Biman - The World's Worst Airline!

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Anyone who has ever travelled in India will know that it doesn't always come easily. Delays, lies, scams and all number of other hassles are simply just something you have to put up with and get used to. To be honest, it all adds to the fun, not necesarily at the time, but afterwards when all you have left are stories and memories. Still, nothing prepared us for Biman Air, Bangladesh's national airline.

We found a super-cheap flight from Bangkok to Delhi, but there was a catch: it required spending a night in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The airline provided the hotel, transport, and two meals. Given that it was substantially cheaper than all of the other airlines, and lured by the nice daytime arrival, we decided to go for it. In retrospect, what a terible mistake!

Tuesday

We arrived at Bangkok airport in plenty of time for our 9pm flight, thanks in part to our taxi driver for his maniac driving. We soon heard rumours from the baggage handlers that the flight had been delayed until 3am. We checked in with the general information desk and they thought it was delayed until 1am. When the Biman check-in desks opened, we found out that the flight had in fact been delayed until an outrageous 5am - a 9 hour delay!

The good news was that the airline said it would provice a hotel in Bangkok, transport, and a meal for free. Quickly, I grabbed my toiletry bag out of my big backpack before waving goodbye as it was sent off to Delhi. This snap decision came back to bite me when I later realized that all of my toiletries would get confiscated. Goodbye to brand new bottles of shampoo, conditioner, moistirizer etc. How the heck can a bottle of Pantene smooth-and-silky blow up a plane anyway?!

The hotel was a rediculous 45 minute drive away from the airport, but it was worth it, being by far the nicest hotel we have stayed in on the entire trip. I was happy with the hot shower and lovely fluffy towels, and Scott was loving watching the news channels, even though the main story was the Sudanese plane crash. They even fed us a lovely Thai meal, too.

Wednesday

The next morning we were supposed to get a wake-up call at 3am, ready for out 3:30am pick up. It never came but luckily we'd set our alarm as a back-up. When we went down to reception, we realized why we'd not received the wake up call - the flight had been delayed again and the new pick up time was an hour later. The funny thing was that the only two rooms that had taken the initiative to set their own alarms were ourselves and the only other westerner on the flight. The Indian pasengers were all still sleeping, relying solely on the wake-up call. I guess they got the last laugh on this one!

At 4:30am we all boarded the bus to go back to Bangkok airport. Our flight was on the departures board as departing at 6:30am but out of the 50 or so flights listed, ours was the only one not to post the boarding gate. Typical of Biman! To be fair, though, it got posted about 10 minutes later and we all rushed off to the gate, incidentally the furthest one possible! We plonked down in front of a TV showing CNN news but again the main story wasn't really welcome: a report about how India's roads have the most fatalities worldwide. One truck driver they interviewed even admitted to not knowing that you are supposed to give way to emergency vehicles - oh boy!

Our new flight time of 6:30am came and went without any sign of boarding. We were begining to wonder if we were ever going to leave Bangkok when suddenly everyone surged towards the gate. I guessed we were boarding. It was very orderly by Indian standards, with just a little delay in getting seated as many passengers couldn't read the English number/letter seating system. It would be like us trying to find our seat in Egytian I suppose.

The plane took off from Bangkok at 8am, eleven hours behind schedule. The brown, orange, and red seat covers and flowered wallpaper made us painfully aware that this relic of a plane had been around for at least 50 years. Somehow, it managed to get us safely to Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Our second leg of the flight, from Dhaka to Delhi, was originally supposed to leave at 10:30am but had since been moved to 5:30pm. For some bizarre reason, the transit desk made us hand in our ticket and baggage receipts in exchage for a plastic token. We agreed reluctantly before heading into the transit lounge to kill time for the next 8 or so hours. We got a free lunch in the airpoprt of rice, veggies, dal, and warm coke (which was yummy I might add) and then found some free internet terminals. The only problem, apart from the fact that they were really slow, was that they were heavily censored. I wasn't aware that all of my usal websites contained so much bad stuff. I couldn't even access hotmail, I am guessing because the word "hot" could be seen as pornographic?!!

By 2pm we were becoming restless and went back to the transit desk to see if we could exchange our plastic token for our boarding cards yet. We were told quickly to go and board a bus to our hotel as the flight had been delayed another 5 and a half hours until midnight. Imediately we smelled a rat. Why would they pay for a hotel for everyone if we had to be back at the airport by 10pm? And, if we hadn't have just happened to check up on our tickets, would we have been left in the airport all night while everone else went to a hotel? Probably! Assuming that the flight was really delayed until the morning rather than the reported midnight, we went along with it. We followed a group of Indian men we recognized and lined up with them to go through Bangladeshi immigration. This took almost an hour as a row broke out between the staff and passengers. While the airline was providing a hotel for free, the authorities wanted us each to pay a $20 entry fee to the country. Obviously people were not too happy about this and tempers started to flare. Again, however, it was all quite tame by Indian standards and eventually we all got to go through without paying.

Outside the airport, we waited for the free pick-up to the hotel. All along the railings surrounding the airport there were people pressed against them, three or four deep, presumably waiting for loved ones to appear. If Biman Air is anything to go by, they had a long wait in front of them!

The first mini bus arrived and a group of about 20 Indian men yelled and rushed forward, elbowing their way to the front in a big mass of flailing limbs. Scott and I shot each other a sly sideways smile: this was the Inida we know and love! We decided to do the sensible thing and wait for the next bus. When it arrived, we elbowed our way on with the best of them and the bus set off, edging its way through the crowds of people at the airport gates and out into Dakar. My first impression was that there were people absolutely everywhere. We were met with a cacaphony of honking taxi horns, rumbling engines, and tinkling rickshaw bells. The bus made its way through the litter-strewn shabby streets, narrowly missing rickshaws and stray dogs as it went. It had obviously been raining a lot as there were huge puddles everywhere. The enterprising rickshaw drivers made use of this by cleaning down their vehicles with the puddle water.

We arrived at the hotel and got checked in. The room was perfectly acceptable but not a patch on our gorgeous Bangkok room. Still no-one could tell us what time the flight was. The hotel staff just said, "Biman will call." When checking in, we had to hand over our passports and plastic token. Now we were in an unknown hotel in Bangladesh with no passports, no boarding cards, no tickets, and no baggage. We were completely at their mercy! We got a bit of a shocker when we tried to leave the hotel to take a look on the street as we were told by reception that we were not allowed to go out, Biman's orders! I guess it was so that they can gather everyone for the flight at a moments notice, but it felt strange to be basically locked inside the hotel. We soon settled down for our third free meal courtest of Biman - rice, veggies and dal again.

When we checked with reception for updates, we were told we would be picked up to go to the airport at 10pm. We killed time watching TV in our room until another meal (same food) was served again at 9pm, and then went to check out for our 10pm pick up. Of course, there was no bus. "Its coming! Maybe 10:45pm" was the response. Worryingly, we'd heard rumours from other passengers that it might be delayed for another two days! How rediculous that would be, with no spare clothes, virtually no toiletries after getting them confiscated, and absolutely nothing to do apart from watch TV in the room. We gave up and went to bed.

A few minutes later we got a phone call from reception, "Come down immediately!" We quickly got dressed and ran down the four flights of stairs for the billionth time (we didn't trust the lift due to the numerous power cuts). We were relieved to see that the bus was actually here this time. When it was full, we drove back to Dkaha airport and had a couple of minor India-moments. The first was when the bus door got stuck, trapping everyone inside - nothing that a bit of banging and yanking couldn't solve! The second was when we handed in our plastic token and was given back the wrong boarding cards. Quickly noticing the mistake, we were able to get the real ones so it was fine.

So, off we all went to the gate. The boarding time stated on our pass was 11:30pm and it was 11:40pm at the time, but no-one was worried: this is Biman Air afterall! Once at the gate a spontaneous mini-party broke out when one of the Indian guys managed to hook his iPOD up to the loud speaker system and started blaring out Hindi pop - very funny! I was just hoping that no officials would show up and spoil the mood by announcing another delay. It was quite possible as still no-one had mentioned a take-off time.

Thursday

At midnight, after the Hindi pop had been disconnected, we were called to board. In true Indian style, our new friends all surged to get in front. A few of the more westernized Indians just laughed and hung back with us. The plane was only two-thirds full so everyone soon got seated and off we went. Scott and I were asleep by the time we took off.

A little over two hours later, we landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. It was 2:30am, two days after leaving Bangkok (for less than 5 hours total flight time!), but everyone was glad to finally be out of the tangled web of Biman Air. The next big worry on everyone's mind was baggage. Given the nine hour delay in Bangkok, followed by the 15 hours we spent in Dhaka, we knew there was a very good chance that at least one of our bags would be missing in action so to speak. To our amazement and delight, they both made it.

Our final Biman-related problem was the time of day that we had finally arrived in Delhi. The original arrival time of 1pm was perfect. Let's just say that the actual arrival time of 3am was not exactly ideal for Delhi. We were supposed to have a hotel pick us up, but given the time, we guessed they might not be there. They weren't. We didn't want to leave in the middle of the night and, by this time, we were so used to being stuck in airports in transit that we thought nothing of finding a seat and just reading and sleeping while waiting for the sun to rise. We knew we had a much bigger challange than Biman Air ahead of us - Delhi taxi drivers!

Closing thoughts on Biman Air

Before this experience, if asked for an opinion about which airlines were "good", I never really had much of an opinion. As far as I was concerned, all airlines were much the same. As long as they got me there at a reasonable cost, I had no preferences. Now I can say with certainty that not all airlines are created equal. If anyone is reading this and considering taking Biman because of their attractive prices, I would highly recommend against it. From speaking to other people, I think that our experience is far from uncommon. Do yourself a fovor and take a direct flight from Bangkok straight to Delhi. It takes less than 5 hours and saves a lot of hassle. On the other hand, if you want to save money on the ticket, get two free nights accommodation, 4 or so free meals (plus two flight meals), spend absolutely no money for a few days, and get a true Indian experience before you even step foot in the country, then go for it. Just don't say you weren't warned! 😉

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Photos

I could get used to this!
Relaxing in our lovely and, most importantly, free room in Bangkok.

Comments

[Biman]

It happened again to me
Thanks for this well written blog entry. I just got back to Bangkok after doing a RT flight to delhi with remarkably similar experiences. All flights had massive delays. The return from Delhi took 42 hours yo get back to bangkok. The flight was delayed because it crash landed bursting 6 tires minutes before we were to board it. After slapping on some new tires we headed to bangkok but instead ended up in Singapore at 3 am!!. They just decided to send us to Singapore as if we had nothing better to do. Also, two fistfights broke out on the flight. This is very typical Biman. On the return portion back to Dhaka, I just plain skipped the "hostage" hotel as I refer to it. My room had no windows and was infested with mold. It was not worth paying $20 for. Sleeping on the floor at the airport is better. On another flight, the rudder seemed to snap off and we were shaking so violently that I thought my dental fillings would fallout. This was the first time i ever worried about dying in an airplane. Thanks Biman for that experience. However, Biman made my trip to India totally insane which I now sort of appreciate slightly. Flying Biman is like an acid trip. After a 10 or 12 hour delay when you are already dazed and confused, you finally get on the plane but even the captain doesn't know if it will arrive safely or even in what country you will land in. Totally insane airline!! From now on i do not want an acid trip when I take a flight. Looking back on it now it was an experience i will never forget, but in the future i will pay extra for a normal airline.

[anonymous]

Why everyone goes on about older planes, with floral coverings etc, it would be part of the experaince to get in a 1970s cabin (not 50 years old!) which was the golden era of jet travel and a better era altogether. A shame though that Biman are truly letting the side down. I'm booked to fly with them 12 August, to fly in a more intersting aircraft the classic DC-10.

[Born to travel]

Reply: It happened again to me
Wow, your experience was insane. 6 tyres bursting! We are supposed to take Biman back to bangkok from Delhi, meeting a flight to the US a day later. We are so worried that we will miss our connecting flight to the US and therefore lose all the money that we are looking into a new flight to Bangkok and just throwing away our Biman ticket. It really didn't pay to take Biman - we will definitely take a slightly more expensive but stress-free trip (no pun intended!) next time! Thanks for your comments - it's good to know other people have similar experiences!

[Born to travel]

REPLY
Good luck with your 12 August flight. I'd be interested to see if you have a good or bad experience. It was only really a joke about floral coverings etc. but the perpetual delays and lack of communication are what really get to you. We are seriously considering throwing away our return portion back to Bangkok as we have a connecting flight to the US about 36 hours later, which we are not sure we will make given Biman's track record (we have heard delays of three days). It's quite funny all in all when you have no time delays, such as our outward portion, but when you have connecting flights that are completely independent, Biman is not worth the ticket it is printed on.

[Wes]

Biman Flight
I did fly once with Biman on the route from Athens to Singapore.I did arrive late to Singapore so I did not catch the flight to Adelaide South Australia but airline is ok .I will fly with them again if I have the chance.

[Born to travel]

REPLY: How late exactly?
Hi, How late did you arrive in Singapore so that you missed your connecting flight? We have a connecting flight from bangkok when we fly back, so was just wondering?...

[elita]

I know biman flights can be confusing and disaterous because of their delays but you can hardly find a cheaper airline (you yourself admit you were lured by the prices) that gives free meals and accomodation. And I travel on it on pretty much a regular basis and as far as the flying of the plane goes, I've never experienced any turbulence or anything like that. You should also consider the fact that this airline belongs to one of the poorest nations in the world. So whether the plane looks 50 years old or not should not be a point of discussion. And speaking of (English) reading abilities, I'd say you score the least; the place is called DHAKA and not dakar or dkaha. I'd atleast read the name of a place I was standing in properly, especially if I were travelling to some unknown country!

[Born to travel]

Not really accurate!
First of all, experiencing turbulence is not the fault of an airline, it is just the conditions. Just because you have never had turbulence on Biman doesn't mean that the pilots are smooth drivers or the airline is good! Second, as the Pakistani language is not roman letters, there is no real spelling as the "English" version is just phonetic. Besides, when I write the blogs I am in crowded, noisy internet cafes with keyboards that stick and power supplies that are sporadic, so proofreading the spellings of everything is not always high on my list of priorities. I just assume friends will pardon the mistakes and typos. Finally, yes, I know Pakistan is really poor, which is the root of the Biman problems. However, it wouldn't be so bad (or difficult for them) if they would just tell you the truth from the start instead of keeping you hanging on with "in a few hours" constantly. It was fine when we were heading to Delhi as we had no time constraints. However, we have had to throw away our return portion as we have a connecting flight from Bangkok and cannot afford to miss it. Given the feedback in emails I have had from other travellers, I can say that delays of 3 days are fairly commonplace. Therefore, having had to buy another ticket, Biman worked out more expensive than other airlines, so it really wasn't worth it.