Manta Air BLR-DDD for 50k INR return

Earlier I was wondering if the proposed BLR- DDD Manta air service would start or not. Now the good news is the service has started.

Dhaalu atol is a small island in center of Maldives, below Male, but above GAN island. Dhaalu atol has few resort islands around it, whose customers so far had to fly in to Male and then take Manta air flight to DDD. Now they have a direct flight option.

But the sad part of the news is this 3 hour one way ATR flight from Bengaluru to Dhaalu atol in Maldives is more expensive than a ticket to Europe from India. The asking price almost touches 600 USD or 50000 INR. Budget tourists will shy away from this, only rich customers will be able to afford.

570 USD or 50k INR is cheaper than earlier option of flying to Male and then flying to DDD- that used to cost 60k INR. 

The service operates 3 times a week. The small ATR only allows 5 kg cabin bag, but you are allowed 22 kg checked bag. You will have to plan accordingly. For another 25 USD more one way, you can check in 35 kg bag (no increase in cabin bag allowance in Sapphire flex. There is no business class in ATR.

Saddest part is Manta Air has kept the price uniform for whole year. Even if I am willing to book 9 months in advance there is no reduction in price. Airlines usually keep the price cheaper for 6-9-12 month advance booking and start increasing the price once seats fill up. Manta Air doesn't seem to have such plans. Flying next week or next year, same price. 

Malta air BLR-ADD ( an island in Maldives) costs 50000₹ return in an ATR for 3 hours one way... that is Europe ticket price.. would you fly? pic.twitter.com/knDrJMgyuo

— Shrinidhi Hande (@enidhi) February 20, 2024

What do you think? Would you fly? I was willing to book if it was around 20k. At 50k I will wait and watch...

https://mantaair.mv/book is the website to book

Kochi to Bali 16k return on AirAsia sale

Kochi to Bali return ticket is available for 16k on AirAsia sale, without checked bag (another 10k extra if checked bag is needed.

This is the only decent deal I could find in their ongoing sale. COK-DMK return also costs 16k, same as Bali one stop flight.

Chennai Melbourne is costing 35k return

Kochi Manila is 24k return

Current AirAsia sale is nowhere close to what it was pre-covid. I have flown 8k return to Brunei, 16k return to Japan, 22k return to NZ, 20k return to Australia and so on. Hope to find such fares again soon.

Air Asia has also made it very hard to spot cheaper fares - not showing fares of adjacent dates unless we manually click on each of the dates...

RyanAir's unique feature to save time n money

RyanAir is Europe's low cost airline. Ryanair tickets to various destinations cost less that what it costs you to reach airport from city center in bus or train. During my recent trip I noticed one unique feature in Ryanair's Boeing 737 Aircrafts

Ryanair aircrafts carry a built in ladder that is folded and stored under the front door. Once aircraft reaches its destination bay, the ladder is expanded and passengers can start getting off the plane, not having to wait for any ground service.

I wasn't prepared to shoot a video of this, so missed recording video. Took a photo after stairs are expanded and setup.

This feature helps in 2 ways

- saves time- no need to wait for an airport ladder or aerobridge-passengers can start getting off the plane and walk to terminal or board a bus

- Saves money- no need to pay ground service for a ladder or aerobridge

RyanAir aircraft has this only for front doors. Rear door they use regular ground service ladder. My guess is Boeing design didn't have enough space for this ladder under rear door.

Have you seen any other airline adapting this strategy? No one I am aware of.

Aegean airlines experience: Athens-Santorini

I flew Aegean airways for the first time. Once from Athens to Santorini and return. Return was operated by Olympic Air. Aegean is name of the sea near Greece and Aegean airlines connects Athens to various parts of Europe. Aegean is almost 30 years old airline company, with some 70 aircrafts and over a billion euros in annual revenue.

Ticket booking experience:

• I had some issue booking using my India debit card. So I had to take help of a cousin in Europe
• Athns-Santorini return cost me around 90 Euros- bit steep for off season. Ryanair flies similar distance for 20-30 Euros one way. But Ryanair has stopped flights to Santorini. Aegean was the cheapest option for my dates.

The onward journey:

Unlike Ryanair, Aegean doesn't inform in board pass what time gates open and when gate will close. For flight scheduled to depart 9.05 PM, it said boarding 8.35. They actually started boarding by 8.45, there were very few passengers so in about 10 minutes we were done boarding (had to take bus from Athens terminal- they didn't use aerobridge) and flight left almost on time.

I was flying in from Malta and had some 90 minutes gap. Thankfully RyanAir flight from Malta landed 15-20 minutes ahead of time, so I had adequate time to connect. Ryanair dropped us at Gate C instead of B, so I had to walk a lot and clear security one more time,

Web Check in opens 2 days in advance unlike 1 day in other airlines. But I was not allowed to change seat without paying. Got aisle seats allocated for both the flights.

Aegean airline is supposed to be full service airline. Was expecting some food but got only water bottle in first flight. During the return flight got a snacks back (2 cookies) and water.

Both flights were on time

Baggage allowance- Cabin bag was free. No constraints like EasyJet or Ryanair. Checked bag costs more.

Santorini has very few flights off season

Overall the experience was fine. No complaints, no issues. Better food and seat selection option would have been nice.

Santorini airport has limited taxies and no public transport after 5 PM so I walked to my hotel 4 kms from airport. It was a different experience.

Santorini trip planning guide is detailed here.

Cheap ticket to Egypt from Calicut

 Etihad seems to have some nice deal to Egypt from Kozhikode (Calicut) airport in South India

26k is a decent deal to Africa- it includes food and checked bag as well, unlike low cost airlines (Air Arabia, FlyDubai, Flynas etc)

You may also qualify for Abu Dhabhi stop over option where you can stay for 2 days and explore bit of UAE

Tickets between 20-30k INR are available for several date combinations for March & April- you may plan as per your interest and convenience.

Etihad is reducing price only closer to travel date. If I check for June or July 2024, their price is 40-50k return. Closer to travel date they are dropping to under 30k, probably because flight is going empty on several days.

Who is planning a visit to Mummy!

Athens airport in pictures & details

Sharing several photos of Athens International airport that I clicked during recent trip

#1 Athens airport view from top & ATH ATC tower

Taxi stand at Athens airport as seen from top

Athens airport signage/logo

Mountains near Athens airport- looks like Mount Ararat in Turkey but not sure

Athens Airport has 3 sets of gates. Gate A is used for all non European destinations- USA, Asia etc

Gate B is used for Schengen destinations

Gate C is used for European non Schengen destinations that need passport control.

I got to fly in or out of all 3 gates in my last trip- Gate A to arrive and return to Kuwait, Gate B to fly to Santorini, Gate C to depart to Tirana and while returning from Malta.

If you’re arriving from Schengen and have a connecting flight to Schengen, most likely you will be let in via Gate B and you can go to your next gate without security check. But my flight to Malta landed near Gate C and I had to walk a lot to gate B and clear security check as well- this was probably because the Ryanair Aircraft that brought us from Malta to Athens is destined to head to some non Schengen destination in Europe.

Athens airport is connected to Athens city via train system. Trains operate once every 30 minutes and a one way ticket costs 9 Euros. You can also buy 3 day, 20 Euro ticket package that allows trip to city from airport and return to airport as well as unlimited use of public transport inside the city during these 3 days- very convenient for short term visitors, as you pay only 2 euro more compared to buying 2 one way tickets to and from airport and can travel as much as you need within Athens city to visit attractions.

Veg food: Gate B had a food counter that would sell meals as per our selection- I selected a unit of rice and one unit of peas, potato and beans- cost me 11 Euros.

Drinking water station, workstations, phone charging locations are available inside Athens airport.

Athens can be a good gateway to Europe from Asia, the Middle east and Africa.

First trip with Kuwait Airways: Experience, review

Kuwait Air is a lesser known airline from the Middle east. Everyone knows about Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways but not much about their neighbor Kuwait Airways. Kuwait Airways also operates a full service airline from their base Kuwait International Airport to destinations around the world, but their fleet size and destination coverage is much limited compared to Emirates, Etihad or Qatar. Kuwait airways also operates narrowbody aircrafts mostly and has very few wide body planes.

I wouldn’t have booked on Kuwait Airways had they not offered super cheap fares. Last year November I first spotted their Mumbai-Athens return ticket for 24k INR, for travel in December. This is the cheapest ticket to Europe I had ever seen (excluding WOW Air which ceased operations). I had seen other options like Mumbai -Abu Dhabi + Abu-Dhabi - Europe on Wizzair costing around 22-25k, but this plan needed UAE visa, self transfer, Wizzair tickets do not include food or checked bag, so not very convenient. 

24k return ticket on a full service airline with food, bag included was a steal deal. But I avoided December- too much snow/cold everywhere and X’mas season everything will be expensive. When I spotted the deal again for Jan end, I couldn't resist, booked instantly. I already had a multi entry schengen visa so it was a good opportunity to make the most of it before it expires.

Made a 2 week plan- Mumbai-Athens return via Kuwait for 23700 (booked on Easemytrip with some bank discount) and then made local plans within Europe to visit Albania, Romania, Italy, Malta and Santorini island, Greece. Will write about these destinations separately on enidhi.net

One main risk I had was short 1 hour transit time at Kuwait airport between Mumbai-Kuwait & Kuwait-Athens flight. If I miss this flight my plan would be ruined, as Kuwait Airlines do not fly to Athens everyday- next flight will be one stop via Italy, spoiling 2 days of vacation plans. Thankfully this short connection time didn’t cause any issue. I have written a separate post about this explaining how short connections work in Kuwait airport.

Ticket Booking process: It is hard to book on Kuwait airline website directly as they don’t seem to support Indian credit cards/net banking. However I could book easily on Easemytrip, where I got some ICICI bank discount as well, taking the effective price to under 24k INR. Booking process was smooth.

Web Check-in process: Web check-in opens 24 hours prior. We can select seats for free- about half the seats in the rear half of the airplane are kept for free selection. Seats in front, exit row etc are chargeable.

There was a bid for an upgrade option- at least 250 USD onwards for each leg, for a chance to get upgraded to business class. 250 USD is what I paid for entire trip, so no way I am going to spend that much for one leg upgrade.

Unfortunately Kuwait air doesn’t ask for meals preference. NOR there is any provision to provide other airline frequent flier numbers. It is Kuwait airways loyalty program or nothing. Kuwait Airlines is not part of star-alliance or any other networks. (I could give Singapore airline frequent flyer number to Korean Air, as I wouldn't fly much in Korean Air)

I signed up for their Oasis club and got some 3200 points for the trip. Still need 25000 points for the next tire (another 8 to 9 trips at least, not likely to happen in the next 3 years before the points expire). They don’t send any physical card like Qatar airways.

On time performance: Almost all the 4 flights I had operated on time. The first one- Mumbai-Kuwait had some 20-30 minute delay, rest all were on time.

Aircraft: All 4 flights were narrowbody A320s, but Kuwait air A320s do have proper entertainment on board, aircrafts felt modern. They have some 8 business class seats as well.

Full power sockets for each seat is great. You can even charge your laptop and work.

Kuwait Airways does have a widebody aircraft, which they use to flying to JFK

Entertainment: Had a decent list of movies- in Jan I could see some Hindi movies, in Feb I didn’t see them. Wanted to finish watching Azar but couldn’t. No recent movies, all several year old ones.

Map & Navigation info is excellent.

Amenity Kit: Kuwait airways does not give any amenity kit (eye cover, toothbrush etc). Pillows are kept on each seat, bed sheet provided on request, ear phones on request (regular 35mm jack fits into the monitor, so we can use our own earphones, not having to depend on airline provided ones)

Food: Meals were great. At par with all other full service airlines I had experienced- SQ, EK, Lufthansa, Swiss Air etc. No complaints on food.

Except that on my last leg- Kuwait to Mumbai- I was told veg meals are not available. I was in the middle of the plane (row 21) and they had run out of veg already- which meant many more passengers behind me who are vegetarians are also inconvenienced. Like I said earlier, if only the airline had captured meals preference during booking or web check in they could have planned to load the right quantity of meals of each type. 

Would have given 10/10 had they not missed my last meal.

Not sure if Kuwait Air loads fresh food again in Mumbai or they carry food for both legs from Kuwait itself. If it is later, even Mumbai- Kuwait passengers in returning flight would be denied veg food.

Load: Mumbai-Kuwait flight and Kuwait-Athens flight were pretty full. But on the return- Athens-Kuwait was pretty empty, Kuwait-Mumbai flight also had several empty seats. Probably this is the reason I got a super cheap ticket-24k return for these dates.

Starboard side middle exit rows were empty during Athens-Kuwait flight and I was sitting one row behind. Waited to see if crew would ask for some volunteers to move to exit row- but no such thing. The emergency row was empty during the flight.

Transit Airport:

• Kuwait Airport is pretty small and easy to navigate around. Though the ticket said arrival is Terminal 1 and connecting flight is terminal 2, all are in the same building and walking distance away. (Singapore you’ve to take a train between terminals).
• Not too many shops in Kuwait- there is a McDonalds that sells veg burger meal for around 2 KWD (600 INR)
• Drinking water and bottle filler is available
• No good area to sleep, few lounges are available if you can afford them or qualify
• Seats have a charging port, so good to work/charge your device.

Summary of Kuwait Airways

Good things	Room for improvements
-Good aircrafts -On time performance -Cheap fares (selective dates & destinations) -Great food -Small n easy transit airport -Great staff	-Capture meals preference in advance to stock right type of meals -Limited destinations and flights compared to others -No/limited widebody experience -Support other airline loyalty programs -Can include Kuwait transit stay experience like what Etihad does

Overall my Kuwait airways experience was great. If I get a good deal I will definitely fly them again.

Crazy night Walking experience Santorini airport from Fira!

When I arrive an airport, I prefer taking public transport to town and from there walk to my hostel. This has worked all fine during most of my trips as most airports in Europe, America, Asia, Australia have public transport option to city center.

However, my experience at Santorini airport in Greece was a lot different. A bit odd but it worked.

I had booked a hotel some 4 kms from Santorini airport. Unfortunately my arrival flight was late night (10 PM) and departure flight was early morning - 6.40 AM. This meant I had to plan my travel from and to airport at night hours.

Santorini public transport buses operate only during day time. First bus from city to airport leaves by around 7.30 AM from Fira, city buses do not operate after 5 PM, so any arrival after 5 PM or any departure before 9 AM in Santorini you can not depend on buses.

Next option is to book a taxi. But Santorini island has very limited number of taxies. Airport has just 5-6 taxis waiting at any time. In a flight with 100 people, at least 20-25 would need taxi but they won't get it airport, unless they pre-book.

Other option is to work with your hotel to arrange private transport. My hotel proposed the same, but at a price tag of 25 Euros for 4 kms, I found this pricing on a much higher side. 25 Euro I can better spend elsewhere-

• At least 1, sometimes 2 Ryanair tickets to various destinations cost under 25 Euros
• Can enjoy a really nice meal
• 2-3night hostel stay can be had for 25 euro

4 Kms is not too much, my fitness is good, I don't have heavy bags, so I decided that I will save 25 Euro and I can simply walk to my hotel from airport.

The taxi path to hotel showed 4.2 kms.

 

I should have simply stuck to this path, but I decided to check the walking path, which was 100 meters shorter, so I decided to take it.

Now as I started walking at night alone, I reached an open field with no clear walking track visible. As I started following the map, I entered a path full of pebbles, rocks. Apparently it is a stream that has dried up. I guided myself with mobile flash light, walked on the riverbed for about 2 kms till I could get on a proper road.

Below is how the path looks on google earth view. Looks like a walk way but it is path of a stream

I do not blame anyone- not google maps, not Santorini city. I had my options, I chose to walk. There was some difficulty but I did reach my destination and saved 50 Euros taxi money. 

Watch this Reel

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shrinidhi Hande (@enidhi)

Thankfully riverbed was dry in Feb. If it was rainy season I would have had to swim to my hotel I guess! Also if you have a trolley bag this path is impossible. Kids or elderly people also can't walk here, at night.

So lessons learnt for reaching hotel to/from Santorini airport:

• If possible, avoid landing or departing late night or early morning. Select a day flight to Santorini
• If you can afford, take a taxi or book private transfer.
• If you chose to walk, select a hotel not too far from airport
• If car path is similar to walking path, chose the car path and walk comfortably by the road side
  

Stay tuned for more from my recent Europe trip.

Santorini trip planning guide *  Santorini Old harbor *