AIR INDIA Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

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AIR INDIA customer review :  26 December 2009 by Patricia Leslie   (UK)

I had been warned about Air India by Indian nationals, but I thought it must be OK. It was the worst flight ever and I travel every year to India. The elderly cabin crew said 'what do you want' when I was looking to take a soft drink mid flight. When I asked for butter and jam with my gluten-free meal she said 'gluten free doesn't come with butter'. I commented that there was no gluten in butter or jam but she said 'if you want butter then don't order gluten free'! They were so rude. There were no games at all, despite an option on the screen for games - cabin crew came and looked and said it must be broken down, but no one explained anything. I am now in Hyderabad airport waiting for two AI flights back to UK. and we are all dreading the flight. Never again.

AIR INDIA customer review :  22 December 2009 by M Dasg   (USA)

JFK-CCU roundtrip, B777 200LR . The aircraft was nice with personal video. However the choice of entertainment in english was extremely limited. Food was ok but for some reason no wine is served with the food. The crew were a mixed bag. Just do not expect much and you will be fine.

AIR INDIA customer review :  7 December 2009 by Mike Palmer   (UK)

Heathrow to Toronto. The worst part of the whole experience was trying to check in online (hopeless and took hours), and arrange the complimentary car - (not advertised well and not obvious on how to book plus two out the three pick ups were got wrong). The lounge at Heathrow is roomy, but gloomy and an eclectic selection of booze and food. B777-300 ER spotless inside -with comfy club seats. Friendly service, plenty of booze (including a very nice Chateau Margaux) and a good choice of spirits. Although the food was good it was poorly presented. Metal cutlery for the meal with a paper serviette, and plastic cutlery for tea with a cloth napkin!). IFE is new, but the travel maps kept crashing. The choice of English films and TV programmes is dated and limiting which for a new IFE system seems strange. Baggage off first! Return a new 777-300ER, with a friendly crew. Service not so good - couldn't decide whether it was the night flight or the crew. No tablecloths, had to ask for wine etc. The seat was angled flat but I got 4 hours sleep. We were met off the plane at the gate, whisked though immigration fast track, again the bags off first and straight to the complimentary car. All said and done, it is a shame that the flight wasn't more full (14 pax in club - seats 35) and the service advertised better. It is a genuine alternative to flying with the UK and Canadian national carriers at a third of the price.

AIR INDIA customer review :  30 November 2009 by Julian Lee   (UK)

LHR-DEL business. New seats are excellent and lots of room. Food very good, cabin was empty. Bed is angled flat, but the bottom part of the bed is around 3 inches lower than the rest of the bed which is mildly annoying. Entertainment system excellent, but content terrible. Bring your own movies. As long as you get one of the new planes, Air India business is recommended old planes are terrible in business.

AIR INDIA customer review :  25 November 2009 by M Schweter   (Germany)

FRA-AMD in Y class Boeing 777-200LR. It was my first trip on Air India and I was warned by my travel agent not to expect much. Turned up early at check-in in FRA to ask for cash upgrade but not possible. In fact, ticketing counter in FRA cannot issue tickets at all as AI fired all staff and ticketing is done only at city office. However, staff recommended trying again at the gate where I effectively got a very good aisle seat (17H which is first Economy row; only the curtain to C-class in front) with much space, but nearby bassinets. However, both babies slept during the entire 7:30h flight as did most of the passengers (probably tired from their long journey ex Chicago). Flight was good, food was ok and served with metal cutlery! Personal IFE with quite large screen but not very interesting content when you're not fond of Bollywood movies. Only six or so outdated English movies. The latest in-flight news turned out to be local news from Canada dating from sometime last summer. Flight map and other info did not work. Main screen showed the view from the nose camera of the plane during the whole flight - flight map or remaining time would have been more informative. Main annoyance was clogged wash basins in almost all toilets halfway through the flight - the reaction of cabin personnel was indifferently when I pointed out the problem. For a 7:30h flight it was acceptable, but there is room for improvement - much of it could be obtained by passengers behaving better.

AIR INDIA customer review :  18 November 2009 by Sandeep Kundu   (UK)

LHR-DEL-LHR. Check in was smooth at LHR. Boeing 777 had enough legroom, food delicious and FAs very generous with food and drinks. IFE was fine and seemed to be working fine. Landed 20 mins before schedule in Delhi but the Delhi Airport sucks and it took an hour to complete Immigration and baggage to come. Delhi check in not very efficient. Problem is that most of the passengers were a bit unruly and don't understand English. Passengers didn't seem concerned about safety Issues and FAs were also a bit callous. But you are saving money with AI compared to other airlines.

AIR INDIA customer review :  11 November 2009 by H Kaur   (UK)

The worst airline experience in my travel history. The journey began with a completely nonchalant view to safety with passengers allowed to walk around, remove baggage from overhead lockers whilst the seatbelt sign was activated. The staff did not appear to care, to the extent that at take off no crew member checked that everyone had their seat belts on. On the return journey a young child was allowed to lay across her father's lap minus a seat belt. Not far into the flight the entire crew disappeared on both legs and were nowhere to be seen. Crew members were rude to passengers particularly, in my view, if they were from a strata in Indian society that were looked down upon. Most of the back of seat TV screens did not work, including mine. There was no communication at all from the cockpit except for when we hit turbulence. All of this led to a very unsatisfactory stressful experience and, more worryingly an unsafe one.

AIR INDIA customer review :  8 November 2009 by Ian McCartney   (UK)

By far and away the worst airline I have ever used. Bumped off flight with no explanation and lost luggage. Told I would have to stay in Delhi until luggage turned up and after a fuss staff went into computer system and deleted fact that luggage had been booked in at all "as a favour to allow me to return to UK". Cannot handle transit passengers at all, totally chaotic and unprofessional. All passengers booked on other airlines for their connection held up until flight missed. If Air India are offering a free flight - do yourself a favour and pay for a flight with their competitors. Seats thin, hard and shabby, IFE very limited, food poor.

AIR INDIA customer review :  30 October 2009 by R Bhambra   (UK)

LHR-ATQ return Executive Class. Chauffeur car was very good and on time. Check in a breeze but no fast track line through security. The lounge is pretty basic. Onboard crew excellent and did a lot to keep our two young children entertained. Food very good as was service - for the video selection needs a lot of improvement. Return flight again good, the crew did all the right things.

AIR INDIA customer review :  24 October 2009 by J Trevers   (US)

JFK-DEL, BOM-JFK. Their website is not easy to use and online checkin is useless since you don't get a boarding pass and still have to stand in line. On the way to India, they assigned me and another passenger to the same seat. They tried to move me to a middle seat which I refused, then to an aisle with a non-working TV and then to a middle seat in the last row next to the toilet which I refused. I ended up in a window seat with no one in the middle which was fine. On the return I had a whole row to myself. B777's have more leg room and that's important for a 14-16 hour flight. Food is decent though meal schedule is odd. Snack served at 5PM, dinner after midnight was a bit odd, lunch just before dawn. Drinks and snacks are available for self service. IFE has lots of Hindi options but limited English choices. Games and flight tracking maps not available.

AIR INDIA customer review :  18 October 2009 by Mohit Karandikar   (India)

DEL-BOM Economy class. A320 aircraft. Flight delayed by 30 min, but no announcements or apology. Old and shabby, frayed seats and a peculiar cabin odour. About 60-70% occupancy. Mediocre service with some crew outright unprofessional. Food was about OK. Ashamed to call it the national carrier.

AIR INDIA customer review :  13 July 2009 by Arun Koneri   (USA)

DEL-MAA on A320 aircraft. Checkin staff ok and process was quick. I did not have any bags to check in. Aircraft was very old and dirty. plenty of empty seats. I moved to the bulkhead with extra legroom after doors closed. Flight delayed by 40 minutes, but no announcements, apology or even mention of the delay either onboard or at the airport. Food was bad. I asked for non- vegetarian meal, which was chilli chicken with noodles - noodles was dry and chicken inedible. Crew were friendly.

AIR INDIA customer review :  26 June 2009 by Ashwin Swamy   (India)

BLR-DEL-CDG on AI domestic and AI. BLR-DEL leg was ok. Flight attendants attentive, however the vegetarian breakfast was not up o the mark. Through check-in for baggage up o CDG. No issues with that. Had to transfer from domestic to international terminal at DEL and checkin again for DEL-CDG. Stood in the check n line for almost 45 minutes only to be told that the UDF fees had not been included in our flight tickets. This was apparently the case only with some passengers and not all. Aircraft a new A330. Flight only 30% full. Got 4 seats to myself. Flight attendants grumpy, could do with a smile sometimes. Vegetarian food was good.

AIR INDIA customer review :  11 May 2009 : by P Sanghai  (India)

They advertise themselves saying, " Come try the New Air India". Let me clarify that they have only gotten worse! I am referring to the former Indian Airlines. My wife and me booked to fly them from Mumbai to Coimbatore. Despite reaching the airport well in time and waiting a long time for our turn to arrive at the check in counter (45 mins waiting in the frequent flier line), we were denied boarding. At first, we were informed that we were being upgraded to business class due to a full flight and later informed that we were being denied boarding altogether due to an overbooked flight. Air India domestic check in is total chaos! There is no respect for priority of any kind. The supervisors are all oblivious to the services they advertise. Even the duty managers at the airport are unavailable conveniently at the time of a crises. The Air India staff were apathetic, casual and could not be bothered about our requests to be put on the flight. There were others also being denied boarding and the assistant manager only gave us empty apologies. After a lot of noise, we were accomodated on a Spice Jet flight. The Air India manager promised that the 30kgs each of baggage allowance would be honoured by Spice Jet but later went back on her words and asked us to deal with it. Spicejet was rigid about paying for anything above 20kgs each. There is no way I would ever recommend an airline like Air India. They lack professionalism and are not customer friendly.