[sadhuji]

Advertisements that offer us the Moon in exchange for a few peanuts should usually be taken with a pinch of salt. The craze for low cost flying and the cut throat competition to entice one and all to opt for the flying machines instead of the time tested railways have spawned a whole fleet of first time fliers. However, the honeymoon appears to have been over because first, some of the low cost airlines merged their assets with the large ones. Then the mandatory additional charges have begun to become bigger and bigger.

The advertisements proudly proclaim ‘fly for Rs 500’ but, one has to add to that the mandatory Rs 1500 odd since the airline does not want to be burdened with inflating ATF bills. Consequently, the fuel surcharge levied by the Government on the airline is recovered from the flier. Moreover, the slogan ‘fly for Rs 500’ is applicable only to a limited number of tickets and is normally available on selected routes. To add to the woes of the flier, in case of cancellation of the flight, he has to run from pillar to post to get the refund - in the meantime, his well laid plans go awry because , in case of urgency, he has to shell out a whole lot more to board an alternate flight by another airline. He should be prepared for such an eventuality!