Once upon a time life was so simple. You book the airline ticket, you go to fly, they bring you best of the food and beverages. Simple easy cool.
Gone are the days. Now the life is way complex. Booking an airline ticket now requires lot of expertise. Different type of fairs, different facilities. You are the one choosing or skipping the meal. Of course everything is about the money. At times you may end up making bookings and making payments for the services that you really don’t need. On the other hand at times when you order for the service, make payment and then realize that it would have been better had you pre-paid for it.
Airline food is no different. You should really know in advance if you will need the meal in advance. If you are the type of person who initially declines meal and later by the smell of meal you end up ordering – well welcome to 21st century airline experience, you will end up losing almost 50-100% extra money. So it is always advisable to book the meal and services including extra baggage well in advance. That too direct from the airline website itself.
Flexi Plus Fare vs Super Saver Fare in Indigo
Now let’s proceed to book a ticket at Indigo. I had to go to Indore from Delhi. No Frills ticket that is super saver fare is 5,324 rupees. This doesn’t come with any extra benefits. Now along with this these a days web check-in is mandatory. For sure I will have to pay money for seat. So say, I book a window seat – 5F. It is extra cost of 250 INR. So far so good. If I want to eat food and pre-book say veg trio sandwich – It is extra 550 INR. Veg lactose meal is 600 INR. So if I pick these, I will end up paying 800 INR plus for just food and seat.
A better alternate is buy Flexi Saver Ticket. Pay approximate 500 INR extra on top of super saver. Food, seat is free. To top it, date change (4 days in advance) is free. Cancellation charges are just 500 INR (4 days in advance). Also XL seats are available at just 50%. In super saver fair, Cancellation / change charges are huge. So overall paying 500 INR extra and get all these freebies is no brainer. Just by availing meal and window seat I will save more than what I paid. We all know how costly airport food is. There is no way possible that I may eat a full meal at airport for less than 500 INR. Plus anyway dining in flight gives additional luxury factor. So always I book Flexi Plus Fare in Indigo instead of Super Saver.
Verdict:
Flexi Plus Fare is winner all the way.
Picking seat and food Options in Flexi Plus
Once you select flexi plus fare, you have option to chose your seats and food. Other than premium seats all other seats are free. Now here is catch, if you had taken Super Saver, you would have paid 150 – 250 INR for window/aisle seat and 99 INR for middle seat. 
Now since seat selection is free, pick the best seat. In my example I had chosen seat in fifth row for the simple reason, upon arrival, you will be among the first few persons to leave the aircraft. Besides when I sit in back seats, I see lot many people and it makes me feel congested. That’s why seats in front rows are costlier. So I will chose the otherwise costly seat.
Similar is the case in food. In Flexi Plus you can chose any meal. Every meal is free. You can pick Upma Meal (normal price is INR 350) or you can chose Veg Lactose Meal (normal price is INR 600). Of course being a smart consumer, I will chose the costliest and healthiest meal.
Verdict:
I had chosen window seat in front row. I also have chosen veg lactose meal for myself. Wife wanted sandwich, so have chosen Veg Trio Sandwich.
Review of Veg Trio Sandwich
Veg trio sandwich is set of three sandwiches. First sandwich filling is Grilled cottage cheese, second sandwich filling is veg Junglee and the third sandwich is cheese cucumber lettuce. Along with sandwich there are two sandwich cubes – cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese. There is one piece of apricot, olive, prunes and cherry tomato.
Overall calories of this sandwich is 313 calories. It does contain approx 10 gram of protein which is not bad. It has carb and fat in likit. Though due to white bread sugar component is high. Because of cheese it has saturated fat of 6.4 gram which is approximately 30% of your max daily saturated fat. So yeah it is a bit high on saturated fat side, but nothing over the limit high.
Along with sandwich you can order any unhealthy drink of your choice – e.g. coke, cold coffee, canned juice. If you are real health conscious you may avoid complimentary drink and eat your sandwich with just plain water. I anyway have taken cold coffee.
Overall this meal is decent for breakfast with proper protein and perfect calories.
Review of Veg Lactose Meal
What is lactose?
In simple words, lactose is a special type of sugar commonly found in dairy milk.
Indigo Veg Lactose Meal
Typically you find people who have lactose allergy. So you get meals for lactose intolerant people. It is very rare to see something called lactose meal. Essentially this means a meal that has dairy items.
Indigo veg lactose meal consists of 3 cubes of paneer tikka with mint chutney along with multi grain bread loaf. There is some vegetable salad on the side along with a cherry tomato.
Overall this low calorie meal of 231 calorie is a protein packed meal. It has 13.4 gram of protein, that is more than 25% of daily protein need of an average person. The only problem with all milk products is they are high in saturated fat and so does this meal. It contains 12 gram of saturated fat. One shouldn’t consume more than 18-20 gram of saturated fat a day. Yes you can cut off saturated fat in rest of the meals of the day. The overall fat in this meal is 17.3 gram, 5.3 unsaturated and 12 gram saturated. The meal fulfills approx 25% of daily fat need of an average person.
I like this meal because of its overall low calorie and full of protein contents. Goes without saying be very careful in choosing free beverage. You chose coke, then there was no point in talking about all this calorie talk.
Overall I liked both meals. They are far better than what you typically get in full service airlines. Good thing is Indigo is they provide tasty food options in pocket friendly budget.
