AIR INDIA   Passenger Reviews and Passenger Trip Reports

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.

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.