Indigo vs Vistara

[AL]

I’m working on a September trip to India (which I’ve previously mentioned in a daily chat at some point). What are the collected thoughts on Vistara vs. Indigo? My flights are likely something like BOM-DEL and UDR-BOM (or, perhaps, UDR-DEL). Indigo is marginally cheaper but appeals since I can get some VS tier points out of it. Vistara looks more put together.

[sherlockholmes]

Hi! I live in Delhi so fly both pretty frequently. If Vistara is only marginally more expensive I would fly them. Nothing wrong with Ingido, it’s super efficient but Vistara is just slightly nicer 😁

[mzb]

In case you missed it: you can only earn VS points, on a VS-coded Indigo flight.

“Points may only be earned on flights sold and marketed as Virgin Atlantic and operated by IndiGo Airlines. The flight number must be a VS prefix.”

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/airline-partners/indigo.html

[BBbetter]

sherlockholmes wrote:

Hi! I live in Delhi so fly both pretty frequently. If Vistara is only marginally more expensive I would fly them. Nothing wrong with Ingido, it’s super efficient but Vistara is just slightly nicer 😁

+1. Both are good, but Vistara is full service, so marginally better. Though the meal or snack is pointless on short journeys

[Metty]

Agree with all here. Both are better than the service on BA shorthaul which surprised me as Indigo are so huge I wasn’t expecting standards to be good. Vistara best if prices the same and their Premium Economy is good.

My standout memory from Indigo is a very junior crewmember noticing that my phone wasn’t in flight mode and telling me off – well done them – plus de-planing via door 1R, the first time ever in 1783 flights (they used both front doors to get pax off more quickly via the zigzag ramps).

[BBbetter]

Metty wrote:

Agree with all here. Both are better than the service on BA shorthaul which surprised me as Indigo are so huge I wasn’t expecting standards to be good. Vistara best if prices the same and their Premium Economy is good.

My standout memory from Indigo is a very junior crewmember noticing that my phone wasn’t in flight mode and telling me off – well done them – plus de-planing via door 1R, the first time ever in 1783 flights (they used both front doors to get pax off more quickly via the zigzag ramps).

Indigo is excellent in airport operations, with super quick turnaround times and yet managing to clean the cabin better than other airlines. No wonder they have managed to stay afloat and even report profits in a region known for its cutthroat price competition.

[Flyer123]

Indigo mileage earning for code share flights only as indicated above by mzb. Slightly LCC compared to Vistara, which is full service.
Vistara miles may at some point be merged with air India as both r sorta owned by Tata

[Owain]

A word of warning about Indigo, I recently took my first flight with them (Jaipur to Jaisalmer), and when I went to check in I was told there was a fee to pay. Apparently I had logged in to the website and requested a meal (completely impossible, as the website refused to send the necessary OTP to my UK mobile number). The check in agent mentioned he had seen this frequently with western tourists recently, but was unable to take the request off. We were sent over to a manager’s desk to pay the ₹600 allegedly owing. He also refused to take the fee off – but now it had increased to ₹1100!
There was, of course, no meal served on the flight.
While ₹1100 is not a great deal of money, it really soured the whole experience, and does make me wonder what other less than honest dealings this airline would have with their customers.
Unfortunately, I may need to travel with them again, so I feel that doing a chargeback through Amex is probably not a good idea, as I imagine they may refuse any further bookings from me.

[RS]

Both are probably two of the best Indian airlines. Not much between them although Vistara is marginally nicer. However, I would definitely say that if you have to take the flight at a specific time and aren’t flexible throughout the day then book Vistara. The reason behind this is that AirAsia and Indigo schedule lots of flights domestically in India then cancel the empty ones and rebook the passengers onto the next flight, only telling you about the change around a week before the flight. This is unpredictable and has happened on around 20% of my Indian domestic flights but to my knowledge doesn’t happen with Vistara. Hope this helps.

[AL]

Thanks, all! There’s £3 in it, so Vistara can have my cash.