[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by sameer_vwagner

One noticeable difference was that the staff was polite.

We flew on their B777-300ER aircraft which was old. There were visible signs on wear and tear on the aircraft. The staff was, however, very warm and welcoming. They welcomed guests with a smile and were available to assist anyone who approached them.

The flight took off on time with the pilot taking to the PA to announce which areas we will be flying over, cruising altitude, cruising speed etc. Food served was Pav Bhaji (caterer was TajSATS) and it was delicious. Dessert was a tea cake (most probably from Sir Ratan Tata Institute) and that too was moist and tasted amazing. Post food service, the staff courteously asked everyone for tea / coffee and were offering refill if anyone asked for.

Good to see the difference in customer service. The planes and other physical infra will take time and money to replace, so can’t expect that to change right away.

On a different note, India is a republic and no longer part of the British empire, so it is a bit sad that people still use the prefix “Sir”,even if it is for eminent personalities like Ratan Tata.

[sameer_vwagner]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

Good to see the difference in customer service. The planes and other physical infra will take time and money to replace, so can’t expect that to change right away.

On a different note, India is a republic and no longer part of the British empire, so it is a bit sad that people still use the prefix “Sir”,even if it is for eminent personalities like Ratan Tata.

It sure will and Tatas are working on improving the infrastructure which will be a bit time consuming.

The institute is not named after Mr. Ratan Naval Tata. It was founded by Lady Navaljibai Tata in the memory of her husband Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata. Adding a couple of URLs for your reference.

https://www.tata.com/newsroom/rti-pa...u-for-the-soul
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratanji_Tata

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by sameer_vwagner

The institute is not named after Mr. Ratan Naval Tata. It was founded by Lady Navaljibai Tata in the memory of her husband Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata. Adding a couple of URLs for your reference.

https://www.tata.com/newsroom/rti-pa...u-for-the-soul
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratanji_Tata

Thanks for clarifying. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

[sameer_vwagner]

Originally Posted by Mustang Sammy

Thanks for clarifying. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

No apology needed man.

[Aroy]

I have been a long time fan of Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines. In fact barring a few flights in other airlines, I have always flown Air India (and Indian Airlines).

The food was always good, in fact finger licking meat balls were my favourite on Kolkata Delhi flight, and yes you had a fifty fifty chance of second helping.

Contrary to normal perception Air India is one of the most punctual carriers and their delays are quite low. My family has faced a few delays and flight cancelletaions, but Air India informed them well in advance and in most cases there is an option to choose alternative flights at no extra cost - some thing that other carriers have yet to come up with.

I remember long ago on Diwali day their Nagpur Delhi flight had 4 passengers and the Nagpur Mumbai 8. The did cancel the Delhi Flight (dep 11AM) and accomodated every one in the Mumbai flight with a connecting flight to Delhi. Every one got a sumptious lunch and a big box of sweets. That is one thing that most modern carriers would not do.

[pannags]

Flew Air India after almost 15 years on my most recent flight from Delhi to Bengaluru. Was an A320 with registration VT-EDD

The check-in experience was more laborious than on an international flight. On entering the departures lobby and clearing a short queue, I was asked to go to a specific counter at the other end of the hall to drop my luggage. Upon reaching there, despite having a boarding pass, I was directed to the self check-in kiosk to print another copy. Finally, even though my check-in baggage weighed only 8 KG, I was asked to get my laptop bag weighed in a separate hand baggage corner Was nevertheless assisted by their smiling staff at all touch points

I presume the flight was full because boarding took a really long time and many passengers with cabin trolleys were asked to check-in their luggage

I'll skip the suspense to the end and talk about the onboard experience. The seats, while showing signs of ageing, were clean and neat. The recline was surprisingly good (you'll soon know why), but the ton of legspace was somewhat compromised by the entertainment unit box. The food menu was a monochrome print out that had seen better days. The snack itself was tasty and filling. Overall, upkeep and hospitality were up to the mark - in-line with what you'd expect from a flagship carrier.

Now, would I consider flying Air India anytime in the near future? Yes, certainly

What would the one reason, apart from my overall experience, be? Well! They upgraded me to business just before boarding

Here are a few pics I took on my Pixel:

I got you covered, brother



Masked, and minding my own "business"



Good snack for a sub 3 hour haul



Never a dull moment up there in the skies

[Secretariat]

Never flew Air India for international flights for 15 years but this year flew 6 times on Air India to Europe. Chose Air India primarily because the European carriers were all strike prone and with fair probability of getting stranded if a strike did materialise.

Every single flight was on time ; all connections worked flawlessly; no baggage problems at all. Check in times at both ends were miniscule (cue long lines with a certain European airline out of London). Service was excellent; the Europeans have significantly deteriorated and I would say Air India is now above them. The Air India crew were polite, helpful and pleasant. And Air India is significantly cheaper, which is a big deal in these days of gallopping fares.

Where Air India still suffers is old equipment. More than half the entertainment screens don't work. Some seats are "not serviceable". The seats look faded and dated, although the legroom is pretty decent. I flew Economy (of course ), but Business Class seems to be one generation behind.

All these comments pertain to international flights. I think, shortly Air India will be preferable to American and European airlines, although they might have still a bit to go to compete with Asian and Middle Eastern airlines.

[KL54]

I think AI will be waiting for new aircraft for a loooong time. With an order backlog of 6128 aircraft and deliveries at 60 a month, typical wait time for a new A320 neo ordered today is around 8 years.

So get used to flying domestically on the claptrap aircraft for some time to come.

[Vegitocat]

Took a BOM-MAA round trip with Air India in the last month and two things stood out positively:

1. The 25 kg check in luggage allowance compared to 15kg in other airlines
2. The huge stairs for deplaning(did not use an aero-bridge)

Food offered was sandwich since it was a 2 hour flight. Only negative was the dated fabric upholstery for the seats and the old airplanes which meant the crew was using air fresheners to liven up the cabin air.

[chinkara]

This is a 50-50 poll and I can see why. Frankly, I thought for quite a while before clicking yes.

Recent experience has been good in terms of timeliness.

Bad experiences include: Shabby seats, forcible recline, non-functioning entertainment units.

I also faced the issue of confusing gate changes (and same queue for 2 flights) and not being allowed to board in Delhi T3. Even this time there were some 10 people with the same problem - and only 1 was allowed to board randomly (probably some connection). In flight crew better (with some variability), ground crew largely the same in terms of attitude in my experience.

Food is better, especially the forcibly veg feeding issue for the last 2-3 years is gone.

[ZenMaster]

I recently flew in Air India, from Kochi to Delhi, after more than a decade. I didn't have any high expectations to be honest.I chose AI because the ticket prices for all carriers were almost the same and AI was offering more luggage allowance (25kg) + a meal. But the biggest reason was that the aircraft was a Boeing 787.

After flying on nothing but A320s and B737s for about a decade, I had forgotten what it was like to fly on a wide body aircraft. I just wanted to fly on a big plane and I had never been on a 787.

The check in was smooth but the boarding was tedious. The flight was an international flight with a stopover in Delhi. Had to wait for a long time in the queue for the bus that would take us to the plane parked in the international terminal about 2 kms away.

The condition of the aircraft, was a let down. It was everything that I hoped it wouldn't be. The plane was old and had seen better days. It was like a time capsule. Everything was exactly like I remember 10-15 years ago.
The seats looked worn out. Their covering were loose and torn or coming out. Tray tables were dirty. In flight entertainment didn't work for many. It worked for me, but the available movie were all "Classics".

Everything looked old and ragged. The whole plane had a "Final Destination" vibe to it, with the loose tray table, malfunctioning AV system and flickering light. I got a small scare when the flight seemed to have just turned off or something during taxi. The AC and lights went out suddenly and had to be restarted. I don't know if it was them switching from the Aux power unit to the main engines, but it definitely didn't feel right.

The food was OK. Nothing to write home about.
The cabin crew was definitely much younger than I remember. But they really need a wardrobe change. The female cabin crew uniform looks like they draped on some spare bedsheets/cushion coverings from the 2000s into something resembling a saree and they weren't of the same colour either. Some were wearing blue uniform, some red and some a different red and black saree uniform altogether. All these outfits were all part of the uniform at some point in AI.
Same goes for the seat covering, which looked...."vintage" to say the least.

But the staff were all courteous and their service was good.

And as some other member pointed out, I agree that AI offers warm treatment. The AC was just enough to feel "Not Hot" during the entire journey.

That said, I believe Tata can bring around change to AI. But it will definitely take time. The quickest thing they can do is to give AI a new colour scheme at least for the interiors and Cabin Crew outfits since getting new planes will take a long time.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by ZenMaster

And as some other member pointed out, I agree that AI offers warm treatment. The AC was just enough to feel "Not Hot" during the entire journey.

The AC not being adequately cool is also a part of AI's warm treatment (pun intended)

[SedateGuy]

I have flown on Air India thrice in the last few months, all on the Mumbai Chennai sector.

Reason for choosing Air India

1. The price was half of all other airlines and below what I normally saw for this sector. maybe due to a computer glitch
2. Due to excess baggage allowance (25kgs) as i was traveling with more than 15kg allowed by the other airlines.
3. The third time needed was traveling with my mother and needed wheel chair assistance (not having it was not an option, and trusted only Air India for it.) Also you get 50% senior citizen discount on the entire air fare which is not insignificant. And you can upgrade to business class by paying 8000 at the airport if seats are available

Everything was pleasant and upto the mark on all flights and the snacks appropriate for the time of the flight except for the morning 7am flight when we were served a sandwich and packet of juice. Considering we left home before 5 am and reached our destination at 10+am they could have served a more hearty meal. But all in all nothing major to complain about as competing airlines don't serve even this at the same price. All three flights were on time

What i noticed was that the uniforms throughout appeared crisper and service from check-in to deplaning at destination was courteous and with a smile.

The wheel chair requirement for my mother was well organised. The aircraft while onboarding was not connected to an aerobridge. The wheel chair lift was an eye opener for me and though old and rikety (the age showed) was smooth and without jerks and the transfer from ground to the aircraft was without any hitch.

The only minus in all the flights was the worn out seats and the age of the aircraft, which was showing. Other than this nothing to complain about.

I would definitely travel with them again and choose them over any LCC where the passenger is treated like cattle.

[V.Narayan]

Given that to USA, Europe, my two business destinations, Air India will always now have a fair share of the non-stop flights for me it makes little sense to use a European carrier or bless my soul an American one. The interiors, entertainment, the aircraft, the seats etc are easy to fix and I expect as more funding pours in these will get fixed over the next two years through major maintenance and freshly leased machines. Culture is the tougher piece to build and Air India's cabin service especially on international routes is courteous and warm and within the limits of what they have they try to do their best. I can't say this of Air France or British Airways or God forbid United and here I'm referring to business class. I can only assume their attitudes in Economy are poorer. With over 1000 international sectors behind me I have my bag of stories of these airlines and some others such as Finnair, SAS, Alitalia. Amongst the European and American airlines the only two, in my opinion, with consistently professional service sans attitude, from the perspective of an Asian, are KLM and Lufthansa. Interestingly in my business days each of these were my customers and KLM and Lufthansa were the easiest and most professional ones to deal with by a mile. Culture seeps in everywhere.

[krinpit]

Voted: Yes

So I had the opportunity to experience Air India Domestic and International in the last week of September.

As like so many things, my observations are relative to other private airlines and the "expectations" from Air-India. I have only flown once with Air India about 15 years ago and stuck to my decision to avoid it until last month.

HYD-BOM
This was a A320 flight. The first thing that I noticed was the change in attitude of the staff. They were eager to complete the boarding ASAP, clearly a leaf out of Indigo's play book. Their attitude was also very friendly. What was clearly a pleasant surprise was the continuous updates that I received on SMS and email regarding the baggage. This was a first for me, as I did not see this even with Indigo, which is the gold standard in our skies.

BOM-BKK
This was a Boeing Dreamliner. I was fascinated by the window light controls that changed the ambient light at the switch of a button. But then this is to do with Boeing, and we are discussing Air-India. I found the attitude of the staff very friendly and had few exchange of jokes as well. All of them were young and eager to make us comfortable. When it came to the onboard screen, things were the same. We were 3 of us travelling, and 1 screen was not functional. Looks like the ratio was the same throughout the aircraft. Thankfully, as it was a short flight of around 4 hours, I got by. I realized that I was not upset on account of this, as it as Air India. I guess, I would have been disappointed and kicked up a fuss if it was any other carrier. What the aircraft lacked in hardware was offset by generous distribution of liquor / food by the staff.

The return flights experience was also identical. Faulty entertainment screen offset by pleasant attitude of the staff. And a generous baggage allowance unmatched by any other carriers.

I hope things will continue to improve, and we will not be disappointed by the Maharaja. I am rooting for Air India and hope they come good.

On a side note, last week I flew Indigo domestic and realized that their Airport staff were not up to the mark. The flight staff were as usual very good.