[wheeledwanderer]

Originally Posted by SuperGirl_Dad

What happens when sheer incompetence meets absolute ineffectiveness - you get a transfer to Air India domestic flight at Mumbai Airport...

1. Did you not through check the baggage from Doha to Chennai? That is what I do and only hand baggage needs to be checked in again as your first port of entry will be Mumbai.

2. Any airline charges only for the extra ticket fare on top of the already paid amount which would be the difference between that days fare and the amount you have paid. Guess then the ticket fare should have been 45k for you?

Guess all airlines are the same when it comes to customer service. If you are lucky you get a good service, else its just another bad day.

Yesterday saw Indigo crew fighting onboard the flight with the passenger. Do not yet know who was at fault but either ways, it is inconvenience to other passengers. The crew could have called the passenger to the rear pantry room and explained instead of creating a big hungama!

[RGK]

After two years, there has been a huge increase in both domestic and international travel. I've heard that during this vacation season, nearly all NRIs are visiting India. Continuous overload on any system often reduces efficiency. My daughter had to wait more than two hours at Chennai immigration on Monday morning (9 AM).

I travelled from Chennai to Indianapolis over three days by BA during the coldest week of January 2019. My luggage was just delivered one day before my return due to a technical issue in the first sector (Heathrow is well known for baggage delays). There are many unpredictable factors that contribute to airline delays. It is not fully appropriate to place blame on the airline company.

Few suggestions:

• Choose the same airline operator for all sectors
• Schedule your trip for a wonderful weekday.
• Plan direct flights whenever possible.
• Finally, confirm the related airline's website before making a reservation.

The peak of winter and the expected implementation of Covid protocols require passengers to make thorough preparations.

[Neversaygbye]

Originally Posted by SuperGirl_Dad

Transit flight provide better time management for traveling with kids. Fell for this and burnt finger.

Really sorry to hear about your ordeal, but if you are travelling on 2 different PNRs it is a good idea to keep at least 6 hours in hand for the connection (and I follow this for domestic connections). For international connections on separate PNRs I will reach in the morning or the evening the day before and take a connecting flight either at night or the following morning. I rarely do this though and prefer to book on a single PNR when possible. Flights and airports are unpredictable and immigration even more so. If your booking is on a single PNR, it is the airline's responsibility to ensure you reach your destination. If you have booked two separate flights with different PNRs, the responsibility (and risk) is yours. From what I have read, here the airline is not at fault since you were booked on separate PNRs - since you could not make your connection in time, they treated you as a no show and that is why you forfeited the entire amount paid for the earlier flight. It can be argued that they could have been sympathetic to you and allowed you to board since the aircraft was still at the airport. Unfortunately, airlines rarely do that and it all depends on the mood of the people at the check-in counter and the gate even when the flight is not full. I was once stuck in Bangalore traffic and reached the check-in counter 5 minutes after closing and they still did not accommodate me (the airline was the erstwhile Jet Airways). One other reason is that airlines overbook, and if you reach late, by that time they will have already given your seat to someone else. So the best option is to always book on a single PNR for a connecting flight, unless there is no such option available.

[Zen Av8r]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

It would be most useful to all for passengers to share their views on whether quality of service has improved or not or worse gone down in this one year. Has Tata taking over added value to

1. the overall service from booking to baggage collection,
2. the punctuality
3. the cabin service
4. aircraft cleanliness and upkeep
5. the confidence in safety
6. the image of the airline

I flew Air India after a period of almost four years on BLR-BOM-BLR sector. Left yesterday and got back today. The overall service seems to have improved. Punctuality has definitely improved. The flights were on time with before time arrival on both days. Cabin service seemed to show a marginal improvement but aircraft upkeep and cleanliness has a huge scope for improvement. Confidence regarding safety was high. I never felt a moment of unease. Operations seem to have improved. The image of the airline has also a large scope of improvement as most employees especially the ground and counter staff still behave as if they are holding a government job. Looks like that change will take time.

[mayankk]

I just took the Kolkata flight to Delhi, and while the in plane experience is not much different from any other, the baggage checkin is on another level of incompetent idiocy.

The were 9 people manning 3 desks,3 to each. One sitting behind the counter, one putting the tags on, and one doing the heavy lifting.

Unless there was a passenger with multiple bags, in which case they all stood around discussing the next cold war/financial crisis/COVID strategy, or something. That's what it felt like while I waited for 50 minutes for them to clear two families.

My only problem is that it is the most conveniently timed flight which lets me get back to Noida by 8 pm. Tsk.

Ps: in flight food is decent. Not as good as vistara, but not as bad as the "veg sandwich" on indigo. Why the heck is that the default choice by company travel desks??

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Is it Medanta staff? They have a Medical clinic in T2 and T3. My mother used their service one time when she was unwell. A god-send service, especially for elderly folks.

Yes it is Medanta at T3. But here I must add that my relatives life was not saved due to a proper process by Air India but by one of their young ground crew & a porter who were simply passing by going out of their way to help and quickly get a wheel chair and rush my relative and his wife to the clinic. He was in the beginning stages of a stroke and the timely help saved his life. He is now out of danger and I'll be bringing home over to my place tomorrow for recuperation before he is fit to fly back to his home town. Given the number of elderly who fly it behooves an airline to have a well rehearsed procedure for their ground staff to address such emergencies.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

We expect Air India to improve under TATA ownership, perhaps while missing a point that TATA has never excelled in customer service - across segments (even automotive). The TATA-SIA run Vistara isn't any different, and the upcoming merger with Air India is likely to make things worse rather than improve either option.

I say this after having flown 8-9 sectors with Vistara in the past four months. Although the flights are relatively new and neat, and quality food is served in the cabin - the general attitude leaves a lot to be desired.

Some examples -

1. Cabin suitcases are always collected last minute for check-in prior to boarding. Although i dont mind this - I have seen the staff picking up fights (rude and loud) with people refusing to do so for issues like having valuables in it.

2. Choice of meal selection when booking and reality on the flight is totally arbitrary. Flights like Indigo follow the pre-bookings religiously even if they dont generally have food included in the ticketfare.

3. App is just archaic! The only app where i get prompted for captcha and even get rejected occasionally from loading saying they suspect its a bot. Vistara world onboard experience also can't be relied upon - sometimes it works, sometimes it just refuses to connect to the onboard server.

4. Currently picking up a battle with customer care where i had paid and selected my seats and they found it fit to change it according to their wish. Only reason being given is that the Vistara staff at the airport console did it. Defeats the whole purpose of paid seat selection if the staff can move around the seats as they wish

I hope Vistara doesn't slowly decline to Air India standards instead of AI improving on theirs!

[alpha1]

I flew last Friday on Dreamliner from Delhi to Mumbai and coming home to the aircraft & service: few people were not happy that they were not served non-veg food.
The seats and fabrics appeared to have lost their sheen, the video display and its controller had a severe latency - all the best to international traveler on this plane.
Service was also slightly lagging.

The flight "became" late due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft. Surprisingly, ground staff comes to know about this delay only once the scheduled boarding time is past . Another delay before take-off but pilot doesn't let us know what is happening and why the delay (not that we could improve the situation) and then another delay during landing at Mumbai (but again a lack of communication).

Except for non-veg food, I didn't experience anything different from previous Air India flights.

[Suprit]

I last flew AI on international sectors during Oct-Nov 2022: Mumbai-London direct, and return Birmingham-Mumbai connecting in Delhi.
I guess the bane of AI is that it inherited badly maintained aircraft, a wonky app, and (I presume) a not really efficient reservation system. My observations:

Mumbai-London
1. Online check-in: you don't get a boarding pass but only a confirmation of check-in. Apparently that's because the airline needs to check your passport and visa.
2. Check-in desk: No separate bag drop desk because you can only be issued a boarding pass at the counter. Passport and visa checked at this stage - and this increases time-in-queue for all passengers. In the west, the document check is usually done in the departure lounge or boarding gate prior to boarding.
On my date of travel, I had arrived 3 hours before departure but check-in took over an hour as most counters were un-manned.
3. Immigration: not in the airline's control but why do you need a departure stamp? Name and passport number can be obtained from the airline (standard practice, btw, in the west).
4. Boarding gate: guess what? AI security staff again check your passport and visa :-D
5. Seats: AI's 787's economy class seats have always been more comfortable compared to most foreign airlines as they have a pitch of 81cm against a norm of 79cm (check on Seatguru). Did not notice any passenger complaining about a broken seat.
6. In-flight Entertainment: out of the 3 seats in my row, only one had a TV working, though the remote was nearly worn out. No power in the plug points or USB points. Never travel without a power bank!
7. Meals: despite catering by the Taj, I found the standard non-veg meal more oily and salty compared to what it was in sarkari days. Meals options were Indian veg and non-veg only unless pre-ordered.
8. On-time performance: on-time pushback. Marginal delay of 15 minutes on arrival.

Birmingham-Delhi
1. On-line check-in: system did not allow. At the airport I was enlightened that some weeks after I had bought my ticket (directly from the AI website), AI had changed its reservation system and some old records had not been properly migrated.... Had to wait over an hour while the counter staff coordinated with reservations before they could check me in! Very polite and helpful staff though.
2. Document check: India exported its bureaucracy to the UK! Check-in staff had to check Air Suvidha form, passport and visa! Fortunately the flight was half-empty as that was the time the GOI had decided that British passport holders could not use the e-visa facility. Very few non-brown passengers, and those who held British passports largely held OCI cards.
3. Immigration: no passport check required.
4. Boarding gate: no secondary check of documents as in Mumbai :-D
5. Seats: no broken seats noticed.
6. In-flight entertainment: this time 2 out of 3 TVs were working. Yay! But plug points and USB had no power.
7. Meals: AI offered 3 options - Indian veg, Indian non-veg and Continental non-veg (over and above pre-order options). I took the continental non-veg to save myself from excessive oil and salt.
8. On-time performance: on-time pushback, and arrival in Delhi 30 minutes early.
9. Frontier formalities: immigration took 45 minutes. Wonder why they have separate queues for Indians and foreigners. Before Covid, they had a common queue - at least in Mumbai. And for all the hungama about the Air Suvidha form, no one bothered to check-it. When leaving the immigration area, we had to queue up before a policeman who checked whether the passport had been stamped! Only-in-India: set a cop to catch-a-cop!
10. Transfer to domestic flight: very smooth affair. Pathway was well sign-posted. Bag-drop took barely 10 minutes.

Delhi-Mumbai
1. A320 cabin interior in a far-better shape than the 2 787s I had flown earlier!
2. No In-flight Entertainment system or power outlets. Hence no disappointments :-D
3. Veg and non-veg options for lunch. Far more healthy and tasty compared to what had been served on the Mumbai-London sector! Is the flight kitchen in Delhi better managed than the one in Mumbai?
4. On-time pushback, and 15 minutes early arrival.
5. Bags received within 20 minutes at Mumbai T2.
6. The biggest pain in T2 is getting a cab. Ola/Uber app bookings take at least 30 minutes to materialise. But the wait at the pre-paid taxi counter can be much longer. That counter only accepts cash (no UPI?), and the fares are not rounded-off. Imagine the time wasted in collecting and tallying cash.

[SuperGirl_Dad]

This popped in my feed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiL4orcPwsE

Gist of the video:

The connecting rod between aircraft and tug broke during pushback in AirIndia flight at Chennai airport. Flight had to be cancelled and rearrangements made for Chennai-Delhi flight.

Some queries to learned folks in the forum:

Who maintains these equipments - Airport or Airline?
As a myriad type of flights can land at an airport, who decides the type of tug/connecting rod to be utilized for a particular aircraft?
Is it decided based on the largest aircraft the airport is capable of handling?

[moralfibre]

Mod Note: Please discuss Air India's mega aircraft order in this thread. (Tata-owned Air India confirms purchase of 500 aircraft)

[RaghavEvoX]

I recently travelled in Air India from Delhi to Chennai.

Our family travels very frequently between Delhi and Chennai and we always take either Indigo or Vistara.
But this time for a change, we thought we will try Air India as it is now under TATA and expected better services and good experience.
Apart from the food, nothing was really good.
A 30 year old salon near my place has better seats than Air India flight.

Below are the pictures of the seats in which I travelled. It was dirty, broken and all the electronics hanging.





If you like to experience off-roading in a flight, Try Air India.

I am not travelling again in their flight.
They need a complete revamp.

[sachinayak]

Quick question -

My family just flew AI's direct flight from BLR to SFO. When they landed in SFO, they found that a part of the checked in luggage was not loaded and would arrive later. Of the 4 checked-in bags, only 2 made it to the destination on-time and the remaining 2 were delivered 48 hours later (thankfully without any damage or follow-ups).

A couple of questions
1. Since the bags were delayed over 12 hours, I am entitled to some cover from my travel insurance. How do i go about this?
2. Also, I believe we are entitled to some form of compensation from the airline. We had to buy 2 sets of clothes for my daughter (we should have packed a set in the carry-on baggage - learning for us).

How do we go about claiming the same? Do we reach out to the airline for a written confirming of the duration of the baggage delay?

Any pointers would help.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by sachinayak

How do we go about claiming the same? Do we reach out to the airline for a written confirming of the duration of the baggage delay?

This happened to me once in Luftansa during my return many years ago. I had to fill out a form at the airport. The luggage was delivered to my home the following day and I got $100 worth of rupees in cash.

[philipmathen]

Flew from Gatwick to Kochi(AI150) last week, a few observations:

1.Check-in was smooth, the check-in counters were manned by British Airways staff.

2.Boarding: Quick, no hassles, probably helped by the fact that it was probably around 70% in terms of actual passengers.

3. Aircraft: B787-8

Age:10.5 years from what I could find online

Exterior (from what I could see in and around the door we boarded from)- Shabby looking paint and peeling paint on the door's window edges-this was new, I've flown on many old planes before, but have never seen this.

Interior:

Cabin: This was a very tired looking aircraft and there was no effort to hide the wear and tear. Carpets, seat fabrics etc. were all worn out. Add to that the signature Air India rattles at takeoff and landing.

Seat: I flew Economy, and was allocated 18F. First off, the infotainment controller did not work, no real surprise there. It was my first time on board Economy on AI's 787, so I did not realise until later that it controlled the reading light, call button as well.

Hygiene: Zero-What really irritated me was that my tray table had not been cleaned, someone on a previous journey had spilled curry/sauce, which had dried and hardened
I just do not understand how this was missed, you would think these are things Tata can address fairly quickly since it's not constrained by supply chain issues(one of their favourite excuses lately). I pointed this out to the stewardess who I was able to speak to only 45 minutes into the flight, because my call button was not working. To her credit, she immediately apologised and set about cleaning it. She also noted my complaint regarding the infotainment and controller not working and tried a reset, which did not work, and offered me a different seat.

Meal service: Another surprise, they were serving everyone only vegetarian meals. I had selected a non-veg meal earlier, and when I enquired, was promptly served a non-veg meal after a brief delay. I overhead them telling a few passengers that the first meal service would only be vegetarian and that the second one would have both options. I was curious and with nothing better to do, took a closer look at the label on my meal. It said Y LD 8 of 20, which I assume meant Economy Late Dinner and the total number of that meal option ordered. Is this normal in the aviation industry? Do they serve vegetarian by default(which I assume is cheaper for the airline, and probably also the fact that we were headed into India) and only order a limited set of non-veg options? The second meal service went smoothly, but the food was typical airline food, nothing much to write about, nowhere near the quality and taste of AI's heyday.

Used the lavatory halfway into the flight and it was in reasonably good shape considering I went in braced for the worst after the tray table experience, but there were a few tissues strewn on the floor, that is more to do with an inconsiderate fellow passenger(s) than the airline.

The flight had pushback ahead of time and hence we landed 20 minutes ahead of time.

I was able to deplane fairly quickly, but baggage was inordinately slow, with the Priority tagged ones arriving immediately and the rest taking another 30-40 minutes. There were still a lot of passengers waiting when I retrieved my bags.

Overall impression: Miles to go, I had not flown on AI for more than 7 years. I went in with very low expectations, but the fact that something as routine as cleaning a table had not happened, told me a lot about what has remained unchanged at AI. Tata has given itself 5 years to transform the airline, but I really wonder if the time and investments would have been better directed at Vistara than continuing down this path. It is undoubtedly an emotional decision for the Tatas, there does not seem to be any other justification in my mind, when they already have Vistara setting the tone. I will be sad to see that brand vanish. I am just thankful that my return is on a Vistara flight.

I must mention that the stewardess stood out for being courteous, polite and delivering excellent service throughout, she has definitely helped her team and airline.

I also suspect that the widebodies in best shape and with the best interiors are reserved for high yield routes like Delhi/Mumbai-London Heathrow, routes to North America and such. Tier 2 Indian cities(They fly to Goa, Kochi,Ahmedabad and Amritsar from London Gatwick) might be served by their low-rent assets considering they earn much less.

Based on this, I think the earliest I would try AI again, if given a choice, is sometime in 2029 going by what their CEO says in terms of planned changes taking effect across their network and fleet.