This happens to be my first review. Not sure, how a review should be structured in the reader?s perspective, so I go by analyzing in every detail. I shall give my rating in every view and the final rating.
Air India ? Major international carrier of the country which claims and is for sure a major POWER of this 21st century.
Am I really eligible to write this ? Yes I guess, having boarded at least 10 diff AI flights (not trips).
Please be advised that, my journey in AI has always been between Chennai and US via London (recently via France has been added, will be trying it in less than 2 months).
Comfort: Of the diff international carriers I have tried, honestly, AI happens to be bad in this. Why?
My first and foremost reason for discomfort, due to some reason of the other, when you reach London, you will (75% chances) hear an announcement telling, as there was a delay (from the airport where the flight left), there is very less time left in London, so transit passengers are not allowed to get off the plane ! Man ? India to US without a bit of free air and stretching your legs? (However, after Sept 11th London Heathrow has made it required to get all the transit passengers out of the plane for a security check , wow, I am being made to thank for a security check on me)
Second reason, even smaller carriers these days have flights with individual TVs for economy passengers, Lufthansa is going to launch Wi-Fi in a month, but in AI, guess what ?? AI takes you back rolling in memory, may be when you were 4 or 5 and the balloon walla in the road blows his trumpet, as you buy the balloon, you see that he has one stethoscope, had you been ambitious so soon ;) or should you want to make your sister cry by pretending to be the doctor, you would have coaxed your papa, to get you that. Did your papa refuse to get it for you?? Don?t worry, AI is providing it for you here!! Yes, it is the same one, 2 (cheap) plastic pipes, connected to form something exactly like the stethoscope you asked your papa. How does this work? The head phone jack is nothing but 2 holes (for right and left) into which you insert those pipes (don?t worry, the pipe has a hard ending piece, to make your connection easy) Now sound waves pass into your ears!! Amazing technology, which every engineer should appreciate! One other nice part of this, should you often shake your hands or whatever and if the pipes of your headphone get twisted, the air is blocked (air is your sound signal!) and you wont be able to hear music! However, this is better than ATA in US, where you got to pay 1$ to get a headphone, which you should use and promptly return.
Third, AI won?t provide you with anything (economy), at any stopovers you have. Sometimes, you will flyover Mumbai, reach Delhi; drop the transit passengers, then comeback to Mumbai and now only passenger can get off Mumbai!! However this is due to the Indo-Pak airspace problem, but could be better handled.
I would give, 2.5/5 speaking in terms of comfort.
In-flight Crew: If you are not looking for great looking chicks, trust me, AI in-flight crew are definitely good. They are for most part polite, willing to accommodate your requests. Once when I was sick and being a full flight, they managed to somehow coordinate and get a one full row of empty seats so that I could lie down. To most part of all my trips, in-flight crew have been helpful and definitely, if you plan to fly your parents or some elderly alone, I would recommend AI for sure. In-fact most of the people in the flight will be the elderly. One good news, I saw a recent ad in the AI website for in-flight crew, seems like they are going to strictly hire, chicks!
I would give, 4.5/5 speaking in terms of in-flight crew.
Reservation/Booking : Point blank, I would say, AI SUCKS BIG TIME in this. But why so bad?
Until now I have paid at least 3-3.5 lakh rupees to AI for my tickets, of which at least .5 lakhs has been as penalties !!!! Don?t give a quick reply saying, every airline does this. You are mistaken. Kuwait Airlines, which is at any point at least 50$ cheaper in the same route and same dates, does rescheduling of tickets for free! Just no hassles. But in AI, Indian offices have different policies, US offices have totally different policies and so on. The most weird thing, if you buy the ticket in US and want to just change even the return date, you should cancel your ticket and rebook. AI claims, it got no control over it and only the agent does it and does not control the agent on how much he can charge for it. While Kuwait does the same for free! And a ticket cost cheaper.
Second, if you happen to be in US, try calling the AI offices in US and getting a proper reply, if you do, you are lucky. On most instances, they tell me ?Could you please give me your number Sir, I will call you back?, even without listening to your problem (you would have reached them after may be 30 mins of waiting on the phone ! If you think that they will really call you back that shall never happen.
Speaking about inconsistency in policies, when I once got a ticket in India, I was told I can change the dates for a very trivial fee. In 2 days, if I call US office and ask, the policies are just totally different. (Sounds more like every US Embassy having its own policy ;))
So, I would give a 1/5 for reservation/booking.
Food: I should simply say not bad.
Lets say, 3.5/5 for Food.
One weird experience :It was time to board the flight, but not a sign of boarding at all. After around 20 mins delay there was an announcement telling, there is a problem in the flight (mechanical), so there is going be nearly 5 hrs delay. Every passenger was so pissed off. Guess what happened? In 5 mins, there is the announcement ?Dear passengers, your flight is now ready to board? yeah, they claim that the engineers fixed it. Yeah their 5 hr estimated problem fixed in 5 mins and they want the 500 passengers to board!
One horrible landing experience :Want to know how bad ? Atleast 5 different luggage in the boxes on top of the seats fell down! Thank god, my laptop was not one of it. Thought of bad weather, no way, it was the sunniest day, on a bright afternoon, just absolutely, a bad landing!
Having said all these and also pointing that there are cheaper carriers on my route, why do I still fly AI (in-fact I have now got a ticket to travel in less than 2 months), even after most of my fellow Indians laughing at me when I say I fly AI, if I don?t fly in AI who else will? I book every trip on the very hope that this time it would have improved. Just hoping that AI will make me feel proud, just as how I feel as a proud Indian.
