[DigitalOne]

I am not a frequent traveller, so my opinion may differ from those with more experience .

I flew from Bengaluru to New Delhi last week by Air India. The flight was a Vistara converted one. I guess the crew also may have been ex-Vistara.

I had a very pleasant experience. The breakfast was good. The service was excellent - they were passing around water bottles freely, one customer asked for extra bread and the attendant gave bread and butter without batting an eyelid. The aircraft was clean and neat. And all this at a price lower than Indigo.

Old AI aircrafts with AI crew may still have issues, as many have pointed out. But as their new plane deliveries in significant numbers start happening from later this year, that side of things is also bound to improve. I am willing to give AI a couple of more years to get things right.

I returned by Air India Express. Though it can't be compared with Air India?Vistara, the experience was better than an Indigo flight. That it departs out of T-3 in Delhi is a plus .

[itwasntme]

2025/6 will be a game changer for both AI & 6E with their wide body fleets and the 321XLR. Proud to see!

Air India’s First A321neo, A350-1000 and 787-9 Delivery Timeline
https://aviationa2z.com/index.php/20...very-timeline/

[Genie]

Any idea how the NY to Mumbai flight is these days? Also the Delhi to Chicago flight. Are they flying the old planes or new ones in these sectors? If new, which ones are these?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

...That it departs out of T-3 in Delhi is a plus .

Air India operating from T2 in Bangalore is a huge plus too. Less crowded inside, plus pick-ups and drop-offs are far more convenient with the basement parking and easy access to all levels. T1 is increasingly chaotic.

They're also making an effort to reduce delays, which combined with Indigo's downhill trend overall, makes Air India easier to recommend for domestic routes.

In-flight experience is still hit or miss depending what plane & crew you get (should change as fleet is renewed and Vistara training is adopted, hopefully), but all I really care about for a domestic flight is being transported safely without delays. Anything else is a plus.

[moralfibre]

More and more heartbreaking experiences from travellers continue to deter me from making Air India my preferred carrier for international travel. I was a regular until 2022 and moved over to Singapore Air.

Link to LinkedIn post.

But at the check-in counter, a casual comment shattered it all:

“Seats aren’t working in business class. We’ll either offload you or shift you to economy.”

Just like that.

No empathy. No accountability.
We had paid for this—planned this—only to be told we were lucky to be “offered” economy class. Eventually, after much protest, we were rerouted via London. The very thing we were trying to avoid.

For someone who needs assistance, this is a punishing reroute.
Instead of a 7 a.m. arrival, we’ll now land at 3:30 p.m.—after three times the effort, three times the fatigue.

[RohanDheman]

Originally Posted by Genie

Any idea how the NY to Mumbai flight is these days? Also the Delhi to Chicago flight. Are they flying the old planes or new ones in these sectors? If new, which ones are these?

Delhi to Chicago is almost always on the older 777ERs (VT-AL registrations). The Delhi to New York flights are now on the 350-900.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

More and more heartbreaking experiences from travellers continue to deter me from making Air India my preferred carrier for international travel. I was a regular until 2022 and moved over to Singapore Air.

I mean, if you have a choice and budget isn't a problem, why would anyone pick AI over SQ?

Today's special episode is the flight from Singapore to Chennai. It was supposed to depart at 8.45 a.m. and guess what, it's still on the tarmac at Changi as of 15.00 local time. What's more, the idiots boarded passengers onto a broken plane with no AC/electricity for a full hour (and counting) instead of letting them wait at the gate.

Useless airline, hope it goes bust soon.

[Theyota]

China-tells-airlines-stop-taking-boeing-jets-as-trump-tariffs-expand-trade-war

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...pand-trade-war

I hope Air India and Akasa can take advantage of this and get their act together.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by Theyota

China-tells-airlines-stop-taking-boeing-jets-as-trump-tariffs-expand-trade-war

Yeah, and what happens to the one they are already using, spares and all that

Trump wants to show who is the boss, and Xi is not the premier of China from 30 years ago. Xi believes that the USA will have trouble in sourcing a lot of material from other countries, and Trump plans to have everything moved to the USA. Ultimately, time will tell, but more or less, China will lose as Americans have the USD on their side. Also, Trump will influence a lot of companies to start investing more. We will know in the next few weeks. Haven't heard yet from major manufacturers who have promised to invest back in the USA.

[ads11]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

I mean, if you have a choice and budget isn't a problem, why would anyone pick AI over SQ?

Today's special episode is the flight from Singapore to Chennai. It was supposed to depart at 8.45 a.m. and guess what, it's still on the tarmac at Changi as of 15.00 local time. What's more, the idiots boarded passengers onto a broken plane with no AC/electricity for a full hour (and counting) instead of letting them wait at the gate.

Useless airline, hope it goes bust soon.

Here's the thing though, while Air India still does have royal cock ups like this, they're not alone. I've faced similar issues from the kind of acknowledged top tier airlines like Emirates and Qatar to name but a few.

Once with Qatar, flying LHR to DOH, they took off, nearly made it out of UK airspace only to land back after circling a while to lose fuel. They inform us the front portside door hadn't been properly shut due to a faulty screw so we're stuck on a random part of the apron for hours waiting to get this fixed. All this while they can't let us deboard and they can't turn on the APU so we're just cooking inside.

Emirates I won't forgive for the way they just left all their passengers in Chennai during the floods of 2015 when even little old Druk Air managed to extricate them and find them alternate passage. I could rant for hours about that particular debacle. They were the only airline still checking in passengers well into the evening and the continuous torrential downpour when it had already become patently obvious that no flights would take off that day (or for days afterwards).

I will admit though I've yet to see or hear of similar cock ups from Singapore Airlines. So do agree if price and all else being equal, hard to justify not going for them as things stand.

Originally Posted by Theyota

China-tells-airlines-stop-taking-boeing-jets-as-trump-tariffs-expand-trade-war

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...pand-trade-war

I hope Air India and Akasa can take advantage of this and get their act together.

Not sure I follow. How would domestic airlines benefit? All I can think of is if they're able to jump ahead in the order queue. For models with huge order book backlogs, that's no small feat.

[pedrolourenco]

My last 4 Air India Flights have all been after the takeover. All have been decent.
SIN-BOM AI343 - 10 Jul 24
BOM-GOI AI685 - 11 Jul 24
DEL-GOI AI0885 - 19 Oct 24
BOM-GOI AI683 - 25 Feb 25
GOI-BOM AI604 - 21 Apr 25

BOM-GOI AI683, I got a free upgrade to premium economy.
DEL-GOI AI0885, there was a mistake in my surname. The travel agent got a note made in the system with the correct spelling to match my ID. However I am unable to enter this flight in my app as it's not accepting either of the surname spellings.

I also had 2 Maharaja accounts which I managed to merge. I will have to ask customer care to sort out the issue with the DEL-GOI and also give me points for the first 4 flights as the app is only showing points for the last flight.

On the last flight we had an air hostess who was retiring at the end of the month after 36 years of service. The pilot made the announcement. She also came around the cabin and interacted with the passengers. People were congratulating her. She was really happy.

[volkman10]

Campbell Wilson to step down as Air India Express chairman.

Wilson, who has been the Chairman of Air India Express since June 2022, will also be moving out of the budget airline's board.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson will step down as the Chairman of Air India Express and Air India's Chief Commercial Officer Nipun Aggarwal will assume the chairmanship of the budget airline.

Link: