Air India

AI 888 on 7 October - Mumbai to Delhi. A321. No boarding announcement made until an agent was already taking boarding passes. Friendly welcome on-board - about 45% full so plenty of room. Smooth take off and flight - dinner served and was good quality veggie or chicken curry. In-flight entertainment was only 5 channels and only 1 in English language. Landed and parked at a gate but disembarked via stairs on the right side of the plane - never done that before. Bus to the terminal and bag already coming out. Overall a good flight!

Traveled for the first time with Air India - MEL-DEL on 20th Sept 2013. I must say I was very impressed with service. Crew were excellent and so was the food. Dreamliner aircraft didn't disappointed me at all. Every need was attended to with attention.

DEL-LHR on Dreamliner. This was a good flight. Two full meals - a hot breakfast after take off and a full lunch service about 3 hours before arriving in London. The food was actually better in quality and quantity than on Lufthansa which I took last month where the lunch was little more than a snack. South Indian hot breakfast and western main lunch course were both delicious. Flat seats on Dreamliner very good and Caire amenity kits which have more goodies than European airlines. I feel that Air India are missing some details and professionalism to make them really world class. For example the movies are not the latest and the entertainment system not intuitive The chocolates after the meal are of mediocre quality the male cabin crews uniforms look dated but generally the long distance product is not bad. Modern aircraft good food polite service clean bathrooms. Only details to complain about.

AI 609. BOM-BLR. Check in and Security at Terminal 1A is a breeze compared to 1B out of which all the private airlines operate. Departed on time touched down about 15 min early. Cabin crew was their usual grumpy self. The main course was greasy as usual but the rest of the food was quite palatable.

AI 608 from BLR to BOM. Very sparsely populated. Took off on time. Pilot seemed to be in a hurry to get home. Certainly flying a little faster than normal lot of buffeting throughout the flight. Touched down almost 30 min before scheduled time.

AI331 9 Aug BKK-BOM A321 Seat: 29f. Cabin crew greeted us in a most "welcoming" way with her right arm resting on the galley and the other hand resting on her hip. Mid way INTO THE cabin 1 male steward WAS standing with both arms folded atop a seat - with a blank expression. Settling into my seat I instantly notice that there is more legroom than other airlines. Then no push back for 45 minutes no reason given no information. After 50 minute we pushed back suddenly and took off without any checks that seats were upright or seatbelts. 1 hour into the flight a drink service starts and then pause 1 hour later the meal service starts. Asked if I wanted "veg or non veg" I had ordered voml (oriental vegan) told to wait until they had finished. 3 hrs into the flight when all have finished eating the stewardess walks past me suddenly remembers and asks "did you like it" and I reply "well I haven't got it yet so I cant comment on the taste". He runs to the galley and is back with a "kosher meal box". AI330 16 Aug BOM-BKK was less eventful but nothing better. I've always been a staunch TG loyal but thought this 1 time I must try my National Airline - it is the last time.

LHR-DEL-LHR. Air India has improved which is not saying much. The staff are professional if not all that diligent. In business class they are pretty good if slow. The food is great but the red wine absolutely is not. Really awful. Champagne is good beer if fine. IFE is iffy but when it works they have a small selection of English films and lots of Bollywood. Seats are comfortable enough and lie flat. Amenity kits are a lottery. I suspect quartermasters are very rich at AI. Flights left on time. Overall not a terrible experience and as it is the cheapest way to travel J class to India fair value for money. A fair welcome to India.

Business class from Singapore to Paris via Delhi. I've had better economy seats than these business class seats from Singapore to Delhi. Exit row seats would have been better. Plus both my wife's and my video screens didn't work both ways. Half an hour after getting boarding passes plane took off late and we missed our connecting flight to Paris. They put us in hotel and that was it. No further communication or anything. Stuck in airport (smaller than domestic) for 24 hours. More employees than passengers walking around the terminal but nothing gets done. Make a request or ask a question and they smile and every answer is yes but nothing is ever done about it. Got on plane next day and delayed 90 minutes. Missed 26 hours of Paris to look at Delhi airport that has about 10-15 shops. No alcohol in the business lounge. The new Dreamliners from Delhi to Paris are the only redeeming feature. Never again.

DEL-DXB on 12th May. There was no personal television and shared TV's were not in a good condition. The crew members were very helpful. Recommended.

Traveled from Kolkata to Toronto (via Delhi and New York). As the flight was sparsely populated my wife and I had 3 seats each to ourselves and it was great. Food is pretty okay and since my wife has food allergies the staff were helpful. The journey from New York to Delhi was packed but fairly comfortable as the leg space was just adequate. Alcohol served on both the trips could have been slightly more.