[extreme_torque]

Recently flew Air India from Melbourne to Delhi and the Delhi to Melbourne via Mumbai and my experience was possibly the worst experience I have ever had on an international flight. The previous worse was Sri Lankan airlines but that was mostly due to long 3 hour flight delay and Colombo being less of an airport but more like a glorified train station. The flying experience was pretty okay and the stuff inside the aircraft was working properly and it was just after flying opened again after COVID and Sri Lankan Airlines was one of the only airline which was flying to Delhi at the time.

Coming back to Air India, I had high hopes given they have been acquired by Tata and it has been a reasonably long time since the acquisition. The Melbourne to Delhi flight had non working infotainment screens and not just mine. None of screens in my row were working and it was the same story in most rows. If I were to hazard a guess, more than 70% of the screens were not working. And this is on a 12.5 hour long haul direct flight. Fortunately I was well prepared for such an eventuality and had movies downloaded via netflix on my iPad. The seats had decent legroom but the foot stand was missing on my seat and a lot of other seats too. The food and overall service was pretty average as well and they dont serve alcohol/wine right after taking off even if you ask for it. Its only in between the meals half way into the flight.

If you think this was bad, Delhi to Melbourne was worse. It started well though. The domestic flight from Delhi to Mumbai was great - the plane was clean and smelled nice, the food was pretty great as well and all the infotainment screens were working. Surely the international route would be the same if not better, or so I thought. The Mumbai to Melbourne flight has the dubious distinction of being my worst international flying experience ever - the seats were worn right down to the nub, the foot stands were missing again, instead of 70%, it was more like 90% of the infotainment screens werent working, the plan smelled bad and 3 of the toilets were out of order - this is on a long haul international flight mind you. I cant fathom how can they provide such a terrible experience on an international long haul flight. Tata should be ashamed of themselves. I am NOT flying Air India ever again, even if they offer me the cheapest price possible on a flight.

Was on twitter/X after my experience and chanced upon this lady complaining about the same flight as well.
https://twitter.com/AboutIndia/statu...18807793357025

[VaibhaoT]

Came across this news.

Air India passenger’s ‘disgusting’ flight with co-passenger resting feet on his seat


Pathetic condition of legacy Air India fleet is not the surprising part. But initial lack of support from cabin crew was surprising. Don't want to comment on the offending lady. BOM-SIN might be hardly 5 hour flight. I don't understand, why can't someone just seat/sleep straight. In our Marathi, there is a saying, which literally translate to "You have earned money, but not the class".

[Amrik Singh]

During planning another visit to USA last August, I, accompanied with my Wife, included Egypt in my return itinerary. Although, Google search indicated 'Visa on Arrival' for Indian citizens, I went to Egypt Embassy for Visa in New Delhi.
I was informed that Visa has to be used within 3 Months of its stamping. Since my intended stay in US was to be over 4 months, I was advised to either get e-Visa online or better 'VOA'.
I booked Newark to Cairo by Polish Airlines that would take me to Warsaw first and then to Cairo. And also booked Air Tickets from Cairo to Mumbai. Hotels in Cairo were booked besides Return Tickets to Luxor and Hotel booking in Luxor.
Prepared with all this, I reached Newark Airport and approached the Ticket Counter. My earlier attempts for Web Check-in had failed. It took a long time for the Lady at the counter to call her colleague to work on issuing me Boarding Pass. During all this I showed them my Onward confirmed Ticket to Home Country.
Struggling far too long, they sought help from Third and eventually Fourth of their Staff.
I must appreciate that despite their frustration, they were quite polite with me. Half an hour in to their Monitor, she gasped, raised her head and asked:
"You should have Ticket out of Egypt ... Yes, you have."
"And you should have US$ 3,000, in Cash or Card?"
"Yes, I do have, much more than that" I said flashing my International Foreign Currency Debit Card.
She glanced at my Card and worked on Keyboard and my much awaited Boarding Pass was printed.
At the Cairo Airport, I saw a big signboard indicating 'Visa Fees Tickets' pointing to a Bank Counter. Asked for Two Tickets, paid US$ 50 and collected Two Stickers. Filled up a small customary Disembarkation Card and proceeded to Immigration Counter. The Lady there asked no questions, just peeled off the Visa Sticker, pasted on Passport, Stamped with Date and waved us to move. A little steps when she asked me from behind if I was coming from Poland. "No! USA" was my short answer and a smile.

[varkey]

Originally Posted by DasAuto1985

...I used to travel to Kazakhstan regularly (around 12 or more times) for my work and Air Astana was the preferred carrier. It is like their Air India.

Almaty Airport- I always had to to stay the night in the airport as flight to Delhi was in the morning and i reached from the my work city the night before as that is the last flight. The airport reminds of our railway station waiting rooms. It has ground and first floor. there is no security check to get into the airport, only to go to the gates. so the ground floor will be filled with homeless, youngsters sneaking a drink and what not. i always stayed in first floor for safety reasons

Originally Posted by Slickshift99

..when in Almaty..

I have a 5 day trip planned to Almaty later this month, and I stumbled upon this thread just now.

We'll be flying from Bengaluru via Delhi to Almaty by Indigo 6E 1801 (It was cheap especially when flying from Bengaluru) The flight arrives in Almaty at 1:45 AM unfortunately, do you think it would be difficult / unsafe to reach the hotel from the airport at this time? Should we wait at the airport till say 6 AM or so before we take a cab?

It's visa free for Indians for upto 14 days - https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities...398648?lang=en, however has anybody here availed this exemption recently?

Visa Exemptions
Nationals of India with a normal passport for a maximum stay of 14 days.

A maximum stay of 42 days is granted within 180 day.

[DasAuto1985]

Originally Posted by varkey

I have a 5 day trip planned to Almaty later this month, and I stumbled upon this thread just now.

We'll be flying from Bengaluru via Delhi to Almaty by Indigo 6E 1801 (It was cheap especially when flying from Bengaluru) The flight arrives in Almaty at 1:45 AM unfortunately, do you think it would be difficult / unsafe to reach the hotel from the airport at this time? Should we wait at the airport till say 6 AM or so before we take a cab?

It's visa free for Indians for upto 14 days - https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities...398648?lang=en, however has anybody here availed this exemption recently?

My frequent visits to Almaty were around 2014-15 period and if you had asked me then, would have told you to stay in airport. But I am not sure how it is now, almost a decade after. Also depends on how far your hotel is from the airport

[ghodlur]

I am scheduled to fly to Bangkok, Thailand in the first week of March 2024 for a business meeting. I checked the flights as I wanted to avoid the non stop Red eye Thai Airways flight from Bangalore to Bangkok scheduled at 1 am in the morning reaching Bangkok at 6 am which I had taken last time and since the flight time was less than 4 hrs as per my company policy had to travel economy which was not that great from sleep perspective.

I checked this time and found a Indigo flight which operates at 6.30 am from Bangalore and had asked the travel desk team to check this flight, however I was told that the flight does not have any business class. Is this possible for an international flight to not have a business class?

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

however I was told that the flight does not have any business class. Is this possible for an international flight to not have a business class?

It's very common especially in low cost carriers. Also the definition of Business Class and First class differs wildly in the world. I recently flew an Iceland Air Business class flight which was more like premium economy of an Emirates or Etihad.

US airlines are the worst, in a domestic "First Class" flight I was served chips and soda for lunch

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

I checked this time and found a Indigo flight which operates at 6.30 am from Bangalore and had asked the travel desk team to check this flight, however I was told that the flight does not have any business class. Is this possible for an international flight to not have a business class?

Indigo is a Low-Cost-Carrier. Its entire fleet consists of just 1 aircraft family type (Airbus A320) with multiple variants (A320 neo, A321 neo). Indigo offers just Economy Class in all its flights, be it domestic or international- that’s because the aircraft that does a domestic sector, could also be routing on an international one.

To sum it up - Indigo doesn’t offer any business/first class in any of its Domestic or International flights.

You either have to select Thai , or do a stopover in KL/SGN or prefer 6E Economy.

Safe trip

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by jigar1791@gmail

Indigo is a Low-Cost-Carrier. Its entire fleet consists of just 1 aircraft family type (Airbus A320) with multiple variants (A320 neo, A321 neo). Indigo offers just Economy Class in all its flights, be it domestic or international- that’s because the aircraft that does a domestic sector, could also be routing on an international one.

To sum it up - Indigo doesn’t offer any business/first class in any of its Domestic or International flights.

You either have to select Thai , or do a stopover in KL/SGN or prefer 6E Economy.

Safe trip

Sorry to nitpick here, but Indigo does operate the ATR 72 in sizeable numbers, and a couple of leased B777-300ERs, so its not just an all Airbus A32X fleet anymore.

[HighOnSpeed]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Sorry to nitpick here, but Indigo does operate the ATR 72 in sizeable numbers, and a couple of leased B777-300ERs, so its not just an all Airbus A32X fleet anymore.

I was surprised when I first heard that Indigo leased a couple of 777s. Funnily, some of them even have business class seats, but you can't book those seats through Indigo. The business class cabin is catered to by the Turkish Airlines crew(code share between TK and 6E), while the economy section is handled by Indigo. Quite an interesting arrangement.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by HighOnSpeed

I was surprised when I first heard that Indigo leased a couple of 777s. Funnily, some of them even have business class seats, but you can't book those seats through Indigo. The business class cabin is catered to by the Turkish Airlines crew(code share between TK and 6E), while the economy section is handled by Indigo. Quite an interesting arrangement.

It is a whopping 531 seater aircraft, probably near the limit on permissible safe evacuation capacity in case of an incident. That's almost like half the capacity of Vande Bharat Express.

[jigar1791@gmail]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

Sorry to nitpick here, but Indigo does operate the ATR 72 in sizeable numbers, and a couple of leased B777-300ERs, so its not just an all Airbus A32X fleet anymore.

That’s right, @fhdowntheline. Thanks for this.

Just that, I was more specific towards answering IF Indigo has business/first class on it’s international routes
Bulk of Indigo’s fleet forms the A320 family of aircrafts.

The ATRs are meant for regional domestic ops (more on UDAN routes) and the 2 wet-leased B777s are from Turkish, meant to fly only to Istanbul from DEL/BOM, as a feeder service to channelise bulk of foreign traffic from India into Turkish’s extensive global network from Istanbul.

[varkey]

Originally Posted by DasAuto1985

My frequent visits to Almaty were around 2014-15 period and if you had asked me then, would have told you to stay in airport. But I am not sure how it is now, almost a decade after. Also depends on how far your hotel is from the airport

Thanks for your response. Looks like things have significantly improved as of 2024. We landed at around 1:45 AM, completed immigration and collected the luggage in about 15-20 min. We were seated in the first 10 rows which probably helped in being ahead in the immigration queue. There were enough counters and 3 flights landed around the same one hour block.

The lobby area has all options (currency exchange, multiple ATMs, sim cards etc), and I didn't find it unsafe even at 2:15 AM or so. I withdrew some money from the ATM, booked a Yandex taxi and was on my way to my hotel.

I had got an eSIM prior to departure from Maya.net, so I didn't purchase a sim card from the airport. However sim cards seem cheaper at a smaller store opposite the ATMs (6000 KZT, although you'd get it for around 4000-4500 KZT in the city)

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Dont Know where else to post it, hope its the right thread. A funny but serious event with tyre falling off from a flight taking off .

News link

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Another day another United flight is in news for all wrong reasons
At this rate Air Penguin from Madagascar movie fame would be better to fly with

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

What caught my attention is



Shouldn't the passengers be evacuated from back of aircraft, since the front is hanging?
In these type of scenarios who determines how passengers are evacuated - ground crew or flight crew?

Can learned members bring some light into these type of evacuations.