[MadinMumbai]

Reading some of the comments and frankly a little surprised. I haven’t travelled too often in the recent past so haven’t voted but my past experiences have been mostly alright.
I much prefer Vistara to any other airline. Next in line is Air India. Unless there is no other option I refuse to fly Indigo and Spice.
In the 25-30 years of experience I don’t think I have had a bad experience with Air India. On one occasion the flight returned due to a snag. We were put up at the Centaur Delhi which was an experience of the worst sort. But I wouldn’t chalk it to Air India’s account. Compared to British Air, Air France, Malaysia or Quantas I have had a much much better experience on Air India.
Maybe my expectations aren’t as high as some other people but I think there is a lot of Air India bashing that might not be totally deserved. At one point it had become fashionable to diss Air India because it was, well, Air India. From my experience the positives are -The food is always good and warm. The airline staff has never been rude or unhelpful. They have better baggage allowance. I trust Air India to follow safety protocols more than I trust some of the cost cutting private guys. On the negative side some times the cabin can be old and fraying on the edges. But I would take the positives over the negatives.

On baggage handling and belt allocation in baggage claim area - I am not sure how much is Air India’s problem and how much is the airport’s issue.

[Old_Salt]

Well, what can I say.

My job involves quite a lot of travelling and I end up with 50/60 flights a year, across the globe.
Air India like United / KLM and other sarkari ones is my last last last choice.
One clear benefit I can say is that Air India flies direct to many routes which are not available by many other.
Apart from that, there has been literally no improvement. The aircraft’s are still dirty, the entertainment system is still pathetic, USB sockets or headphone jacks don’t work.
The screens are frozen most times and the crew is just now bothered.
My last direct flight from Sydney, had only vegetarian meal being offered. Asked why, and answer was we only order 10 non veg meals.
For the second meal I told them I am a frequent flyer and was therefore offered a non veg meal but only after they said we had to “steal” this from business class.
It’s Vistara on domestic else QR/SQ/EK depending on which direction I fly.

Last, but not the least, the attitude of the crew is still the same. When I spoke to one of the flight attendants he was pretty clear that his salary and perks are not what others are getting. So, itna paisa mein itnaich milega

[Foxbat]

I flew Air India Hyderabad to Delhi in December last year. I was moving cities so had a lot of luggage so preferred Air India as we got a lot more luggage allowance.

1. the overall service from booking to baggage collection
It was good
2. the punctuality
There was a slight delay
3. the cabin service
Acceptable. For a domestic flight for the price it was leagues ahead of Indigo, Spice Jet etc. which were charging the same or more for the same journey. The meal, in flight entertainment and headphones was an extra bonus along with the extra legroom.
4. aircraft cleanliness and upkeep
Decent
5. the confidence in safety
I would say average
6. the image of the airline
As an aviation enthusiast and a collector of Scale models of Air India aircraft its high


The aircraft was a Boeing 777-300ER named "Jammu and Kashmir" which was in decent condition. Registration was VT-ALN with a special "Celebrating India" livery.

[digitalnirvana]

Well Air India lost my luggage and I got it after 7 days. I sent emails and Tweets but they never got around to giving me the compensation voucher. It's been 7 months.

Apart from that the usual. Good Indian food, excellent luggage allowance, and terrible flight maintenance.

[Krishna sankar]

I recently travelled from Chennai-Delhi-Paris. The check in was pathetic like Indigo where only two counters were operating inspite of long que. After complaining to the incharge, they brought one more person and added.
But all other aspects they scored well, which includes cleanliness, leg spage, food, ontime departure and arrival.

[parrys]

I always look if Vistara is available on the sector I wish to fly.
Air India is never on top of the consideration list.

Those fabric seat covers, they look horrible. Found them to be stained on so many flights I have taken in the past. Some might argue that other airlines with their PU / leather / leatherette seat covers are not really the gold standard in hygiene; but at least they look better.

That coffee / tea cup always has visible dust speck.

Airline industry which is so weight sensitive, it is surprising to see that Air India uses proper cutlery.

I hope things change soon...

[Amrik Singh]

Flying International, I do not have much against the Airlines but surely, much to say about co-passengers of Air India.
The very few times I had the misfortune of flying Air India (not by my choice, but of those, paying for my ticket) , I have found Desi treated differently from others and certainly, below par. Some of the Passengers still considering the flight to be like their own home in making a mess. Lavatories dirty and water spilled on floor (wonder how ?). Toiletries taken away as souvenirs.
In fact, the experience begins at the counter itself. Most of the elderly and uneducated passengers are rolled in on wheel chairs. Not because they need it for physical reasons, but the documents and other Airport routine being handled by the attendant. Not used to being on Chair for long time, I witnessed one such passenger get up from Wheel Chair to stretch his Limbs. For them, flying Non-Stop by Air India is divine, as they cannot and do not have to go through the hassle of changing flight.
Regarding the topic, I cannot say a word as I have not flown Air India for decades.

[Contrapunto]

It is my belief (and maybe my bias) that for the longest time, Air India employees had the mistaken notion that the government pays their salaries, and is therefore, the only stakeholder.

Now that they have to reorient themselves to the fact that it is actually the customers who pay for their seats who pays their salaries, things will change. The only caveat, some employees in the airline may never "get it". When exactly the Tata's will start cracking the whip, remains to be seen

[jkrishnakj]

There was a time that I used to be in the IndianAirlines/AirIndia planes atleast 5-6 times a week. I still remember the Coupon booklets that my company had given us. Take the coupons, go to the counter and fly out on an assured ticket, 60 mins prior to departure times. That's how much we were using them, no Sahara, no Jet, no nothing. Its been Indigo for a long time now, and Vistara off late.

Given my travel schedule that will come up in the coming decade, I can't wait to get back to flying them on domestic routes again. My favorite seats used to be 12C, and I don't recall using any other seats back then (small privileges of frequent flyer membership)

[kaak009]

I am really confused how is everyone pointing out that the website experience has improved. After seeing the comments I went to their website and try to search for a Mum-Del flight for 21st October 2022, with students concession and guess what, SEARCH button just doesn't work. Is it only me or the website experience is this and hasn't improved wee bit?

[V.Narayan]

Tata's have a very long road ahead of them in turning around a unionized culture. A sarkari culture and service are not natural companions. But thanks to privatization of airlines gone are the days when you considered Indian Airlines doing you a favour by calling your name out during the 'waiting list' call out as you crowded around the special wait list counter; gone are the days you got shouted at by check-in clerks and dared not slap him back; gone are the days when Air India ground crew thought it was normal to scream at first time international travelers struggling with formalities and documents; gone are the days when Indian Airlines were forced to delay take off to accommodate a politician boarding late. Air India is an apt example of how best in the world literally in a few years can be reduced to one of the worst by bureaucrats and politicians.

But in all fairness the new management team and the employees deserve a fair chance to prove they can turn things around.

Between 2008 and 2017, pre-Tata's, I flew Air India several times internationally to New York in business class. While their entertainment systems either sucked or were cheerfully non-functional the food, courtesy and warmth was all there. I preferred that warmth and courtesy to the cold fish snappy cabin service of United which was the only other non-stop alternative often.

Having employed more than a few ex-Indian Airlines and ex-Air India technical staff my take is that most are good competent people trapped in a lousy culture created by bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and union leaders.

[Air_Kerala]

Having employed more than a few ex-Indian Airlines and ex-Air India technical staff my take is that most are good competent people trapped in a lousy culture created by bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and union leaders.

Speaking entirely from a flight deck perspective, Air India pilots are one of the best trained pilots in India, if not in the world, that I have come across. At my airline, we have quite a few senior trainers who are ex-IC and AI, the wealth of knowledge and experience they bring from their previous organisations is unparalleled. If things were to go south in an Indian registered airplane, I would prefer to be in an IndiGo, Air India, Vistara or Air Asia India plane, given the training standards.

As for the other aspects of this massive organisation, it would take a few more years to have visible change, given the inertia of being a govt. owned entity. But all the right steps seem to be taken, with reference to signing leases for new airplanes and maintenance contracts. Hopefully in few years, we may have Air India replace Emirates as de facto national carrier, given the scale of business Emirates does out of India. Peace

[Kruz Nhux]

Flew from Chennai to Chicago(via Delhi) and back to Chennai in June. Inflight entertainment did not work in Delhi to Chicago flight. Thankfully I always carry lots of movies on my phone.

My return journey was dreadful. I arrived at 9am at Chicago airport (exactly 3 hours before departure) only to find a long line of hundreds of people for Air India counter and no Staff in sight. The Air India Staff came at 10am and opened the counter at 10.30 am with help of Turkish Airline crew. Unsurprisingly the flight was delayed by 2 hours. The Inflight entertainment again did not work. My Connecting flight from Delhi to Chennai was delayed by 6 long hours and what made it worse was they served me a spoiled stinking meal in flight. Also luggage took an hour to arrive. Never again

[porsche_guy]

Voted Yes

After Tata took over, have flown AI once this past July on the DEL-BDQ sector. Since someone else was arranging the travel for me and they had booked the tickets, I cringed when I read Air India. With my past experiences, I was mentally prepared for a long delay, a dirty plane and rude staff but to my pleasant surprise it wasn't so.

I didn't have any check-in luggage with me so did not have to interact with the counter staff. The boarding was done sharp on-time and we infact pushed back a good 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. The seats were in okayish condition but still much more comfortable than those on IndiGo. Strangely enough, there was no in-flight entertainment but the seats had the controls for them. Besides that, service was nothing out of the ordinary (which is a good thing considering how notorious AI was) and the food was a basic sandwich, some juice and a bottle of water. The aircraft was clean in general and I didn't find any issues with that. If I remember correctly, it was an Airbus A320ceo flying that day.



Arrival was a good half hour before scheduled which made me even happier. Although the occupancy was quite low for some reason and I got an entire row to myself.

In my experience, AI was much better than before and honestly, I would prefer them over any other LCC (their rates are quite competitive these days and actually lower in some cases than GoAir and IndiGo) but they still have a lot of catching up to do. They aren't anywhere close to the Vistara level yet which remains my benchmark while flying domestic.

[Lalvaz]

Had an opportunity to fly Air India recently from India to Riyadh and back. Luggage allowance was good, boarding was smooth, flight took off on time, landed before time, meals were average (but not bad), and the cabin crew was professional. No reason to complain. If I had to nitpick, I would say that they should offer some entertainment options, but apart from that, nothing that would prevent me from flying AI again.

I think the Tata takeover has already started showing positive results, of course it will take some time before AI regains its prior glory, but there is a marked improvement in the attitude of the staff, and that makes all the difference. Changing the aircraft, or refurbishing the fleet would obviously take a longer time. Wish the AI team all the very best in revamping the airline.