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Flew from Berlin to Kochi using Air India: My quick review

23rd May 2025, 14:30 by Ananth Iyer

The seats were cozy, and the infotainment system was good.

BHPian chanz2015 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I recently travelled from Berlin to Kochi with Air India. Exactly a day after Operation Sindoor started.

I was looking to book a ticket to Kochi from Berlin on a 40 days’ notice. Qatar Airways, which is the easiest and faster turned our to be very costly, so started looking for tickets from Frankfurt to Kochi. Air India flights were available. I was particularly interested in one starting at night from Frankfurt and a layover of 2:30 hrs. in Delhi with price starting from 420Eurs. To catch this my option was to book a separate flight from berlin to Frankfurt or catch ICE trains. Before I finalized, I searched for Berlin – Kochi flights one more time. To my surprise, I can see the same Air India flight with a Lufthansa flight from BER to FRA at a total price of 409Eur. Anyway, that was a catch for me and immediately went ahead and booked it from Air India website.
Flight Details were as follows:

BER – FRA – LH197 – Airbus 319 – 17:45, 8th May – duration 1:10 hrs.
FRA – DEL – AI2030 – Boeing 787-9 – 21:15, 8th May – duration 8:05 hrs.
DEL – COK – AI2458 – Airbus 320 – 11:20, 9th May – duration 3:15 hrs.

After a few days, paid around 30 EURs for seat reservation, as I wanted window seats. In both flights it was 2nd row of economy.

Fast forward to April 22, Pahalgam Terrorist attack happens, and the flights are not anymore flying over Pakistan. After couple of days, I check my flight and the Flight duration of AI2030 has been increased by 45 minutes and there is only 100 minutes between my connecting flight. In that 100 mins, I must go through immigration, collect my luggage and drop it at Air India counter, go through security and reach the gate. I was worried and get in touch with Air India support. Their answer was, as there is more than 90 minutes between the flights, it should be more than enough. Even though I was bit skeptical, I decided to go with it.

I also did online check-in on 6th of May. And then Operation Sindoor happens. I get the news on 8th morning, and I was planning to start to Airport at 2 PM that afternoon. I was worried sick, but I decided to go as my trip was a necessity. I had packed my bags and as I was looking to find the timings of trains to the airport, I receive a message from Air India saying that AI2030 flight is delayed and as a result, I will miss my connecting flight. So they ask me to select a different option. I immediately log-in and turns out there is no option available. It was 12 PM when this happened. I call their customer care, and it was tricky to get to a real person.

Anyway, the person was really helpful, and he offered me two options. Option 1. I fly a different flight to Frankfurt, a 7 hrs. layover in Frankfurt and then Flight to Delhi and another 3hrs layover, basically I reach Kochi by 9th Midnight. 2nd Option: same flight to Frankfurt, A flight to Mumbai at 20:20 hrs. (which reduces my transit time to 85 mins) and 2:PM Mumbai – Kochi flight which means a 6hr layover in Mumbai. I immediately went for it. But then, as I had already checked-in, he had to cancel it. But the Lufthansa flight was not getting cancelled. So, he created a token and I disconnect the call. Connect to Lufthansa customer care and ask them to cancel my check-in and then call Air India customer care again. The 2nd person was also very helpful. She booked me the ticket and was updated in the website. But when I try to check-in I cannot. Some how the email id attached to the ticket has some junk characters and it was blocking me. She suggested to do it at the airport, and I decided to do that as it was 2:30 PM already.
The updated Itinerary was as follows:

BER – FRA – LH197 – Airbus 319 – 17:45, 8th May – duration 1:10 hrs.
FRA – MUM – AI2028 – Boeing 787-9 – 20:20, 8th May – duration 8:15 hrs.
MUM – COK – AI2517 – Airbus 320 – 14:10, 9th May – duration 1:55 hrs.

I reach Berlin airport and do the check in and baggage drop from Kiosk. It was simple and efficient. But the check in for FRA-Cok is not done. I go to Lufthansa counter, and they tell me, it has to be done at Frankfurt at gate with Air India staff. I get tensed again but decided to go with it.

The flight to Frankfurt was an old Airbus 319. They served some snacks and juices, but it was just and hour-long flight and soon landed in Frankfurt. There was no Aerobridge and we had to wait for a bus to reach the gate. That meant I was losing precious minutes. Soon I was running through the airport. Luckily the immigration and security check were not that crowded and I reach the gate at around 8 PM. Air India had opened a separate counter for the check-in at the gate as it turns out, there were few others facing check-in issues like me. I was checked-in but only for FRA-MUM (I was asked to connect with Air India counter at Mumbai for the connecting flight), but then I asked them for my seat which I had paid for. They allocated me to the same row as I had booked, but an aisle seat. (While I was getting into the flight, I got a WhatsApp news link saying all the airports in India was closed and I chose to ignore it)

The flight was of Vistara’s Boeing 787-9 with tail# VT-TSQ. The Livery was of Vistara with a sticker saying Operated by Air India.

AI2028 at Mumbai airport

The flight was mostly empty and soon I moved into an empty row. The seats were cozy, and the infotainment system was good. Only problem was, the screen could not be adjusted and so it was in an awkward angle while the person in front of me was reclining.

They served good dinner as soon as the seat belt signs were switched off. After around four hours served snacks for breakfast. And juices and water in between. We traveled through Turkey and crossed to Iran and then to Persian Gulf.

We reached Mumbai at least 20 mins earlier, but the flight didn’t get permission to land we circled over Mumbai for couple of times before landing. While landing I could see at least 5 flights waiting in queue to take off. As soon as our plane was out of the runway, one Indigo flight took off and another Vistara flight landed. All of these happened in a span of 2-3 minutes. Hats-off to Mumbai ATC for handling all these re-routed flights without any issues.

After landing, I went through Immigration. The person as immigration asked at least 10 questions which was way more than usual. I understand this was due to the beefed-up security. After immigration, I collected the luggage and directly went to drop it. There they issued me my boarding pass, but the seat was middle seat, and I asked them to change. But they said it was completely booked. Also asked to connect with the Air India counter at departure. After freshening up, I reached the Air India counter. They heard me and said, they cannot help as all the seats were filled. I asked if it was possible for me to upgrade to Premium economy, which they promptly did. I had to pay around 1000Rs for this. He said, I will be getting back the price I paid for the seats (I am yet to receive those)

Flight was hours later and so I checked into Adani Lounge. The Lounge was very crowded, only few empty chairs. The food was good though. Soon it was time to board.

AI2517 another Vistara plane. It was Airbus 320Neo with tail# VT-TNY