My personal experiences:
Majority sectors travelled are Middle East and West (US/Canada in particular).
AIRLINE experience:
1. Air Canada: Though Canadian immigration requires visa for people travelling through Air Canada (even for transit to the US - and taking visa means another 1-2 days here in Delhi), this airline had been the BEST I could ever fly on this sector. EXCELLENT food; EXCELLENT restrooms (yes even after app 17 hrs of NON stop flying from Delhi to Toronto) ; EXCELLENT service. This is probably the only airline to give you an option of changing your dates n no of times once you depart India. There is a mix of uneducated people (farmers basically) from remote areas of Punjab and westerns. All in all, a very good experience.
2. American Airlines: Second best airline as I would perceive. Excellent food quality and refurbished planes. On time performance and very friendly cabin crew.
3. Continental Airlines: Pathetic food, pathetic service....you wont get a glass of water even if you ring the service bell 4 times half past midnight. The crew will care a D**K for your requests. (happened with me twice). Connecting domestic flights are usually late, and you end up being more than 36 hrs in the total journey. Ask for a beer/alcohol, they charge $ 5 per peg/can (Budget airlines you see!) and when you hand over a $ 20 bill, you need to remind them at the time of landing that they need to give back the change.
4. Now comes the worst of the lot! The pride of India - Maharaja (read AIR INDIA). 40% of the cases they'll be late or the aircrafts would develop an hydraulic failure!! I still remember the first time I was flying to DXB, and I was horrified to note that there is no seat belt on my seat..I asked the 69 year old pretty air hostess and she casually replied "See it doesnt make much of a difference actually and you can hold the seat in front of you while take off and landing"....phew!!
5. EMIRATES: Good service, Pathetic food. French pilots dont really know if they are flying an aircraft or driving a car on delhi roads. Similar experience of steer flying in Saudi Air.
6. BIMAN AIRWAYS: Just one sentence to say it all. The moment you get seated, the air hostess says "Parachutes are under your seat....Please wear them ASAP as we dont know when you might need'em!" Only advantage to middle eastern residents coming back to India is the luggage allowance of 50Kgs. PERIOD.
Airports and Customs:
In India, I can comment only on IGI, as far as possible, always carry your valuables like amp etc in your hand baggage and dont keep anything which is subjected to customs in your checked in baggage, smile at the cop at green channel and pass. Baggages are scanned before coming onto the belt (specially DXB flights); and during scanning, if anything subjected to customs is identified the baggage is marked with a white chalk. This is the way the cop at the green channel would identify you and check. Best avoided. Keep all dutiable items in handbag. Handbags are never checked (except in certain cases).
Oman airport is pathetic, DXB airport is fantastic, Riyadh airport looks like an extended mosque, Toronto airport is excellent having more than 35 desks at arrival Terminal B; US (MN/NY/NV/) are pretty good too!!
I was also surprised to know that US immigration was done at Toronto itself. Technically, immigration is done only at the port of entry of a particular country, but being placed in C (friendly neighbourhood) category, US immigration is done in Canada only. So actually you pass through 2 immigrations at Toronto if you are heading US, one each for Canada and US.
Was pretty excited to share my experiences....More to follow!
Last edited by Rtech : 17th August 2007 at 16:17.
Reason: Possible offence could be taken to a few words. Corrected now.
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