AIR INDIA Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

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AIR INDIA customer review :  29 March 2009 : by S Kalra  (UK)

LHR-DEL return. The first time I have used Air India after 15 years of travel to India. New aircraft good, although the comments about toilets are true. After the first 3 hours, the floors were revolting. Food ok, but not as good as BA. Overall value for money on the outbound flight. The return was something different. Check in atrocious, one hour from arriving to check in.

AIR INDIA customer review :  26 March 2009 : by K Patel  (UK)

LHR –BOM return. I normally travel once a year and found Air India to be the worst so far. The plane had past its sell by date. When we took off, we had four toilets out of five working. By the time we landed we had just the one. Queues went half way down the plane. Again, on the return flight similar issue. Food was served cold. Inflight Entertainment broke down after 20minutes of the first program. I have written to Air India twice for an explanation. Both times I had no reply.

AIR INDIA customer review :  25 March 2009 : by A Thompson  (UK)

If you are a slightly nervous flyer like me, then do not book the AI flight between HKG and DEL (which seems to fly a full routing of BKK-HKG-DEL-BOM). It must have been the oldest plane I have ever been on. I thought the cabin was bad until I went to the loo at the back and panelling was coming loose of the walls. I believe there is a new Air India emerging with new aircraft, unfortunately not yet on this routing. Nice food though and luckily a smooth flight despite my concerns.

AIR INDIA customer review : 26 February 2009: by R Ali

Customer Rating : 3/5

LHR-BOM-COK. Got to LHR check in area and had a look on the screen which shows what zone your check in counter would be, all other airlines had an allocated zone given except Air India which showed 'please wait'. Stood there for a while staring at the screen but no luck so decided to walk around the check in area and try my luck and Bingo, there was Air India counter open with a long queue. Checked in, went to the gates, boarding announcement was made and all hell broke loose! Even though they called for the disabled/people with infants first, all the passengers were rushing to get on the plane as if its going to leave without them! I have to stay the ground staff did a great job calming the situation. B747-400 interior looked a bit shabby. IFE was not working, informed one of the crew but he just shook his head and went off! Food was ok, typical Indian rice and curry dish. Landed in BOM around an hour late due to traffic. I had to go to the Domestic terminal to catch the connection flight, you get there by a bus which only comes around twice in an hour so you need to bare that in mind. Onward flight to Cochin was pretty good, 737-800, flight half empty, much more relaxed, friendlier crew, departed and reached COK on time, got through immigration and baggage pretty quick. COK-BOM was on time, again new B737-800, nice crew, food etc, I only had an hour to catch the connection flight so had to rush to get to the International terminal, reached there with around 35mins to spare. The screening area was a total chaos, not organised, people were rushing to get through first, staff were shouting at passengers, it was total shambles, I was there for around 20-25mins, although I told them my flight was due to leave soon they didnt bother, they just let the chaos continue, by the time I managed to get through I was around 10mins late, so ran to the departure gates, wished I never ran because there was a long queue there too to get on the flight! Got in eventually to find out someone sitting on my seat, so asked the lady kindly to check her seat - she didn't understand english so had to tell a crew, they tried their luck too but couldn't get the message across to the lady so they had to find me another seat. reached LHR on time. I got what I paid for so cant complain much.

AIR INDIA customer review : 19 February 2009: by Peter Chan

Customer Rating : 4/5

London to Delhi Business Class. We flew on new 777-300 - lovely plane, attentive crew and reasonably good food. Lovely reclining seats but the inflight entertainment was poor. The Maharaja Lounge at Heathrow was a bit shabby but apart from that everything else was good. The return flight was equally good.

AIR INDIA customer review : 21 January 2009: by Sam Parkar

Customer Rating : 1/5

Took a cricket team to India in December with 31 Pax. Booked Direct flight well in advance in April and paid the Balance in Full. Four weeks before departure Air India re-scheduled our flight to indirect via Delhi. We were promised an international flight from Delhi to Mumbai with our baggage to be sent direct to Mumbai. We ended up going by Domestic Flight and we got our Baggage in Delhi. So we had to transfer from International airport to Domestic airport & re-check our baggage. We missed our initial flight and had to wait 4 hours for the next flight. We were very hungry and asked for food vouchers in Delhi and were point blank refused. Never, ever again by Air India.

AIR INDIA customer review : 14 January 2009: by K Wadhwani

Customer Rating : 2/5

BOM-JFK business class. Seat was broken and crew not friendly at all to help change the seat. FA's need to know more of how to serve meals specially in business class. Inflight entertainment is not up to the mark - games were not working. Overall not a good experience.

AIR INDIA customer review : 13 January 2009: by C Gupta

Customer Rating : 1/5

LHR-BOM. Arrived at check-in for 6pm flight and was told flight timing had changed and that flight now leaves in the morning. A total shambles as nobody had bothered to call me and let me know this. The travel agency said that they had not been informed by Air India. Surely it was Air India's responsibility to inform its customers. I was told to come back the next morning for the following days flight and was not even offered an overnight stay in a local hotel which meant my partner had to come back to Heathrow to drop me very early the next day. The following day the flight was delayed by 4 hours due to technical problems. At the gate the staff eventually only handed out some water, no snacks for our inconvenience, and only for about 20 people and there was a mad scramble. I advise anyone to use any of the other airlines that fly to India. I or my family will not be travelling with Air India again if we can help it.

AIR INDIA customer review : 13 January 2009: by M Beevers

Customer Rating : 1/5

New York to London, Heathrow. Very late take off because of passengers having to be disembarked but not informed of this until over one hour of waiting. Sat in row 62 ABC with all monitors not working. Despite asking 5 times for some help regarding this, no one got back to me for the entire flight. The food, both vegetarian and the fish dish, were of very low standard. There was an incident regarding an unwell passenger and a call was put out for a doctor, however, no doctor appeared so I offered my services as a Cardiac Nurse Specialist. The most important piece of equipment I required which would apply to any medical emergency, was a blood pressure machine, this was not available and this is outrageous.

AIR INDIA customer review : 9 January 2009: by Ojas Purandare

Customer Rating : 4/5

BOM-AMD today. Crew was good, a sandwich and water served, it was pretty mediocre. Aircraft left and arrived on time.

AIR INDIA customer review : 2 December 2008 : by A Kumar

Customer Rating : 1/5

PVG-DEL Economy. Check-in handled by Shanghai Airlines and attendant courteous and efficient. Boarding formalities completed swiftly however the nightmare started once we were inside the aircraft. On a 6 hour 45 minutes flight, Air India had deployed a pre-historic A 310 complete with broken seats, smelly odour and bad cabin pressure. The seat pitch was so miniscule that I had problems fitting my knees into the seats. What made the situation worst was that the seat-backs were broken and the seats were reclining far more then they were supposed to. On this full-flight, this meant being trapped and immobile for a majority of the flight. Mid-way through the flight the toilets became clogged and unservicable creating an awful smell throughout the cabin. IFE was limited to a single flickering screen showing an old bollywood movie and the audio channels were barely audible owing to damaged headphones. There were 3 meal choices on this flight although it was up to the cabin crew which meal one got. An oriental meal was forced on me without any explanation and when my companion asked for an Indian vegatarian meal the crew quipped that this needed to be ordered and therefore he had to do without. Strange as foreign carriers including China Eastern (that I used on this sector repeatedly in the past) offer Indian vegatarian as a fixed choice in their menu and not as a special meal option. Truly appalling and to be avoided at all costs.

AIR INDIA customer review : 2 December 2008 : by G Chandra

Customer Rating : 4/5

LHR-DEL-LHR on new 777 in Business class. The seats were almost lie flat with good privacy and excellent legroom. Movie selection limited however adequate for 8 hour flight. Food was fine though wines were somewhat inadequate. The crew was youngish and eager to assist. Return flight was good as well with no issues. The new 777 a vast improvement on the 747s.

AIR INDIA customer review : 28 November 2008 : by Ninad Bapat

Customer Rating : 2/5

BOM-SIN-BOM. No inflight entertainment, not even newspapers only the boring inflight magazine. When I reached Singapore all my checked in bags were wet and I had to remove all the clothes and let it dry. Dont know whom to blame - Air India or the rains. Food is good in Air India. Return flight was a domestic aircraft diverted to Singapore. Again no IFE and delayed flight.

AIR INDIA customer review : 22 November 2008 : by M Patel

Customer Rating : 2/5

EWR-LHR-BOM-AHD. Usually the cheapest flight, but you get what you pay for. Even if you call the toll free number, they never have the same seat assignments when you check in. I dropped off my mom on Nov 20, the systems were down, they were doing everything manually! The boarding passes took on average 20 minutes just to print! We waited in line from 4-30pm to 6pm, and there were no more than 15 people in front of me - and no announcements, even no help on their listed phone numbers or website. I am still awaiting correct flight status information, and there is no way to find out unless you actually call your loved one, after they have landed. What a disaster.

AIR INDIA customer review : 21 November 2008 : by Andrew Sexton

Customer Rating : 1/5

Simple, don't do it ! Flight to Newark was okay. The plane was only half full so there was plenty of room, food was okay but the crew did not seem to pay any attention to the passengers. The flight back was hell. Very little legroom, no headphones, dirty plane and the rudest staff I have ever encountered. Any saving is not worth the experience.

AIR INDIA review : 30 October 2008 : by V Becque

Customer Rating : 2/5

Calcutta/Kathmandu then Bagdogra/Calcutta in October. Both in elderly A320's. First sector 60 mins. delay but Bagdogra sector on time. Cabin service/flight deck announcements/safety briefing fine but seats on both aircraft very worn and aircraft had not been cleaned on turnaround with mess on floor and bits stuffed down magazine rack. Biggest problem is the pressurization in luggage hold as on both flights liquids/creams leaked in our cases but luckily they were in sealed bags. Why Air India A320's - on this trip we flew with other airlines in B777's,A330's.A319, & a Bae Jetstream 4 with same luggage with no leak problems.

AIR INDIA review : 21 October 2008 : by P Brown

Customer Rating : 5/5

FRA-BOM-FRA on new Boeing 777, Economy. Aircraft clean and comfortable, great seat pitch. Excellent IFE (nice mix of Western and Indian). Food fantastic and plenty in quantity, both Western and Indian. Very liberal with spirits, nice selection, and an order one, get two policy. Service was friendly, polite.

AIR INDIA review : 26 September 2008 : by P Patel

Customer Rating : 2/5

London to New York was not bad, goodleg room, touch screen entertainment, good food and clean aircraft. Return was Chicago to London. Not enough leg room, one front screen entertainment only, aircraft was old and dirty. Food was always rushed, no sooner did the trays arrive, collection was within 15 mins! I was so disappointed with the return journey.