Air India

✅ Verified Review | I have received a particularly poor experience from Air India and would like to pass this feedback onto other travellers as I don't want anyone else to suffer as I have done. Events as follows: 1) Outbound flight Mumbai to Goa - scheduled itinerary change, ie the flight was moved back - this didn't cause me a massive problem but was symptomatic of further issues ahead. 2) Return flight Goa to Mumbai - frequent scheduled itinerary change emails and an email for me to change to an earlier flight (by 13hrs). The changes reduced the window for my connecting flight back to the UK, however Air India said I would still catch the flight ok. Flight was actually delayed by 3 hours, consequently I missed my flight back to London. Air India said that because the flights were bought on different tickets they would not get me home. Additional flight purchased to London as a result. My hold luggage got to Mumbai but has been lost, hence, I have no hesitation in rating as Air India as a 1/10 and have since learned they are notorious, please be warned and do not be attracted by their headline cheap flights.

✅ Verified Review | Kathmandu to Heathrow via Delhi. It was my first flight with Air India. It was good connection flight for me so wanted to try Air India. I am not fussy passenger. It was fine when I flew to Kathmandu but way back had a horrible experience. The crew members have very bad attitude and are very rude. When first snacks peneuts and soft drink was served, I requested the cabin crew that I would like to have cup of tea insead of soft drink please and she said that I have to wait till after dinner for tea. I seated to wait after dinner. I had transit flight got headache. I went to washroom and ask a gentleman if possible to have cup of tea please, he said " of course". The lady who refused me before was came to me and asked why I am asking him tea as she just told me to wait after dinner. I told her that sorry but I am allowed to have tea. This is a small incident. Dinner was served. It was a different lady walking through by my seat. I stopped her and request her may I please have cup of water, she was very angry. I thought she did not hear me properly, I asked her a bit louder again. She started arguing with me why I am shouting at her. I said I am not shouting you I thought you did not hear me. I would like to have cup of water for my tablets please. She never came back. Very bad service. My TV remote control did not work and I did not bother to request to change the seat, but refusing for a cup of water is impossible. I won't fly with Air India again. It was a horrible experience.

❎ Unverified | Flew Air India direct from New York to Delhi round trip. Flight departed late both times. Air India did a poor job of queue management both times. Even though they announced boarding by row, they still let anyone board regardless of seat number. This is especially frustrating because the predominantly indian crowd on either flight seemed to enjoy pushing their way through while ignoring the line of people actually waiting patiently. The seats were uncomfortable and didn't have enough cushioning especially when reclined. It felt like you were sitting on metal when the seat was reclined. This made a 14 hour flight almost painful. The bathrooms were just gross. In the first flight, there was pee on the bathroom floor that did not get cleaned up for the entire flight. The 'cleaning' by flight attendants involved regularly spraying air freshener in the lavatories. On the return flight, there wasn't even a soap dispenser! The soap was in a plastic water bottle with a crude hole punched on the top. The entertainment options were a coin toss. On one of the flights, the TV simply did not work even after they tried to reset it multiple times. On the flight that it did actually work, the entertainment options in English were limited and outdated. On the plus side however, there were 3 meal services (United only does 2 on a similar length flight). And the food tasted decent. Not good, but not bad either.

✅ Verified Review | Colombo to Moscow via Delhi. What a simply awful carrier, my niece flew to Sri Lanka for 6 months returning home to Moscow for Christmas. All four flights times and dates were changed. Even after calling their help desk and getting the flights changed to what was needed, they were changed again. Now to cap it all her flights back in May have also been changed, leaving Colombo Fri 19th May, arriving Delhi at 1205, so far so good? She then has to overnight in Delhi for 31 hours, leaving Delhi on Sat 20th May at 1910. When I called their help line to ask why she could not have a seat on the 1910hrs flight out on the 19th, I was immediately passed on to someone else, who after putting me on hold for over 10 minutes told me they could do nothing about it and to call Colombo. I have never spoken to more unhelpful people who clearly could not care less that a young woman will be all alone in Delhi and not knowing where to get a good hotel etc. Disgraceful does not even begin to cover their attitude. I would not recommend this airline or its people to anyone.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Birmingham to Delhi with Air India. Decent plane but poorly organised check in, left one hour late and landed late because of fog they said, missed our connecting flight to Varanasi and they were no help at all. Inflight entertainment poor, grumpy staff except a couple, didn't monitor the cabin, everything was an effort. One screen didn't work at all on the return and earphone plug on way out was damaged. Never had one of their flights that took off on time. Would never use them again even on a direct flight.

✅ Verified Review | Worst experience ever with Air India! I traveled alone with my 9 month old son from Frankfurt to Delhi and onto Sydney! It's a very long and exhausting flight and I think everybody knows with a baby it's even harder! The first problems started when they weren't be able to print the boarding pass for my son. They kept me 2 hours in front of the check-in that I couldn't care properly for my son. Just waiting. Without toilet, food or anything! After this 2 hours they gave me just the boarding pass until Delhi and I had to run carrying my son and all the luggage to the boarding as this had started already. Really stressful! My son was starving and already to tired to eat. Luckily I ordered a bassinet in advance for the whole flight. When we arrived in Delhi we had a 3 hours stopover. And again they kept us 3 hours in front of the security check because of the boarding pass. No toilets, no food again - just hard chairs to wait on. I was really desperate as my son was just crying. They didn't care. I got more and more stressed. At the end they wrote a manual boarding pass and I had to run again to the boarding to get my 12 hours flight. Terrible!

✅ Verified Review | This flight from Bodhgaya to Delhi was the latest of about 20 domestic flights sectors completed with Air India over the last 3 - 4 years. The level of service has remained consistent in all areas, with some aspects of service stronger than others. This flight was originally due to depart Bodhgaya at 14.35h arriving in Delhi at 16.25h. An initial delay to a revised 16.00h departure was notified by e-mail several hours in advance. Check-in queue management at Bodhgaya airport was poor but agent service was good once you eventually got to the check-in desk. After further delay at Bodhgaya airport the flight eventually departed shortly after 18.00h and arrived at Delhi at about 20.00h. Not a single delay announcement was made at Bodhgaya airport and the information board simply showed the word 'delay' next to the flight number. We had no idea how long the delay would be until we saw our aircraft land. Except for an expensive coffee kiosk there were no customer facilities while waiting. The flight itself was straightforward and typical of one on Air India's short-haul A320 fleet with friendly, patient, efficient cabin crew and reasonably comfortable seating in a slightly grubby cabin. A simple in-flight snack was served. No announcements from the captain except an abrupt order for cabin crew to take their seats for take off and again for landing. Cabin crew announcements included a sincere apology for the delay. Arrived at Delhi's Terminal 3 where we exited through the international arrivals section because our flight had originated in Yangon, Burma, before picking up passengers in Bodhgaya. This meant that the domestic passengers among us had to join a long slow-moving queue to clear, bizarrely, passport control, where just two desks were dedicated to clearing many domestic passengers, presumably from several flights. It took more than an hour just to get as far as the baggage hall. The lesson is to remember to leave plenty of time if you take a domestic flight with Air India before connecting to an international flight.

✅ Verified Review | I was pleasantly surprised with my trip with Air India from Mumbai to Goa. It was such a comfortable journey. I have flown previously on International sectors with AI, but, never experienced such comfort. To start off, the crew were polite to passengers. However, they could have toned down their laughter and language when in the Galley. Meal was reasonable for a short domestic flight. IFE was non-existent as the screens were covered with a headrest cover. Overall, I really liked this flight because they depart from Terminal 2 at Mumbai and because I noticed a positive change in the crew's approach towards passengers. I would not hesitate to try them again on the narrow body planes for domestic flights.

✅ Verified Review | London to Vadodara via Delhi. I last traveled in Air India in January 2014 and the service was horrible. This time service was really good. Staff was happy to help, were very polite and they were young and fresh. Good food and good service. I was very surprised by all this and there is a massive difference in the service and for better.

✅ Verified Review | I traveled Milan to Chennai via Delhi. Not much to complain except the total lack of communication for baggage picking and delay announcements: in Milan I was told (several times) that my luggage would have been sent directly to Chennai, but I had to collect it in Delhi and checking it in again before departing to Chennai. Moreover, the flight to Chennai was heavily delayed and we had no info from Air India while waiting for it. Seat was comfortable enough, I had better experience but there was room enough for my legs (I'm 1.83m tall). Food was actually very good: I opted for the vegetarian meal and it was tasty and abundant. InFlight entertainment could be better: plenty of Indian movies and old international ones but few choices for the new international movies. That said, since the ticket was quite cheap Air India is a good value for money option.

✅ Verified Review | Mumbai to Frankfurt via Delhi. The flight from Mumbai to Delhi got cancelled and I was put aboard a Mumbai to Shanghai flight which stopped in Delhi. This flight had delay. The staff of this flight was very courteous and helpful. The flight was clean and the infotainment system performed problem free. The next flight from Delhi to Frankfurt the cabin crew was very helpful and courteous. The seats were comfortable. They served very good Indian food . At the end of the cabin was a place where drinks and juices along with peanuts were kept ready for the passengers. The luggage allowance of Air India is also generous. In all a very good service. Negatives - the Air India magazine was not in good shape and the ground crew of Air India are not exactly up to the mark...

✅ Verified Review | Hyderabad to Chicago via New Delhi. Planned early and selected required seats during purchase. I travel every year and I usually select seats at the time of purchase. I never had different seats than what I usually select initially. This time Air India changed my seats and gave horrible explanation when I requested for change of seats. I don't recommend this carrier due to this type of service.

✅ Verified Review | Kathmandu to Delhi. Good flight that departed and landed on time. Very high security with Air India (only) also screening all passengers on the tarmac again before they board the plane with intensive hand luggage search. Fairly old plane but not full and comfortable seating and legroom. Nice hot snack provided on short flight. Disappointed that checkin staff were unable to provide boarding pass for my connecting flight despite it being on one ticket (and hold baggage sent all the way through to London). Quick disembarkation at Delhi despite needing to use bus.

✅ Verified Review | Ahmedabad to Delhi. I was really impressed by Air India on this trip. I had to change my initial flight and the call centre was excellent - you get through to them immediately and they promptly complied with my request. Check in staff were very helpful. Flight departed and arrived on time. Cabin was in good condition. On a 1hour and 15 minute flight, we were served a delicious dinner. This is one area where Air India really score on internal flights - they serve excellent hot meals even on short-haul flights. Crew was very efficient and friendly with genuine smiles to boot. Baggage service was excellent too. All in all an excellent flight.

✅ Verified Review | Delhi to London. An agreeable flight in general. Departure was 20 mins late but crew provided an apology and we arrived on time. The aircraft looked pretty new and the cabin appearance was good. Seats were really comfortable and legroom/recline are excellent. I normally struggle to sleep on planes but managed to get 4 hours sleep. Cabin crew did their job - nothing to write home about as such. This flight departs at 2.30 am so they serve refreshments after take off and breakfast before landing. There is no drinks service. Baggage arrived promptly. Overall a decent flying experience.

✅ Verified Review | This was only the second time to fly Air India, from London to Delhi and returning, in December 2016. A very mixed review. Outward flight on an old plane, quite tatty looking, but a nice big drink of whiskey served and delicious Indian meal. Inbound flight on Dreamliner, leaving 2.15 a.m. Good leg room and excellent screen. Toilets dirty and ran out of paper which was not replaced. No drinks offered but again, food was really tasty. But really, the movie and music selection is not good enough. Is this cost-cutting, lack of imagination, or what? Service on both flights was quite basic and no extras offered. But adequate.

Newark to Goa via Mumbai with Air India. Due to a snow storm my flight was cancelled - however, even 2 hours prior to the flight the customer service staff insisted that the flight was scheduled. I decided to call up the airport and they had to inform me that all flights were cancelled. The refund took 8 months to get back. On my return journey, the Goa Mumbai flight was delayed by 2 hours, and despite the fact that I had a connecting flight, I was told that the flight from Mumbai to Newark was delayed as well and would be able to catch it. 3 hours later arriving in Mumbai, I was met by 2 of their staff and informed that the flight had taken off. I had to wait 14 hours in the airport for them to put me on another flight.

Mumbai to Newark. Flew on Air India twice last month and it was disastrous both ways. Multiple restrooms were malfunctioned on both flights. The food was mostly unappealing. The flight was delayed both times. Worst part was some of my bags were missing at baggage claim which was the case for most returning passengers. One of the bags came in the mail but we waited one week for the other two and ultimately had to go to Newark airport to retrieve the bags as the airline employees had left the bags with no feeling of accountability and were not apologetic at all. I have been flying with Air India for 15+.years but never again.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Air India from Newark to Mumbai via London. The seats were comfortable and they did serve food quite often on both flights. Food was nothing special. Restrooms were clean and tidy. Cabin crew on the first flight from EWR to LHR were not so friendly and the air hostess did not even know where the same flight was going from LHR. On the second flight from LHR to BOM they were much more friendly and served food and beverages very well. Entertainment was good. Mix of Hollywood and bollywood movies and shows. Many good Indian regional movies.

✅ Verified Review | London to Delhi. Overall the flying experience was acceptable. The check-in was smooth and boarding well organised. Onboard the aircraft looked tired. Flight landed 20 mins early. The best part of the flight was possibly the seat leg room and pitch which were generous for economy class and make a huge difference on a long haul flight. IFE is poor particularly if you are not Indian. I was shocked that the music channels were exclusively Indian - I mean not a single English channel. Drinks service - choice of beverages was poor. Dinner main course was one of the tastiest airline food I've had but portions were tiny. Starter and dessert poor. Breakfast was a joke - a small bowl of fruit and 2 cheap mini croissants. Tea was great. If you do not like curry, make sure to book a continental meal (Air India offer western meal as a special meal that can be pre-booked). Cabin crew were courteous and did a good job. A passenger complained of breathlessness and I saw crew provide timely attention. A flight attendant serving me had a genuine smile, helping out an elderly couple who seemed to be a bit frazzled by the flying experience.