Air India

Took a late night flight on AI from DEL to BOM recently. Aircraft was a 321 and the flight was over booked. Yet service was excellent great food. The aircraft was in decent condition. Flight slightly bumpy but that can be blamed on the rains around Mumbai.

Flying to the Maldives via Mumbai from Ahmedabad on Sept 14th. Checked in and were told flight was on time. We were to have a 5 hour break in Mumbai giving us plenty of time to catch connection on Sri Lanka Airways. The flight never arrived and was 4 hours late taking off although AI personnel insisting we would make our connection. Never did no help from AI personnel in Mumbai and worst experience on a flight ended up in transit at the airport for over 26 hours.

I was excited to be travelling on Air India's new 'Dreamliner' from Sydney to Delhi yesterday. The experience fell well short of my expectations. I endeavoured to do on-line check-in but it was not available so I phoned and requested an aisle set. That request was never registered but the check-in assistant in Sydney gave me an exit row seat which I was very happy with. On the flight the entertainment system for my seat 30C was not working. I initially complained but I was dismissed by the first flight attendant and told I would need to wait for it to cut in. After an hour of waiting I approached another flight attendant who assured me he would re-set the system. Following another few failed attempts I was assured that they would register the fact that it wasn't working and that it would fixed for the next passenger. Not sure how that helped me! When it came time for meal- time the flight attendant asked me to pull out my tray and was irritated when I couldn't. The tray was actually broken. She did endeavour to fix it but it remained a problem throughout the flight. Unfortunately the entertainment system appears to control the overhead lighting as well. The result was that I had no access to movies music or reading light for the full flight which is 12 hrs 30 minutes that's a long time to sit in the dark. There was no apology or understanding from staff. The food was very basic with little variety there was minimal genuine service on the flight. Staff seemed to vanish between meals and seemed irritated when a passenger asked for something. If anything I found some of the staff quite rude. This was a very full flight I think staff need to pay some attention to the toilets during the trip. At one stage one of the toilet basins was clogged and another passenger complained to staff. I do a lot of travel and this is the worst flights I have taken. I would endeavour never to fly Air India again but from Sydney to Delhi there is very little choice of operators. Hopefully Air India will develop a true sense of service before my next trip.

August 2014 - Flew the Dreamliner from Paris to Delhi. The departure was on-time and arrival in Delhi was 20 minutes before time. The aircraft looked new seats were comfortable cabin crew was efficient and had nice smiles on their faces (much more welcoming than many other airlines in my experience). Food was good in-flight entertainment offered a lot of choice although it was slightly heavier in terms of Bollywood stuff. Decent sized blankets in this era of cost-saving with most other airlines offering half-sized blankets! Baggage arrived on the belt in Delhi minutes after landing. All in all a very positive experience and I'll definitely fly Air India again.

JFK-DEL on 3 Aug and BOM-JFK on 23 Aug. Cabin crew disappear during the night. On other airlines they walk through the cabin a few times with glasses of water for passengers. Not on AI. I discovered that they put out cookies sandwiches and soft drinks for passengers in one of the galleys but there was no announcement made. No drinks were offered on the BOM-JFK flight.

Newark to Calcutta and back. I figured there is a reason why the tickets were cheaper than other airlines. After all you get what you pay for. But I have to admit after traveling to Calcutta and coming back to the US that I am quite satisfied with the service offered by Air India. Staff were courteous professional helpful and food was excellent. The only complaint I have is the seat quality the seats are extremely uncomfortable almost felt like I was sitting on a piece of wood during the lengthier legs of the flight (Newark to Mumbai Mumbai to Newark). Seat quality is very important especially for a 16 hour duration flight. Surprisingly the seats were roomier and a bit more comfortable on the flight from Mumbai to Calcutta. I wish it worked the other way round. Air India is known for delays but no complaints there either in fact we arrived early from Mumbai from Newark.

DEL to GOI via BOM. Tatty old A321 that looked liked it hadn't been properly clean since being brought into service 20 years ago. Washroom basin filthy with brown stains everywhere. Surly crew who were mannerless. Cramped uncomfortable seats. No alcohol or soft drinks available on either legs. Sat on plane at Mumbai whilst plane serviced for 40 minutes - terribly unprofessional ground crew cleaning the plane around you.

We were on flight from BLR-BOM-JDH. The flight was on-time entertainment systems were working properly the crew was polite lunch was satisfactory. Aircraft A319 seemed new and comfortable.

Flew from Chicago to Delhi the leg room in the airplane was good but its a poorly maintained aircraft. The entire plane was dirty. One of the toilets were not working. The snacks were not served you had to walk to the back of the aircraft to find a sandwich and a drink. Horrible experience.

Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi. Delhi-Kolkata (CCU) on Airbus A321. Kolkata-Delhi on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. Both flights were on time and aircraft's were considerably clean. Check in (both times) took hardly 5 minutes. IFE on A321 was not good but B787 had great collection of movies and music however most of earphones provided were broken (carry your own earphone). Food was a complete let down on both flights and staff did little to make your journey better. Overall for 2 hour flights Air India is a good option given its price. Also Air India and Jet Airways operate from Terminal 3 in Delhi which makes airport experience slightly better than other domestic airlines.