After 20 years of Flying with other Airlines I somehow managed to boost my courage to Fly the recently introduced Nonstop from  JFK to BLR via MUMBAI on 2nd Aug and return on 21st Aug.
Here is the Scenario - the out going flight was a real pleasure as it was a new flight not crowded, left on time reached Mumbai about an hour early and the cabin staff - air hostess, pursuer and in general everybody was very pleasant. I did cancel and pay 200 US$ extra to get on this flight.
Now herein starts the trouble.The Bangalore flight supposedly @ around 1 am never showed up till after 4 am. no announcements no curftesies while hanging around BOMBAy airport nor refreshments or anything else. An unneccesary wait and delay with us waiting over 6 hours in MUMBAI. The reason we took this flight was to cut down the time we spend in MUMBAI airport. When the flight did come - no apologies or any explanation and as ususl everyone rushing like cattle to catch the flight. But I guess this was not the worse part.

we called Air India and went to the office in Unity Bldg in Bangalore. We were booked on the & pm flight to MUMBAI from BLR and we wanted to stay on that flight but were unceremoniously changed for no reason to the ( pm Flight from BLR. We again called @ 2 PM to confirm the flight timings and if we should catch the 7 pm flight. We were again told no. Reached BLR airport @ %:30pm requested the & pm flight to MUMBAI but were told no problem in going on the ( PM flight. @ * pm they told us that the flight would br late and now leave @ 9:30pm. and no problem we would be on Flight 141/140 to JFK. Alas we landed in MUMBAI @ 11:45 pm. really enough time for us to catch the Nonstop if they made some concessions like have a spl line for the 30 or so passengers catching the NONSTOP. Fought with the supervisor and got through the Transit gate @ 12:10 AM to find out that the flight which had a total of 89 passengers in Economy is going to leave without the 30 or so passengers coming from BLR to catch the NON STOP. Seems crazy that they could not hold the flight for say another 15 to 30 min to help board the passengers who like me had to get to work at my hospital on landing or trying to catch an onward flight some to Boston, some to LA, some to dallas and some others to SFO. Seems odd especially that this was supposedly a connecting flight for the NONSTOP.To make matters worse they put us all on a flight from Bom to DEL to LHR (LONDON) to JFK witha change of planes in LONDON where just going through the security is a mess and to top it all we reached JFK 11 hours late with no apology from AIR INDIA @ any time and I don’t know why I paid 225 US$ extra to get this harrasment. Moreover they said that people flying NONSTOP would get Double FREQUENT FLYER MILES which I am still about to see.

The Flight might itself have been good but the high and almighty staff believes that they can get away with anything - surprises me. The Duty Officer/ The counter person/ The Airport personnel everyone thinks they run the place  - somehow it doesn’t get into their head that if people stop flying Air India they do not have a job. It’s the paying customers who pay their salaries.

I wonder when will they wake up - I thought with all the competetion they would like to capture the captive market of NRI and other indian’s abroad but I guess they don’t need it.

Just an opinion but I would not travel by this Airline again.

Nadig
Westchester Med Cntr
Valhalla, NY 10595

No. of times flown on this Airlines:	Between 1 - 3
Class flown most frequently:	Economy Class