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Taking a leaf from its full service competitors Indian Airlines (now Air India) and Jet Airways, IndiGo has introduced a prepaid travel booklet which allows passengers to buy six sectors in advance for a flat fare.
Called the ‘6E Pass’ the booklet is priced at Rs 42,000 for a ‘National Permit‘ which allows for six domestic sectors (not trips) of unlimited length. A ‘Regional Permit‘ which limits the sector length to 1,000km is priced at Rs 21,000 for six sectors.
Both prices are exclusive of government taxes (except service tax), passenger service fees, and airport fees like UDF, ADF, etc. The booklet is valid for travel until September 30, 2015, bookings must be made at least two days in advance, and a maximum of two passengers have to be pre-named. Each coupon is valid for one sector for one passenger. A connection is counted as two sectors as is two passengers travelling together on a direct sector. A same plane stopping service is counted as one sector.
More details are available on the 6E Pass microsite.
IndiGo 6E Pass Regional destinations ex Bangalore
From Bangalore Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Trivandrum and Vishakhapatnam are considered regional destinations i.e. within 1,000km.
Should you buy the 6E Pass?
These pass is a good deal for individual or small business persons who often travel at relatively short notice, and, at peak travel times or to destinations with few competitors which result in higher airfares.
If you can plan your travel a week in advance then you will typically find better fares directly.
As an example on IndiGo, using business hour departures and Bangalore Mumbai round trip had a base fare of Rs 5,679 with one week advance purchase, and Rs 13,588 for a two day advance purchase. Compare this to the Rs 7,000 you will spend for the two coupons on the 6E Pass.
However, travellers to Nagpur would pay Rs 12,130 even with a one week advance purchase for the round trip. Only a 14 day advance purchase would be cheaper than a 6E Pass.
Similarly on the Bengaluru New Delhi route a two day advance purchase will cost Rs 17,398 round trip against the Rs 14,000 for the two coupons of the National 6E Pass, but just three days advance purchase will fetch you a direct booking fare of just Rs 9,189.
Travellers between Bangalore and Srinagar will be overjoyed as they typically pay well over Rs 20,000 for a round trip and the one-stop flight, not the connection, will cost Rs 14,000.
In short, look at your travel patterns and see your most common destinations you are likely to fly to in the next four months before making your buying decision.
Would you buy the 6E Pass? Share your thoughts via a comment.
For Bangalore it’s fine but incase of Pune, except for PNQ-DEL & PNQ-CCU, all flights are covered in regional pass due to location of Pune. However, since there are lot of flights between PNQ-DEL, even 2 days in advance on Air India return ticket costs tad over 13k, all inc, which is much cheaper than Indigo. Worse, 6E goes to T1 while AI flies to T3….another reason to fly AI :). Overall, 6E pass isn’t much VFM.