Air India

Birmingham to Bangkok return via Delhi. I've ben traveling for 40 years and have to say Air India has been my worst ever flying experience. Do not expect to get to your destination on time. Had to wait 3 hours on Bangkok's runway, and missed my connecting flight from Delhi to Birmingham, so had to wait 24hrs in Delhi for the next flight. On way back delays again, then had to wait 36 hrs for my case that was left in Delhi. No feedback from them. I would never travel with them again. Forget how tempting their fares may be.

Hyderabad to Delhi with Air India, and it is one of the worst airlines I have flown. The cabin crew lacked hospitality and the aircraft was poorly maintained. The airport service was also bad, with poorly trained staff having limited knowledge. Overall, a lack of professionalism, processes and poor management. Standards are not up to the mark of a national carrier.

We recently toured cities on River Ganga - Haridwar, Rishikesh, Varanasi and Allahabad. Our tour operator used various airlines; Air India, Jet Airways and Spicejet. Our worst experience was with Air India. Ahmedabad to Delhi flight (AI 011) was delayed by over 3 hours. No apologies from crew including the pilot and his first officer for the delay and inconvenience caused. Only cheese sandwics and water were offered. That is perhaps okay for a short flight. The toilets were not properly cleaned after the previous flight. Toilet rolls were offered instead of paper towels. The cabin staff were really not interested in what they were doing. Our return flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad (AI013) was even worse. My wife I were seated separately. The cabin staff were rude. Toilets unclean and again toilet rolls for paper towels. In contrast Jet Airways and Spice were on time, with cleaner aircrafts, polite crew and better snacks

Varanasi to Amritsar via Delhi with Air India. The first flight was delayed which meant that we missed the second flight Air India sent us to a poor hotel - no dinner, no paper in the bathrooms, no towels and no heater, although I asked. No breakfast at 6.30am , when I must return to airport, being afraid about what would happen next with our flights.

Air India ruined the end of our holiday, flying from Colombo to Paris via Delhi. Flight from Colombo was not at 8:20 am but 12:20pm, so we arrived late at Delhi and missed the flight. About 20 people were already arguing with the staff at the transfer and after 4 hours they said that they will try to put us on a flight from another airline. Between this time no excuses, they were asking us to wait till midnight (about 12 hrs waiting for maybe nothing) - at the transfer finally after this time they propose us a room because they were impossible to give us a flight. After an awful night, we had a boarding pass at 12.40 pm but 1 hour late again! I asked them the official delad paper, they promised this, but I had to run after it. I also asked them to check if my luggage was in the plane because I know that they are incompetent. Now, after 25 hours later, one day of work missed, my luggage is still in Delhi after they promise me that it is the plane. We lose so much energy and when you see other people who had the same problems as us, you don't understand how Air India can be in Star Alliance - they don't deserve it. Just pay a bit more money and have no stress.

I will not recommend or travel with Air India again. We were travelling from Birmingham to Bangkok via Delhi on our honeymoon. We were delayed for nearly 30 hours in Birmingham - what a start! Staff were rude and most unhelpful. Since returning from my holiday I have made a number of attempts to speak with someone regarding my complaint to no avail. Poor customer service and most uncomfortable flights.

I had a really bad experience with Air India from Goa to London via Delhi. and our flights were delayed. No assistance flying with a child. Food was really bad. Delhi to London didn't offer any version of non Indian or not spicy food. It's very challenging to travel 10 hours with a child in these conditions.

When Air India announced its San Francisco to Delhi non-stop flights, I was quite excited to have a new option. I was hopeful that it had evolved from its delay and lost luggage days to give competition a bang for its frequent flyer miles. I still remember the stress my mom went through years ago when AI misplaced our bag containing my birth certificate (from Denmark), and other important docs. Fast forward 30 or so years to our flight last week from Delhi to SFO. After a nearly three-hour delay, we landed in SFO to find one of our bags missing. After the obligatory filed complaint, we have called several times a day only to be told that it 'may' show up on the next flight. We're not the only ones. Two weeks ago, they replaced my nephew's expensive sitar! How do you misplace a sitar?? Air India, it's time to grow up and take responsibility. Or, graciously surrender "your place in the sky."

We travelled Delhi to Melbourne return on Air India - on Delhi to Melbourne route there was no entertainment system functioning, and everything was of very poor standard from the state of the aircraft to standard of customer care. However the real drama was on the journey from Melbourne to Delhi. On arrival at Delhi we were told all our bags were left deliberately at Melbourne and it took 7 days for Air India to get the bags back from Melbourne to India. The phone number given to us at Delhi airport could never be reached. We had to employ an agent in Jaipur to get our bags retrieved, after hundreds of phone calls and after seven days the only place Air India could get the bags back was in Jaipur airport. Our internal flight with Air India was rescheduled and cancelled at the last minute. This was from Goa to Delhi via Mumbai. This is a shameful airline, who managed to ruin our trip. They do not care about their customer.

Several domestic flights last year and all of them delayed. Old crew, but fairly pleasant. Food was edible enough. Dimapur to Kolkata was first delayed by 4 hours and eventually cancelled. Had to reschedule my connecting flight to Mumbai without any help from ground crew who abandoned me after handing a hotel voucher. I was lucky compared to people who were travelling on longer connections - a couple of people were en route to DEL and then LHR, and were unable to find any seats on the DEL-LHR flight for 3 days. Nightmare for everyone. Flight did take off the next day eventually, after an hour's delay. Also did several Mumbai to Delhi return flights. Despite operating out of new terminals at either airport, we were made to board and deplane by bus on several occasions. International flights are better, but lacklustre in the face of competition.

Every time I have flown Air India I swear never to do it again. But sometimes it is the only available option. This time the flight was from Udaipur to London via Delhi, with a 9 hour wait in Delhi. The flight from Udaipur was delayed by 4 hrs 30 minutes. No information. No word of explanation or apology. Just a crowd of confused and increasingly irritable passengers. The late arrival in Delhi was of no consequence to me, as I had another 4hrs 30 minutes to wait before my flight. But I discovered that though I was checked through for both flights and had boarding cards for both, I could not go through security for another 2 hrs. I had to wait in the forecourt where there is no comfortable seating and only the most basic facilities. Air India counter staff were a model of indifference and unhelpfulness. There followed a 10 hour flight to London. First meal (dinner?) was a stale croissant, half a wilted brownie, a piece of grated carrot the size of a fingernail, and a watery cup of something that was called coffee but tasted of washing up liquid. Second meal (breakfast?) was a repeat of the first: a stale croissant, half a wilted brownie, a piece of grated carrot the size of a fingernail, and a watery cup of something called coffee. No drinks were offered beyond little plastic bottles of packaged drinking water (Bombay municipal tap water?). I don't expect culinary miracles at 40,000 ft, but it would have been nice to have something edible. The seating was fine (apart from the broken food tray). No complaints about leg-room. But the cabin service was slow and surly. The toilets were smelly, IFE was virtually non-existent, and the Wi-Fi had a permanent 'glitch'. There was a feel of grubbiness and neglect everywhere - and this in a virtually new aircraft. But this time they didn't lose my baggage. And the flight arrived only one hour late (no word of explanation or apology). So all-in-all this was my best experience of Air India yet. Things are looking up!

Mumbai to New York JFK via Delhi on Air India. Broken seating, entertainment consoles that don't work, dirt, lost baggage, unannounced stop-overs, overstuffed overhead baggage compartments, unhelpful staff. This airline used to be top-notch back in the 70's, but is now little more than cattle-truck service. I am embarrassed by this national carrier and will never use Air India again.

Flew Air India Dubai to Delhi return. Boeing 787 with a spacious cabin and excellent leg room. The service is a bit lethargic and inflight entertainment is not the most engrossing compared to other airlines. Food and beverages were up to the mark. The staff seems a bit unprofessional as it took loads of time at check-in at Delhi. Even the cabin staff seems drained out and it's not the most cordial staff you would encounter on a trip. IFE can be improved as the content is not enough, and is pretty slow and primitive considering it is a new aircraft. On the flight from Delhi to Dubai, the cabin crew ran out of vegetarian food which resulted in chaos and people just getting half the meal. Air India was a better option to fly to Delhi over competitors mainly due to the cabin and food.

Air India managed to turn a short 45 min flight from Goa to Mumbai into a incredible stressful experience. We booked Air India as it was the national airline as we thought it would be the best - firstly both flights were delayed. Coming back we boarded 2 hours late and then waited on the Tarmac for another hour, we were told it was because the airport was very busy but almost every other airline went on the time. Also no information is given, finally we arrive in Mumbai and have to wait another 1.5 hrs for our luggage. People missed ongoing flights but Air India gave no more information. Having spoke to many locals they told us never to use Air India as it has such a bad record.

Air India from London to Cochin via Delhi. Customer service was poor, staff failed to inform that it's possible to use your mobile to scan in the boarding pass as I did the online checking. I was sent all over the place to get one printed and at that time the check in had closed, I was then sent to the front desk where they then tried to sell me another ticket and all I needed was the boarding pass. I was traveling light and could have made it, in the end I went home missing my friends wedding and with the new found knowledge of never using them or ebookers again.

Check-in nightmare! Our tickets on Air India from Delhi to Shanghai then United to San Francisco, clearly stated no charge for up to 2 bags each of up to 23kg. When we presented our 4 bags within these parameters, the desk agent refused to check us in, unless we paid an extra US $400. We refused and appealed up 2 levels and finally got checked in. Even though we had arrived 3 hours before departure time, because the whole process took so long, we were rushed to make our flight. The flight itself was not bad. The plane, food and service were fine. Lost luggage! 1 week after arrival, our luggage has never arrived. Is this because of incompetence or some kind or revenge because we did not pay their extra fees?

Air India from Bangkok to London Heathrow via Mumbai. Staff friendly, main food dishes nice and thankfully Indian as expected which surprised me when a few other reviews read are somehow expecting other than an Indian spicy offerings perhaps? You can request special meals in advance when booking usually? Breakfast on 2nd leg lacked any flavour sadly, still not sure what sort of omelette type dish it was supposed to be, edible but not enjoyable would best sum that moment up. Drinks offered and on 2nd leg of trip quite frequently, asked for red wine and got given 2 small bottles which was a pleasant surprise, whereas stated they had run out after just 1 serving on 1st leg out of BKK. Flights both smooth considering gale force winds upon landing in LHR, good piloting skills I thought. Overall better than expected, seat comfort not too bad for someone tall, good 34' seat pitch which is becoming rarer these days sadly and cost of fights appealing and good vfm if not necessarily ideal with a 7+ hr stopover. Both flights on time, cabin announcements and safety seat belt warnings very good, have flown far worse and would say yes to flying again just preferably without a Mumbai layover for which such a new airport seriously lacks amenities of transit seating for such high passenger numbers and a transit hotel that should be located within the airport terminal and not something requiring a transit visa at outrageous and prohibitive prices for foreigners!

Mumbai to Newark with Air India. Ground Service with poorly trained staff with limited knowledge. Had to get supervisor help for through check in of baggage from origin. Boarding passes needs to collected at every transit station. Feels like everyone is a trainee. The food onboard is Indian cuisine and was fine. No beverage service at all unless you ask for it. Seats were comfortable, carpets looked weary. Half of the IFE have some issues with remote or touch screen (similar experience in CDG-DEL and DEL-TRV flights). Cabin staff was okay and did their duties. No Wifi but charging ports were available. Flight was on time, though other flights in this trip were significantly late. Very little cinformation provided to passengers on delays. Lack of professionalism, processes and poor management very obvious.

Hyderabad to Newark via Mumbai with Air India. Seating arrangement was good, mobile charging socket was helping a lot, but the food service was very late, and no juice or drinks in between. They also give food and coffee/tea at the same time, and the coffee was disgusting. The cabin staff just wasn't there to complete their duty.

Mumbai to Singapore return in economy with Air India. Both flights left on time and reached before time. Outward flight was at midnight, no proper food served, only some mediocre snacks and cheap sweet dish was given. No drinks at all. Return flight was at 8pm, drinks and dinner with veg and nonveg options provided. Cabin crew all over about 45 years of age. IFE had good options but headphones didn't work properly. I was happy with flight map only though. Charging point at every seat is a good surprise. Overall Air India with the Boeing 787 is a good combination.