[vigsom]

Introduction

This is a short review of my first flight on Vistara. My experience was a mixed bag, and the next few posts will explain why.

How did this travel happen?

Vistara doesn't serve many airports and that's how I could never get to fly on one of their flights. The closest I got to Vistara was when I saw a B787 at the gate in Kempegowda International sometime in 2021. I had to take a flight out of the same airport a few days back and chose Vistara to
a) match my departure time
b) experience the service and,
c) match my onward connection by rail.

[vigsom]

Booking experience

I'd booked via one of the on line portals and the end result wasn't a perfectly seamless experience. I first got a message that my booking was awaiting conformation by the airline, and a few seconds later, the booking got confirmed. What I discovered later was that the ticket invoice was issued on one PNR, while the PNR that came later from the airline was something else. This must have been due to that delay in confirmation of my booking or something else that I'm not aware of.

Web Check In

Fairly straightforward and the boarding pass showed flight details, source and destination in large font, making it easy for security staff to read at airport entry

Baggage drop and Security Check

Again, a quickfire affair, with zero wait time; maybe it was that time of the day when passenger traffic was low. My passage through BLR security was again a virtual wait-free affair. Total time from entry into the airport to arrival at my gate was less than 25 minutes - a record of sorts at BLR.
A few tips on how to organize one's electronic and non electronic devices can be seen in the quote in the link. (The link also contains useful tips on how to choose seats on Indigo to be served quicker).

[vigsom]

On board a Vistara flight

Likes

1. Beautifully appointed cabin - the dark brown theme and the leatherette seats are particularly classy
2. Nice looking lightning around the overhead bins - like Emirates
3. A full meal on board - experiencing this first time on a domestic flight after over four years
4. Neatly and appropriately turned out cabin crew
5. Soothing music accompanying engine noise at take off; very nice touch not often seen on all flights
6. A phone/PDA holder at viewing height to help passengers enjoy on-screen entertainment of their choice on their devices.

What could have been better

1. Meal service was slow; got my meal only approx 40 mins after take off
2. Meal quality was mixed - the dal was excellent, and so was the custard. "Cake crumbs" and the vegetable could have been better.
3. Not enough serving trays loaded in the carts - cabin crew were running against time to fetch more trays from the aft side
4. In the hurry to fetch more trays, both sides of the cart were open - this could have resulted in the odd tray inside being pushed out to the other side onto the passage.
5. As a result of 1 and 3, coffee/tea service got delayed and I got mine after the aircraft had commenced descent.
6. Again, final cabin clearance got delayed due to 1 and 3
7. The wrong baggage belt was announced on arrival, and those who didn't look out for the display at the baggage belt realised later that the baggage was on another belt.

The A320neo cabin with pleasant lighting


Seat back


The PDA holder


The full meal


Open Sesame


A320/321 neo with Boeing 737-800 NG - seeing a mixed fleet of single aisle aircraft for the first time

[vigsom]

Closing comments

1. Few fine points like on board service need to be worked on by Vistara to improve the overall experience. I've never had cause for complaint when I flew, say, Jet Airways
2. Sometimes, a no-frills airline can beat full service ones on service quality
3. These minor lows notwithstanding, I enjoyed my first flight on Vistara, and look forward to more.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[SoumenD]

Vistara is probably the best we can get in terms of service and cabin quality among domestic providers lately. Hope they add more sectors soon. With Indigo remaining anything but ‘budget’ anymore & Spice/GoFirst being unreliable, occasional travellers like me (3-4 journeys a year) would prefer Vistara any day now

Personally boarded them only once in one of the sectors and it was a very pleasant experience. Would love to travel with them more often as soon as they add flights to my usual sectors.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Had posted this in the Air India thread, but worth sharing with a new dedicated Vistara thread now- Vistara service levels are inconsistent and dropping and fast IMHO! TATA as a brand isn't really known for customer service and the TATA-SIA run Vistara isn't any different. The upcoming merger with Air India is likely to make things worse rather than improve either option.

I say this after having flown 9 sectors (UK0988, UK0807, UK0882, UK0854, UK0865, UK0553, UK0554, UK0893 and UK0894) with Vistara in the past four months, with 2 more scheduled this week. Although the flights are relatively new and neat, and food is served in the cabin - the general attitude leaves a lot to be desired.

Some examples -

1. Cabin suitcases are always collected last minute for check-in prior to boarding. Although i dont mind this and now walk in prepared that they will anyways collect the bags - I have seen the staff picking up fights (rude and loud) with people refusing to do so for issues like having valuables in it. It is funny to hear them announce - 'Please bring your cabin baggage for check-in'

2. Choice of meal selection when booking and reality on the flight is totally arbitrary. Flights like Indigo follow the pre-bookings religiously even if they dont generally have food included in the ticketfare. Food quality varies widely from sector to sector - some of their sectors are excellent, whereas the cold sandwiches served on some short sectors is just bad.

3. App is just archaic! The only app where i get prompted for captcha and even get rejected occasionally from loading saying they suspect its a bot. Vistara world onboard experience also can't be relied upon - sometimes it works, sometimes it just refuses to connect to the onboard server. Many a times - I started watching a movie on the app, only for it to get stopped with DRM error during some announcements and then no amount of reboots will get it playing again.

4. Legroom isn't consistent and varies across rows - strange problem I haven't noticed with flights like Indigo much. For example - UK0893 and 894 is the same flight and I had very bad legroom on the onward journey and average legroom while returning the next day, seated just one row ahead.

5. Currently in a battle with customer care where i had paid and selected my seats and they found it fit to change it according to their wish. Only reason being given is that the Vistara staff at the airport console did it and i need to send mails for further queries. Defeats the whole purpose of paid seat selection if the staff can move around the seats as they wish. What makes matters worse is that the customer care hasn't cared to even send a reply in a week even with the nodal officer now in the loop.

I hope Vistara doesn't slowly decline to Air India standards instead of AI improving on theirs! I find the Indigo experience more consistent instead of having alternate good and bad experiences with Vistara - and is starting to consider switching back to using Indigo regularly.

[Hayek]

As someone who flies Vistara extensively (back to at least 2 flights a week over the past several months), I must say it is an outstanding airline, and far superior to what Jet Airways was anytime post 2011.

The aircrafts are very well fitted out and clean, Business class and premium economy food and service is outstanding, and even economy class seats are far more comfortable than any other Indian airline.

Yes, I have experienced Vistara World not working occasionally, but don’t see that as an issue. The iOS App is great (but not fully functional - for mile redemption, you need to use the web). The only crib is that while checking in, it does not let you print boarding passes of all those on one PNR in one go.

On time performance is generally good too. And luggage handling (though I have experienced that only 3-4 times in the last year) has been good as well at least for Platinum fliers

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Hayek

The aircrafts are very well fitted out and clean, Business class and premium economy food and service is outstanding, and even economy class seats are far more comfortable than any other Indian airline.

Vistara Aircraft are clean, yes.
Business Class is great, yes.
Business Class and Premium Economy food is good and cutlery, napkins and crockery are nice, yes.

Other than this I think Premium Economy is a rip-off.
Three abreast tight seating if one is tall. 6 feet 2 inches height and God it was a tight squeeze. One silly leather antimacassar on the seat headrest to prevent dirty oil stains from hair, insufficient legroom, normal seats and definitely not super comfy and just separated from Regular Economy by a curtain.

I think Indigo legroom and seat comfort is tops. Indigo slim seats make for decent support and excellent legroom. And I also think Indigo is a better airline overall in terms of on time performance and all their little sub-services like XL seats, fast forward and quick board and all, work beautifully.

[sameer_vwagner]

Originally Posted by vigsom

7. The wrong baggage belt was announced on arrival, and those who didn't look out for the display at the baggage belt realised later that the baggage was on another belt.

Were you flying into DEL? This is a common problem in DEL and not just Vistara, Air India too gets their baggage on a belt different from one announced inside the cabin.

[vinu_h]

Vistara is the best. Their app and food in particular are my favorite. One of the few that have 3 classes in domestic. I do 3-4 flights(not restricted to Vistara) a week and have seen a noticeable change since the "incident". Increased effort from the crew to engage with flyers, listen and act. Came at a cost but a hard reset was necessary and I like where this is going.

[Naetik30]

I flew Vistara premium economy from Leh to New Delhi last year with my family. Even though we were entitled for priority boarding, nothing of that sort happened. Was a major let down for me.

The service was OKish and I feel Indigo service is always better. The leg room was nothing extra ordinary for the cost.

[ArTigor]

Indeed Vistara brings a breath of fresh air.
I like the interior ambience, the soothing music they keep playing while boarding and de-boarding, their meal is good.
Most of my journeys are Mumbai-Delhi by economy class, recently I have switched back to Indigo from Vistara for a number of reasons.

• Boarding De-boarding: In most airports where available, Vistara has allotment of aerobridge, well it is good for many, but not for me as I feel that as Indigo has boarding-de-boarding from front and back doors at most airports it helps in better crowd management.
• Lesser crowded terminals: Indigo flights are available from T2 Delhi, which is a breeze to check-in v/s the T3 Delhi. I clearly avoid T3 in Delhi and hence Vistara goes off the list.
• Broken Seats and tray: yes your read it right for a couple of my flights to Delhi the seats were damaged i.e. once it was continuously in a reclined position, and the other time my isle seat was slightly tilted towards the isle(say about 15 degrees) one of the tray hinges was misaligned in a way that it was impossible for me to keep my meal on it. By the way the issue was not only with my seat, but dozen on other seats in those planes.
• Stressed Staff: I have felt that off late the Vistara staff feels stressed, are they over worked? in comparison Indigo staff look happier, energetic and feel less stressed.
• Leg room: Surprisingly Indigo has better leg room, Yes the seats are thinner but I being a tall and healthy built person, find the Indigo seats better accommodating than Vistara.

I am not saying that Vistara is bad, but I surely see a deterioration in overall experience. On the other hand Indigo is as consistent as it was 8 years ago.

[yosbert]

Flew with Vistara recently after a long time, and boy their service has nosedived big time.
We flew BLR-DEL and DEL-SXR with them in two separate legs and am currently fighting with them for issues in both the legs.
- For the first leg, they downgraded my cabin from Premium Economy to Economy. It has been more than 3 weeks since I have flown with them, but I am still struggling to get the promised compensation. Their customer care (both phone and mail) is manned by a bunch of clueless idiots who have zero knowledge of any procedure and couldn't care less for your issues. Upon calling them, they ask you to mail with the issue and mails go unanswered for weeks. Only when you take it up with something called 'Appellate Authority' do you get any response.
- For the second leg, they arbitrarily changed the free seats that I booked stating that those are paid seats. In this case also their customer care was of no help and even the 'Appellate Authority' chose deliberate silence until the flight date was past before responding. I am currently thinking of taking this up with DGCA for redressal.
- The food is some of the worst I have had in flight in recent times. We threw away most of them as it was almost inedible.

Sorry for the long rant above.
In summary, my advice will be to avoid Vistara like plague. It is just not worth the long hours you spend with their so called customer care later.
On the other hand, I was delightfully surprised by Air India service. Apart from everything else, the food was one of the best I have had in recent times. So yes, very contrasting experience with the two airlines from Tata group.

[drdaga]

Vistara Business Class is Much better than what all domestic airlines I have flown so far offer. And 3 times, I got a free upgrade from premium economy to business class which was too good a feeling.