have some observations to add- please do comment.

Also read: My experience with COPA * My experience with Spirit Airlines * My experience with Jet Blue * Bahamas view from above * Miami view from above *

My experience with Spirit Airlines USA

Spirit airline was topping most of my search results at top of the page when I was checking for various flights for my Americas trip [Read more]. Spirit had the cheapest fares on offer. However, their lowest fare advertised is only for paid members of $9 fare club, non members pay more, base fare includes only includes a personal item. After adding a cabin baggage and factoring tax amount, total payable spirit fare was higher than competition, so I booked my tickets on Jet Blue, SouthWest and other airlines. However for one flight- FLL to AUS, Spirit had lowest fare even after considering tax and cabin baggage, so I booked them, after a failed attempt to book on American who had a super complex process for India issued credit cards [Details]. This would be my only flight on Spirit during the Americas trip.

This post shares my experience with Spirit Airlines, USA

Spirit Airline is an extreme low cost airline. They advertise bare minimum fare but charge for everything extra
- Only a personal item is included in ticket, even cabin baggage costs extra
- Check-in at airport costs 10 $ more
- Drinks and snacks can be purchased on board- costs $8 to $12 per drink/snacks (2$ for coffee)
- Spirit competes with Frontier, who also have similar model

Spirit seem to have a fleet largely consisting of A320 family aircrafts. They have few business class seats also. Ticket booking experience was smooth- though I wish they had included tax component upfront than adding it at subsequent stage

Web-check in: I checked in shortly once it opened up (24 hours prior)- was assigned seat 20B- I guess Spirit software intentionally assigns middle seats first to those who don't pay, hoping people will pay for window/aisle seat. If you check-in little later may be you will have higher chances of getting a good seat. I could board the flight with mobile boarding pass, without having to print it.

If one has to check-in at airport extra 10 $ fee, as it takes gate agent's time. But I am not sure how this works in case of international flights requiring visa verification (Jet Blue and SouthWest didn't let me check-in online for some international flights due to my Indian passport, had to do at airport check-in counter)- would that also be automated or someone booking international flight may be forced to visit the counter for boarding pass at a mandatory extra cost of 10 $.

Once inside, I was surprised to see the seat pocket and tray table.
Seat pocket was made up of few strings arranged to be able to hold the menu and safety instructions. So much cost cutting.

I have a suggestion to Spirit- remove these strings also and save few more dollars. Let passengers remove their shoe lace, hook it and use as seat pocket string if they want!

Tray table is tiny- can't hold a laptop

There is no pushback on the seat. Zero recline. Long flight will be a pain.

Snacks and drinks are sold on the plane- no cash accepted, only credit and debit card. Coffee is cheapest at 2 USD, most other drinks cost 8$ onwards while cocktails, alcoholic beverages costing 11-12 USD. No proper meals on sale, only some light snacks like muffin etc. I managed my flight without buying anything.

Flight landed almost on time- some 10 minutes late. Overall the trip was fine. But I would possibly avoid Spirit if I have better options- non reclining seats, charging for cabin bag are two big turn offs for me.

Spirit does have a loyalty program which gets you few more dollars of savings, but it is a paid membership- the 9$ club- I had planned only one flight so didn't bother taking up this membership.

My Experience with Copa Airlines

Copa is a full service airline based out of Panama city, Panama. They have a fleet of narrow body 737s and Embraer 190 aircrafts and fly to various destinations in central, north and south America and to more destinations world wide with their star alliance network.

From booking till date of flying, they sent lots of emails in Spanish, I didn't understand head or tail of it, so had to ignore completely.

I had two flights with them this week- from Bogota to Panama City and from Panama city to Costa Rica. This post is a quick review of my experience with them.

Bogota to Panama city
Was on a smaller Embraer 190 aircraft that had about 10 business class seats in 2+1 configuration and some 60 economy seats in 2+2 configuration. I could successfully web  check in without any issues but had to go to counter for boarding pass as they didn't have any kiosks in El Dorado airport.

Boarding was smooth. Flight was fine- light snacks was served- they had only chicken sandwich and beef sandwich, nothing vegetarian. When asked I was told I could pre-book them online. So had to fly hungry with only apple juice for company.

Panama City to Costa Rica
I couldn't locate any option to specify veg meals during check-in or otherwise. Wondering if I would get one. Tweeted to the airline and got a standard reply that I should sign up for their frequent flyer program and can specify meals. For just 2 flights I didn't feel like signing up their loyalty program. Not sure when I will fly ever again and they will keep spamming me forever with useless promotional mails.

Panama being their hub, I could print boarding pass in a kiosk and proceed to gate. Flight to Costa Rica was on a bigger 737 that had entertainment system. No headphones were given (I used my own). Had good flight watching movie, nice veg food was served. So happy on that front. USB charging meant I could charge my devices.

In-flight magazine was good- had articles in both Spanish and English. Both flights were on time.

Being full service airline, Copa's pricing is more expensive than low cost options- but in the central american region between South, Central America Copa and Avianca are two airlines with very good coverage. 

My Experience with JetBlue Airlines USA

I had one flight with Jet Blue recently- from Fort Lauderdale to Bogota Colombia. No other Jet Blue flight planned during my trip.

Booking process- Booking process was standard. No complications.Booked on their website, provided a SQ frequent flyer code since Jet Blue is star alliance member and I had no plans of booking lots of flights with Jet Blue. [Read more about various US flight booking experience]

Post booking- Jet Blue kept sending various romantic welcome letters and trying to trick me to upgrade

Web Check-in: Jet Blue's website didn't allow me to do web checkin-it insisted on me selecting Colombia Visa type, showing only 2 options some VVI and VVA or something. I couldn't figure out what is this. I was to enter Colombia based on my US visa, but there was no option for that. Thus I had to go to airport early (check-in closes 2 hours before departure)

Airport check-in: Once in FLL airport, as there were no staff at the Jet Blue counter (early morning) I tried using their airport kiosk for check-in. It asked me to scan passport page and visa page - scanned US visa and I was all set to go. I was prompted to select an "even more space" seat for extra 40 USD, which I declined.

I got a window seat assigned.

Boarding: Jet Blue boards in groups, A, B and C. Mine was group B. But unlike Southwest, Jet Blue doesn't have clear markers near the gate to group people. Passengers need to align based on announcements made by the staff.

Once inside the the craft was bit dull and dirty- looked like an old plane, all white interiors with black seats, overhead storage showing signs of dirt/long term usage.

Leg room was more that what I was used to in India's domestic airlines.

There was a small entertainment screen- which was too small and old fashioned. It wasn't functional in true sense. The display unit had provision to swipe credit cards for payment.

Free Wifi: Jet Blue seem to be providing free in-flight WiFi, but guess it is accessible only within US airspace. Didn't work after sometime

Food and drinks are for purchase- small drinks and snacks cost around 8 to 12 USD on an average. I believe a bottle of water is given free

Jet Blue charges for check-in bag. One cabin bag and one personal item is free. If your cabin bag doesn't fit or if flight is full, it will be checked-in

Flight was uneventful- reached Bogota on time. Overall it was decent experience- for about 105 USD I could fly 3 hours from Florida to Colombia. But I liked the South West Experience better. Looking forward to try Spirit and West Jet over next few weeks.

Unfortunately don't have any proper exterior photos of Jet Blue plane.

Bahamas from top-scenic views from window seat

Bahamas from top- here're some scenic views of the Bahamas (Nassau) from the window seat...

Also see: Miami from top * Exploring Nassau using public transportation * Visiting Bahamas- Cruise vs flight *

Miami Florida,USA-topview from plane window seat!

Here're some photos of Miami, Florida USA that I took from the window seat of South West flight.

Clicked during approach to FLL. Plane went south all the way till Miami international airport and then turned north towards Fort Lauderdale (FLL Hollywood International Airport)

Views were partially blocked by the clouds, but in between got good view of South Beach, MIA, and the city of Miami.

 Highway

Below right hand side-Miami beach area. Miami international airport was bit too far to get decent pictures + the clouds.

Miami Container terminal

 Zoomed to the max to confirm if they are coconut trees. Looks like they are.

Few more clicked during FLL take off to Bahamas.

Miami Cruise Terminal

The last one- Bye bye Miami as I head towards the Bahamas...

Thank you SouthWest for the views and window seat. I've two more landings and two more take offs from FLL over coming days. If I can get a window seat and if I can get some new good pictures, will update.

Similar: Dubai approach view from Top * Bali view from top * View from Macau tower * View from Kyoto tower * Bahamas from above *